Savoyard - Spoken in the Republic of Savoy

Alphabet

a b c d e f g h i j l m n o p q r s t u v z

The letters k, w, x, and y are generally found only in foreign words. But note x and y in the pronuncation guide below.

Pronunciation

Vowels

Letter(s)	Stressed	Unstressed
a	[a] Like the a in father	[ə] It is like the a in about when unstressed.
e	[ɛ] Like the e in pet	[ɪ] Like the i in pit, unless final when it is usually [ə]
ei	[ei] For most speakers, it is like the ey in they. A very few speakers pronounce it like the ee in meet ([i]).	It does not occur in unstressed positions.
i	[i] Like the ee in meet	Also [i], but it is usually silent when final except in careful, formal speech. See î below.
î	It only occurs finally.	[i] It is pronounced like the ee in meet. It is used when -i is pronounced consistently [i] and not dropped as in (malagassî 'Malagasy'), thus its use is not like in Italian. Some publishers never use î. Many are inconsistent in their use of it.
ï	[j] It is used for historically palatal l. This is the ll of French or the gl of Italian. In Savoyard this has become a y-sound. Sometimes the diaresis isn't written, though its use is more consistent than î above: foïa or foia 'leaf'	Rare finally: fiï 'son'
o	[ɔ] Like the o in roll	[u] Like the oo in cool
ou	[u] Like the ou in you. In careful pronuncation it is pronounced like the oe in toe ([ou]).	It does not occur in unstressed positions
ö	[ø] It is pronounced like German ö or French eu. This sound is found only in the Western dialects and is not consistently marked.	It does not occur in unstressed position.
u	[y] This is pronounced like the ü of German or the u of French (as in tu). [-] It is silent in the letter combinations gue, gui, que, and qui.	It is found rarely unstressed position, but when it is unstressed, it may be pronounced like the aforementioned ü or like the oo in cool ([u]) depending on the word. As [u], it is generally only found in transliteration of foreign words, though ou may be found in sometimes.

Consonants

Letter(s)	Pronunciation
b	As in English
c	Before a, o, and u is like k in English Before e or i it is like s in English.
ç	Like English s; it is not considered a separate letter.
d	More dental, as in Italian
f	As in English
g	Before a, o, and u is like g in English Before e or i, like s in English measure
h	Always silent
j	Like s in English measure
k	Like English k, but only found in foreign words
l	Like English l
m	Like English m
n	Like English n

The consonants are generally pronounced as in Italian. The letter ç always has an s-sound. Double consonants are not pronounced doubly and exist generally to indicate historically open e ([ɛ]) or o ([ɔ]), thus terra, not tera.

Liaison

Like French, Savoyard has liaison, that is, final consonants are generally not pronounced at the end of words unless the following word (in the same phrase) begins with a vowel. In contrast to French, liaison does not operate quite as extensively as in Savoyard because most final consonants are always pronounced finally. So, -r is silent. And -t after a consonant is also silent. Two sounds change with a following vowel: -s has a z-sound, and an -l is pronounced u by most speakers if followed by a consonant. If it is followed by a vowel is retains the l-sound. Final -n is sometimes nasalized by some speakers. It is not nasalized if a vowel follows.

Stress

Savoyard words have stress on the last syllable if they end in a consonant and on the next to last if the word ends in a single vowel or -ia, -ie, or -ii . If the word is not stressed according to these rules, the stressed vowel is indicated with a grave accent. The diphthongs ei and ou always carry the stress.

Spelling Reform

After World War II, a spelling reform was attempted by the government. An attempt at spelling reform again occurred in the 1980s (largely the same changes). Unfortunately, these were only partially successful.

There were five main changes:

Double consonants were reduced to one: terra>tera 'earth, ground'. This change was generally not successful except when the consonant occurred in final position: bell 'beautiful' (masc. sing.) > bel. However, it is rare to see a single s at the end of past subjunctive forms of the verb: amass 'I may have loved'.
In the 1940s reform, the letter î was introduced to indicate a final -i that is not silent. This is now never seen except in (some) books of that era. It is spelled -ii now.
Use of the letter y was never common but was sometimes used by some writers to mark a y-sound intervocalically. This usually marked what is gl in Italian or ll in Spanish or French, that is, a palatal l. It is now replaced by i, though may be found here and there as making written material look old fashioned. Example: foya>foia 'leaf'.
Use of the hyphen to mark off the object pronouns was used inconsistantly before the reforms. Pronouns are now regularly marked with a hyphen: àmame or ama-me, now always ama-me 'love me'.
Marking a š-, ž-, č-, or dž-sound was always inconsistant and remains so even after the reforms. These sounds do not occur in native Savoyard words. Words with these sounds are always borrowed. The usual way of representing them is: š - x, ž - x or sx (rare - often the sound is simply changed to dž), č - tx, tg, or tgi, dž - dg, dgi, or dx. Example: formatx, formatg, or formatgi 'cheese'. (The native Savoyard word would probably have been ques.)

The Definite Article

Masculine Singular: el, before a vowel or h-: l'
Feminine Singular: la, before a vowel or h-: l'
Masc. Plural:ii. Before a vowel or h-, i' is used.
Fem. Plural: le. Before a vowel le generally remains le though some writers use l'.
The definite article combines with certain prepositions. Unfortunately, Savoyard writers do not agree on the spelling of some of these forms.
With de 'of': del, d'la or dela, dii, d'le or dele; with l': dl'
With a 'to, at': al, ala or a la, ai, ale or a le or al'; with l': al'
With en 'in': nel, nela, nei, nele; with l' it is nel'.

The Indefinite Article

masc. sing.: un
fem. sing.: una, before a vowel: un'
masc. plur.: uni, i.e. 'some'
fem. plur.: une

The Noun

Nouns have only masculine or feminine gender. Masculine nouns generally end in a consonant and feminines end in -a. Some nouns end in -e; the gender of these nouns must be learned.

Masculines

Generally, to form the plural of a masculine noun, add -i.

There are some variations, though.

Nouns in -c:

Most form their plurals in -qui, thus preserving the /k/-sound with an orthographic change: foc 'fire' becomes foqui.
A few nouns in -c, only add --i, and so there is a change in pronunciation: amic /amik/ 'friend' > amici /amis/.
Some nouns change the -c to g. In Savoyard, unvoiced consonants tend to be voiced between vowels. Example: lac 'lake' > lagui (There is an orthographic change here, too.)
No noun has a c to -gi change.
Nouns in -ç, form their plurals in -ci: braç 'arm' braci.

Nouns in -g: These always form their plurals in -gui: dialog 'dialog' > dialogui.

For a feminine noun, change the -a to -e. If a noun ends in -e, change the -e to -i.
Some masculine (mostly) monosyllabic nouns change internal -a- to -e-: can 'dog' > queni.
Feminines in -cioun add -i to form the plural: accioun 'action' > acciouni

The Adjective

The Numbers

The numbers from one to ten are:
1 un (masc.), una (fem.)
2 dou
3 trei
4 quatre
5 cinc
6 sei (before a noun) or seiç (when counting)
7 set
8 hoit
9 nof
10 deiç (always—never "dei")

The Verb

The verb is quite like verbs in other Romance languages. There are four conjugations.
The infinitive ends in -ar (-er for some speakers), -er, -eir (rather irregular), or -ir. There are seven simple tenses and seven compound.
Here are examples of the the first, second, and fourth conjugations:

Infinitive: parlar 'to speak', vender 'to sell', finir 'to finish'

Present Participle: parlant, vendent, finissint

Past Participle: masc. sing. parlat, fem. sing. parlada, masc. plur. parladi, fem. plur. parlade;
vendet, vendeda, vendedi, vendede;
finit, finida, finidi, finide

Present Tense: parl(e), pàrlat or pàrlas, parla, parlouma or parlam, parlat, pàrlan
vend, vèndet or vèndes, vend, vendouma or vendem, vendet, vènden
fin, fìnit or fìnis, fin, finissouma or finissim, finissit, fìnin

Irregular Verbs

Only two will be presented here - ser (esser after a word ending in a consonant) 'to be' and aveir 'to have'. These verbs are used to form the compound tenses.
soun, et, è, soum, etet, soun
ho, hat, ha, avoum, avet, han

A Simple Conversation

Alò, cit. Com et tu?
Bona seira, segnor. Soun ben.
Quanti ani hat?
Ho cinc ani, segnor.
Que cit inteligent!
Gracie, segnor.

Hello, boy. How are you?
Good evening, sir. I'm fine.
How old are you?
I'm five, sir.
What a smart boy!
Thank you, sir.

Nel nom del Par, e del Fiï, e del'eSpirit Sant.

In the name of the Son, and the Father, and the Holy Spirit.