Corsican
Lists: Natural languages | Language families | Conlangs | Other Lists
Fact corner
- Language: Corsican
- Alternate names: Corsu, Corso, Corse, Corsi
- SIL-code: Ethnologue:cos
- Language family: Indo-European, Italic, Romance, Southern, Corsican
- Number of speakers: 402,000 (Language use: Definitely Endangered)
- Script: -
On this page... (hide)
Introduction
Corsican is a Romance language spoken and written on the islands of Corsica (France) and northern Sardinia (Italy). Corsican is the traditional native language of the Corsican people.
Corsican has been recognized as a language by the French government. Speakers also use French but many are not fluent in it. There is a movement for bilingual education.
The verb
The Corsican verb, like the verb in most Romance languages has three conjugations:
- parlà 'to talk' (verbs ending in -à)
- parte 'to leave' (verbs ending in -e)
- capì 'to understand' (verbs ending in -ì)
Depending on the conjugation, the verbs get different sets of personal suffixes in the tenses.
Just like in other Romance languages the verb ésse 'to be' is irregular and doesn't have those suffixes.
Conjugation of the Regular verb 'parlà'
| Infinitive | parlà |
|---|---|
| Present participle | parlendu |
| Past participle | parlatu |
| Indicative | Subjunctive | Conditional | Imperative | |||||
| Present | Imperfect | Future | Preterite | Present | Imperfect | |||
| Sg.1 | parlu | parlaia | parlaraghju | parlosti | parli | parléssi | parlarìa | - |
| Sg.2 | parli | parlaii | parlarè | parlésti | parlarìi | parla! | ||
| Sg.3 | parla | parlaia | parlarà | parlosti | parlarìa | - | ||
| Pl.1 | parlemu | parlàiami | parlaremu | parlòstimi | parlimi | parléssimi | parlarìami | parlemu |
| Pl.2 | parleti | parlàiati | parlaréti | parlêstiti | parliti | parléssiti | parlarìati | parleti |
| Pl.3 | parlani | parlàiani | parlarani | parlòstini | parlini | parléssini | parlarìani | - |
The verb 'aver'
| Infinitive | aver, avè |
|---|---|
| Present participle | avendu |
| Past participle | avutu |
| Indicative | Subjunctive | |||
| Present | Past | Present | Past | |
| Sg.1 | aghju | avia | abbia | avissi |
| Sg.2 | (h)ai, ha | avii | abbia | avissi, avisse |
| Sg.3 | hà | avia | abbia | avissi |
| Pl.1 | avemu | aviamu | abbiamu | avissimu |
| Pl.2 | avete | aviate | abbiate | avissite |
| Pl.3 | (h)anu | avianu | abbianu | avissinu |