With regard to the other North Italian or Lombard dialects, they more or less from the old Romance language, though they had a common and perhaps coeval origin with it, and resemble it more than the Italian or Tuscan. The Langue d'Oc, having been formed chiefly from a corrupt and provincial Latin, as well as the dialects of Italy, reduced its materials to a regular form sooner than they; and having become a polished and literary language, the Italians in their turn borrowed at second-hand from it. Raynouard, in his Granimaire Compare,' observes that the dialect of Ferrara is one of those which luta retained more completely the forms of the Romance with the least admixture. That of Bergamo comes perhaps the next in affinity : it often changes the e into o; for example, instead of el, del (Romance), it has made el, dof. The dialect; of Bologna and Mantua abound with contractions and aphrereses, which render them very harsh ; they have taken away the t of the Romance terminations in at, it, se. The 31ilanese has a broad pronunciation, and many double vowels, changing into ac, if, and us, the Romance terminations in at, it, and ut ; reritaa, serrii, anus, &c.; it also changes re into er ; nosier, sepolcAer, for the Romance nostre, sepob-Art. The dialects of the Venetian territory, with the exception of that of Friuli, are more remote from the Romance in their formation, as are likewise still more so the dialects south of the Apennine!, or of Southern Italy. We cannot here enlarge upon the multifarious subject of the Italian dialects, but must refer the Inquisitive reader to their grammars, vocabularies, and other works.
The dialects of Western Switzerland, Vaud, Neuelahtel, Geneva, part of Freyburg, and Lower Valais, and also of Savoy, have retained to this day the name of patois Remand, or Langue Itomande. Western Switzerland, as far as the Aar, was occupied in the decline of the Roman empire by the Burgundians, a less rude tribe than the Alemnnni, who settled in Eastern Switzerland. The Burgundiane shared the land with the native population of Roman, Helvetian, or Allobrogie race; they applied themselves to agriculture, and soon constituted themselves into a well regulated and orderly monarchy. They gradually adopted the provincial Latin which they found in use in the country, and from the corruption of whioh several Romance dialects were formed, which resembled those of the south of France that were formed through a similar process. Some of the dialects of Western Switzerland approximate in their inflexions to the Northern French, or longue whilst others, like that of Gruy4re in the canton of Freyburg, bear more affinity to the Romance of the south, and consequently to the Italian. Specimens of both are contained in Stalder'n ' Dielektologie; and also in the collection of Rana des Vachon, both in Gartnan and Romance,' Samrnlung von Schweizer Kuhreihen und Volkeliedern; Bern, ISIS. To this day, Switzerland is divided, by language, races, and habits, into German and Itomande, and the Germane all the latter by the general name of Wilschhnd.
In the country of the Orisons, or ancient laurti, one half of the people speak a language called Ittimonsch, which is an Italian dialect rd very ancient formation, supposed by some to be derived from the Language of the Etruscans, who emigratod to those valleys about 600 years a.e.; but this In a mere conjecture. The Itinuorach is a written language, and books have been published in it- MSS. eight or nine centuries old existed at the end of the last century, and perhaps sonic still exist in the convent of Disentia The dialect of the Engadine, or valley of the Inn, is called 1 vllr : it has still greater affinity to the Italian or Lombard dialects. Specimens of Rumunselt and Leak are found in the Appendix to Vieueseux's ' history of Switzerland,' pub belied by the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. Ray nouanl observes that the Rumonech has the affixed and other essential forms of the Romance language, though it is disfigured by an admix ture of Northern or Teutonic orthography and pronunciation. It often add, a g to the end of words; jig, rolg, Aaig, lest amaing, for the Romance XI, eel, has, testamekt.
If we take the appellation of Romance language in its most extended sense, all the languages and dialects of Western Europe, that is to say, of Italy, Western Switzerland, the Grimm., France, and Spain, may be called Romance, being derived essentially from the Roman or Latin, and having been formed after the fall of the Western Empire. The
Basque and the American or language of Lower llritanny belong to a different family. The Walloon of Llgo and the Valachian are also Romance languages. The Valachian resembles the others, though leas perhaps in its grammatical forms than iu the etymology of the words. Itaynotrard shows the analogy existing between them all in their grain tuntical construction and etymology in his ' Grammaire Compance dee IAngnien de l'Eurerpe Latina.' But if we take the word Romance in its mere restricted sane, as having been especially applied to the language of the troubteleura, or Langue d'Oc, we must consider it as confined to the mouth of France, and the eastern provinces of Spain as far as Murcia ; and it is there that wo find its legitimate offepring in the languages of Catalonia, Valencia, and Majorca, and In the Languedocian, Provencal, and Valdensee dialects.
Raynouard at the conclusion of his Grammaire Compar4e ' of the languages of Latin or Roman Europe, enumerates twenty-three special characteristics in the construction of the Romance language, most of which occur also in the other languages and dialects of Western and Southern Europe, which he styles' Neo-Latin: 1. The use of articles to determine the cases, instead of their being designated by the termi nation of the word as in Latin. This characteristic is found in all the modern languages derived from the Latin. 2 and 3. Relate to the terminations of words, especially nouns, of which Raynouard gives com parative tables in the various languages. 4. Is peculiar to the old Ro mance, but existed also in the Northern French till the 14th century. It consists in placing au s at the end of substantives in the singular, when they stand as subjects; the absence of the s shows they were used in the objective case. In the plural it was the reverse, the absence of the a designated the nominative. The Northern French dropped the a generally in the singular, and gave it to the plural without distinc tion. 5. Refers to other terminations employed by the old Romance, especially in proper names, to distinguish the subject from the object. G. Concerns the gender of the adjectives. 7. Concerns the degrees of comparison. 8. Is on the Romance affixes representing personal pro nouns, ous, os, m, x, which are also met with in the old French and old Spanish, and also in some rustic dialects of France, in the Catalonian, and in some north Italian dialects. 9. The pronoun allre is an ex pletive added to the personal pronoun. This has been adopted by all the Nee-Latin languages of Europe ; vow alarm vos otros, vos outros, voi altri, &c. 10. Relative pronouns qui, gig!, lo qual. 11. The indefi nite pronoun om, derived from the Latin hoyno, which the French has retained in on. The Spanish and Portuguese, which formerly employed erne in the same sense, have since substituted se, and the Italians si. 12. Concerns the use in the conjugations of the auxiliary verbs aver, ester, and ester, which have been adopted, with some modifications, by all the other Romance languages. 13 and 14. Concern the formation of the future and the conditional. 15. Concerns the participles in ut, of which the French has made it. 16. Concerns the double formation of participles of the same verb, such as rot and tomput, defet and de feudal, eleit and elegit, &c. 17. The compound passive formed of the auxiliary ester and the participle past, which has been substituted in all cases fur the Latin simple passive form. 13. Concerns the verbs need impersonally. 19. The infinitive with the negative, used as an imperative. Tito Italian has retained it : "Non parlare :" speak not. 20. The various uses of the conjunction rte. 21. Formation of adverbs from the feminine adjective by adding the affix men!, which has been adopted by all the other languages derived from the Latin. 22. The expletives pas, tiara, gaire, &a, added to the negative particle to give it greater emphasis. This form is retained by the French in pas, and by the Italians in mica and guari. 23. Concerns the appellations Romans, Romance, Roumoueh, Ponianza, which were used by the old French, Italian. Spanish, and Portuguese writers to designate their respective idioms ; an appellation which serves to show their common origin. The most recent general dictionary of the Romance language is the ' Lexicon Etymologicum linguarum Roulanarum, Italics, Hispanite, Gshic e, Sc ; of F. Dies. Bonn, 1853.