This is the fifteenth lesson in our study of the Friulian language using the book Lis predicjis dal muini by Josef Marchet. To download a PDF of the book and to listen to the audio recordings, made available by the Societât Filologjiche Furlane, follow the links in Learn Friulian 1. The first two sentences of the second paragraph of La statistiche
were studied in the last lesson; the remainder of the paragraph is
composed of a third, rather long sentence, where Vigji talks about the villagers who have died. This
sentence will be taken by smaller portions (3a-3f). The commentary below relates to i doi agnuluts (the two little angels) and la frutate di Toni Paiarin (Toni Paiarin's daughter), and begins with o 'ndi vin lassâts pe strade nûf, the meaning of which is explained below.
COMMENTARY ON THE FRIULIAN
La statistiche: paragraph 2, sentence 3a.
Vocabulary: indi (thereof, of it, of them); lassâ (to leave); la strade (way, road); nûf (nine); doi (two); un agnulut (little angel); la frutate (girl, daughter); murî (to die); la Svuizare (Switzerland); coventâ (to be needed); mandâ (to send); une cristianute (little Christian girl); ator pal mont (abroad); avonde (enough); vivi (to live {on}); cun dut il teren (with all the land); lavorâ (to work, to till).
Indi is the Friulian for thereof, or more simply put: of it, of them. It is unusual to encounter it in this form in spoken usage, where it is subject to contraction. The way indi contracts varies. One common contraction is through the omission of the initial i. For instance, o 'ndi ài siet means I have seven of them, where o 'ndi (o + indi) sounds like ondi. When used with al, the final l of al will also drop: a 'ndi cjol doi means he takes two of them, where a 'ndi (al + indi) sounds like andi. Another contraction can see the omission of the final i, in addition to the initial one. For instance, o 'nd ài siet again means I have seven of them, where o 'nd ài sounds like ondài. But if the verb thereafter begins with a consonant, the final d will change to t, as in: a 'nt cjol doi (he takes two of them), where a 'nt sounds like English ang. This nasalisation of nt to what sounds like English ng is highly typical of Friulian. Other contractions, less common, include ind (before a vowel) and int (before a consonant), with omission of the unstressed subject pronoun, for instance: ind ài siet (I have seven of them); int cjol doi (he takes two of them). Int sounds like English ing.
The feminine noun strade is most often used in the sense of road, street, but here it takes the sense of way, wayside, so that lassâ pe strade, where pe is the contraction of par and la, means to leave by the wayside. This is a euphemism related to death: to have left someone by the wayside means that the person has died. O 'ndi vin lassâts pe strade nûf: nine people have died on us; literally, we have left nine of them by the wayside. Lassâts, pronounced lassâs, is here in masculine plural form because the dead are to the number of nine. Study: o 'ndi vin cjolt un (we took one of them); o 'ndi vin cjolte une (we took one of them); o 'ndi vin cjolts doi (we took two of them); o 'ndi vin cjoltis dôs (we took two of them). In the first of the foregoing examples, the item taken is expressed by a masculine noun in Friulian, whereas in the second it is expressed by a feminine one. In the third and fourth examples, two items were taken. The masculine plural cjolts sounds like cjols. In Friulian, both one and two have a masculine and feminine form: un libri, doi libris (one book, two books); une cjase, dôs cjasis (one house, two houses).
Two diminutives appear in this portion of text: un agnulut (a little angel; derived from un agnul, meaning an angel); une cristianute (a little Christian girl; derived from une cristiane, meaning a Christian woman). The masculine diminutive ends in ut, whereas the feminine one ends in ute. Had it been question of a little Christian boy, we should rather have un cristianut, derived from un cristian (a Christian man). Of the nine villagers that died, two were little angels (agnuluts, pronounced agnulùs), which is to say, babies. A third was Paiarin's daughter (la fantate di Paiarin), whom Vigji refers to as chê cristianute (that little Christian girl). Everybody in the village was Christian, of course, and indeed in all of Friûl, but cristian is also used more broadly simply to mean person. Regarding the word for daughter, this is normally the feminine noun fie in Friulian; and son is normally the masculine noun fi. That said, the feminine frutate (girl) can be used colloquially in the sense of daughter, as it is in the book; and the masculine frutat (boy) can be used in the sense of son.
We read that Paiarin's daughter died in Switzerland: e je muarte in Svuizare. The verb here is murî (to die), and its past participle is muart. Study: al è muart (he died, he is dead); e je muarte (she died, she is dead); a son muarts [masculine], a son muartis [feminine] (they died, they are dead). Another example: gno pari al è muart tal doi mil e vincjesîs (my father died in two thousand and twenty-six).
With regard to the fact that Paiarin had sent his daughter off to Switzerland, Vigji asks: ce coventavial? (what was the use?, what need was there?). Friulian employs interrogative forms, created by moving the unstressed subject pronoun to the end of the verb. Consider: al covente, covential?, ce covential? (it is needed, is it needed?, what is it needed for?); al coventave, coventavial?, ce coventavial? (it was needed, was it needed?, what was it needed for?). This will be explored in more detail as the lessons progress. Al mandàs is the masculine, third-person singular of the imperfect subjunctive of mandâ (to send). Ce coventavial che al mandàs...?: What was the need that he should send...? Another interrogative is encountered: no aial avonde par vivi? (has he not enough to live on?). Study: al à, aial?, no aial? (he has, has he? has he not?).
Vigji then states the wherefore of his amazement: cun dut il teren che al lavore (with all the land that he works). The masculine noun teren, cognate with English terrain, refers to the arable land belonging to Paiarin and tilled by him. Vigji questions why Paiarin should not have been able to make enough money on his own, without having to send his daughter abroad (ator pal mont), where she ultimately died.
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