Friulian language in the context of Chiusaforte

The Resian dialect or simply Resian (self-designation Standard Rozajanski langäč / Rozojanski langäč, Bila Rozajanski langäč / Rozojanski langäč, Osoanë Rozoanske langäč, Solbica Rozajonski langeč / Rozojonski langeč; Slovene: rezijansko narečje [ɾɛziˈjáːnskɔ naˈɾéːt͡ʃjɛ], rezijanščina; Italian: Dialetto Resiano) is a distinct variety in the South Slavic continuum, generally considered a Slovene dialect spoken in the Resia Valley, Province of Udine, Italy, close to the border with Slovenia.

Together with the Rosen Valley dialect and Ebriach dialect in Carinthia, it is one of the three dialects of Slovene spoken entirely outside the borders of Slovenia. It is unequivocally one of the most distinct and difficult dialects to understand for speakers of central Slovene dialects, especially because most Resians are not familiar with standard Slovene. Its distinguishing characteristic is centralized, breathy vowels. It borders the Slovene Torre Valley dialect to the south and the Soča dialect to the east, both separated by tall mountain ranges. On the other sides, it mostly borders Friulian, but also Bavarian to the north. It belongs to the Littoral dialect group, although it shows few similarities with other Littoral dialects and evolved from the Carinthian dialect base, northern Slovene, as opposed to other Littoral dialects, which evolved either from western or southern Slovene. It is spoken by fewer than a thousand people and is listed as a definitely endangered language according to UNESCO's Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger. Despite this, Resians value their language and it is being passed down to younger generations.

Romansh (/roʊˈmænʃ, roʊˈmɑːnʃ/ roh-MA(H)NSH; sometimes also spelled Romansch and Rumantsch) is a Romance language of the Gallo-Romance and/or Rhaeto-Romance branch of languages spoken predominantly in the Swiss canton of the Grisons (Graubünden). Romansh has been recognized as a national language of Switzerland since 1938, and as an official language in correspondence with Romansh-speaking citizens since 1996, along with German, French, and Italian. It also has official status in the canton of the Grisons alongside German and Italian and is used as the medium of instruction in schools in Romansh-speaking areas. It is sometimes grouped by linguists with Ladin and Friulian as the Rhaeto-Romance languages, though this is disputed.

Romansh is one of the descendant languages of the spoken Latin language of the Roman Empire, which by the 5th century AD replaced the Celtic and Raetic languages previously spoken in the area. Romansh retains a small number of words from these languages. Romansh has also been strongly influenced by German in vocabulary and morphosyntax. The language gradually retreated to its current area over the centuries, being replaced in other areas by Alemannic and Bavarian dialects. The earliest writing identified as Romansh dates from the 10th or 11th century, although major works did not appear until the 16th century, when several regional written varieties began to develop. During the 19th century the area where the language was spoken declined due to the industrialization of Switzerland, but the Romansh speakers had a literary revival and started a language movement dedicated to halting the decline of their language.

The Julian Alps (Slovene: Julijske Alpe, Italian: Alpi Giulie, Venetian: Alpe Jułie, Friulian: Alps Juliis, German: Julische Alpen) are a mountain range of the Southern Limestone Alps that stretches from northeastern Italy to Slovenia, where they rise to 2,864 m at Mount Triglav, the highest peak in Slovenia. A large part of the Julian Alps is included in Triglav National Park. The second highest peak of the range, the 2,755 m high Jôf di Montasio, lies in Italy.

The Julian Alps cover an estimated 4,400 km (of which 1,542 km lies in Italy). They are located between the Sava Valley and Canale Valley. They are divided into the Eastern and Western Julian Alps.

Friuli (Italian: [friˈuːli]; Friulian: Friûl [fɾiˈuːl] ; Venetian: Friul or Friułi; Slovene: Furlanija; Austrian German: Friaul) is a historical region of northeast Italy. The region is marked by its separate regional and ethnic identity predominantly tied to the Friulians, who speak the Friulian language. It comprises the major part of the autonomous region Friuli-Venezia Giulia, i.e. the administrative provinces of Udine, Pordenone, and Gorizia, excluding Trieste.

The Tagliamento (Italian: [taʎʎaˈmento]; Friulian: Tiliment; Venetian: Tajamento) is a braided river in north-east Italy, flowing from the Alps to the Adriatic Sea at a point between Trieste and Venice.

The Tagliamento river is considered as the last morphologically intact river in the Alps. (Its course has not been altered by human intervention.) For this reason, it has been the subject of many scientific investigations into its peculiar characteristics: these include its 150 km long corridor which connects the Alps and the Adriatic Sea, its unconstrained floodplain, which hosts several aquatic and terrestrial habitats, and its over 600 islands.

Western Romance languages are one of the two subdivisions of a proposed subdivision of the Romance languages based on the La Spezia–Rimini Line. They include the Ibero-Romance and Gallo-Romance. Gallo-Italic may also be included. The subdivision is based mainly on the use of the "s" for pluralization, the weakening of some consonants and the pronunciation of "Soft C" as /t͡s/ (often later /s/) rather than /t͡ʃ/ as in Italian and Romanian.

Based on mutual intelligibility, Dalby counts thirteen languages: Portuguese, Spanish, Asturleonese, Aragonese, Catalan, Gascon, Provençal, Gallo-Wallon, French, Franco-Provençal, Romansh, Ladin and Friulian.

Grado (Venetian: Gravo; Friulian: Grau; Slovene: Gradež; Latin: Gradus) is a town and comune (municipality) of 8,064 residents in the Regional decentralization entity of Gorizia in the north-eastern Italian region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia, located on an island and adjacent peninsula of the Adriatic Sea between Venice and Trieste. The territory of the municipality of Grado extends between the mouth of the Isonzo and the Adriatic Sea and the Grado Lagoon, and covers an area of about 90 square kilometers between Porto Buso and Fossalon. Characteristic of the lagoon is the presence of the casoni, which are simple houses with thatched roof used in the past by the fishermen of Grado, who remained in the lagoon for a long time, returning to the island of Grado only during the colder period of the year.

Once mainly a fishing centre, today it is a popular tourist destination, known commonly as L'Isola del Sole ("The Island of the Sun"). It is also famous because it is a spa town; from 1873 a maritime hospice for children called Ospizio Marino wanted by the doctor Giuseppe Barellai was established on the island, because the climate and the environment of the island are a good place for the treatment of some childhood diseases. Subsequently, Grado was the chosen destination for marine thermal treatments, especially by the Austrian population. Together with Marano Lagunare, it is the centre of the Marano-Grado Lagoon, which is famous for its uncontaminated nature. Grado is the birthplace of Biagio Marin, a poet who sang about the island in the local Venetian dialect.

The Julian March (Croatian and Slovene: Julijska krajina), also called Julian Venetia (Italian: Venezia Giulia; Venetian: Venesia Julia; Friulian: Vignesie Julie; Austrian German: Julisch Venetien), is an area of southern Central Europe which is currently divided among Croatia, Italy, and Slovenia. The term was coined in 1863 by the Italian linguist Graziadio Isaia Ascoli, a native of the area, to demonstrate that the Austrian Littoral, Veneto, Friuli, and Trentino (then all part of the Austrian Empire) shared a common Italian linguistic identity. Ascoli emphasized the Augustan partition of Roman Italy at the beginning of the Empire, when Venetia et Histria was Regio X (the Tenth Region).

The term was later endorsed by Italian irredentists, who sought to annex regions in which ethnic Italians made up most (or a substantial portion) of the population: the Austrian Littoral, Trentino, Fiume and Dalmatia. The Triple Entente promised the regions to Italy in the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in exchange for Italy's joining the Allied Powers in World War I. The secret 1915 Treaty of London promised Italy territories largely inhabited by Italians (such as Trentino) in addition to those largely inhabited by Croats or Slovenes; the territories housed 421,444 Italians, and about 327,000 ethnic Slovenes.

Campoformido (Italian: [ˌkampoˈfɔrmido]; archaically Campoformio; Friulian: Cjampfuarmit) is a town and comune (municipality) in the Regional decentralization entity of Udine in Friuli-Venezia Giulia, northeastern Italy, with a population of 7,743 (December 2019). It is notable for the 1797 Treaty of Campo Formio.

Gorizia (Italian: [ɡoˈrittsja] ; Slovene: Gorica [ɡɔˈɾìːtsa]; Standard Friulian: Gurize, Southeastern Friulian: Guriza; Bisiacco: Gurissa; German: Görz [ɡœʁts] ) is a town and municipality in the autonomous region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia of northeast Italy. It is located at the foot of the Julian Alps, bordering Slovenia. It is the capital of the Regional decentralization entity of Gorizia and is a local center of tourism, industry, and commerce. It has 33,666 inhabitants.

Since 1947, a twin town of Nova Gorica has developed on the other side of the modern-day Italy–Slovenia border. The region was subject to territorial dispute between Italy and Yugoslavia after World War II: after the new boundaries were established in 1947 and the old town was left to Italy, Nova Gorica was built on the Yugoslav side. The two towns constitute a conurbation, which also includes the Slovenian municipality of Šempeter-Vrtojba. Since May 2011, these three towns have been joined in a common trans-border metropolitan zone, administered by a joint administration board.

Resia (Resian: Reśija; Slovene: Rezija; Friulian: Resie) is a comune (municipality) in the Regional decentralization entity of Udine, in the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region of northeast Italy, bordering on the municipalities of Chiusaforte, Lusevera, Resiutta, and Venzone, and also on two of the Slovenian municipalities (Kobarid and Bovec). Its residents speak an archaic dialect known as Resian, which is – according to most linguists – a transitional dialect between the Carinthian and Littoral dialects of Slovene. Although they maintain their own traditional system of family names, which are of Slavic origin, the people of Resia have either Italian or Italianized surnames, similarly to some areas in Venetian Slovenia.

It is located in the alpine valley of the same name in the Julian Alps, about 90 kilometres (56 mi) northwest of Trieste and about 35 kilometres (22 mi) north of Udine, on the border with Slovenia and around 20 kilometres (12 mi) from the border with Austria. As of 1 January 2015, it had a population of 1,048 and an area of 119.0 square kilometres (45.9 sq mi).

The province of Udine (Italian: provincia di Udine; Friulian: provincie di Udin; Slovene: Videmska pokrajina; Resian: Vydänskä provinčjä; German: Provinz Weiden) was a province in the autonomous Friuli-Venezia Giulia region of Italy, bordering Austria and Slovenia, with the capital in the city of Udine. Abolished on 30 September 2017, it was reestablished in 2019 as the Regional Decentralization Entity of Udine (Italian: ente di decentramento regionale di Udine; Friulian: ent di decentrament regjonâl di Udin; Slovene: enota deželne decentralizacije Videm), and was reactivated on 1 July 2020. It has a population of 530,849 inhabitants over an area of 4,907.24 square kilometres (1,894.70 sq mi).

The Torre Valley dialect or Ter Valley dialect (Slovene: tersko narečje [ˈtɛ́ːɾskɔ naˈɾéːt͡ʃjɛ], terščina) is the westernmost and the most Romanized Slovene dialect. It is one of the most endangered Slovene dialects and is threatened with possible extinction. It is also one of the most archaic Slovene dialects, together with the Gail Valley and Natisone Valley dialects, which makes it interesting for typological research. It is spoken mainly in the Torre Valley in the Province of Udine in Italy, but also in western parts of the Municipality of Kobarid in the Slovene Littoral in Slovenia. The dialect borders the Soča dialect to the east, the Natisone Valley dialect to the southeast, Resian to the north, and Friulian to the southwest and west. The dialect belongs to the Littoral dialect group, and it evolved from Venetian–Karst dialect base.

The Soča dialect (Slovene: obsoško narečje [ɔpˈsóːʃkɔ naˈɾéːt͡ʃjɛ]) is a Slovene dialect spoken in upper Soča Valley. It is one of the most archaic Slovene dialects, together with the Natisone Valley, Torre Valley, and Rosen Valley dialects. It borders the Karst dialect to the south, Natisone Valley dialect to the southwest, Torre Valley and Resian dialects to the west, Fiulian and Carinthian Bavarian to the northwest, Gail Valley dialect to the north, Upper Carniolan dialect to the east, and Tolmin dialect to the southeast. The dialect belongs to the Littoral dialect group, and it evolved from Soča–Idrija dialect base.

The Soča (Slovene: [ˈsòːtʃa], in Slovene) or Isonzo (Italian: [iˈzontso], in Italian; other names: Friulian: Lusinç; German: Sontig; Latin: Aesontius or Isontius) is a 138-kilometre (86 mi) long river that flows through western Slovenia (96 kilometres or 60 miles) and northeastern Italy (43 kilometres or 27 miles).

An Alpine river in character, its source lies in the Trenta Valley in the Julian Alps in northwestern Slovenia, at an elevation of 876 metres (2,874 ft). The river runs past the towns of Bovec, Kobarid, Tolmin, Kanal ob Soči, Nova Gorica (where it is crossed by the Solkan Bridge), and Gorizia, entering the Adriatic Sea close to the town of Monfalcone. It has a nival-pluvial regime in its upper course and pluvial-nival in its lower course.

Ladin (/ləˈdiːn/ lə-DEEN, UK also /læˈdiːn/ la-DEEN; autonym: ladin; Italian: ladino; German: Ladinisch) is a Romance language of the Rhaeto-Romance subgroup, mainly spoken in the Dolomite Mountains in Northern Italy in the provinces of South Tyrol, Trentino, and Belluno, by the Ladin people. It exhibits similarities to Romansh, which is spoken in Switzerland, as well as to Friulian, which is spoken in northeast Italy.

The precise extent of the Ladin language area is a subject of scholarly debate. A narrower perspective includes only the dialects of the valleys around the Sella group, while wider definitions comprise the dialects of adjacent valleys in the Province of Belluno and even dialects spoken in the northwestern Trentino.

Rhaeto-Romance, Rheto-Romance, Rhaeto-Italian, or Rhaetian, is a purported subfamily of the Romance languages that is spoken in south-eastern Switzerland and north-eastern Italy. The name "Rhaeto-Romance" refers to the former Roman province of Raetia. The question of whether these languages actually form a subfamily is called the Questione Ladina. The Italian linguist Graziadio Ascoli, writing in 1873, found them to share a number of intricacies and believed they formed a linguistic group. The Rhaeto-Romance languages differ from Italian in their evolution from Latin by having passed through a stage with phonemic vowel length, undergone certain consonant developments, and possibly developed a pair of central rounded vowels (now lost everywhere). If the subfamily is genuine, three languages would belong to it: Romansh in Switzerland, and Ladin and Friulian in Italy. Their combined number of speakers is about 660,000; the large majority of these (about 500,000) speak Friulian.