Editing Istriot language (section)

==Classification==
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 | caption1 = [[Rovinj]] (''Rovigno''), the historical capital of the Istriots
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 | caption2 = {{legend|#f9e451|Areas in Istria, where Istriot language coesisted with other dialects ([[Chakavian]] and [[Istrovenetian]])}}
{{legend|#0824e8|Areas where Istriot language has vanished in 18th and 19th Century already)}}
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Istriot is a Romance language currently only found in [[Istria]]. 
Its classification has remained mostly unclear, various proposals for its affinity exist:

* as being related to the [[Rhaeto-Romance languages|Ladin]] populations of the [[Alps]]. According to the Italian linguist [[Matteo Bartoli]], the Ladin area used to extend – until the year 1000 AD – from southern [[Istria]] to [[Friuli]] and eastern [[Switzerland]].<ref>Bartoli, Matteo. ''Le parlate italiane della Venezia Giulia e della Dalmazia''. Tipografia italo-orientale. Grottaferrata 1919.</ref>

* as an independent Northern Italian language, belonging neither to the [[Venetian language]] nor to the [[Gallo-Italic]] group (opinion shared by linguists [[Tullio De Mauro]] and [[Maurizio Dardano]]);
* as a variety of the [[Rhaeto-Romance languages]] by the Istriot [[:de:Antonio Ive|Antonio Ive]]<ref name=PTZ/>
* as an independent language of the [[Italo-Dalmatian]] group<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.ethnologue.org/show_language.asp?code=ist |title=Ethnologue entry for Istriot |access-date=2010-07-13 |archive-date=2012-09-28 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120928181610/http://www.ethnologue.org/show_language.asp?code=ist |url-status=dead }}</ref>
* as an autochthonous [[Romance languages|Romance language]] heavily influenced by [[Venetian language|Venetian]], [[Friulian language|Friulian]] and Slavic superstrates by [[:de:Mirko Deanović|Mirko Deanović]]<ref name=PTZ>{{cite book|title=Lexicon Grammaticorum |first=Harro |last=Stammerjohann |year=2009 |place=Tübingen}}</ref>
* In 2017 it was classified by the [[Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History]] with the [[Dalmatian language]] in the Dalmatian Romance subgroup,<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://glottolog.org/resource/languoid/id/istr1244|title=Glottolog 3.1 - Istriot|website=glottolog.org|language=en|access-date=2018-01-21}}</ref>

When [[Istria]] was a region of the [[Kingdom of Italy (1861-1946)|Kingdom of Italy]], Istriot was considered by the authorities as a subdialect of Venetian.<ref>Tagliavini, Carlo. ''Le origini delle lingue neolatine''. Patron Ed. Bologna 1982.</ref>

Historically, its speakers never referred to it as "Istriot"; it had six names after the six towns where it was spoken. In [[Vodnjan]] it was named "Bumbaro", in [[Bale, Croatia|Bale]] "Valìʃe", in Rovinj "Ruvignìʃ", in [[Šišan]] "Siʃanìʃ", in [[Fažana]] "Faʃanìʃ" and in [[Galižana]] "Galiʃaneʃ". The term ''Istriot'' was coined by the 19th-century Italian linguist [[Graziadio Isaia Ascoli]].

This language is still spoken by some people in the Istriot communities in [[Fertilia]] and Maristella, in [[Sardinia]].

There are about 400 speakers left, making it an [[endangered language]].