Editing Friulian language (section)

== Standardisation ==
A challenge that Friulian shares with other minority languages is to codify a standard variety and a suitable writing system. The regional law 15/1996 approved a standard orthography, which represents the basis of a common variant and should be used in toponyms, official acts, written documents. The standard is based on Central Friulian, which was traditionally the language used in literature already in 1700 and afterwards (the biggest examples are probably Pieri Çorut's works) but with some changes:
* the [[diphthong]] ''ie'' replaces ''ia'': ''fier (iron)'' instead of ''fiar'', ''tiere (soil, earth)'' instead of ''tiare''.
* the use of ''vu'' instead of ''u'' at the beginning of word: ''vueli (oil)'' instead of ''ueli '', ''vueit (empty)'' instead of ''ueit''.
* the use of ''i'' between vocals: ''ploie (rain)'' instead of ''ploe''.

Standard Friulian is called in Friulian ''furlan standard'', ''furlan normalizât'' or from [[Greek language|Greek]], ''[[Koiné language|coinè]]''.

=== Criticism ===
There have been several critics of the standardisation of Friulian, mainly from speakers of local varieties that differ substantially from the proposed standard; they also argue that the standard could eventually kill local variants. The supporters of standardisation refer to the various advantages that a unique form can bring to the language. Above all, it can help to stop the influence of [[Italian language]] in the [[neologism]]s, which pose a serious threat to Friulian's future development. They also point out that it is a written standard without affecting pronunciation, which can follow local variants.

Opponents of the standardisation, on the other hand, insist that the standard language, being artificially created, is totally inadequate to represent the local variations, particularly from differences in the phonetic pronunciation of the words in each variant that may, in some cases, even require special and different diacritics for writing a single variant.

=== Varieties of Friulian ===
At least four dialects of Friulian can be distinguished, all [[mutually intelligible languages|mutually intelligible]]. They are usually distinguished by the last vowel of many parts of speech (including nouns, adjectives, adverbs), following this scheme:
* Central Friulian, spoken around [[Udine]] has words ending with -e. It is used in official documents and generally considered standard. Some people see it as the least original but one of the most recent variants since it does not show interesting features found in other variants, as it has Venetian influence.
* Northern Friulian, spoken in [[Carnia]], has several variants. The language can vary with the valleys and words can end in -o, -e or -a. It is the most archaic variant.
* Southeastern Friulian, spoken in [[Bassa Friulana]] and Eastern Friuli, in the area along the [[Isonzo]] River (the area of the old [[Gorizia and Gradisca|Contea di Gorizia e Gradisca]]), has words that end with -a. This variant has been known since the origins of the language and was used as official literary language by the Friulians of the Austrian Empire. It was influenced by German and Slavic.
* Western Friulian, including Pordenonese, is spoken in the [[Province of Pordenone]] and is also called {{lang|fur|concordiese}}, from [[Concordia Sagittaria]]. Words end with -a or -e, but the strong Venetian influence, makes it be considered one of the most corrupted variants.

The word for ''home'' is {{lang|fur|cjase}} in Central Friulian and {{lang|fur|cjasa}} or {{lang|fur|cjaso}} in other areas. [[Pier Paolo Pasolini]] wrote his works in Western Friulian since he learned the language from his mother who was from [[Casarsa della Delizia|Casarsa/Cjasarsa]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.pasolini.net/casarsa_casaPasolini.htm|title=casarsa_casa Pasolini (Colussi) a Casarsa|website=pasolini.net|access-date=17 March 2018}}</ref> near [[Pordenone]].

In the 13th century, early literary works in Friulian were based on the language spoken in Cividale del Friuli, which was the most important town in Friuli. The endings in -o, which now is restricted to some villages in [[Carnia]]. Later, the main city of [[Friuli]] became [[Udine]] and the most common ending was -a; only from the 16th century on, -e endings were used in standard Friulian.