Friuli is a country located in the north of Italy, forming, alongside the province of Trieste, one of the five autonomous regions with special status: Friuli-Venezia Julia. The district of Portogruaro and the town of Sappada are not yet administratively included within the region as, even though they are Friuli-speaking territories, currently belong to the region of Veneto. Historic Friul, then, is caught between the Carnic Alps and the Gulf of Trieste and borders Slovenia to the east and Veneto to the West.

For many centuries, Friuli belonged to the Republic of Venice (XV to XVIII), the Austro-Hungarian Empire (XIX) and the Kingdom of Italy, and in several occasions was divided between the two empires, until 1918, when the whole country fell under the rule of the Italian republic. As for other nations within Italy, Mussolini's fascist dictatorship was fatal for Friuli, since it forbade the country's three own languages -Friulian, German and Slovenian. The dictator also forced the German and Slovenian communities to emigrate and substituted them with people from other parts of Italy.

Progress for Friuli arrived after the Second World War. The provinces of Udine, Pordedone and Gorizia were joined to Trieste to make up the region of Friuli-Venezia Julia in 1947, and continuous demands for further autonomy and revival of the country's language and culture culminated in 1963 when Friuli-Venezia Julia became an autonomous region.

As regards language, Italian is the only official language in the country. However, Friulian, with about 650,000 speakers, enjoys legal recognition in the region and is taught in some schools. German and Slovenian also enjoy certain protection. Further information on these languages can be found at Linguamón and Mercator.

Friulian, popularly known as 'marilenghe', is the eastern variety of the Rhaeto-Romance languages, a family of languages spoken in various places along the Alps, between the Italian and Swiss borderline. The other varieties are central Rhaeto-Romance or Ladin, and western Rhaeto-Romance or Rumantsch. Even though is commonly considered as one language, historic and geographical conditions made the three dialects to grow apart. Friulian is the most widely spoken variety of the three.

Some interesting resources to know more about Friulian language are La Patrie dal Friûl, one of the finest magazines of the country, the Friulian Philological Society, founded in Gorizia in 1919, Lenghe Furlane, where an on-line course of Friulian can be found, and Lenghe.net, a bilingual on-line journal in Friulian and Italian.

Picture: Huge Friulian flag in a football stadium (Fantats Frulans)