Padania

Padania is an alternative name for Northern Italy. It was sparingly used until the early 1990s, when the Lega Nord political party proposed the term as a possible denomination for an autonomous Northern Italy. Since then, the term has carried strong political connotations.

Territory

In the true geographical sense, Padania refers to the valley of the Po river, "Padus" in Latin. The term has been rarely used, as the terms "pianura Padana" or "Val Padana" have been preferred in geography textbooks and atlases.

Since the 1960s, the journalist Gianni Brera used the term "Padania" for Cisalpine Gaul. The Lega Nord political party later used the term for a similar geographical range, but with political connotations. Since the early 1990s, therefore, Padania's boundaries are usually defined according to the Italian regions which approximate the historical regional languages which divide northern Italy from central-southern Italy along the La Spezia - Rimini line.

Another definition of Padania's boundaries is based on Harvard University political scientist Robert Putnam's "", in which Italy's "civic North" is defined according to the inhabitants' civic traditions and attitudes, related to the historical emergence of the free Medieval communes since the 10th century [cite paper
url = http://www.nber.org/confer/2007/polf07/guiso.pdf
title = Long Term Persistence
author = L. Guiso, P. Sapienza, L. Zingales
journal = mimeo, University of Chicago
date = 2007
accessdate = 2008-05-17] . This definition includes Tuscany, Marche, Umbria, and parts of Lazio, although these regions are linguistically a part of Central Italy.

Languages

The dominant language in the area is standard Italian. French, Franco-Provençal, Occitan, German, Ladin and Slovenian are spoken close to the border areas and are officially recognized by the State as minority languages.

Several local Northern Italian languages are very commonly used, depending on the Region and the age group. Veneto is generally considered to be the Region where the local language continues to be used most, as about 75% of the Venetian population speaks Venetian. [ [http://www.raixevenete.net/documenti/doc370.asp Raixe Venete, el jornale dei Veneti - RaixeVenete.net, el sito Veneto - in lingua veneta (dialetto veneto) ] ] Older people are more likely to speak the local language than younger people, and also use a less Italianized version. These so-called "dialects" are considered to be regional minority languages by the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages of the Council of Europe, by the "Red Book on Endangered Languages" of UNESCO and by Ethnologue. The various local Northern Italian languages include Lombard, Ligurian, Emiliano-Romagnolo, Piedmontese and Venetian.

General classification

* "Gallo-Italic" group (as a subset group)
** Piedmontese
** Ligurian
** Lombard
*** Western Lombard
*** Eastern Lombard
** Emiliano-Romagnolo
*** Emiliano
*** Romagnolo
* "Venetian" group (included as Gallo-Italian according to Ethnologue)
** Venetian proper
** Istriot (which classification is quite controversial and difficult)

Hull's classification

Linguist Geoffrey Hull has shown the original unity of the "Padanese" group of languages in his thesis entitled "The Linguistic Unity of Northern Italy and Rhaetia" (1982). [Geoffrey Hull, "The Linguistic Unity of Northern Italy and Rhaetia", 1982, p. 650] His findings are confirmed by most experts today, which use the term "Rheto-cisalpine" in place of "Padanese". Hull divides the Padanese group into two sub-groups: highland and lowland. The highland group includes Friulan, Ladin and Romansh. The first two have achieved official recognition in Italy, whilst Romansh, in the form of Rumantsch Grischun, a compromise variety, is the fourth official language of Switzerland. This sub-group of languages is better known as Rhaeto-Romance languages. Thus, Hull suggests the following classification:
*"Highland group"
**Friulian
**Ladin
**Romansh
*"Lowland group'
**Emiliano-Romagnolo
**Ligurian
**Lombard
**Piedmontese
**Venetian

Politics

Since 1989, Lega Nord, a federation of Northern regionalist parties, has promoted either secession or larger autonomy for "Padania", proposing also a flag and a national anthem. In 1997, the Lega Nord also created an unofficial Padanian Parliament in Mantua, and held unofficial elections.

As national anthem Lega Nord chose the "Va' Pensiero" chorus from Giuseppe Verdi's Nabucco, in which the exiled Hebrew slaves lament for their lost homeland.

According to the "Padania" Declaration of Independence given on September 15, 1996it icon cite web
url = http://www.giovanipadani.leganord.org/dichiarazione.asp
title = Dichiarazione di indipendenza e sovranita' della Padania
accessdate = 2008-05-17] , the Lega Nord party includes in "Padania" exactly all the Italian regions Robert Putnam includes in the "civic North" of Italy, according to their civic traditions (see above). In some cases, some indirect and not explicit recognition is given to the linguistic definition of Padania by mentioning that Toscana, Umbria and Marche should be considered "Nord non padano" (non-Padanian North).

While support for a federal system, as opposed to a centrally administered State, receives widespread consensus within "Padania", support for independence is less favoured. One pollit icon cite news
url = http://www.limesonline.com/
publisher = Limes (Italian bimonthly magazine)
author = I.Diamanti
title = Il Nord senza Italia? (North without Italy?)
date = 1996-01-01] estimated that 52.4% of Padanians north of the Po river consider secession advantageous ("vantaggiosa"), and 23.2% both advantageous and convenient ("auspicabile").Another pollit icon cite news
publisher = Indipendente (Italian daily newspaper)
title = poll on Padania's secession
date = 2000-08-23] estimated that about 20% Padanians (18.3% in North-West Italy, 27.4% in North-East Italy) support secession in case Italy is not reformed into a federal State.

Since 1998 Lega Nord organized a Padania national football team, which took part and won 2008 VIVA World Cup.

ee also

* Cisalpine Gaul
* Cisalpine Republic
* Cispadane Republic

References

ources

External links

* [http://www.padan.org/padan/contentid-149.html Origin of the Name]
* [http://www.brera.net/gianni/articoli/po.html Gianni Brera's Padania] from Guerin Sportivo, 28/10/1963.
* [http://flagspot.net/flags/it-pad.html Flags of the World's Padania page]
* [http://www.ethnologue.com/show_country.asp?name=IT Ethnologue report for Italy]
* [http://www.lapadania.com "La Padania" – newspaper of Lega Nord] ]
* [http://galloromanzi.splinder.com/ Little Padanian Atlas]