Official spelling

The official spelling of the Friulian language was adopted by Decree of the President of the Regional Council no. 392 of 25 October 1996, based on the spelling approved on 15 July 1986 of the Council of the Province of Udine, in agreement with the Provinces of Gorizia and Pordenone. Subsequently, the official spelling was implemented by art. 13 of Regional Law no. 15/96.
The Regulation of the spelling of the variants of the Friulian language was adopted by Decree of the President of the Regional Council no. 41 of 7 March 2013, considering Generalità no. 2377 of 28 December 2012 issued by the Regional Council on the same topic.

ARLeF’s goal is to “promote the knowledge and use of the official spelling of the Friulian language in every area of social life”.

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• THE STANDARD LANGUAGE

  The common language – also known as the standard language or vernacular – is the model for the representative written language of a linguistic community. All languages that require official status and are to be taught in schools need to have an established form. Just as the Italian vernacular derives from Tuscan, so in the case of Friulian the standard language is based on central Friulian, which was spoken by Ermes di Colloredo (1622-1692) and subsequently used as a model by other writers and poets.

• STANDARDIZED SPELLING

  Spelling is the written representation of a language through the use of symbols. This convention has also been established in law and enables everyone to write in the same way. A single set of spelling guidelines enables a language to be taught and written in accordance with a set code of symbols. The official spelling of the Friulian language was established by Regional Law no 15/1996 and confirmed by Regional Law no 29/2007.

• VARIANTS

  Like all languages, Friulian has a number of dialects and local variations and these can all be expressed by means of the official spelling. These variants are used in the spoken language, in poetry and in other means of communication that put a premium on the author’s personal sensibility. The common language is used to ensure unambiguous communication by officialdom, in schools and in textbooks, which cannot be edited to include all the possible variants.

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