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Venetian language
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<p>Venetian, also known as wider Venetian or Venetan (<i>łengua vèneta</i> [ˈɰeŋɡwa ˈvɛneta] or <i>vèneto</i> [ˈvɛneto]), is a <a href="/facts/Romance_languages/TMK4KHI3">Romance language</a> spoken natively in the northeast of <a href="/facts/Italy/tUf0PDYF">Italy</a>, mostly in <a href="/facts/Veneto/ejrBn3n0">Veneto</a>, where most of the five million inhabitants can understand it. It is sometimes spoken and often well understood outside Veneto: in <a href="/facts/Trentino/hjF8gkYG">Trentino</a>, <a href="/facts/Friuli/QIEb31Vs">Friuli</a>, the <a href="/facts/Julian_March/Y9mYAQGV">Julian March</a>, <a href="/facts/Istria/eRrGTECc">Istria</a>, and some towns of <a href="/facts/Slovenia/EcYU22W4">Slovenia</a>, <a href="/facts/Dalmatia/nstFC7cc">Dalmatia</a> (<a href="/facts/Croatia/MSS0yyvw">Croatia</a>) and <a href="/facts/Bay_of_Kotor/w53nWLzR">Bay of Kotor</a> (<a href="/facts/Montenegro/QynKJrw5">Montenegro</a>) by a surviving autochthonous Venetian population, and in <a href="/facts/Argentina/aFSA5bAk">Argentina</a>, <a href="/facts/Australia/qLHpbppq">Australia</a>, <a href="/facts/Brazil/QHkG46GL">Brazil</a>, <a href="/facts/Canada/cWWFM8oc">Canada</a>, <a href="/facts/Mexico/IT5bwhdh">Mexico</a>, the <a href="/facts/United_States/P0sCdLe5">United States</a> and the <a href="/facts/United_Kingdom/kuPAILt2">United Kingdom</a> by Venetians in the diaspora. </p><p>Although referred to as an "Italian dialect" (Venetian: <i>diałeto</i>; <a href="/facts/Italian_language/YXsmvlQG">Italian</a>: <i>dialetto</i>) even by some of its speakers, the label is primarily geographic. Venetian is a separate language from Italian, with many local varieties. Its precise place within the Romance language family remains somewhat controversial. Both <a href="/facts/Ethnologue/0AanCzKS">Ethnologue</a> and <a href="/facts/Glottolog/WMg7NbfL">Glottolog</a> group it into the Gallo-Italic branch (and thus, closer to <a href="/facts/French_language/qe1DnaQh">French</a> and <a href="/facts/Emilian%E2%80%93Romagnol/sGY8QS4P">Emilian–Romagnol</a> than to <a href="/facts/Italian_language/YXsmvlQG">Italian</a>). <a href="/facts/Giacomo_Devoto/TRStCq1h">Devoto</a>, Avolio and Ursini reject such classification, and Tagliavini places it in the <a href="/facts/Italo-Dalmatian/KVgNWaRr">Italo-Dalmatian</a> branch of Romance. </p>