Extreme Southern Italian
| Extreme Southern Italian | |
|---|---|
| dialetti italiani meridionali estremi | |
| Native to | Italy |
| Region | Apulia (Salento) Calabria Campania (Cilento) Sicily |
| Ethnicity | Italians, Sicilians, Grikos |
Native speakers | 4.7 million (2002) |
Indo-European
| |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | – |
| Glottolog | sici1248 |
Extreme Southern Italian dialects | |
The Extreme Southern Italian dialects are a set of languages spoken mainly in Sicily, southern Salento, southern Cilento, and most of Calabria with common phonetic and syntactic characteristics such as to constitute a single group. The name "Italian" refers to the fact that these languages are spoken in Italy, not that they are dialects of the Italian language (see Languages of Italy § Language or dialect).
Today, Extreme Southern Italian dialects are still spoken daily, although their use is limited to informal contexts and is mostly oral. There are examples of full literary uses with contests (mostly poetry) and theatrical performances.