Dialectal varieties

The historical and geographical fragmentation of Emilian communities, divided in many local administrations (as signorie then duchies, with reciprocal exchanges of land), has caused a high dialectal fragmentation, to the point the existence of an Emilian koiné has been questioned.

Linguasphere Observatory recognises the following dialects:^[3]

• Mantuan, spoken in all but the very north of the Province of Mantua in Lombardy. It has a strong Lombard influence.
• Vogherese (Pavese-Vogherese), spoken in the Province of Pavia in Lombardy. It is closely related phonetically and morphologically to Piacentine. It is also akin to Tortonese.
• Piacentine, spoken west of the River Taro in the Province of Piacenza and on the border with the province of Parma. The variants of Piacentine are strongly influenced by Lombard, Piedmontese, and Ligurian.
• Parmesan, spoken in the Province of Parma. Those from the area refer to the Parmesan spoken outside Parma as Arioso or Parmense, although today's urban and rural dialects are so mixed that only a few speak the original. The language spoken in Casalmaggiore in the Province of Cremona to the north of Parma is closely related to Parmesan.
• Reggiano (Arzân), spoken in the Province of Reggio Emilia, although the northern parts (such as Guastalla, Luzzara and Reggiolo) of the province are not part of this group and closer to Mantuan.
• Modenese, spoken in the centre of the Province of Modena, although Bolognese is more widespread in the Castelfranco area.
• Mirandolese, spoken in the northern part of the Province of Modena, it is very different from the modenese dialect in the phonology, grammar and vocabulary.
• Bolognese, spoken in all the Metropolitan City of Bologna but the Romagnol comuni of: Imola, Dozza, Borgo Tossignano, Fontanelice, Castel del Rio, Mordano and Casalfiumanese (all beyond the river Santerno); in around Castelfranco Emilia (Modena); in the Province of Ferrara (Cento, Poggio Renatico, Sant'Agostino and Mirabello) and in Pavana (Province of Pistoia, Tuscany).
• Ferrarese, spoken in the Province of Ferrara (except for Cento and surroundings), southern Veneto, and Comacchio.
• Carrarese and Lunigiano dialects, spoken in Carrara, Lunigiana, in almost all of the Province of Massa-Carrara in northwestern Tuscany, and a good portion of the Province of La Spezia in eastern Liguria. Historically, this region has been part of Tuscany and the duchies of Modena and Parma at different times, so it has a close economic relationship with the Emilian area and is geographically proximate due to the Magra and Vara rivers.

Other definitions include the following:

• Massese (mixed with some Tuscan features)
• Casalasco, spoken in Casalmaggiore, Lombardy.
• Comacchiese, as distinct from Ferrarese

Consonants

• Affricate sounds [t͡s, d͡z] can also be heard as alternates of fricative sounds /θ, ð/ particularly among southern dialects.
• In the Piacentino dialect, an /r/ sound can be heard as either an alveolar trill [r], or as a uvular fricative [ʁ] sound.

Vowels

• Rounded front vowel sounds /y, ø, œ/ and a mid-central vowel sound /ə/ are mainly common in the Piacentino and western dialects.
• In the Piacentino dialect, five vowel sounds being followed by /n/, are then recognized as nasalized [ĩ ẽ ã õ ũ], unless /n/ occurs between two vowel sounds.

• Vowel length is also distinguished for the following vowels [iː eː ɛː aː ɔː oː uː].^[6][7][8]