What language is spoken in Corsica?
French is the official language of Corsica, but a large number of Corsicans speak Corsican – Corsu. It has no current legal status and French Government has yet to ratify the European minority language charter. A growing number of people speak English, but don’t count on it! Mette a casa in corpu – put the house in the tummy (offer a warm welcome) Corsican is not a dialect of French. It is an Indo-European language of Romance or Latin origin, influenced by Tuscan (the Pisans and then the Genoese were masters of the island for 600 years until the eighteenth century. It was only at the end of the nineteenth century that it came to be written. Being orally transmitted, it has many variations, even from village to village. To the untutored ear, it sounds a bit like Italian and the Corsicans and Italians can understand one another. See The Corsican Language.
