Corsican ( corsu or lingua corsa ) is an Italo-Dalmatian Romance language spoken and written on the islands of Corsica ( France ) and northern Sardinia ( Italy ).

Corsican was long the vernacular language alongside Italian, official language in Corsica until 1859, then it was replaced by French owing to the conquest of the island by France in 1768.

The twentieth century saw a wholesale language shift, with islanders changing their language practices to the extent that there were no monolingual Corsican speakers left by the 1960s.

By 1990, an estimated 50 % of islanders had some degree of proficiency in Corsican, and a small minority, perhaps 10 %, used Corsican as a first language.

In 1980 about 70 % of the population " had some command of the Corsican language ".

UNESCO classifies Corsican as a potentially endangered language, as it has " a large number of children speakers " but is " without an official or prestigious status ".

The Corsican language is a key vehicle for Corsican culture, which is notably rich in proverbs and in polyphonic song.

A mythology concerning the Corsican language is to some degree current among foreigners, that it was a spoken language only or was only recently written.

As the church was replacing Pisan prelates with Corsican ones there the legal language shows a transition from entirely Latin through partially Latin, partially Corsican to entirely Corsican.

The general classification of Corsican as a Romance language allows two possibilities as to the identity of the speakers of the first distinct Corsican, or Proto-Corsican.

The two most widely spoken forms of the Corsican language are Supranacciu, spoken in the Bastia and Corte area ( generally throughout the northern half of the island ), and Suttanacciu, spoken around Sartene and Porto-Vecchio ( generally throughout the southern half of the island ).

Although the words written in it are close enough to Italian and Latin for the non-Corsican speaker with a language background to follow, the pronunciation of those letters in English, French or Italian is not a guide to the pronunciation of Corsican, which follows complex rules.

It is often considered as a variety of Corsican, or a transitional language between Corsican and Sardinian.

The Corsican language is also related to Italian.

The use of Corsican over French has been declining.

Corsican has also left a trail of legal documents ending in the late 12th century.

One of the characteristics of Italian, and variable in Tuscan, is the retention of the-re infinitive ending as in Latin mittere, " send ", which is lost in Corsican, which has mette / metta, " to put.

Though influenced by Gallurese it has maintained the original characteristics of Corsican.

* Latin'll ' has become-dd-( like casteddu, beddu ' castle ', ' beautiful '), the same as in Sardinian, southern Corsican and Sicilian ( but castellu, bellu in northern Corsican );

Sassarese ( Sassaresu or Turritanu ) is much closer to Corsican and Tuscan language than it is to Sardinian, although this fact has caused some political controversy.

Martin has Catalan ( Spanish ) ancestry through his maternal grandmother who was born in Spain as well as Corsican ancestry through his paternal grandmother.

Corsican music has also seen a revival, though with little popular success, concurrent with the rise of Corsican nationalism in the 1970s.

The Corsican population has been estimated to comprise about 2, 500 birds.

The cyclopean nuraghes has more or less related cousins like the Mycenaean tholoi, the Corsican Torre, the Talaiots of the Balearic Isles, the Sesi of Sicily, and more ( the probably much later Brochs of Scotland are mentioned as well ): All these architectural forms have their origins from a common cultural matrix widespread in the Mediterranean, but in Sardinia there was an original and grandiose development that has not be found elsewhere.

The current Corsican flag is the Bandera testa Mora (" Flag with head of Maure "), is male rather than female, and has a regular knot at the back of the head.

laricia ( Corsican pine ) has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.

He has also ventured into regional music and language, such as the language of Marseille in La Belle de Mai, the north with Renaud cante el ' Nord and even Corsican polyphonics in " Lolito lolita ".

The Corsican Nuthatch is 12cm long, smaller than the Eurasian Nuthatch, and has the typical nuthatch big head, short tail and powerful bill and feet.

The Corsican Nuthatch has a pu-pu-pu call and a trilled hididididididi song.

It is an off-shoot of the political party A Cuncolta Independentista which has members in the Corsican Assembly and some support with the Corsican people.

The same year when Britain and Spain became involved in the Falklands Crisis and came close to war, Pitt was a staunch advocate of taking a tough stance with Madrid and Paris ( as he had been during the earlier Corsican Crisis when France had invaded Corsica ) and made a number of speeches on the subject rousing public opinion.

In 1769 the Corsican Republic had been conquered by French forces and annexed into France.

Lucien's father Carlo Bonaparte had been a strong supporter of Corsican patriots under Pasquale Paoli, but late switched to become a supporter of French rule.

Modern groups include Canta u Populu Corsu, I Muvrini, Tavagna and Chjami Aghjalesi ; some groups have been associated with Corsican nationalism.

She had been a former Vice President of the European Radical Alliance which included French, Guyanan, Flemish, Luxembourg, Italian, Corsican and Spanish ( Canary Islands ) MEPs.

Hood then turned to the occupation of Corsica, which he had been invited to take in the name of the King of Britain by Pasquale Paoli, who had been leader of the Corsican Republic before it was subjugated by the French in 1769.

The ship had been occupied by the Corsican trade union STC.

Similar tactics may have been used towards the islands around the Kingdom of Italy-through the Pro-Italian Maltese, Corfiot Italians and Corsican Italians-in order to control the Mediterranean sea ( that he called in Latin Mare Nostrum ).

They initially adopted the symbol of the polar bear, but this has since been dropped in favour of a more stylized logo that uses a part of the Corsican flag.

He was Minister of the Interior in Alain Juppé's governments ( 1995 – 1997 ), and has been criticized for having allowed the armed Corsican clandestine press conference, and was responsible for the controversial evacuation of Saint-Bernard church in Paris, which was occupied by illegal immigrants ( so called sans-papiers ) on hunger strikes.

A Corsican nobleman and formerly a captain in the Royal Corse, he had been dismissed from his rank with the outbreak of the French Revolution.

Bonaparte had been in the area escorting a convoy of powder wagons en route to Nice and had stopped in to pay his respects to his fellow Corsican, Saliceti.

The Corsican Nation have been struggling for a national identity since the Treaty of Versailles ( 1768 ) when they were annexed to France and claim to be repressed culturally, economically, and socially.