Talk:Muro Lucano

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Muro Lucano is a small village situated next to Bella Muro, which is the closest location with a train station in the area. It is popular with cyclists and American toursists and has three hotels.

In 1980 the town was severely damaged by an earthquake, and to this day there are still areas of the village which have not been rebuilt [deserted homes so damaged as to be uninhabitable].

The village is unique in that it has a very large cathedral perched at the top of the hill in which it is situated. It also has a large statue of St Gerardo, the patron saint of the area, who was said to have performed miracles in Muro Lucano. The statue was donated by a foreign benefactor, to the village.

The main street in the village is called Via Roma, and has several bars, cafes and shops. It is lively in the evenings, considering the size of the village.

The valley next to Muro Lucano (Ponte Giacoio) has a new bridge connecting it to the new part of the village. Beneath the bridge and significantly lower in the valley can be seen the old bridge which is extremely old an was recently excavated by a volunteer team of experts. It is small enough to allow a donkey and cart but not motorized vehicles.

Dialect

The city's dialect is called Murese. This dialect is exclusive to the city and is often unintelligible to Italian speakers. It is believed to have originated from the Oscan language.

This is a rather significant claim, and one which I have to look at skeptically. How is it possible that the Osco-Umbrian branch of the Italic languages thought to have been extinct for a few thousand years have a contemporary living descendant, and yet has absolutely NO apparent coverage or study by linguists in spite of that remarkable status? I simply find it unbelievable that Murese could be descended from the Oscan language - even in partial influence - and yet has not been covered at all by any research as far as I could find. Can anybody provide any source for this claim? Because if not, it's quite likely that any lack of intelligibility between Murese and Standard Italian - a claim which also needs to be cited - is for reasons other than Oscan influence. Benjitheijneb (talk) 20:01, 6 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]