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A Note on Triestino / Triestino: The language known today as Triestino or Triestin originates mainly from the language of the Venetian region (the Veneto). Because of Trieste’s geographical position on the borders of three distinct linguistic zones (Italian, Germanic and Slavonic), Triestino has integrated all of these linguistic strands.

From the late fourteenth century to 1918, Trieste was ruled by the Habsburgs. During the thirty-year rule of the Habsburg Empress Maria Theresa (1740–1770), and thanks to innovations directed by her government, the city underwent major changes. Crucially, the port was developed for international maritime trade: Trieste became a free port and the centre of a thriving shipping industry. This led to a population boom and huge social changes. With the increase in work opportunities, the city particularly attracted immigrants from the Veneto, the wider region of Friuli, and from Istria and Dalmatia. As a result, immigration became a crucial factor in the life of the city and several distinct linguistic communities established themselves, each of which naturally had its own influence on the communal language. Among these, the major influences were from the Veneto. Until this period, the language spoken was known as Tergestino. From then on, it was called Triestin or Triestino.

In this way, by the beginning of the twentieth century, Triestino had become enriched with a burgeoning vocabulary, originating from a variety of languages, with words occurring either in identical forms or through clearly evident derivations. Apart from the predominant Venetian influence, the other main ones were from German, especially its Austrian varieties, and Slovene. In addition, Croatian, Serbian (or Serbo-Croatian) and the varieties of Venetian spoken in Istria and Dalmatia had significant parts to play, with other languages such as French taking minor roles. Greek and Yiddish were also spoken.

Unsurprisingly, Trieste’s character by that time was composite, cosmopolitan and markedly secular, as it still is today. Broadly speaking, the city had come to epitomise religious as well as cultural and linguistic tolerance: Catholics, Protestants, Jews, Eastern Greeks, Serbian Orthodox lived alongside one another – evidence for which is confirmed by the presence of cemeteries for all these faiths. Besides these, there is a Muslim cemetery, and another for men who had died fighting for the Austro-Hungarian Empire in the First World War.

However, Italian irredentismo, a movement that had started in the late nineteenth century, evolved to include the aim of making Trieste Italian ‘through-and-through’. The persecution of Slovenes began in 1920, even before the Fascists came to power in 1922. In 1938, Mussolini, chose Trieste as the location to announce his anti-Jewish racial laws. Immediate and drastic persecution followed, both racial and linguistic, including the enforced closure of Slovene and Croatian-speaking schools. The prohibition of these

languages was absolute, on pain of harsh punishment. This, combined with other forms of continuous oppression and discrimination, contributed towards a strong Slovene nationalistic movement.

Due to its geographical location, Trieste had a particular and complex history during and after the Second World, falling under German military administration, direction and command from September 1943. From 1947 until 1957, the so-called Free Territory of Trieste became an independent territory. This was de facto dissolved in 1954 and its two zones were divided between Italy and Yugoslavia. This created a border dispute which was not settled until twenty years later. The port city went to Italy.

The present-day population of the city is approximately 200,000, of whom the majority speak Triestino, though there remain few speakers who are monolingual. There is a Slovene-speaking minority. Today, most citizens speak Italian too.

Important poets who have written in Triestino include Virgilio Giotti (1885–1957) and Carolus Cergoly (1908–1987). The former derived his pseudonym from his mother’s maiden-name, Ghiotto. His birth-name was Virgil Schönbeck. The two most famous modern writers of Trieste, both of whom were Jewish, wrote in Italian: the poet Umberto Saba (1883-1957); and, a generation before him, the novelist Italo Svevo (1861-1928), whose birth-name was Ettore Schmitz. This writer’s pen-name may well be said to embody Trieste’s composite, cosmopolitan character: Italo – Italian; Svevo – Swabian. In addition to local writers and poets, James Joyce lived in Trieste between 1904 and 1920 and began writing Ulysses in the city. Between 1911 and 1912, Rainer Maria Rilke was a guest at the Castle of Duino, the residence of the Thurn und Taxis family, where he began work on his Duino Elegies. The best known contemporary writer is the novelist, essayist and Germanist, Claudio Magris (b. 1939).