Virtual Exhibition · Ethnolinguistics & Agricultural Heritage

This exhibition invites you to explore the traditional agricultural world of Corsica through testimonies in the Corsican language, field photographs, and linguistic analyses: synthesis maps, bilingual glossaries, and studies on word formation. It is the result of the NALC-BDLC programme conducted by UMR CNRS 6240 LISA at the Università di Corsica Pasquale Paoli.

Drapeau de la Corse

Origin

In 1975, the New Linguistic and Ethnographic Atlas of Corsica (NALC) was launched by the CNRS. The Corsican Language Database (BDLC), created in 1986, was quickly associated with it to process survey data by computer.

Stella Retali-Medori · Aurelia Ghjacumina Tognotti
UMR CNRS 6240 LISA

Objectives

To document and promote the traditional Corsican agricultural lexicon, gathered from the last custodians of the island's ancient knowledge and craftsmanship. To study the variation of the language across space and time, and the links between vocabulary, gestures, objects and practices, through approximately 600 questions organised by agricultural theme.

Results

The BDLC is available online at bdlc.univ-corse.fr and provides access to the phonetic and orthographic forms and lemmas of the Corsican lexicon. It offers maps of lexical variation and testimonies in Corsican. The Detti è usi di Paesi collection publishes the materials in the form of monographs accessible to all.

Traditional Agriculture in Corsica

Until the second half of the twentieth century, Corsica was a predominantly agro-pastoral society. Every family cultivated its land, cut its hay, gathered its chestnuts, pressed its olives, and harvested its grapes according to gestures passed down from generation to generation, and named in a language that was intimately bound to them. The profound transformations the island has undergone, rural exodus, mechanisation, and the abandonment of traditional crops, have put this heritage at risk. Today, the last guardians of this knowledge are becoming increasingly rare. Collecting their words means preserving an irreplaceable memory: that of the gestures, the tools, the seasons, and the words that gave them meaning. This exhibition covers nine agricultural domains: haymaking, ploughing, cereals, the mill, the kitchen garden, fruit growing, the chestnut, the olive, and the vine. It does so through testimonies gathered from north to south across the island, field photographs, and linguistic analyses that reveal how the Corsican language has named, invented, and transmitted these crafts over the centuries. Finally, the Detti è usi di Paesi collection publishes a portion of the materials in the form of monographs: a bilingual glossary, maps, and Corsican testimonies with French translations.

The interactive panel

Click on the icon to display a panel.

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Équipe scientifique

Stella Retali-Medori

Senior Lecturer - HDR ) in Language Sciences

UMR CNRS 6240 LISA · Università di Corsica

Aurelia Ghjacumina Tognotti

Research Engineer

UMR CNRS 6240 LISA · Università di Corsica

Zéïnab Aly Camara

Graphic Design

Student · Università di Corsica

In partnership with

Collectivity of Corsica

ADECEC · Laboratoire LISA UMR 6240 CNRS

The Panels

01
 
Presentazione
Presentation of the NALC-BDLC Programme
This introductory panel presents the NALC-BDLC research programme (UMR CNRS 6240 LISA), the scientific source underpinning the exhibition. It explains the methodology of fieldwork linguistic surveys, the construction of the Corsican Language Database, and the Detti è usi di Paesi collection. The traditional agricultural lexicon was collected from Corsican-speaking custodians of the island's ancient crafts, through approximately 600 questions organised by theme.
Linguistic atlas fieldwork survey BDLC agricultural lexicon traditional knowledge
02
 
Feni
Haymaking
The theme of haymaking encompasses around forty questions in the BDLC covering the tools used, the gestures of the mowers, and the various spaces involved. The vocabulary, largely inherited from Latin, sometimes draws on metaphor as in the names for the haystack. Loanwords from other linguistic varieties, such as "furlana", bear witness to the introduction of objects from elsewhere. The scythe, the rake, the pitchfork, and the various types of hay nets are at the heart of this panel.
Hayscythehaystack haymakinglexicon latin
03
 
Lavori è Suminere
Ploughing and Sowing
Although cereal farming has virtually disappeared from the island's landscape, a wealth of testimonies was still able to be gathered. The BDLC illustrates, through the roughly sixty questions dedicated to this topic, the various aspects of the process from ploughing to sowing. The panel highlights the lexical formations surrounding the plough, the yoke, and animal traction, with a detailed presentation of the terms designating each part of these implements.
Ploughingsowing ploughyokeoxen
04
 
Cugliere è Tribbiere
Cereals and Harvesting
The vocabulary of cereals and harvesting is the subject of more than 70 questions in the BDLC: names for barley, wheat, rye, oats, maize, weeds growing among crops, and crop diseases. The panel invites visitors to discover the words for cereals, harvesting, threshing, and winnowing, with testimonies illustrating the collective nature of the harvest and explanations of how the names were formed.
Cerealsharvest threshingwinnowingwheat
05
 
Mulinu
The Mill
This panel is devoted to the mill, detailing its workings and presenting the names of each part of the mechanism. Noteworthy is the remarkably vivid quality of certain lexical formations, which evoke the atmosphere of a working mill: u chjacchjarone, u ciarlone, a ratacchja (the chatterer, the babbler). The importance of milling in traditional Corsican life is illustrated through numerous testimonies and photographs.
Millmillstone millerevocative vocabularymechanism
06
 
Ortu
The Kitchen Garden
The theme of the kitchen garden encompasses around 70 questions in the BDLC, reflecting the main activities and the traditional layout of the Corsican garden. The panel presents the names of the vegetables cultivated: garlic, artichoke, asparagus, aubergine, basil, beetroot, carrot, celery, squash, watercress, spinach, broad bean, French bean, lentil, turnip, onion, pea, potato, radish, lettuce, and tomato, along with their Corsican names and instances of lexical variation.
Gardenvegetables irrigationsowinglexical variation
07
 
Arburi Fruttiti
Fruit Tree Cultivation
With around 70 questions, the BDLC allows visitors to discover the names of the various fruits and fruit trees traditionally cultivated in Corsica. The panel illustrates the history of the Corsican lexicon: Latin heritage, borrowings, and new coinages. The example of the cherry : chjarasgia, chjirasgia, chjiresgia and of the almond (amàndula) shows how variety names reflect the colour, taste, texture, and geographical origins of the fruits.
fruitsfruit trees cherryalmondLatin heritage
08
 
Castagna
· Chestnut and Chestnut Farming
The vocabulary related to chestnut farming, represented by around 70 questions in the BDLC, reveals a remarkable level of precision in describing the tree and its transformations. The panel traces the stages from gathering to the production of flour, the culinary traditions (pulenda, pisticcine), and the centuries-old legal organisation of the harvest (furestu chjosu, furestu apertu). The vocabulary oscillates between Greco-Latin heritage and metaphorical coinages.
Chestnutflour drying shedfurestupulenda
09
 
Alive
Olive Growing
The roughly forty questions on olive growing in the BDLC document the various stages from harvesting to processing. The panel highlights the striking contrast between the antiquity of certain forms, orca, meaning a storage jar and the Arabic loanwords giarra and zimbina. Manual harvesting techniques, the production of oil at the press, and storage methods are all documented through numerous testimonies.
oliveoil pressjarharvesting
10
 
Vigna
Viticulture
Viticulture represents one of the richest sections of the BDLC, with over 100 questions. The panel illustrates the names given to the vine plant - calzu, vita, magliolu - evocative terms - curnòcchjulu, capriolu, gròmbulu and the processing techniques: foot treading, winemaking, and ageing in barrels. The grape harvest was a communal celebration, with neighbours and relatives joining together to bring it in.
Vinegrapes grape harvestwinepress