Tuone Udaina

Tuone Udaina (1823 – June 10, 1898; Antonio Udina in Italian) was a Liburnian man who was the last person to have any active knowledge of the Dalmatian language, a Romance language that had evolved from Latin along the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea.[1][2] He was the main source of knowledge about his parents' dialect, that of the island of Veglia (Krk in Croatian), for the linguist Matteo Bartoli, who recorded it in 1897.

Tuone Udaina

Udaina bore the nickname Burbur, the etymology of which is uncertain. Bartoli tentatively associated it with burbero, an Italian word for a surly, gruff, or ill-tempered person.[3] Other interpretations include "barbarian"[4] and "barber".[5] He worked as a marine postman and as a sexton.[6]

Vegliot Dalmatian was not Udaina's native language, as he had learned it from listening to his parents' private conversations. Udaina had not spoken the Dalmatian language for nearly 20 years at the time he acted as a linguistic informant. No sound recordings were ever made.

When Udaina was killed at 74 in an explosion during road work on June 10, 1898, the Dalmatian language is generally assumed to have become extinct as no other speakers of the language were found or known to live.[7][8]