Since the Renaissance the Ligurian language was spoken in all the territories of the Republic of Genoa; in the western area of the Republic one of its groups (spoken mainly on the coast between Monaco and Sanremo) was called Intemelio and was centered on Ventimiglia.[1]
In the actual Italian area of Ventimiglia there is the most renowned Intemelio: the "Ventimigliese", that stretches from the coast until Piedmont.[citation needed]
The Royasc dialect is connected to the "Ventimigliese", as a mountainous version of the Intemelio that has some Occitan influences.[citation needed]
Intemelio is used by nearly 10,000 people in the area of Ventimiglia of the province of Imperia, but other 40,000 are able to understand it and speak a few sentences of this dialect in western Liguria.[citation needed]
The Ligurian area of Seborga speaks the "Ventimigliese" dialect Intemelio and the so-called Principality of Seborga considered the possibility of using this dialect as the official language.[2]
Azaretti, Emilio. L'evoluzione dei dialetti liguri. Sanremo: Edizioni Casabianca, 1982. Pp. xxii + 416.
Dalbera, Jean-Philippe. Les Ilots Liguriens de France, dans Les Langues de France sous la direction de B. Cerquiglini. (Délégation générale à la langue française et aux langues de France). Presses Universitaires de France. Paris, 2003. pp. 125–136
Devoto, Giovanni. I Dialetti delle Regioni d'Italia. Sansoni Editore. Florence, 1971
Toso, Fiorenzo. Liguria linguistica. Dialettologia, storia della lingua e letteratura nel Ponente. Philobiblon. Ventimiglia, 2006
Werner Forner. À propos du ligurien intémélien - La côte, l’arrière-pays. . Travaux du Cercle linguistique de Nice, 7–8, 1986, pp. 29–62.
Werner Forner, Morphologie comparée du mentonnais et du ligurien alpin: Analyse synchronique et essai de reconstruction. DeGruyter, 2022.
Magazine Intemelion. Edited in Sanremo by Brigati Glauco, from Review La voce intemelia.