Tuone "Burbur" Udaina (1823 – 10 June 1898; in Italian) was the last known speaker of Dalmatian, a Romance language that evolved from Latin along the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea. He was the main source of knowledge about his parents' dialect, that of the island of Veglia, for the linguist Matteo Bartoli, who recorded it in 1897.

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

When Udaina was 74, he was killed in an explosion during road construction on June 10, 1898. Since then, the Dalmatian language is generally assumed to have become extinct as no other speakers of the language were found or known to have lived.

References

Bibliography