The Tuscan dialect The term dialect is used in two distinct ways, even by scholars of language. One usage refers to a variety of a language that is characteristic of a particular group of the language's speakers. The term is applied most often to regional speech patterns, but a dialect may also be defined by other factors, such as social class. A dialect that is (dialetto toscano) or the Tuscan language A language is a system for encoding information. In its most common use, the term refers to so-called "natural languages" — the forms of communication considered peculiar to humankind. In linguistics the term is extended to refer to the human cognitive facility of creating and using language. Essential to both meanings is the (lingua toscana) is an Italian dialect The Italian people generally refer to Italian dialects as all vernacular idioms spoken in Italy other than Italian and other languages recognised by the Italian state. As a rule of thumb, all Romance languages spoken in Italy are customarily termed as dialects. Ethnologue, the registrar of the ISO 639-3 recognises them as languages of Italy spoken in Tuscany Tuscany is a region in Italy. It has an area of 22,990 square kilometres (8,880 sq mi) and a population of about 3.6 million inhabitants. The regional capital is Florence, Italy Italy /ˈɪtəli/ (Italian: Italia), officially the Italian Republic (Italian: Repubblica Italiana), is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia. Italy shares its northern, Alpine boundary with France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia. The. In many respects it wandered less than other Romance dialects from the Latin language Latin is an Italic language historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Roman conquest, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe. Romance languages such as Italian, French, Catalan, Romanian, Spanish, and Portuguese are descended from Latin, while many others, especially European languages, including and evolved linearly and homogeneously, without major influences from other foreign languages.[citation needed]
Italian Italian ( italiano , or lingua italiana) is a Romance language spoken by about 60 million people in Italy, and by a total of around 70 million in the world. In Switzerland, Italian is one of four official languages. It is also the official language of San Marino, as well as the primary language of Vatican City. Standard Italian, adopted by the is in practice a "literary version" of Tuscan. It became the language of culture for all the people of Italy, thanks to the prestige of the masterpieces of Dante Alighieri Durante degli Alighieri , commonly known as Dante, was an Italian poet of the Middle Ages. His central work, the Divina Commedia (originally called Commedia and later called Divina ("divine") by Boccaccio), is often considered[who?] one of the greatest literary works composed in the Italian language and a masterpiece of world literature, Francesco Petrarca Francesco Petrarca , known in English as Petrarch, was an Italian scholar, poet and one of the earliest Renaissance humanists. Petrarch is often popularly called the "Father of Humanism". Based on Petrarch's works, and to a lesser extent those of Dante Alighieri and Giovanni Boccaccio, Pietro Bembo in the 16th century created the model, Giovanni Boccaccio Giovanni Boccaccio (Italian pronunciation: [bokˈkattʃo]) was an Italian author and poet, a friend and correspondent of Petrarch, an important Renaissance humanist and the author of a number of notable works including the Decameron, On Famous Women, and his poetry in the Italian vernacular. Boccaccio is particularly notable for his dialogue, of, Niccolò Machiavelli Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli was an Italian philosopher, writer, and politician and is considered one of the main founders of modern political science.[citation needed] As a Renaissance Man, he was a diplomat, political philosopher, musician, poet and playwright, but, foremost, he was a Civil Servant of the Florentine Republic. In June of 1 and Francesco Guicciardini. It would later become the official language of all the Italian states Italy until the present era was a conglomeration of city-states and small independent nations. The following is a list of the various states that made up what we now know as Italy during the past. and of the Kingdom of Italy There have been several distinct entities known as the Kingdom of Italy. Italy under the rule of Odoacer from 476 to 493 is often called the kingdom of Italy, since it encompassed the Roman province of Italy and Odoacer is periodically styled rex (king). The Ostrogothic Kingdom that replaced Odoacer's rule in Italy is also sometimes referred to as, when it was formed.
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Subdialects
Dialects of Italy by groups[1][2][3][4] (Tuscan dialect group in blue).The Tuscan dialect is a dialect complex with many lesser local dialects, with minor differences among them.
The main subdivision is between Northern Tuscan dialects and Southern Tuscan dialects.
The Northern Tuscan dialects are (from east to west):
- Fiorentino Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany and has a population of 367,569 (1,500,000 metropolitan area), the main dialect of Florence Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany and has a population of 367,569 (1,500,000 metropolitan area), Chianti and Mugello, also spoken in Prato Prato is a city in Tuscany, Italy, the capital of the Province of Prato and along the river Arno The Arno is a river in the Tuscany region of Italy. It is the most important river of central Italy after the Tiber as far as the city of Fucecchio.
- Pistoiese, spoken in the city of Pistoia and nearest zones (some linguists include this dialect in Fiorentino).
- Pesciatino or Valdinievolese, spoken in the Valdinievole valley, in the cities of Pescia and Montecatini Terme (some linguists include this dialect in Lucchese).
- Lucchese, spoken in Lucca Lucca is a city in Tuscany, northern central Italy, situated on the river Serchio in a fertile plain near the Ligurian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Lucca. Among other reasons, it is famous for its intact Renaissance-era city walls and nearby hills (Lucchesia).
- Versiliese, spoken in the historical area of Versilia.
- Viareggino, spoken in Viareggio Viareggio is a city located in northern Tuscany, Italy, on the coast of the Tyrrhenian Sea. With a population of over 63,000 it is the main centre of the northern Tuscan Riviera known as Versilia, and the second largest city within the Province of Lucca and vicinity.
- Pisano-Livornese, spoken in Pisa Pisa is a city in Tuscany, central Italy, on the right bank of the mouth of the Arno River on the Ligurian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Pisa. Although Pisa is known worldwide for its Leaning Tower , the city of over 87,500 residents contains more than 20 other historic churches, several palaces, and various bridges across the and in Livorno Livorno or Leghorn (pronounced /ˈlɛɡərn/) is a port city on the Ligurian Sea on the western edge of Tuscany, Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Livorno and the third-largest port on the western coast of Italy, having a population of approximately 170,000 residents as of the year 2007 and the vicinity, and along the southern coast as far as the city of Piombino Piombino is a town and commune in the province of Livorno , Italy, on the border between the Ligurian Sea and the Tyrrhenian Sea, in front of Elba Island and at the northern side of Maremma.
The Southern Tuscan dialects are (from east to west):
- Aretino-Chianaiolo, spoken in Arezzo Arezzo is set on a steep hill rising from the floodplain of the Arno. In the upper part of the town are the cathedral, the town hall and the Medici Fortress , from which the main streets branch off towards the lower part as far as the gates. The upper part of the town maintains its medieval appearance despite the addition of later structures and the Chiana valley.
- Senese, spoken in the city and province of Siena Siena is a city in Tuscany, Italy. It is the capital of the province of Siena.
- Grossetano, spoken in the city and province of Grosseto.
Speakers
Excluding the inhabitants of Massa-Carrara province, who speak Emiliano-Romagnolo Emiliano-Romagnolo is a Romance dialect mostly spoken in Emilia-Romagna, Italy. It belongs to the Northern Italian group within Romance languages (like Piedmontese, Lombard, Ligurian and Venetian), which is included in the wider group of western Romance languages (like French, Occitan and Catalan). It is considered as a minority language,, around 3,500,000 people speak the Tuscan dialect.
Dialectal features
The Tuscan dialect as a whole has certain defining features, with subdialects that are distinguished by minor details.
Phonetics
Tuscan gorgia
Main article: Tuscan gorgia The Tuscan gorgia is a phonetic phenomenon which characterizes the Tuscan dialects, in Tuscany, Italy, most especially the central ones, with Florence traditionally viewed as the epicenterWeakening of G and C
A phonetic phenomenon is the intervocalic weakening of the Italian soft g, the voiced affricate /dʒ/ g as in George) and soft c, the voiceless affricate /tʃ/ (ch as in church), known as attenuation, or, more commonly, as deaffrication.
Between vowels, the voiced post-alveolar affricate consonant is realized as voiced post-alveolar fricative (z of azure):
/dʒ/ → [ʒ].This phenomenon is very evident in daily speech (common also in Umbria Umbria is a region of central Italy. Its capital is Perugia. It has an area of 8,456 km² and about 900,000 inhabitants and elsewhere in Central Italy): the phrase la gente, 'the people', in standard Italian is pronounced [la ˈdʒɛnte], but in Tuscan it is [la ˈʒɛnte].
Similarly, the voiceless post-alveolar affricate is pronounced as a voiceless post-alveolar fricative between two vowels:
/tʃ/ → [ʃ].The sequence /la ˈtʃena/ la cena, 'the dinner', in standard Italian is pronounced [la ˈtʃeːna], but in Tuscan it is [la ˈʃeːna]. As a result of this weakening rule, there are a few minimal pairs distinguished only by length of the voiceless fricative (e.g. [laʃeˈrɔ] lacerò 'it/he/she ripped' vs. [laʃʃeˈrɔ] lascerò 'I will leave/let').
Affrication of S
A common phonetic phenomenon is the transformation of voiceless s or voiceless alveolar fricative The voiceless alveolar fricatives are consonantal sounds. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents these sounds depends on whether a sibilant or non-sibilant fricative is being described /s/ into the voiceless alveolar affricate The voiceless alveolar affricate is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is t͡s , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is ts. The voiceless alveolar affricate occurs in such languages as German, Latvian, Russian, Japanese and Mandarin Chinese, among [ts] when preceded by /r/, /l/, or /n/.
/s/ → [ts].For example, il sole (the sun), pronounced in standard Italian as [il ˈsoːle], will be pronounced by a Tuscan speaker [il ˈtsoːle]; this can be heard also word-internally, as in falso (false) /ˈfalso/ → [ˈfaltso]. This is a common phenomenon in Central Italy, but it is not exclusive to that area; for example it also happens in Switzerland Switzerland (German: die Schweiz French: la Suisse, Italian: Svizzera, Romansh: Svizra, officially the Swiss Confederation is a landlocked alpine country of roughly 7.7 million people (2009) in Western Europe with an area of 41,285 km². Switzerland is a federal republic consisting of 26 states, called cantons. Bern is the seat of the federal (Canton Ticino Canton Ticino or Ticino is the southernmost canton of Switzerland. The written language is Italian in almost the entire canton (except the Walser municipality of Bosco Gurin, where it is German). It surrounds the Italian exclave of Campione d'Italia. Together with areas of the canton of Graubünden it makes up the so-called Svizzera Italiana ().
No dipththongization of /ɔ/
There are two Tuscan historical outcomes of Latin ŏ in stressed open syllables. Passing first through a stage [ɔ], the vowel then develops as a diphthong /wɔ/. This phenomenon never gained universal acceptance, however, so that while forms with the diphthong came to be accepted as standard Italian (e.g. fuoco, buono, nuovo), the monophthong remains in popular speech (foco, bono, novo).
Morphology
Double dative pronoun
A morphological phenomenon, cited also by Alessandro Manzoni Alessandro Francesco Tommaso Manzoni was an Italian poet and novelist. He is famous for the novel The Betrothed, one of the major works of Italian literature in his masterpiece "I promessi sposi" (The Betrothed), is the doubling of the dative pronoun.
For the use of a personal pronoun as indirect object (to someone, to something), also called dative case The dative case is a grammatical case generally used to indicate the noun to whom something is given. For example, in "John gave a book to Mary", the standard Italian makes use of a construction preposition + pronoun a me (to me), or it makes use of a synthetic pronoun form, mi (to me). The Tuscan dialect makes use of both in the same sentence as a kind of intensification of the dative/indirect object:
- in Standard Italian: [a me piace] or [mi piace] (I like it [lit. "it pleases me"])
- in Tuscan: [a me mi piace] (I like it)
This usage is widespread throughout the central regions of Italy, not only in Tuscany, and until recently, it was considered redundant and erroneous by Italian linguists. Nowadays linguists no longer inveigh against it. More on this issue (in Italian) can be found at article.
In some dialects the double accusative pronoun (me mi vedi (lit: You see me me) can be heard, but it is considered an archaic form.
Masculine definite articles
The singular and plural masculine definite articles can both be realized phonetically as [i] in Florentine varieties of Tuscan, but are distinguished by their phonological effect on following consonants. The singular provokes lengthening of the following consonant: [i kkaːne] 'the dog', whereas the plural permits consonant weakening: [i haːni] 'the dogs'. As in Italian, masc. sing. lo occurs before consonants long by nature or not permitting /l/ in clusters is normal (lo zio 'the uncle', lo studente 'the student'), although forms such as i zio can be heard in rustic varieties.
Noi + impersonal Si
A morphological phenomenon found throughout Tuscany is the personal use of the particle identical to impersonal si (not to be confused with passive Si or the reflexive Si), as the first person plural. It is basically the same as the use of on in French French is a Romance language spoken, around the world, by more than 100 million people as a first language (mother tongue), by 190 million as a second language, and by about another 200 million people as an acquired foreign language, with significant speakers in 54 countries. Most native speakers of the language live in France, where the language.
It's possible to use the construction Si + Third person in singular, which can be joined by the first plural person pronoun Noi, because the particle "si" is no longer perceived as an independent particle, but as a piece of verbal conjugation.
- Standard Italian: [Andiamo a mangiare] (We're going to eat), [Noi andiamo là] (We go there)
- Tuscan: [Si va a mangiare] (We're going to eat), [Noi si va là] (We go there)
The phenomenon is found in all verb tenses, including compound tenses. In these tenses, the use of si requires a form of essere (to be) as auxiliary verb, even if the verb would normally have avere (to have) as auxiliary. The past participle must be marked to agree with the subject in gender and number if the verb usually would require essere as auxiliary, while it does not agree in gender and number if the verb usually requires avere.
- Italian: [Siamo andate a sciare], [Abbiamo mangiato al ristorante]
- Tuscan: [S'è andate a sciare], [S'è mangiato al ristorante]
Usually Si becomes S' before è.
Fo (faccio) and vo (vado)
Another morphological phenomenon in the Tuscan dialect is what might appear to be shortening of first singular verb forms in the present tense of fare (to do, to make) and andare (to go).
- Fare: It. faccio Tusc. fo (I do, I make)
- Andare: It. vado Tusc. vo (I go)
These forms have two origins. Natural phonological change alone can account for loss of /d/ and reduction of /ao/ to /o/ in the case of /vado/ > */vao/ > /vo/. A case such as Latin: sapio > Italian so (I know), however, admits no such phonological account: the expected outcome of /sapio/ would be */sappjo/, with a normal lengthening of the consonant preceding yod.
What seems to have taken place is a realignment of the paradigm in accordance with the statistically minor but highly frequent paradigms of dare (give) and stare (be, stay). Thus so, sai, sa, sanno (all singulars and 3rd personal plural of 'know') come to fit the template of do, dai, dà, danno ('give'), sto, stai, sta, stanno ('be, stay'), and fo, fai, fa, fanno ('make, do') follows the same pattern. The form vo, while quite possibly a natural phonological development, seems to have been reinforced by analogy in this case.
Loss of infinitival "-re"
A phonological phenomenon that might appear to be a morphological one, unique to Tuscany, is the loss of the infinitival ending -re of verbs.
- andàre → andà
- pèrdere → pèrde
- finìre → finì
An important feature of this loss is that main stress does not shift to the new penultimate syllable, as phonological rules of Italian might suggest. Thus infinitive forms can come to coincide with various conjugated singulars: pèrde 'to lose', pèrde 's/he loses'; finì 'to finish', ha ffinito 's/he finished'. In practice this homophony seldom, if ever, causes confusion, as they usually appear in distinct syntactic contexts.
The fixed stress can be explained by supposing an intermediate form in -r (as in the Spanish verbal infinitive).
While the infinitive without -re is universal in some subtypes such as Pisano-Livornese, in the vicinity of Florence Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany and has a population of 367,569 (1,500,000 metropolitan area) alternations are regular, so that the full infinitive (e.g. vedere 'to see') appears when followed by a pause, and the clipped form (vedé) is found when phrase internal. The consonant of enclitics is lengthened if preceded by stressed vowel (vedèllo 'to see it', portàcci 'to bring us'), but not when the preceding vowel of the infinitive is unstressed (lèggelo 'to read it', pèrdeti 'to lose you').
Lexicon
The biggest differences among dialects is in the lexicon In linguistics, the lexicon of a language is its vocabulary, including its words and expressions. More formally, it is a language's inventory of lexemes, which also distinguishes the different subdialects. The Tuscan lexicon is almost entirely shared with standard Italian, but many words may be perceived as obsolete or unusual by non-Tuscans. There are a number of strictly regional words and expressions too.
Characterisically Tuscan words:
- accomodare (which means "to arrange" in standard Italian) for riparare (to repair)
- babbo (which was until now considered the only real Italian form) for papà (daddy)
- bove (literary form in standard Italian) for bue (ox)
- cacio for formaggio (cheese)
- cencio for straccio (rug, tatters)
- chetarsi (literary form in standard Italian) for fare silenzio (to be silent)
- codesto (literary form in standard Italian) is a pronoun which specifically identifies an object far from the speaker, but near the listener
- desinare (literary form in standard Italian) for pranzare/cenare (to have dinner)
- diaccio for ghiacciato, freddo (frozen, cold)
- furia (which means "fury" in standard Italian) for fretta (hurry)
- ire for andare (to go) (only some forms as ito (gone))
- garbare for piacere (to like) (but also piacere is widely used in Tuscany)
- gota (literary form in standard Italian) for guancia (cheek)
- punto for per nulla or niente affatto (not at all) in negative sentences
- sciocco (which means "silly" or "stupid" in standard Italian) for insipido (insipid)
- sudicio for spazzatura (garbage) as a noun and for sporco (dirty) as an adjective
See also
- The Adventures of Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi Carlo Lorenzini , better known by the pen name Carlo Collodi, was a Florentine children's writer known for the world-renowned fairy tale The Adventures of Pinocchio is written in Italian but has frequent Florentinisms.
- Florentine language
References
- ^ Ali, Linguistic atlas of Italy
- ^ Linguistic cartography of Italy by Padova University
- ^ Italiand dialects by Pellegrini
- ^ AIS, Sprach-und Sachatlas Italiens und der Südschweiz, Zofingen 1928-1940
Giannelli, Luciano. 2000. Toscana. Profilo dei dialetti, 9. Pisa: Pacini.
External links
Categories: Dialects of Italian | Tuscany
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