Central Italian Explained

Central Italian (Italian: dialetti mediani “central dialects”) refers to the indigenous varieties of Italo-Romance spoken in much of Central Italy.

Background

In the early Middle Ages, the Central Italian area extended north into Romagna and covered all of modern-day Lazio. Some peripheral varieties have since been assimilated into Gallo-Italic and Southern Italo-Romance respectively. In addition, the dialect of Rome has undergone considerable Tuscanization from the fifteenth century onwards, such that it has lost many of its Central Italian features. (The speech of the local Jewish community was less affected.)

Subdivisions

The Central Italian dialect area is bisected by isoglosses that roughly follow a line running from Rome to Ancona (see map). The zones to the south and north of this line are sometimes called the Area Mediana and Area Perimediana respectively. (Area Mediana may also be used in a broader sense to refer to both zones.)

Pellegrini's Carta dei dialetti d’Italia^[1] features the following divisions:

• Central Marchigiano
  • Anconitan
  • Maceratese
• Umbrian
  • Northern
  • Northwestern and Viterbese
  • Southeastern
• Laziale
  • Central-southern
  • Romanesco
• Cicolano-Reatino-Aquilano

Phonological features

Except for its southern fringe, the Area Mediana is characterized by a contrast between the final vowels pronounced as //u// and pronounced as //o//, which distinguishes it from both the Area Perimediana (to the north) and from Southern Italo-Romance (to the south). Compare the words pronounced as /[ˈkreːto]/ and pronounced as /[ˈtittu]/ in the dialect of Spoleto (from Latin crēdō, tēctum ‘I believe’, ‘roof’).

Most of the Area Mediana shows voicing of plosives after nasal consonants, as in pronounced as /[manˈt̬ellu]/ ‘cloak’, a feature shared with neighbouring Southern Italo-Romance.

In the Area Mediana are found the following vocalic phenomena:

• In most areas, stressed mid-vowels are raised by one degree of aperture if the following syllable contains either pronounced as //u// or pronounced as //i// (a phenomenon sometimes called ‘Sabine metaphony’). Compare the following examples from the dialect of Ascrea:
  • pronounced as /[ˈmeːla]/, pronounced as /[ˈmiːlu]/ ‘apples’, ‘apple’
  • pronounced as /[ˈʃpoːsa]/, pronounced as /[ˈʃpuːsu]/ ‘wife’, ‘husband’
  • pronounced as /[ˈwɛcca]/, pronounced as /[ˈweccu]/ ‘old’, ‘old’
  • pronounced as /[ˈnɔːwa]/, pronounced as /[ˈnoːwu]/ ‘new’, ‘new’
• In a few areas, metaphony results in diphthongization for stressed low-mid vowels, while high-mids undergo normal raising to pronounced as //i, u//. Compare the following examples from the dialect of Norcia:
  • pronounced as /[ˈmetto]/, pronounced as /[ˈmitti]/ ‘I put’, ‘you put’
  • pronounced as /[ˈsoːla]/, pronounced as /[ˈsuːlu]/ ‘alone’, ‘alone’
  • pronounced as /[ˈbbɛlla]/, pronounced as /[ˈbbjɛjju]/ ‘beautiful’, ‘beautiful’
  • pronounced as /[ˈmɔrte]/, pronounced as /[ˈmwɔrti]/ ‘death’, ‘dead’
• Southeast of Rome, low-mid vowels undergo metaphonic diphthongization, while high-mids remain unaffected. This was also the case for Old Romanesco, which had alternations such as pronounced as //ˈpɛde//, pronounced as //ˈpjɛdi// ‘foot’, ‘feet’.
• In some areas with Sabine metaphony, if a word has a stressed mid-vowel, then final pronounced as //u// lowers to pronounced as //o//. Compare pronounced as /
  • /ˈbɛllu/
  /, pronounced as /
  • /ˈfreddu/
  / > pronounced as //ˈbeʎʎu//, pronounced as //ˈfriddu// (metaphony) > pronounced as //ˈbeʎʎo//, pronounced as //ˈfriddu// ‘beautiful’, ‘cold’ in the dialect of Tornimparte.

Sound-changes (or lack thereof) that distinguish most or all of Central Italian from Tuscan include the following. Many of them shared with Southern Italo-Romance.

• pronounced as //nd// > pronounced as //nn// as in Latin vēndere > pronounced as /[ˈwenne]/ ‘to sell’.
• pronounced as //mb//, pronounced as //nv// > pronounced as //mm// as in Latin plumbum > pronounced as /[ˈpjummu]/ ‘lead’.
• pronounced as //ld// > pronounced as //ll// as in Latin cal(i)da > pronounced as /[ˈkalla]/ ‘hot’
• Retention of pronounced as //j// as in Latin Maium > pronounced as /[ˈmaːju]/ ‘May’.
• pronounced as //mj// > pronounced as //ɲ(ɲ)// as in Latin vindēmia > pronounced as /[wenˈneɲɲa]/ ‘grape harvest’.
• pronounced as //rj// > pronounced as //r// as in Latin caprārium > pronounced as /[kraˈpaːru]/ ‘goatherd’.

Sound-changes with a limited distribution within the Area Mediana include:

• pronounced as //ɡ-// > pronounced as //j// or ∅ as in Latin cattum > pronounced as /[ˈɡattu]/ > pronounced as /[ˈjjattu]/ (Norcia), pronounced as /[ˈattu]/ (Rieti) ‘cat’.
• pronounced as //ɡn// > pronounced as //(i̯)n// as in Latin agnum, ligna > pronounced as //ˈai̯nu//, pronounced as //ˈlena// (Tagliacozzo) ‘lamb’, ‘firewood’.
• pronounced as //v//, pronounced as //d// > pronounced as /∅/ word-initially and intervocalically as in Latin dentem, vaccam, crudum, ovum > pronounced as //ɛnte akka kruː ou// (Rieti and L'Aquila)
  • Around Terni, and to its immediate northeast, this deletion only applies in intervocalic position.

In the north of the Area Perimediana, a number of Gallo-Italic features are found:

• pronounced as //a// > pronounced as //ɛ// in stressed open syllables, as in pronounced as //ˈpa.ne// > pronounced as //ˈpɛ.ne// ‘bread’, around Perugia and areas to its north.
  • In the same area, habitual reduction or deletion of vowels in unstressed internal syllables, as in pronounced as //ˈtrappole// > pronounced as //ˈtrapp(ə)le// ‘traps’.
• Voicing of intervocalic pronounced as //t// to pronounced as //d// and consonant degemination around Ancona and to its west.
• In both of the aforementioned areas: lack, or reversal, of the sound-changes pronounced as //nd// > pronounced as //nn// and pronounced as //mb//, pronounced as //nv// > pronounced as //mm// that are found in the rest of Central Italian.

The following changes to final vowels are found in the Area Perimediana:

• pronounced as //-u// > pronounced as //-o//, as in Latin musteum > pronounced as /[ˈmoʃʃo]/ (Montelago), everywhere except for a small area around Pitigliano.
• pronounced as //-i// > pronounced as //-e//, as in pronounced as //i ˈkani// > pronounced as //e ˈkane// ‘the dogs’, in some of the dialects situated along an arc running from Montalto di Castro to Fabriano.

Morphological features

• In part of the Area Mediana, below a line running northeast from Rome to Rieti and Norcia, the 3PL ending of non-first conjugation verbs is pronounced as //-u// (rather than pronounced as //-o//) which acts as a trigger for metaphony. Cf. Latin vēndunt > pronounced as /[ˈvinnu]/ ‘they sell’ in the dialect of Leonessa.
  • In the same area, a series of irregular first-conjugation verbs also show 3PL pronounced as //-u// (as opposed to the pronounced as //-o// or pronounced as //-onno// found elsewhere). Examples include pronounced as /[au, dau, fau, vau]/ ‘they have/give/do/go’.
• Latin fourth-declension nouns have been retained as such in many cases. Cf. Latin manum, manūs ‘hand’, ‘hands’ > pronounced as /[ˈmaːno]/ (invariant) in the dialect of Fabrica di Roma and Latin fīcum, fīcūs ‘fig’, ‘figs’ > pronounced as /[ˈfiːko]/ (invariant) in the dialect of Canepina.
• Latin neuters of the -um/-a type survive more extensively than in Tuscan. Cf. Latin olīvētum, olīvēta ‘olive-grove’, ‘olive-groves’ > pronounced as /[liˈviːtu]/, pronounced as /[leˈveːta]/ in the dialect of Roiate. Even originally non-neuter nouns are sometimes drawn into this class, as in Latin hortum, hortī ‘garden’, ‘gardens’ > pronounced as /[ˈᴐrto]/, pronounced as /[ˈᴐrta]/ in the dialect of Segni.
  • The plurals, which are grammatically feminine, are replaced by the feminine ending pronounced as //-e// in some dialects, leading to outcomes such as pronounced as /[ˈlabbru]/, pronounced as /[ˈlabbre]/ ‘lip’, ‘lips’ in the dialect of Spoleto. Both plural endings may alternate within a dialect, as in pronounced as /[ˈᴐːa]/~pronounced as /[ˈᴐːe]/ ‘eggs’ in the dialect of Treia.
  • The Latin neuter plural pronounced as //-ora//, as in tempora ‘times’, was extended to several other words in medieval times, but today the phenomenon is limited to areas such as Serrone, e.g. pronounced as /[ˈraːmo]/, pronounced as /[ˈraːmora]/ ‘branch’, ‘branches’. In Serviglianeo, the final vowel changes to pronounced as //-e//, as in pronounced as /[ˈfiːko]/, pronounced as /[ˈfiːkore]/ ‘fig’, ‘figs’.
• In several dialects, final syllables beginning with pronounced as //n//, pronounced as //l//, or pronounced as //r// may be deleted in masculine nouns. In some dialects, such as that of Matelica, this occurs only in the singular, not the plural, as in pronounced as /
  • /paˈtrone/
  /, pronounced as /
  • /paˈtroni/
  / > pronounced as /[paˈtro]/, pronounced as /[paˈtruːni]/ ‘lord’, ‘lords’. In Servigliano, this deletion occurs both in the singular and the plural, resulting in pronounced as /[paˈtro]/, pronounced as /[paˈtru]/.

Syntactic features

• Direct objects are often marked by the preposition a if they are animate.

See also

• Languages of Italy

References

Bibliography

• Book: Loporcaro . Michele . Paciaroni . Tania . 2016 . The dialects of central Italy . The Oxford guide to the Romance languages . Ledgeway . Adam . Maiden . Martin . 228–245 . Oxford University Press . 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199677108.003.0015. 978-0-19-967710-8 .
• Book: Vignuzzi, Ugo . 1997 . Lazio, Umbria, and the Marche . The dialects of Italy . Maiden . Martin . Parry . Mair . 311–320 . London . Routledge.

Notes and References

1. Web site: Carta dei dialetti d'Italia a cura di G. B. Pellegrini . 1977 .