The Italy in Toulouse

Maybe you talk about or maybe not, but certainly lent words and expressions to your vocabulary and know several people who use it at will. Yes, I refer to the dialect, one of the many riches of the Italian language by which the 17 January is celebrated as the national day. Linguaenauti took the opportunity and, simplifying simplifying, has put together some interesting facts on the dialects of the boot.

We start with some data: the latest Istat report on the use of dialect was published in late 2014 (data collected in 2012). The 53,1% the champion between the 18 and the 74 years speaks Italian in family, While the prevalent use of dialect covers the 9% of the population (the percentages go down with friends and crumble with strangers). Women show a greater tendency to speak in Italian family (55,2% against the 51% of men) and with friends (60,9% against the 51,7% of men). Overuse or exclusively by the Italian family is more prevalent in the Centre and in the North West (69,5%) compared to 38,8% residents in the Northeast, South and Islands.
Dispelling any belief

The idea is still widespread dialects are a "corruption" of the Italian, but it is not so: are the normal evolution of the language spoken locally, that comes mainly from Latin (but also from German dialects in the North and from the Greek and Albanian in the South) with the influence of preceding languages (the substrates) or you arrive later with military conquests, migratory movements, and so on. The Italian standard has evolved from toscano. Why toscano? Simply said: Thanks to the prestige and success of vernacular authors such as Dante, Boccaccio and Petrarch (as we know, even the milanese Manzoni went to rinse the cloths in Arno centuries later). After the unification of Italy this mainly literary language spoken by a small percentage of the population became widespread thanks to compulsory education and, especially, on television. In short, think: If Jacopone da Todi had had more luck today much more Italian would resonate in the peninsula!

Languages or dialects?
The controversy over the definition of language and dialect is long and winding and in Italy becomes particularly complicated for the wide variety of patois, some with a long literary tradition or politics. The Italian Government officially recognizes as the Sardinian languages, Friulian and Ladin, While UNESCO also recognizes the Neapolitan and Sicilian. The debate between cultural heritage and the normal development of languages is still long.

Which dialects are spoken in Italy?
It is very difficult to draw sharp boundaries for Italian dialects, Since the variety is so wide as to not allow the identification of large bundles of isoglosses, or geographical areas sharing the same morphological traits, phonetic or lexical. Said more simply, in neighbouring villages also have Italy dialects with very marked differences.

However it is possible to identify the main areas according to certain characteristics that can group a number of dialects, I would just like to point out just a few phonetic that surely you will recognize. The first is the La Spezia-Rimini line and delimits the Northern dialects, with the weakening of the intervocalic consonants (for example the simplifications of double), the unstressed final vowels fall except the a and assibilazione, or conversion into s, of palatal consonants such as c. In short, good old gióso de vin (where "drop" of course is a metonymy for "full glass"!).

The Rome-Ancona line separates Tuscany from the macro-area Center- Southern, ranging from Lazio, Umbria and the marches up to the Northern Apulia and Calabria. As we said, Dal toscano derives the Italian standard, but the differences are there and how. The engaged in so-called gorgia toscana, that is the aspiration of k, t, p (Billy is in phratho). The South Central instead is characterized by indistinct final vowel ə (how much is bellə!), for PA application of the nasal stops after, as tooth > Dende and affrication of s (a lovely).

Extreme southern dialects range from Salento to Central-Southern Calabria to Sicily and also in this case the common traits are many and interesting, as the distinction between o and u Latina finals (focu meu! is the "Oh my God"! of southern Calabria) or sound cacuminali sayings, Curiously also present in Indian languages and Scandinavia: the affectionate appellation bedda mia has just that sound sound retroflex Occlusive.