In the early Middle Ages, the Central Italian area extended north intoRomagna and covered all of modern-dayLazio. Some peripheral varieties have since been assimilated intoGallo-Italic andSouthern Italo-Romance respectively.[1] In addition, thedialect of Rome has undergone considerable Tuscanization from the fifteenth century onwards, such that it has lost many of its Central Italian features (thespeech of the local Jewish community was less affected).[2][3]
The Central Italian dialect area is bisected byisoglosses that roughly follow a line running fromRome toAncona. The zones to the south and north of this line are sometimes called theArea Mediana andArea Perimediana respectively. (Area Mediana may also be used in a broader sense to refer to both zones.)[4]
Pellegrini[5] further divides Central Italian into the following groups:
Except for its southern fringe, theArea Mediana (narrow sense) features a contrast between the final vowels/u/ and/o/, a feature that distinguishes it from both theArea Perimediana to the north and fromSouthern Italo-Romance to the south.[6][7] Cf.Spoletine[ˈkreːto],[ˈtittu] < Latincrēdō,tēctum ‘I believe’, ‘roof’.
Most of theArea Mediana showsvoicing ofplosives afternasal consonants, as in[manˈt̬ellu] ‘cloak’, a feature shared with neighbouring Southern Italo-Romance.[8]
In theArea Mediana are found the following vocalic phenomena:
In most areas, stressedmid-vowels areraised by one degree of aperture if the following syllable contains either/i/ or/u/ (a phenomenon sometimes called ‘Sabine metaphony’). Compare the following examples from the dialect ofAscrea:[9][10]
In a few areas, metaphony results indiphthongization for stressed low-mid vowels, while high-mids undergo normal raising to/i,u/. Compare the following examples from the dialect ofNorcia:[10]
Southeast of Rome, low-mid vowels undergo metaphonic diphthongization, while high-mids remain unaffected. This was also the case for OldRomanesco, which had alternations such as/ˈpɛde/,/ˈpjɛdi/ ‘foot’, ‘feet’.[11][10]
In some areas with Sabine metaphony, if a word has a stressed mid-vowel, then final/u/ lowers to/o/. Compare*/ˈbɛllu/,*/ˈfreddu/ >/ˈbeʎʎu/,/ˈfriddu/ (metaphony) >/ˈbeʎʎo/,/ˈfriddu/ ‘beautiful’, ‘cold’ in the dialect ofTornimparte.[12][13]
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.[14][13]
/nd/ >/nn/ as in Latinvēndere >[ˈwenne] ‘to sell’.
/mb/,/nv/ >/mm/ as in Latinplumbum >[ˈpjummu] ‘lead’.
/ld/ >/ll/ as in Latincal(i)da >[ˈkalla] ‘hot’
Retention of/j/ as in LatinMaium >[ˈmaːju] ‘May’.
/mj/ >/ɲ(ɲ)/ as in Latinvindēmia >[wenˈneɲɲa] ‘grape harvest’.
/rj/ >/r/ as in Latincaprārium >[kraˈpaːru] ‘goatherd’.
Sound-changes with a limited distribution within theArea Mediana include:[15]
/ɡ-/ >/j/ or∅ as in Latincattum >[ˈɡattu] >[ˈjjattu] (Norcia),[ˈattu] (Rieti) ‘cat’.
/ɡn/ >/(i̯)n/ as in Latinagnum,ligna >/ˈai̯nu/,/ˈlena/ (Tagliacozzo) ‘lamb’, ‘firewood’.
/v/,/d/ >∅ word-initially and intervocalically as in Latindentem,vaccam, crudum, ovum >/ɛnteakkakruːou/ (Rieti andL'Aquila)
AroundTerni, and to its immediate northeast, this deletion only applies in intervocalic position.
In the north of theArea Perimediana, a number of Gallo-Italic features are found:[16]
/a/ >/ɛ/ in stressed open syllables, as in/ˈpa.ne/ >/ˈpɛ.ne/ ‘bread’, aroundPerugia and areas to its north.[17][note 1]
In the same area, habitual reduction or deletion of vowels in unstressed internal syllables, as in/ˈtrappole/ >/ˈtrapp(ə)le/ ‘traps’.
Voicing of intervocalic/t/ to/d/ and consonant degemination aroundAncona and to its west.[18]
In both of the aforementioned areas: lack, or reversal, of the sound-changes/nd/ >/nn/ and/mb/,/nv/ >/mm/ that are found in the rest of Central Italian.[18]
The following changes to final vowels are found in theArea Perimediana:
/-u/ >/-o/, as in Latinmusteum >[ˈmoʃʃo] (Montelago), everywhere except for a small area aroundPitigliano.[19]
/-i/ >/-e/, as in/iˈkani/ >/eˈkane/ ‘the dogs’, in some of the dialects situated along an arc running fromMontalto di Castro toFabriano.[17][20]
In part of theArea Mediana, below a line running northeast fromRome toRieti andNorcia, the3PL ending of non-first conjugation verbs is/-u/ (rather than/-o/) which acts as a trigger for metaphony. Cf. Latinvēndunt >[ˈvinnu] ‘they sell’ in the dialect ofLeonessa.[21][22]
In the same area, a series of irregular first-conjugation verbs also show 3PL/-u/ (as opposed to the/-o/ or/-onno/ found elsewhere). Examples include[au,dau,fau,vau] ‘they have/give/do/go’.[23]
Latinfourth-declension nouns have been retained as such in many cases. Cf. Latinmanum,manūs ‘hand’, ‘hands’ >[ˈmaːno] (invariant) in the dialect ofFabrica di Roma and Latinfīcum,fīcūs ‘fig’, ‘figs’ >[ˈfiːko] (invariant) in the dialect ofCanepina.[24]
Latin neuters of the -um/-a type survive more extensively than in Tuscan. Cf. Latinolīvētum, olīvēta ‘olive-grove’, ‘olive-groves’ >[liˈviːtu],[leˈveːta] in the dialect ofRoiate. Even originally non-neuter nouns are sometimes drawn into this class, as in Latinhortum,hortī ‘garden’, ‘gardens’ >[ˈᴐrto],[ˈᴐrta] in the dialect ofSegni.[25][note 2]
The plurals, which are grammatically feminine, are replaced by the feminine ending/-e/ in some dialects, leading to outcomes such as[ˈlabbru],[ˈlabbre] ‘lip’, ‘lips’ in the dialect of Spoleto. Both plural endings may alternate within a dialect, as in[ˈᴐːa]~[ˈᴐːe] ‘eggs’ in the dialect ofTreia.
The Latin neuter plural/-ora/, as intempora ‘times’, was extended to several other words in medieval times, but today the phenomenon is limited to areas such asSerrone, e.g.[ˈraːmo],[ˈraːmora] ‘branch’, ‘branches’. In Serviglianeo, the final vowel changes to/-e/, as in[ˈfiːko],[ˈfiːkore] ‘fig’, ‘figs’.
In several dialects, final syllables beginning with/n/,/l/, or/r/ may be deleted in masculine nouns. In some dialects, such as that ofMatelica, this occurs only in the singular, not the plural, as in*/paˈtrone/,*/paˈtroni/ >[paˈtro],[paˈtruːni] ‘lord’, ‘lords’. In Servigliano, this deletion occurs both in the singular and the plural, resulting in[paˈtro],[paˈtru].[26]
Loporcaro, Michele; Paciaroni, Tania (2016). "The dialects of central Italy". In Ledgeway, Adam; Maiden, Martin (eds.).The Oxford guide to the Romance languages. Oxford University Press. pp. 228–245.doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199677108.003.0015.ISBN978-0-19-967710-8.
Vignuzzi, Ugo (1997). "Lazio, Umbria, and the Marche". In Maiden, Martin; Parry, Mair (eds.).The dialects of Italy. London: Routledge. pp. 311–320.
^Venetian is either grouped with the rest of the Italo-Dalmatian or the Gallo-Italic languages, depending on the linguist, but the major consensus among linguists is that in the dialectal landscape of northern Italy, Veneto dialects are clearly distinguished from Gallo-Italic dialects.
