TheSouthern Latian dialect (Italian:laziale meridionale[1]) is a Southern Italian Romance vernacular widespread in the southernmost areas ofLazio, in particular south of the city ofFrosinone and starting from the cities of Formia and Gaeta along the coast.[2]
Although inRoman times the area was part ofLatium (Latium adiectum),[3] the region, starting from the Lombard period and therefore from theDuchy of Benevento, entered the orbit of southern political powers, substantially up to the Italian unification. During the fascist regime the northern territories of the Terra di Lavoro were therefore re-annexed to Lazio. The long southern domination and migrations, for example from nearby Abruzzo to the Land of San Benedetto,[4] obviously had different effects on the local language.
The dialect is therefore in many respects similar, in particular in the vocabulary, to the dialects ofCampania, although it differs from them on the phonetic level (similar to theAbruzzo dialects) and from the influence of theCentral-Northern Latian dialects spoken in the nearby central-northern areas of the provinces ofFrosinone andLatina.