Dialectical
Saturday, October 27th, 2007I guess that’s one word to describe Italy. But this is fascinating! I’m currently reading some book on Italian history and came across a section on the dialects, and all together different languages used at around the time of unification in 1861. If you know me and have read this blog, you may think I’m too fixated on Italy, Spain and Portugal almost at the expense of other countries. But there’s a few things to understand, before I go on. The main reason for these countries of interests is that I’ve visited and traveled through them all extensively. Portugal (and the islands) a few years ago, and Spain and Italy this year. Also, being of Portuguese descent, I’m more inclined and feel more naturally drawn to Latin Europe, more specifically, southern Latin Europe. So it was just a natural progression to go from Portugal to Spain and then to Italy. And what country that I haven’t visited yet do I want to explore next? Yes you guessed it, that other big Latin country of Europe, France. But, before I begin to dive head first into France, the language and the culture, I feel the need to slow down and learn the other languages better, much better. Although I know enough of each language to navigate through each country comfortably, I want to learn them almost flawlessly. Hence the reason I want to go back to Italy next fall to study (I can practice Spanish and Portuguese here, but not Italian).
Also as an English major and linguistics minor, I am naturally drawn to England, and to an extent, the U.K. in general. England is one of the most important countries on Earth and everyday at school I read about it in my literature books. The literary history and culture is beyond ridiculous in that country and I feel it’s my duty as a student of a discipline that originated and reached its peak there, to go. And though the weather and food is nearly the opposite of southern Europe and what I’m used to here in the U.S., and maybe personalities too, I feel I’ll be fine and I’ll enjoy the country immensely. And since English is spoken in England, and the U.S. is a former colony of England, much of our culture is similar as well. But trust me, if I spent significant time in Brasil or France or South Korea, I’d be writing all about those countries, languages and cultures here also.
Now back to what I read in this Italian history book. The book was talking about the struggles of unifying a country of such different cities and kingdoms and one of the struggles was picking one unified, standard language for the new unified kingdom, Italy. Anyways it was just fascinating to read about how linguistically diverse the peninsula was, and to an extent, still is.
Some random facts:
-In 1860, a year before unity, it was estimated that only 2.5% of the population spoke or understood modern Italian (or the 14th century language spoken in Tuscany and made famous by writers like Dante).
-At the time of unity not even high officials felt comfortable speaking Italian, and most of those that knew the language were concentrated in Toscana and Rome.
-’Standard Italian,’ the Tuscan dialect which was picked as the language of Italy and is still “standard” today, was the one Latin-derived language that wandered the least from the mother language Vulgar Latin. It also grew and evolved homogeneously with little influence from other languages. In other words, it’s the dialect closest to Latin (in exisitence).
-In 1910, at least 50% of “Italians” preferred their dialect as opposed to “Italian” as their 1st language.
Here’s a few dialectical variation examples for the words “Thursday” and “Boy”
Italian- Giovedi and Ragazzo/ or Bambino
Piedmont- Gioves and Cit
Liguria- Zogia and Matotu
Lombardy- Giuedi and Bagai
Veneto- Zioba and Putelo
Friuli- Loibe and Frut
Emilia- Zobia and Puten
Tuscany- Zovedi and Bimbo
Lazio- Giovedi and Regazzino
Abruzzi- Giuveddi and Quatraro
Campania- Lueri and Guaglione
Calabria- Lovi and Pedi
Sicily- Loviri and Carusu
Sardenia- Lovia and Pizzinnu
Do you see why Italy too is a linguist’s dream? 
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