Florentine dialect

Last updated
Florentine
dialetto fiorentino
Pinocchio by Collodi, first edition Paggi 1883.jpg
The title page of Pinocchio (1883), by Carlo Collodi. Collodi included several Florentinisms in his book.
Native toItaly
RegionTuscany (Florence)
Dialects
Language codes
ISO 639-3 –
Glottolog fior1235
IETF it-u-sd-itfi

The Florentine dialect or vernacular (dialetto fiorentino or vernacolo fiorentino) is a variety of Tuscan, a Romance language spoken in the Italian city of Florence and its immediate surroundings.

Contents

A variant derived from it historically, once called la pronuncia fiorentina emendata (literally, 'the amended Florentine pronunciation'), was the official national language of the Kingdom of Italy when it was established in 1861. It is the most widely spoken of the Tuscan dialects. [1]

Literature

Important writers such as Dante Alighieri, Francesco Petrarch, Giovanni Boccaccio and, later, Niccolò Machiavelli and Francesco Guicciardini wrote in literary Tuscan/Florentine, including Dante's Divine Comedy .

It became a second prestige language alongside Latin and was used as such for centuries. [2]

Differences from Standard Italian

Florentine, and Tuscan more generally, can be distinguished from Standard Italian by differences in numerous features at all levels: phonology, morphology, syntax and lexicon.

Perhaps the difference most noticed by Italians and foreigners alike is known as the gorgia toscana (literally 'Tuscan throat'), a consonant-weakening rule widespread in Tuscany in which the voiceless plosive phonemes /k/, /t/, /p/ are pronounced between vowels as fricatives [h], [θ], [ɸ] respectively. The sequence /lakasa/la casa 'the house', for example, is pronounced [laˈhaːsa], and /buko/buco 'hole' is realized as [ˈbuːho]. Preceded by a pause or a consonant, /k/ is produced as [k] (as in the word casa alone or in the phrase in casa). Similar alternations obtain for /t/ → [t],[θ] and /p/ → [p],[ɸ].

Strengthening to a geminate consonant occurs when the preceding word triggers syntactic doubling (raddoppiamento fonosintattico) so the initial consonant /p/ of pipa 'pipe (for smoking)' has three phonetic forms: [p] in [ˈpiːɸa] spoken as a single word or following a consonant, [ɸ] if preceded by a vowel as in [laɸiːɸa]la pipa 'the pipe' and [pp] (also transcribed [pː]) in [trepˈpiːɸe]tre pipe 'three pipes'.

Parallel alternations of the affricates /tʃ/ and /dʒ/ are also typical of Florentine but by no means confined to it or even to Tuscan. The word gelato is pronounced with [dʒ] following a pause or a consonant, [ʒ] following a vowel and [ddʒ] if raddoppiamento applies ([dʒeˈlaːθo], [undʒeˈlaːθo]un gelato, [ˈkwattroʒeˈlaːθi]quattro gelati, [ˈtreddʒeˈlaːθi]tre gelati. Similarly, the initial consonant of /ˈtʃena/cena 'dinner' has three phonetic forms, [tʃ], [ʃ] and [ttʃ]. In both cases, the weakest variant appears between vowels ([reˈʒoːne]regione 'region', [ˈkwattroʒeˈlaːθi]quattro gelati; [laˈʃeːna]la cena, [ˈbaːʃo]bacio 'kiss').

Florentine [3] Italian [3] English [3]
io sònio sonoI am
te tu seitu seiyou are
egli l'èegli èhe/she/it is
noi s'è/semonoi siamowe are
voi vù sietevoi sieteyou are
essi l'ennoessi sonothey are
io c'hoio hoI have
te tu c'hatu haiyou have
egli c'haegli hahe/she/it has
noi ci s'hanoi abbiamowe have
voi vù c'avetevoi aveteyou have
essi c'hannoloro hannothey have

Cases

Florentine uses the diminutive case -ino/-ine far more than Italian does, with many surnames also ending in -ini.

Italian [4] Florentine [4] English [4]
bellebellinelovely
poverepoverine/poerinepoor
pochepochine/pohinelittle

Article and pronouns

Florentine often abbreviates its articles and pronouns.

Italian [4] Florentine [4]
il tuoi’ tu

Unique phrases

The Florentine dialect has several unique phrases as compared the other Tuscan dialects.

Florentine [5] [6] English [5] [6]
maremmadamnit
trombaioplumber
icchè tu sei grullo?are you stupid?
smettila, se no tu ne buschistop it, or I will get you
acquaikitchen sink
sei un boccaloneyou have a big mouth
babbodad/father

Dialects

A dialect of Florentine known as Judeo-Florentine was spoken by the Jewish community of Florence. [7]

References

  1. ↑ "Some Italians Don't Even Use Italian? A Spotlight on Italian Dialects". The Glossika Blog. 2021-03-02. Retrieved 2024-06-19.
  2. ↑ "The Origin of the Italian Language and the Florentine Vernacular". www.destinationflorence.com. Retrieved 2024-06-19.
  3. 1 2 3 Vohabolario del vernaholo fiorentino e del dialetto toscano di ieri e di oggi, Romano Editore, 2009.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 "Destination Florence | Il sito ufficiale per organizzare il tuo viaggio a Firenze". www.destinationflorence.com. Retrieved 2024-06-19.
  5. 1 2 Barbuto, Anthony. "The Florentine Dialect and Vernacular". The Italian Enthusiast. Retrieved 2024-06-19.
  6. 1 2 "On Florentine Lingo: How Those Who "Invented Italian" Became the Ones Italians Can't Understand". Italy Segreta. 2023-09-29. Retrieved 2024-06-19.
  7. ↑ Colasuonno, Maria Maddalena (2018). "Modern Judeo-Italian in the Light of Italian Dialectology and Jewish Interlinguistics through Three Case Studies: Judeo-Mantuan, Judeo-Venetian, and Judeo-Livornese". Jewish Languages in Historical Perspective: 123 – via Academia.edu.


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