Neapolitan language

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Neapolitan Napulitano
Spoken in:	Italy
Total speakers:	7.5 million
Ranking:	75-85
Language family:	Indo-European Italic Romance Italo-Western Italo-Dalmatian Neapolitan
Language codes
ISO 639-1:	none
ISO 639-2:	`nap`
ISO 639-3:	`nap`
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. See IPA chart for English for an English-based pronunciation key.

Neapolitan (autonym: napulitano; Italian: napoletano) is a Romance language spoken in the city and region of Naples, Campania (Neapolitan: Nàpule, Italian: Napoli); close dialects are spoken throughout most of southern Italy, including the Gaeta and Sora districts of southern Lazio, parts of Abruzzo, Molise, Basilicata, northern Calabria, and northern and central Apulia. As of 1976, there were 7,047,399 "theoretical" native speakers of this group of dialects (some recent estimates range as high as 7,800,000). Unfortunately, the use of dialects in Italy has been rapidly decreasing in recent decades, so these numbers must be seen as very largely overestimated. For geographical, historical, and political reasons, "Neapolitan" is the name given to the Italiano meridionale-interno group of dialects in southern Italy, historically united around Naples during the reigns of the Kingdom of Naples and the Two Sicilies. The many varieties of this language group include Neapolitan proper (spoken in the center city of Naples), Irpino, Cilentano, Laziale Meridionale, , Molisano, Dauno-Appenninico, Garganico, Apulo-Barese, Lucano Nord-Occidentale, Lucano Nord-Orientale, Lucano Centrale, Area Arcaica Lucano-Calabrese, and Calabrese Settentrionale. The language as a whole has often fallen victim of its status as a "language without prestige". The differences among all these dialects are actually so deep and the people's feelings about dialects have been changing, so that hardly anyone in Marche, Abruzzo, Molise, Apulia, Lucania or Calabria would accept their dialect to be defined as Neapolitan. In real contemporary usage, the term Neapolitan is only used for the dialect of the city of Naples and sometimes for other nearby dialects. Furthermore, many inhabitants of Naples and surrounding areas don't use Neapolitan any more, having switched to Italian. It can be estimated that about 50% of Neapolitans (about 500.000 people) now have Neapolitan as native language, although often alternating or mixing it with Italian in everyday usage.

It is generally considered a western Romance language, although some postulate a southern Romance classification. There are some differences among the various dialects, but they are all mutually intelligible with Naples as the locus. Italian and Neapolitan are not wholly mutually comprehensible though with notable grammatical differences such as nouns in the neuter form and unique plural formation. Its evolution has been similar to that of Italian and other Romance languages from their roots in Vulgar Latin. It has also developed with a pre-Latin Oscan influence, which is noticeable in the pronunciation of the d sound as an r sound (rhotacism), but only when "d" is at the beginning of a word, or between two vowels (e.g.- "doje" or "duje" (two, respectively feminine and masculine form), pronounced, and often spelled, as "roje"/"ruje", vedé (to see), pronounced as "veré", and often spelled so, same for cadé/caré (to fall), and Madonna/Maronna). Some think that the rhotacism is a more recent phenomenon, though. Other Oscan influence (more likely than the previous one) is considered the pronunciation of the group of consonants "nd" (of Latin) as "nn" (this generally is reflected in spelling more consistently) (e.g.- "munno" (world, compare to Italian "mondo"), "quanno" (when, compare to Italian "quando"), etc.), and the pronunciation of the group of consonants "mb" (of Latin) as "mm" (e.g.- tammuro (drum), cfr. Italian tamburo), also consistently reflected in spelling. Other effects of the Oscan substratum are postulated too. In addition, the language was also affected by the Greek language. Naples was largely Greek-speaking prior to the Eighth Century, and the Greek language remained dominant in much of Southern Italy for many further centuries before finally being fully supplanted by Italian dialects (see: Griko language for remnant traces of Greek on the Italian peninsula). There have never been any successful attempts to standardize the language (eg.- consulting three different dictionaries, one finds three different spellings for the word for tree, arbero, arvero and àvaro).

Neapolitan has enjoyed a rich literary, musical and theatrical history (notably Giambattista Basile, Eduardo de Filippo, Salvatore di Giacomo and Totò).

The language has no legal status within Italy and is not taught in schools. The Università Federico II in Naples offers (from 2003) courses in Campanian Dialectology at the faculty of Sociology, whose actual aim is not teaching students to speak the language, but studying its history, usage, literature and social role. There are also ongoing legislative attempts at the national level to have it recognized as an official minority language of Italy. It is however an officially recognized ISO 639 Joint Advisory Committee language with the language code of NAP.

For comparison, The Lord's Prayer is here reproduced in the Neapolitan spoken in Naples and in a northern Calabrian dialect in contrast with a variety of southern Calabrian (more similar to Sicilian), Italian and Latin.

Neapolitan (Naples)	Northern Calabrian	Southern Calabrian	Italian	Latin
Pate nuoste ca staje 'ncielo,	Patre nuorru chi sta ntru cielu,	Tata nostru chi' sini nt'o celu,	Padre Nostro, che sei nei cieli,	Pater noster, qui es in caelis
santificammo 'o nomme tuoje	chi sia santificatu u nume tuoio,	ù si tena pe' santu u noma toi,	sia santificato il tuo nome.	sanctificetur nomen tuum:
faje vení 'o regno tuoje,	venisse u riegnu tuoio,	ù vena u rregnu toi,	Venga il tuo regno,	Adveniat regnum tuum.
sempe c' 'a vuluntà toja,	se facisse a vuluntà tuoia,	ù si facia a voluntà	sia fatta la tua volontà,	Fiat voluntas tua
accussí 'ncielo e 'nterra.	sia ntru cielu ca nterra.	com'esta nt'o celu, u stessa sup'a terra.	come in cielo, così in terra.	sicut in caelo et in terra
Fance ave' 'o ppane tutt' 'e juorne	Ranne oje u pane nuorro e tutti i juorni,	Dùnandi ped oja u pana nostru e tutti i juorna	Dacci oggi il nostro pane quotidiano,	Panem nostrum quotidianum da nobis hodie.
lèvece 'e dièbbete	perdunacce i rebita nuorri,	e' pardùnandi i debiti,	e rimetti a noi i nostri debiti,	Et dimitte nobis debita nostra,
comme nuje 'e llevamme all'ate,	cumu nue perdunammu i rebituri nuorri.	comu nù nc'i perdunamu ad i debituri nostri.	come noi li rimettiamo ai nostri debitori.	sicut et nos dimittimus debitoribus nostris.
nun 'nce fa spanteca',	Un ce mannare ntra tentazione,	On nci dassara nt'a tentazioni,	E non ci indurre in tentazione,	Et ne nos inducas in temptationem;
e llevace 'o mmale 'a tuorno.	ma liberacce e ru male.	ma liberandi d'o mala	ma liberaci dal male.	sed libera nos a malo.
Ammèn.	Ammèn.	Ammèn.	Amen.	Amen.