Tarantino dialect

Tarantino (Italian: Dialetto tarantino, Tarantino: Dialètte tarandine), of the southeastern Italian region of Apulia, is a dialect of Southern Italian or Sicilian. Most of the speakers live in the Apulian city of Taranto. The dialect is also spoken by a few Italian immigrants in the United States, especially in California. Tarantino is closely related to Italian and Neapolitan as all three form part of the Italo-Dalmatian language group.

History

Advert in the Tarantino dialect for a local beer.

The Tarantino dialect traces its origins into ancient times, when the territory was dominated by Messapii populations.

The colonisation by the Greeks founded Taranto not only as the capital of Magna Graecia but as a centre of poetry and theatre. The Greeks had left considerable influence on Tarantino, both lexical and morpho-syntax, and a very peculiar accent that scholars had to correspond to it with Doric. These influences are still found in many Tarantino words of Greek origin.

Subsequently, the city of Taranto became a Roman city, thus introducing much Vulgar Latin vocabulary.

During the Byzantine and Lombard periods, Tarantino acquired a unique approach to the time period: the o pronunciation changed to ue and the e pronunciation changed to ie; thus Tarantino vocabulary was further enriched with new words. Italic elements. At the same time, the city became a Saracen domain with the consequent introduction of a small number of Arabic words.

With the arrival of the Normans in 1071 and the Angevins all the way through to 1400, the dialect lost much of its Eastern influences and was influenced by French and Gallo-Italic elements. In 1502, Taranto went under Catalan-Aragonese rule.

In 1801 the city was once again under the dominion of French troops, who left their mark with their Franco-Provençal language.

Taranto has long been linked to the Kingdom of Naples, which would explain some words in common with the Neapolitan language. French and Latin influences, as did Arabic, led to a massive de-sonorisation of voice, turning them into semi-mutations, which can cause a significant increase in phonetics of the consonant links .

Notes and references

• ^ Tarantino words with Greek origins:

celóne < χελώνη (kelóne) [It. tartaruga, Eng. tortoise];

cèndre < κέντρον (kèntron) [It. chiodo, Eng. nail];

ceráse < κεράσιον (keròsion) [It. ciliegia, Eng. cherry];

mesále < μεσάλον (mesálon) [It. tovaglia, Eng. tablecloth];

àpule < ἀπαλός (apalós) [It. molle, Eng. soft];

tràscene < δράκαινα (drákaina) [tipo di pesce / kind of fish].

• ^ Tarantino Vocabulary with Latin origins:

dìleche < delicus [It. mingherlino, Eng. skinny];

descetáre < oscitare [It. svegliare, Eng. to wake up];

gramáre < clamare [It. lamentarsi, Eng. to bemoan];

'mbise < impensa [It. cattivo, malvagio, Eng. bad, cruel];

sdevacáre < devacare [It. svuotare, Eng. to empty, deprive];

aláre < halare [It. sbadigliare, Eng. to yawn].

• ^ Tarantino Vocabulary of Germanic Lombard origin:

sckife < skif [It. piccola barca, Eng. skiff];

ualáne < gualane [It. bifolco, Eng. yokel].

• ^ Tarantino Vocabulary of French origin:

fesciùdde < fichu [It. coprispalle, Eng. fichu];

accattáre < acheter [It. comprare, Eng. to buy];

pote < poche [It. tasca, Eng. pocket];

'ndráme < entrailles [It. interiora, Eng. guts].

• ^ Tarantino Vocabulary of Arabic origin:

chiaúte < tabut [It. bara, Eng. coffin];

masckaráte < mascharat [It. risata, Eng. laughter].

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