Neapolitan language

Neapolitan
Napulitano
Native to	Italy
Region	Abruzzo, Apulia, Basilicata, Calabria, Campania, Lazio, Marche, Molise.
Native speakers	5.7 million (2002)[1]
Language family	Indo-European Italic Romance Italo-Dalmatian Neapolitan
Language codes
ISO 639-2	nap
ISO 639-3	nap
Glottolog	neap1235  Neapolitan[2] sout3126  South Lucanian = Vd Lausberg[3]
Neapolitan dialects

Neapolitan (autonym: (’o n)napulitano [(o n)napuliˈtɑːnə]; Italian: napoletano) is the language of much of southern continental Italy (or Southern Italy excluding insular Southern Italy), including the city of Naples.^[4][5][6] It is named after not the city but the Kingdom of Naples, which once covered most of the area: the city was its capital. On October 14, 2008, a law by the Region of Campania stated that Neapolitan was to be protected.^[7] While the term "Neapolitan language" is used in this article to refer to the language group of related dialects found in southern continental Italy, the term may also be used to refer specifically to the dialect of Neapolitan language spoken in the Naples area or in Campania.

Neapolitan was originally derived from Osco-Greco Dorico and Late (popular) Latin but was later influenced by Spanish, French and Arabic.

Neapolitan has had a significant influence on the intonation of Rioplatense Spanish, of the Buenos Aires region of Argentina, and the whole of Uruguay.^[8]

Distribution

The Neapolitan dialects are distributed throughout most of continental southern Italy, historically united during the Kingdom of Naples and the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, specifically southern Lazio (Gaeta and Sora districts), southern Marche, Abruzzo, Molise, Basilicata, Campania (Naples), northern and central Apulia, and northernmost Calabria. The dialects are part of a varied dialect continuum, so the varieties in southern Lazio, Marche, Abruzzo, Molise, Apulia, Lucania and Calabria can typically be recognizable as regional groups of dialects. In western Abruzzo and Lazio the dialects give way to Central Italian dialects such as Romanesco. In central Calabria and southern Apulia, the dialects give way to the Sicilian language. Largely due to massive southern Italian migration in the 20th century, there are also numbers of speakers in Italian diaspora communities in the United States, Canada, Australia, Brazil, Argentina and Venezuela. However, in the United States traditional Neapolitan has had considerable contact with English, and is significantly different from contemporary Neapolitan spoken in Naples. English words are often used in place of Neapolitan words, especially among second-generation speakers.

The following dialects constitute Neapolitan; numbers refer to the map:^[9]

The southernmost regions of Italy—most of Calabria and southern Apulia, as well as Sicily—are home to Sicilian rather than Neapolitan.

Classification

Neapolitan is generally considered one of the Italo-Dalmatian languages. There are notable differences among the various dialects, but they are all generally mutually intelligible. Italian and Neapolitan are of variable mutual comprehensibility, depending on factors that are both affective and linguistic. There are notable grammatical differences, such as Neapolitan having nouns in the neuter form and a unique plural formation as well as historical phonological developments, which often obscure the cognacy of lexical items.

Its evolution has been similar to that of Italian and other Romance languages from their roots in Vulgar Latin. It may reflect a pre-Latin Oscan influence, in the pronunciation of the d sound as an r sound (rhotacism) at the beginning of a word or between two vowels ("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, also cadé/caré (to fall) and Madonna/Maronna). Another purported Oscan influence is the historical assimilation of the consonant cluster /nd/ as /nn/, pronounced [nː] (it generally is reflected in spelling more consistently) ("munno" ('world', Italian "mondo"), "quanno" ('when', Italian "quando")), along with the development of /mb/ as /mm/ (tammuro (drum), Italian tamburo), also consistently reflected in spelling. Other effects of the Oscan substratum are postulated, but substratum claims are highly controversial. In addition, the language was also affected by Greek. The language had never been standardised, and the word for tree has three different spellings: 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). Thanks to this heritage and the musical work of Renato Carosone in the 1950s, Neapolitan is still in use in popular music, even gaining national popularity in the songs of Pino Daniele and the Nuova Compagnia di Canto Popolare.

The language has no official 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 a recognized ISO 639 Joint Advisory Committee language with the language code of nap.

Here is the IPA pronunciation of the neapolitan spoken in the city of Naples:

English	Neapolitan (Naples)	IPA
Our Father who art in heaven,	Pate nuoste ca staje 'ncielo,	[ˈpɑtə nwˈostə kaˈstɑjə ŋt͡ʃiˈelə]
hallowed be thy name	santificammo 'o nomme tuojo	[saŋtifiˈkɑmmə on'nommə ˈtwojə]
Thy kingdom come,	faje vení 'o regno tuojo,	[ˈfajə vəˈni or'rɛɲɲə twojə]
Thy will be done,	sempe c' 'a vuluntà toja,	[ˈsɛŋpə ˈka vuluŋˈta ˈtɔjə]
on earth as it is in heaven.	accussí 'ncielo e 'nterra.	[akkuˈssi ˈŋt͡ʃiˈelə eˈŋtɛrrə]
Give us this day our daily bread	Fance avé 'o ppane tutt' 'e juorne	[ˈfat͡ʃt͡ʃaˈve opˈpɑnə ˈtutte jwornə]
and forgive us our trespasses	lièvace 'e dièbbete	[liˈevaʃə eddi'ebbətə]
as we forgive those who trespass against us,	comme nuje 'e llevamme a ll'ate,	[ˈkommə ˈnujə ellə'vɑmmə al'lɑtə]
and lead us not into temptation,	nun 'nce fa spantecà,	[ˈnuŋ ŋt͡ʃəˈfa ʃpaŋtəˈka]
but deliver us from evil.	e llievace 'o mmale 'a tuorno.	[elli'evaʃə om'malə aˈtwornə]
Amen.	Ammèn.	[aˈmɛn]

Alphabet and pronunciation

The Neapolitan alphabet, like the Italian alphabet, is almost the same as the English alphabet except that it consists of only 22 letters. It does not contain k, w, x, or y even though these letters might be found in some foreign words. The English pronunciation guidelines that follow are based on General American pronunciation and the values used may not be applicable to other dialects. (See also: International Phonetic Alphabet chart for English dialects.)

All Romance languages are closely related. Although Neapolitan shares a high degree of its vocabulary with Italian, the official language of Italy, differences in pronunciation often make the connection unrecognizable to those without knowledge of Neapolitan. The most striking phonological difference is the Neapolitan weakening of unstressed vowels into schwa (schwa is pronounced like the a in about or the u in upon). However it is also possible (and quite common for some Neapolitans) to speak standard Italian with a "Neapolitan accent"; that is, by pronouncing un-stressed vowels as schwa but by otherwise using only entirely standard words and grammatical forms. This is not Neapolitan proper, but a mere difference in Italian pronunciation.

Therefore, while pronunciation presents the strongest barrier to comprehension, the grammar of Neapolitan is what sets it apart from Italian. In Neapolitan, for example, the gender and number of a word is expressed by a change in the accented vowel, whereas in Italian it is expressed by a change in the final vowel (e.g. luongo, longa; Italian lungo, lunga; masc. "long", fem. "long"). These and other morpho-syntactic differences distinguish the Neapolitan language from the Italian language and the Neapolitan accent.

Vowels

While there are only five graphic vowels in Neapolitan, phonemically, there are seven. The vowels e and o can be either "closed" or "open" and the pronunciation is different for the two. The grave accent (à, è, ò) is used to denote open vowels, and the acute accent (é, í, ó, ú) is used to denote closed vowels. However, accent marks are not used in the actual spelling of words except when they occur on the final syllable of a word, such as Totò, arrivà, or pecché and when they appear here in other positions it is only to demonstrate where the stress, or accent, falls in some words.

Letter	IPA	Pronunciation guide
a	/a/ [ə]	a is always open and is pronounced like the a in father when it is the final, unstressed vowel, its pronunciation is indistinct and approaches the sound of the schwa
e	/ɛ/ /e/ [ə]	stressed, open e is pronounced like the e in bet stressed, closed e is pronounced like the a in fame except that it does not die off into ee unstressed e is pronounced as a schwa
i	/i/	i is always closed and is pronounced like the ee in meet
o	/ɔ/ /o/ [ə]	stressed, open o is pronounced like the o in often stressed, closed o is pronounced like the o in closed except that it does not die off into oo unstressed o is pronounced as a schwa
u	/u/	u is always closed and is pronounced like the oo in boot

Consonants

Letter	IPA	Pronunciation guide
b	/b/	pronounced the same as in English
c	/ʃ ~ t͡ʃ/, /k/	when followed by e or i the pronunciation is somewhere between the sh in share and the ch in chore otherwise it is like the k in skip (not like the c in call, which is aspirated)
d	/d/	dental version of the English d
f	/f/	pronounced the same as in English
g	/d͡ʒ/, /ɡ/	when followed by e or i the pronunciation is like the g of germane, always geminated when preceded by another vowel otherwise it is like the g in gum
h		h is always silent and is only used to differentiate words pronounced the same and otherwise spelled alike (e.g. a, ha; anno, hanno) and after g or c to preserve the hard sound when e or i follows (e.g. ce, che; gi, ghi)
j	/j/	referred to as a semi-consonant, is pronounced like English y as in yet
l	/l/	pronounced the same as in English
m	/m/	pronounced the same as in English
n	/n/	pronounced the same as in English
p	/p/	pronounced the same as the p in English spill (not as the p in pill, which is aspirated)
q		always followed by u and pronounced the same as in English
r	/ɾ ~ r/	when between two vowels it is sounds very much like the American tt in butter but in reality it is a single tic of a trilled r when at the beginning of a word or when preceded by or followed by another consonant, it is trilled
s	/s/, /z/	pronounced the same as in English and just as in English it is sometimes voiced and sometimes unvoiced
	/ʃ ~ ʒ/[10]	pronounced sh when followed by a voiceless consonant (except /t/) and zh when followed by a voiced consonant (except /n d r l/)
t	/t/	dental version of the English t as in state (not as the t in tool, which is aspirated)
v	/v/	pronounced the same as in English
x	/ks/	pronounced as if it was "k-s", with a pause between the letters
z	/d͡z/, /t͡s/	voiced z is pronounced like the ds in suds unvoiced z is pronounced like the ts in jetsam

Digraphs and trigraphs

The following clusters are always geminated vowel-internally.

Letter	IPA	Pronunciation Guide
gn	/ɲ/	palatal version of the ni in the English onion
gl(i)	/ʎ ~ ʝ/	palatal version of the lli in the English million, most commonly realized like a strong version of y in the English yes.
sc	/ʃ/	when followed by e or i it is pronounced as the sh in the English ship

Grammar

Definite articles

The Neapolitan definite articles (corresponding to the English word "the") are La (feminine singular), Lo (masculine singular) and Li (plural for both), but in reality these forms will probably only be found in older literature (along with Lu and even El), of which there is much to be found. Modern Neapolitan uses, almost entirely, shortened forms of these articles which are:

Before a word beginning with a consonant:

	Singular	Plural
Masculine	’o	’e
Feminine	’a
Neuter	’o	–

These definite articles are always pronounced distinctly.

Before a word beginning with a vowel:

l’ or ll’ for both masculine and feminine; for both singular and plural.

Although both forms can be found, the ll’ form is by far the most common.

It is well to note that in Neapolitan the gender of a noun is not easily determined by the article, so other means must be used. In the case of ’o which can be either masculine singular or neuter singular (there is no neuter plural in Neapolitan), when it is neuter the initial consonant of the noun is doubled. As an example, the name of a language in Neapolitan is always neuter, so if we see ’o nnapulitano we know it refers to the Neapolitan language, whereas ’o napulitano would refer to a Neapolitan man.

Likewise, since ’e can be either masculine plural or feminine plural, when it is feminine plural, the initial consonant of the noun is doubled. As an example, let's consider ’a lista which in Neapolitan is feminine singular for "list." In the plural it becomes ’e lliste.

There can also be problems with nouns whose singular form ends in e. Since plural nouns usually end in e whether masculine or feminine, the masculine plural is often formed by orthographically changing the spelling. As an example, let's consider the word guaglione (which means "boy", or "girl" in the feminine form):

	Singular	Plural
Masculine	’o guaglione	’e guagliune
Feminine	’a guagliona	’e gguaglione

More will be said about these orthographically changing nouns in the section on Neapolitan nouns.

A couple of notes about consonant doubling:

• Doubling is a function of the article (and certain other words), and these same words may be seen in other contexts without the consonant doubled. More will be said about this in the section on consonant doubling.
• Doubling only occurs when the consonant is followed by a vowel. If it is followed by another consonant, such as in the word spagnuolo (Spanish), no doubling occurs.

Indefinite articles

The Neapolitan indefinite articles, corresponding to the English "a" or "an", are presented in the following table:

	Masculine	Feminine
Before words beginning with a consonant	nu	na
Before words beginning with a vowel	n’

Verbal conjugation

In Neapolitan there are four finite modes: indicative, subjunctive, conditional and imperative, and three non-finite modes: infinitive, gerund and participle. Each mode has an active and a passive form. The only auxiliary verbs used in the active form is "Avè" (en. "to have", it. "avere"), which contrasts with Italian in which the intransitive verbs take "essere" for their auxiliary. For example, we have:

na.	Song stato a Nnapule ajere	AUX-BE-1st-SING-PRES "be"-PART-PAST "in"-PREP "Naples"-NOUN "yesterday"-ADVERB
it.	Sono stato a Napoli ieri	AUX-BE-1st-SING-PRES "be"-PART-PAST "in"-PREP "Naples"-NOUN "yesterday"-ADVERB
en.	I was in Naples yesterday

Doubled initial consonants

In Neapolitan, many times the initial consonant of a word is doubled. This is apparent both in written as well as spoken Neapolitan.

• All feminine plural nouns, when preceded by the feminine plural definite article, ’e, or by any feminine plural adjective, have their initial consonant doubled.
• All neuter singular nouns, when preceded by the neuter singular definite article, ’o, or by a neuter singular adjective, have their initial consonant doubled.
• In addition, other words also trigger this doubling. Below is a list of words that trigger the doubling of the initial consonant of the word that follows.

However, when there is a pause after the "trigger" word, the doubling does not occur (e.g. Tu sî gguaglione, [You are a boy] where sî is a "trigger" word causing doubling of the initial consonant in guaglione but in the phrase De do sî, guagliò? [Where are you from, boy?] no doubling occurs). Neither does doubling occur when the initial consonant is followed by another consonant (e.g. ’o ttaliano [the Italian language], but ’o spagnuolo [the Spanish language], where ’o is the neuter definite article).

Words that trigger doubling

• The conjunctions e and né but not o (e.g. pane e ccaso; né ppane né ccaso; but pane o caso)
• The prepositions a, pe, cu (e.g. a mme; pe tte; cu vvuje)
• The negation nu, short for nun/nunn (e.g. nu ddicere niente)
• The indefinites ogne, cocche (e.g. ogne ccasa; cocche ccosa)
• Interrogative che and relative che but not ca (e.g. Che ppiensa? Che ffemmena! Che ccapa!)
• accussí (e.g. accussí ttuosto)
• From the verb "essere," so’; sî; è but not songo (e.g. je so’ ppazzo; tu sî ffesso; chillo è ccafone; chilli so’ ccafune but chilli songo cafune)
• cchiú (e.g. cchiú ppoco)
• The number tre (e.g. tre ssegge)
• The neuter definite article ’o (e.g. ’o ppane, but nu poco ’e pane)
• The neuter pronoun ’o (e.g. ’o ttiene ’o ppane?)
• Demonstrative adjectives chistu and chillu which refer to neuter nouns in indefinite quantities (e.g. chistu ffierro; chillu ppane ) but not in definite quantities (e.g. Chistu fierro; chillu pane)
• The feminine plural definite article ’e (e.g. ’e ssegge; ’e gguaglione)
• The plural feminine pronoun ’e (’e gguaglione ’e cchiamme tu?)
• The plural masculine pronoun ’e preceding a verb, but not a noun (’e guagliune ’e cchiamme tu?)
• The locative lloco (e.g. lloco ssotto)
• From the verb stà: sto’ (e.g. sto’ pparlanno)
• From the verb puté: può; pô (e.g. ; isso pô ssapé)
• Special case Spiritu Ssanto

See also

• Languages of Italy
• Sicilian language
• Calabrian languages

Additional sources

• Iandolo, Carlo. A lengua ’e Pulecenella, Di Mauro Franco, Italy; 1 Oct 2001; ISBN 978-8885263710 (in Italian)
• De Blasi, Nicola and Luigi Imperatore. Il napoletano parlato e scritto. Con note di grammatica storica ; Dante & Descartes, Italy; 2nd edition, 1 July 2001; ISBN 978-8888142050 (in Italian)
• http://termcoord.eu/2014/07/neapolitan-great-cultural-heritage/

• Verde, Massimiliano.First Course of Neapolitan Language according QCER CEFR with the Patronage of City of Naples realized by Dr.Massimiliano Verde "Corso di Lingua e Cultura Napoletana" with a document of study in Neapolitan Language by Dr.Verde *http://www.napolitoday.it/eventi/consegnato-primo-certificato-europeo-lingua-napoletana.html; First public document in Neapolitan Language of the XXI century according a text of Dr.Verde; the touristic Map of the III Municipality of Naples in Neapolitan Language *https://grandenapoli.it/napoli-arriva-la-mappa-turistica-info-napoletano-italiano/ *https://www.vesuviolive.it/ultime-notizie/202855-napoli-nasce-la-mappa-turistica-info-italiano-napoletano/

External links

Neapolitan edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

• Neapolitan recognized by UNESCO (in Italian)
• Websters Online Dictionary Neapolitan–English
• Interactive Map of languages in Italy
• Neapolitan on-line radio station
• Neapolitan glossary on Wiktionary
• Italian-Neapolitan searchable online dictionary
• Neapolitan basic lexicon at the Global Lexicostatistical Database
• Grammar primer and extensive vocabulary for the Neapolitan dialect of Torre del Greco
• Neapolitan language and culture (in Italian)
• Prosodic detail in Neapolitan Italian. By Francesco Cangemi. Berlin: Language Science Press. 187pp. Free download

1. ↑ Neapolitan at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
2. ↑ Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin; Bank, Sebastian, eds. (2016). "Neapolitan". Glottolog 2.7. Jena: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History. 
3. ↑ Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin; Bank, Sebastian, eds. (2016). "South Lucanian". Glottolog 2.7. Jena: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History. 
4. ↑ Minahan, James (2002). Encyclopedia of the Stateless Nations: L-R. Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-313-32111-5. , page 1348
5. ↑ J.-P. Cavaillé; Le napolitain : une langue majoritaire minorée. 09 mars 2007.
6. ↑ The Guardian for the list of languages in the Unesco site.
7. ↑ "Tutela del dialetto, primo via libera al Ddl campano" ("Bill to protect dialect green lighted") from Il Denaro, economic journal of South Italy, 15 October 2008 Re Franceschiello. L'ultimo sovrano delle Due Sicilie
8. ↑ Colantoni, Laura, and Jorge Gurlekian. "Convergence and intonation: historical evidence from Buenos Aires Spanish", Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, Volume 7, Issue 02, August 2004, pp. 107–119, Cambridge Journals Online
9. ↑ Carta dei Dialetti d'Italia (Mapping of dialects of Italy) by Giovan Battista Pellegrini, 1977 (in Italian)
10. ↑ Canepari, Luciano (2005), Italia (PDF), Manuale di fonetica, Lincom Europa, pp. 282–283, ISBN 3-89586-456-0  (in Italian)