The
Tuscan dialect
(dialetto toscano) or the Tuscan language (lingua toscana) is an
Italian dialect spoken in Tuscany, Italy
. In
many respects it wandered less than other Romance dialects from the
Latin language and evolved linearly
and homogeneously, without major influences from other foreign
languages.
Italian is in practice a "literary
version" of Tuscan. It became the language of culture for all the
people of Italy, thanks to the prestige of the masterpieces of
Dante Alighieri,
Francesco Petrarca,
Giovanni Boccaccio,
Niccolò Machiavelli and
Francesco Guicciardini. It would
later become the official language of all the
Italian states and of the
Kingdom of Italy, when it was
formed.
Subdialects
Dialects of Italy by groups (Tuscan
dialect group in blue).
The Tuscan dialect is a dialect complex with many lesser local
dialects, with minor differences among them.
The main subdivision is between
Northern Tuscan
dialects and
Southern Tuscan
dialects.
The
Northern Tuscan dialects are (from east to
west):
- Fiorentino, the main dialect of
Florence
, Chianti and
Mugello, also spoken in Prato
and along
the river Arno
as far as
the city of Fucecchio
.
- Pistoiese, spoken in the
city of Pistoia
and nearest
zones (some linguists include this dialect in
Fiorentino).
- Pesciatino or
Valdinievolese, spoken in the Valdinievole valley,
in the cities of Pescia
and Montecatini
Terme
(some linguists include this dialect in
Lucchese).
- Lucchese, spoken in Lucca
and nearby
hills (Lucchesia).
- Versiliese, spoken in the historical area of
Versilia.
- Viareggino, spoken in
Viareggio
and vicinity.
- Pisano-Livornese, spoken in
Pisa
and in Livorno
and the
vicinity, and along the southern coast as far as the city of
Piombino
.
The
Southern Tuscan dialects are (from east to
west):
- Aretino-Chianaiolo, spoken
in Arezzo
and the
Chiana valley.
- Senese, spoken in the city
and province of Siena
.
- Grossetano, spoken in the
city and province of Grosseto
.
Speakers
Excluding the inhabitants of
Massa-Carrara province, who speak
Emiliano-Romagnolo, around 3,500,000
people speak the Tuscan dialect.
Dialectal features
The Tuscan dialect as a whole has certain defining features, with
subdialects that are distinguished by minor details.
Phonetics
Tuscan gorgia
Weakening of G and C
A phonetic phenomenon is the intervocalic weakening of the Italian
soft g, the voiced affricate
g as in
Georg
e) and soft c,
the voiceless affricate (ch as in
chur'ch
), known as attenuation, or, more
commonly, as deaffrication.
Between vowels, the
voiced post-alveolar affricate
consonant is realized as
voiced post-alveolar fricative
(
z of a
zure):
→ .
This phenomenon is very evident in daily speech (common also in
Umbria and elsewhere in Central Italy): the
phrase
la gente, 'the people', in standard Italian is
pronounced , but in Tuscan it is .
Similarly, the
voiceless post-alveolar affricate is
pronounced as a
voiceless post-alveolar fricative between
two vowels:
→ .
The sequence
la cena, 'the dinner', in standard Italian is
pronounced , but in Tuscan it is . As a result of this weakening
rule, there are a few minimal pairs distinguished only by length of
the voiceless fricative (e.g.
lacerò 'it/he/she ripped'
vs.
lascerò 'I will leave/let').
Affrication of S
A common phonetic phenomenon is the transformation of
voiceless
s or
voiceless
alveolar fricative into the
voiceless alveolar affricate
when preceded by /r/, /l/, or /n/.
→ .
For example,
il sole (the sun), pronounced in standard
Italian as , will be pronounced by a Tuscan speaker ; this can be
heard also word-internally, as in
falso (false) → .
This is a
common phenomenon in Central Italy, but it is not exclusive to that
area; for example it also happens in Switzerland
(Canton
Ticino
).
No dipththongization of
There are two Tuscan historical outcomes of Latin
ŏ in
stressed open syllables. Passing first through a stage , the vowel
then develops as a diphthong . This phenomenon never gained
universal acceptance, however, so that while forms with the
diphthong came to be accepted as standard Italian (e.g.
fuoco,
buono,
nuovo), the monophthong
remains in popular speech (
foco,
bono,
novo).
Morphology
Double dative pronoun
A morphological phenomenon, cited also by
Alessandro Manzoni in his masterpiece
"
I promessi sposi" (The Betrothed), is the
doubling of the dative pronoun.
For the use of a personal pronoun as
indirect object
(
to someone, to something), also called
dative case, the standard Italian makes use
of a construction
preposition + pronoun a
me (to me), or it makes use of a synthetic pronoun form,
mi (to me). The Tuscan dialect makes use of both
in the same sentence as a kind of intensification of the
dative/indirect object:
- in Standard Italian: [a me piace] or [mi
piace] (I like it [lit. "it pleases me"])
- in Tuscan: [a me mi piace] (I like it)
This usage is widespread throughout the central regions of Italy,
not only in Tuscany, and until recently, it was considered
redundant and erroneous by Italian linguists. Nowadays linguists no
longer inveigh against it. More on this issue (in Italian) can be
found at
article.
In some dialects the
double accusative pronoun
(
me mi vedi (lit:
You see me me)
can be heard, but it is considered an archaic form.
Masculine definite articles
The singular and plural masculine definite articles can both be
realized phonetically as [i] in Florentine varieties of Tuscan, but
are distinguished by their phonological effect on following
consonants. The singular provokes lengthening of the following
consonant: [i kkaːne] 'the dog', whereas the plural permits
consonant weakening: [i haːni] 'the dogs'. As in Italian, masc.
sing.
lo occurs before consonants long by nature or not
permitting /l/ in clusters is normal (
lo zio 'the uncle',
lo studente 'the student'), although forms such as
i
zio can be heard in rustic varieties.
Noi + impersonal Si
A morphological phenomenon found throughout Tuscany is the personal
use of the particle identical to
impersonal si
(not to be confused with
passive Si or the
reflexive
Si), as the first person plural. It is basically the same as
the use of
on in
French.
It's possible to use the construction
Si
+
Third person in singular, which can be
joined by the first plural person pronoun
Noi, because the particle "
si"
is no longer perceived as an independent particle, but as a piece
of verbal conjugation.
- Standard Italian: [Andiamo a mangiare] (We're going to
eat), [Noi andiamo là] (We go there)
- Tuscan: [Si va a mangià] (We're going to eat),
[Noi si va là] (We go there)
The phenomenon is found in all verb tenses, including compound
tenses. In these tenses, the use of
si requires a form of
essere (
to be) as auxiliary verb, even if
the verb would normally have
avere (to have) as auxiliary.
The past participle must be marked to agree with the subject in
gender and number if the verb usually would require
essere as auxiliary, while it does not agree in
gender and number if the verb usually requires
avere.
- Italian: [Siamo andate a sciare], [Abbiamo
mangiato al ristorante]
- Tuscan: [S'è andate a sciare], [S'è mangiato al
ristorante]
Usually
Si becomes
S' before
è.
Fo (faccio) and vo (vado)
Another morphological phenomenon in the Tuscan dialect is what
might appear to be
shortening of first singular
verb forms in the present tense of
fare
(
to do,
to make) and
andare (
to go).
- Fare: It. faccio Tusc. fo (I do, I
make)
- Andare: It. vado Tusc. vo (I go)
These forms have two origins. Natural phonological change alone can
account for loss of /d/ and reduction of /ao/ to /o/ in the case of
/vado/ > */vao/ > /vo/. A case such as Latin:
sapio
> Italian
so (I know), however, admits no such
phonological account: the expected outcome of /sapio/ would be
*/sappjo/, with a normal lengthening of the consonant preceding
yod.
What seems to have taken place is a realignment of the paradigm in
accordance with the statistically minor but highly frequent
paradigms of
dare (give) and
stare (be, stay).
Thus
so, sai, sa, sanno (all singulars and 3rd personal
plural of 'know') come to fit the template of
do, dai, dà,
danno ('give'),
sto, stai, sta, stanno ('be, stay'),
and
fo, fai, fa, fanno ('make, do') follows the same
pattern. The form
vo, while quite possibly a
natural phonological development, seems to have been reinforced by
analogy in this case.
Loss of infinitival "-re"
A phonological phenomenon that might appear to be a morphological
one is the loss of the infinitival ending
-re of
verbs.
- andàre → andà
- pèrdere → pèrde
- finìre → finì
An important feature of this loss is that main stress does not
shift to the new penultimate syllable, as phonological rules of
Italian might suggest. Thus infinitive forms can come to coincide
with various conjugated singulars:
pèrde 'to lose',
pèrde 's/he loses';
finì 'to finish',
ha
ffinito 's/he finished'. In practice this homophony seldom, if
ever, causes confusion, as they usually appear in distinct
syntactic contexts.
The fixed stress can be explained by supposing an intermediate form
in
-r (as in the Spanish verbal infinitive).
While the
infinitive without -re is universal in some subtypes such
as Pisano-Livornese, in the vicinity of Florence alternations are regular, so that the full
infinitive (e.g. vedere 'to see') appears when followed by
a pause, and the clipped form (vedé) is found when phrase
internal. The consonant of enclitics is lengthened if
preceded by stressed vowel (
vedèllo 'to see it',
portàcci 'to bring us'), but not when the preceding vowel
of the infinitive is unstressed (
lèggelo 'to read it',
pèrdeti 'to lose you').
Lexicon
The biggest differences among dialects is in the
lexicon, which also distinguishes the different
subdialects.The Tuscan lexicon is almost entirely shared with
standard Italian, but many words may be perceived as obsolete or
unusual by non-Tuscans. There are a number of strictly regional
words and expressions too.
Characterisically Tuscan words:
- accomodare (which means "to arrange" in
standard Italian) for riparare (to repair)
- babbo (which was until now considered the only
real Italian form) for papà (daddy)
- bove (literary form in standard Italian) for
bue (ox)
- cacio for formaggio (cheese)
- camiciola for canottiera
(undervest)
- cencio for straccio (rug,
tatters)
- chetarsi (literary form in standard Italian)
for fare silenzio (to be silent)
- codesto (literary form in standard Italian) is
a pronoun which specifically identifies an object far from the
speaker, but near the listener
- desinare (literary form in standard Italian)
for pranzare/cenare (to have dinner)
- diaccio for ghiacciato,
freddo (frozen, cold)
- furia (which means "fury" in standard Italian)
for fretta (hurry)
- ire for andare (to go) (only some
forms as ito (gone))
- garbare for piacere (to like) (but
also piacere is widely used in Tuscany)
- gota (literary form in standard Italian) for
guancia (cheek)
- lapis for matita (pencil)
- punto for per nulla or niente
affatto (not at all) in negative sentences
- sciocco (which means "silly" or "stupid" in
standard Italian) for insipido (insipid)
- sudicio for spazzatura (garbage) as a
noun and for sporco (dirty) as an adjective
See also
References
Giannelli, Luciano. 2000.
Toscana. Profilo dei dialetti,
9. Pisa: Pacini.
External links
Wikis
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