Romance varieties spoken in Central Italy
Central Italian (Italian: dialetti mediani) refers to the dialects of Italo-Romance spoken in the so-called Area Mediana, which covers a swathe of the central Italian peninsula. Area Mediana is also used in a narrower sense to describe the southern part, in which case the northern one may be referred to as the Area Perimediana, a distinction that will be made throughout this article. The two areas are split along a line running approximately from Rome in the southwest to Ancona in the northeast.[1]
Background
In the early Middle Ages, Central Italian extended north into Romagna and covered all of modern-day Lazio, Abruzzo, and Molise. Since then, however, the dialects spoken in those areas have been assimilated into Gallo-Italic and Southern Italo-Romance respectively.[2] In addition, the dialect of Rome has undergone considerable Tuscanization from the fifteenth century onwards, such that it has lost many of its Central Italian features.[3]
Phonological features
Except for its southern fringe, the Area Mediana is characterized by a contrast between the final vowels /-u/ and /-o/, which distinguishes it from both the Area Perimediana and from Southern Italo-Romance.[4] Cf. Spoletine [ˈkreːto, ˈtittu] < Latin crēdō, tēctum 'I believe, roof'. An additional isogloss that runs along the border between the two areas, but often overlaps it in either direction, is that of post-nasal plosive voicing, as in [manˈt̬ellu] 'cloak'. This is a feature that the Area Mediana shares with neighbouring Southern Italo-Romance.[5]
In the Area Mediana are found the following vocalic phenomena:
- In most areas, stressed mid-vowels are raised by one degree of aperture if the following syllable contains either /u/ or /i/. This is referred to as 'Sabine metaphony'. Compare the following examples from the Ascrean dialect:[6]
- [meːla, miːlu] 'apples, apple'
- [ʃpoːsa, ʃpuːsu] 'wife, husband'
- [wɛcca, weccu] 'old' (f./m.)
- [nᴐːwa, noːwu] 'new' (f./m.)
- In a few areas, metaphony results in diphthongization for stressed low-mid vowels, while high-mids undergo normal raising to /i, u/. Compare the following examples from the Nursine dialect:[7]
- [metto, mitti] 'I put, you put'
- [soːla, suːlu] 'alone' (f./m.)
- [bbɛlla, bbjɛjju] 'beautiful' (f./m.)
- [mᴐrte, mwᴐrti] 'death, dead (pl.)'
- Southeast of Rome, around Nemi, low-mid vowels undergo metaphonic diphthongization, while high-mids resist raising to /i, u/. This was also the case for Old Romanesco, which had alternations such as /ˈpɛde, ˈpjɛdi/ 'foot, feet'.[8]
- In some areas with Sabine metaphony, if a word has a stressed mid-vowel, then final /-u/ lowers to /-o/ in a sort of height-based vowel harmony. Compare */ˈbɛllu, ˈfreddu/ > /ˈbeʎʎu, ˈfriddu/ (metaphony) > Tornimpartese /ˈbeʎʎo, ˈfriddu/ 'beautiful, cold'.[9]
Sound-changes (or lack thereof) that distinguish most or all of Central Italian from Tuscan include the following, many of them shared with Southern Italo-Romance:[10]
- /nd/ > /nn/, as in Latin vēndere > [ˈwenne] 'to sell'.
- /mb, nv/ > /mm/, as in Latin plumbum > [ˈpjummu] 'lead'.
- /ld/ > /ll/, as in Latin cal(i)da > [ˈkalla] 'hot'.
- Retention of /j/, as in Latin Maium > [ˈmaːju] 'May'.
- /mj/ > /ɲ(ɲ)/, as in Latin vindēmia > [wenˈneɲɲa] 'grape harvest'.
- /rj/ > /r/, as in Latin caprārium > [kraˈpaːru] 'goatherd'.
Sound-changes with a limited distribution within the Area Mediana include:[11]
- /ɡ-/ > /j/ or ∅, as in Latin cattum > [ˈɡattu] > Nursine [ˈjjattu], Reatine [ˈattu] 'cat'.
- /ɡn/ > /(i̯)n/, as in Latin agnum, ligna > Tagliacozzese /ˈai̯nu, ˈlena/ 'lamb, firewood'.
- /d, v/ > ∅ word-initially and intervocalically, as in Latin dentem, vaccam, crudum, ovum > /ɛnte akka kruː ou/ in Rieti and L'Aquila.
- Around Terni, and to its immediate northeast, this deletion only applies in intervocalic position.
In the north of the Area Perimediana, a number of Gallo-Italic features are found:[12]
- /a/ > /ɛ/ in stressed open syllables, as in /ˈpa.ne/ > /ˈpɛ.ne/ 'bread', around Perugia and areas to its north.[13]
- In the same area, habitual reduction or deletion of vowels in unstressed internal syllables, as in /ˈtrappole/ > /ˈtrapp(ə)le/ 'traps'.
- Voicing of intervocalic /t/ to /d/ and degemination of long consonants around Ancona and to its west.[14]
- In both of the aforementioned areas: lack, or reversal, of the sound-changes /nd/ > /nn/ and /mb, nv/ > /mm/ that are found in the rest of Central Italian.[15]
The following changes to final vowels are found in the Area Perimediana:
- /-u/ > /-o/, as in Latin musteum > Montelaghese [ˈmoʃʃo], everywhere except for a small 'island' around Pitigliano.[16]
- /-i/ > /-e/, as in /i ˈkani/ > /e ˈkane/ 'the dogs', in some of the dialects situated along a long arc from Montalto di Castro in the southwest to Fabriano in the northeast.[17]
