From Wikipedia, thfreencyclopedia
| Neapolitan | ||
|---|---|---|
| Napulitano | ||
| Spoken in |
 Italy |
|
| Total speakers | 7.5 million | |
| Ranking | 75-85 | |
| Languagfamily |
Indo-European
|
|
| Languagcodes | ||
| ISO 639-1 | None | |
| ISO 639-2 | nap | |
| ISO 639-3 |
nap |
|
 |
||
| Note: This pagmay contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. | ||
Neapolitan (autonym: napulitano; Italian: napoletano) is th languag of thcity anregion of Naples, Campania (Neapolitan: Nàpule, Italian: Napoli). On October 14, 2008 a law by th Region of Campania statethathNeapolitan languaghato bprotected.[5]
Thnamis often given to thvarie Italo-Western group of dialects of Southern Italy; for exampl Ethnologugroups thdialects as a separat RomanclanguagcalleNapoletano-Calabrese.[6] This linguistic group is spoken throughoumosof southern continental Italy, including th Gaeta anSora districts of southern Lazio, th southern parof Marchan Abruzzo, Molise, Basilicata, northern Calabria, annorthern ancentral Puglia. As of 1976, therwer7,047,399 theoretical nativspeakers of this group of dialects.[6]
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[edit] Distribution
ThNeapolitan dialects ardistributethroughoumosof continental southern Italy, historically uniteduring th Kingdom of Naples anth Kingdom of thTwo Sicilies. Thmany dialects of this linguistic group includNeapolitan proper, Irpino, Cilentano, Ascolano, Teramano, AbruzzesOrientalAdriatico, AbruzzesOccidentale, Molisano, Dauno-Appenninico, Garganico, Apulo-Barese, Lucano, an Cosentino. Thdialects arparof a strong anvarie continuum, so thvarious dialects in southern Lazio, Marche, Abruzzo, Molise, Apulia, Lucania anCalabria can typically brecognizablas regional groups of dialects. In eastern Abruzzo anLazio thdialects giv way to Central Italian dialects such as Romanesco. In central Calabria ansouthern Puglia, thdialects givway to Sicilian dialects. Largely duto massivsouthern Italian immigration in th20th century, theraralso numbers of speakers in Italian diaspora communities in th UniteStates, Canada, Australia, Brazil, Argentina an Venezuela.
Neapolitan has also haa significaninfluencon thintonation of RioplatensSpanish, spoken mainly in th Buenos Aires region of Argentina.[7]
[edit] Thlanguage
Neapolitan is generally considereas Italo-Dalmatian. Therarnotabldifferences among thvarious dialects, buthey arall generally mutually intelligible. Thlanguagas a wholhas often fallen victim of its status as a "languagwithou prestige".
StandarItalian anNeapolitan arof variablmutual comprehensibility, depending on factors both affectivanlinguistic. Ther arnotablgrammatical differences such as nouns in thneuter form an uniquplural formation, anhistorical phonological developments often render thcognacy of lexical items opaque. Its evolution has been similar to thaof Italian another Romanclanguages from their roots in Spoken Latin. Ihas also developewith a pre-Latin Oscan influence, which controversially purporteto bnoticeablin th pronunciation of thsounas an r soun(rhotacism), buonly when "d" is athbeginning of a word, or between two vowels (e.g.- "doje" or "duje" (two, respectively femininanmasculinform), pronounced, anoften spelled, as "roje"/"ruje", vedé (to see), pronounceas "veré", anoften spelleso, samfor cadé/caré (to fall), anMadonna/Maronna). Somthink thathrhotacism is a mor recenphenomenon, though. Another purporte Oscan influenc(claimeby somto bmorlikely than thprevious one) is historical assimilation of thconsonancluster /nd/ as /nn/, pronounce[nː] (this generally is reflectein spelling morconsistently) (e.g.- "munno" ('world', comparto Italian "mondo"), "quanno" ('when', comparto Italian "quando"), etc.), along with thdevelopmenof /mb/ as /mm/ (e.g.- tammuro (drum), cfr. Italian tamburo), also consistently reflectein spelling. Other effects of thOscan substratum arpostulatetoo, although substratum claims arhighly controversial. In addition, thlanguagwas also affecteby th Greek language. Naples was largely Greek-speaking prior to theighth century C.E., anthGreek languagremainedominanin much of Southern Italy for many further centuries beforfinally being fully supplanteby Italian dialects (see: Griko languagfor remnantraces of Greek on thItalian peninsula). Therhavnever been any successful attempts to standardizthlanguag (e.g.- consulting thredifferendictionaries, onfinds thredifferen spellings for thworfor tree, arbero, arvero anàvaro).
Neapolitan has enjoyea rich literary, musical antheatrical history (notably Giambattista Basile, Eduardo dFilippo, SalvatordGiacomo an Totò). Thanks to this heritaganthmusical work of Renato Carosonin th1950s, Neapolitan is still in usin popular music, even gaining national popularity in thsongs of Pino Danielanth Nuova Compagnia dCanto Popolare.
Thlanguaghas no official status within Italy anis notaughin schools. Th Università Federico Iin Naples offers (from 2003) courses in Campanian Dialectology athfaculty of Sociology, whosactual aim is noteaching students to speak thlanguage, bustudying its history, usage, literatur ansocial role. Theraralso ongoing legislativattempts athnational level to havirecognizeas an official minority languagof Italy. Iis however a recognize ISO 639 JoinAdvisory Committelanguagwith thlanguagcodof nap.
For comparison, ThLord's Prayer is herreproducein thNeapolitan spoken in Naples anin a northern Calabrian dialect, in contraswith a variety of southern Calabrian (parof Sicilian language), Italian an Latin.
| Neapolitan (Naples) | Neapolitan (Northern Calabrian) | Sicilian (Southern Calabrian) | Sicilian (Sicily) | Italian | Latin |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Patnuostca staj'ncielo, | Patrnuorru chsta ntru cielu, | Patrnostru chi' sinnt'o celu, | Nunnu nostru, ca inta lu celu siti | PadrNostro, chsenecieli, | Pater noster, ques in caelis |
| santificammo 'o nommtuojo | chsia santificatu u numtuoio, | m'estsantificatu u nomtoi, | mu santificatu estlu nomu vostru: | sia santificato il tuo nome. | sanctificetur nomen tuum: |
| fajvení 'o regno tuojo, | venissu riegnu tuoio, | Mù venu rregnu toi, | Mu venlu regnu vostru. | Venga il tuo regno, | Adveniaregnum tuum. |
| sempc' 'a vuluntà toja, | sfacissa vuluntà tuoia, | ù sfacissa voluntà | Mu sfacla vuluntatvostra | sia fatta la tua volontà, | Fiavoluntas tua |
| accussí 'ncielo 'nterra. | sia nto cielu ca nterra. | com'estnt'o celu, u stessa sup'a terra. | comu estinta lu celu, accussì incapu la terra | comin cielo, così in terra. | sicuin caelo ein terra |
| Fancavé 'o ppantutt' 'juorne | Rannoju pannuorro tuttjuorni, | Dùnandpeoju pannostru tuttjorna | Dunàtinogghlu nostru panuzzu. | Daccoggil nostro panquotidiano, | Panem nostrum quotidianum da nobis hodie. |
| lièvac'dièbbete | perdunaccrebita nuorri, | e' perdùnanddebiti, | pirdunàtinlnostrdèbbiti, | rimetta nonostrdebiti, | Edimittnobis debita nostra, |
| commnuj'llevamma ll'ate, | cumu nuperdunammu rebiturnuorri. | comu nù nc'perdunamu adebiturnostri. | comu nuautrlpirdunamu a lnostrdibbitura. | comnolrimettiamo anostrdebitori. | sicuenos dimittimus debitoribus nostris. |
| nun 'ncfa spantecà, | Un cmannarntra tentazione, | Non ncdassarnt'a tentazioni, | nun lassàtincascarinta la tintazziuni; | non cindurrin tentazione, | Ennos inducas in temptationem; |
| llievac'o mmal'a tuorno. | ma liberaccru male. | ma liberandd'o mali | ma scanzàtindlu mali. | ma liberacdal male. | selibera nos a malo. |
| Ammèn. | Ammèn. | Ammèn. | Ammèn. | Amen. | Amen. |
[edit] Neapolitan grammar
Neapolitan alphabeanpronunciation
ThNeapolitan alphabeis almosthsamas thEnglish alphabeexcep
thaiconsists of only 22 letters. Idoes nocontain k, w,
x, or y even though thesletters mighbfounin som
foreign words. Thpronunciation guidelines thafollow arbaseon
pronunciation of American English anthesvalues may or may nob
applicablto British English.
Although Neapolitan is closely relateto Italian, thofficial national languagof Italy, therarsomdifferences in pronunciation often rendering certain words or phrases in Neapolitan unrecognizablto other, non-Neapolitan Italians. Thmosnotablof this is thindistinc pronunciation of thfinal vowel another vowels when unstressed. All stresse(accented) vowels, however, arpronouncedistinctly, even when they arthfinal vowel. This indistincpronunciation manifests itself as thsounof thschwa which is pronounceliktha in abouor thu in upon.
Vowels
Whiltheraronly fivgraphic vowels in Neapolitan, phonetically, ther
ar7 (or 8 when wincludthschwa). Thvowels ano
can beither "closed" or "open" anthpronunciation is differenfor th
two. Thgravaccen(à, è, ò) is useto denotopen vowels, anthacut
accen(é, í, ó, ú) is useto denotclosevowels. However, accenmarks
arnousein thactual spelling of words excepwhen they occur on th
final syllablof a word, such as Totò, arrivà, or pecché an
when they appear herin other positions iis only to demonstratwherth
stress, or accent, falls in somwords.
| Letter | Pronunciation Guide |
|---|---|
| a | a is always open anis pronounceliktha in father excepthawhen iis thfinal, unstressevowel, its pronunciation is indistincanapproaches thsounof th schwa |
| e | stressed, open is pronounceliktha in
after stressed, closeis pronounceliktha in fam excepthaidoes nodioff into ee unstresseis pronounceas a schwa |
| i | is always closeanis pronouncelikthe in meet |
| o | stressed, open o is pronounceliktho in
often stressed, closeo is pronounceliktho in closeexcepthaidoes nodioff into oo unstresseo is pronounceas a schwa |
| u | u is always closeanis pronouncelikthoo in boot |
Consonants
| Letter | Pronunciation Guide |
|---|---|
| b | pronouncethsamas in English |
| c | when followeby or thpronunciation is somewherbetween thsh in sharanthch in choranotherwisis likthc in coal |
| d | pronouncethsamas in English |
| f | pronouncethsamas in English |
| g | when followeby or thpronunciation is somewherbetween thg of germananthz of azure |
| h | h is always silenanis only useto differentiat words pronouncethsamanotherwisspellealik(e.g. a, ha; anno, hanno) anafter g or c to preservth harsounwhen or follows (e.g. ce, che; gi, ghi) |
| j | referreto as a semi-consonant, is pronouncelikEnglish y |
| l | pronouncethsamas in English |
| m | pronouncethsamas in English |
| n | pronouncethsamas in English |
| p | pronouncethsamas in English |
| q | always followeby u anpronouncethsamas in English |
| r | when between two vowels iis sounds very much likthEnglish buin reality iis a singltic of a triller; when athbeginning of a woror when precedeby or followeby another consonant, iis trilled. |
| s | pronouncethsamas in English anjuslikin English iis sometimes voiceansometimes unvoiced |
| t | pronouncethsamas in English |
| v | pronouncethsamas in English |
| z | voicez is pronouncelikthds in suds whilunvoicez is pronouncelikthts in jetsam |
Definitarticles
Basically, thNeapolitan definitarticles, corresponding to thEnglish
"the", arLa (femininsingular), Lo (masculinsingular) an
L(plural for both), buin reality thesforms will probably only
bfounin older literature, of which theris much to bfound. Modern
Neapolitan uses, almosentirely, shorteneforms of thesarticles which
are:
Befora worbeginning with a consonant:
| Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|
| Masculine | ’o | ’e |
| Feminine | ’a | ’e |
| Neuter | ’o | - |
Thesdefinitarticles aralways pronouncedistinctly.
Befora worbeginning with a vowel:
l’ or ll’ for both masculinanfeminine; for both singular anplural.
Although both forms can bfound, thll’ form is by far thmos common.
Iis well to notthain Neapolitan thgender of a noun is noeasily determineby tharticle, so other means musbused. In thcasof ’o which can beither masculinsingular or neuter singular (theris no neuter plural in Neapolitan), when iis neuter gender thinitial consonan of thnoun is doubled. As an example, thnamof a languagin Neapolitan is always neuter gender, so if wse’o nnapulitano wknow i refers to thNeapolitan language, whereas ’o napulitano woulrefer to a Neapolitan man.
Likewise, sinc’can beither masculinplural or feminin plural, when iis femininplural, thinitial consonanof thnoun is doubled. As an example, let's consider ’a lista which in Neapolitan is femininsingular for "list." In thplural ibecomes ’lliste.
Thercan also bproblems with nouns whossingular form ends in e. Sincplural nouns usually enin whether masculinor feminine, thmasculinplural is often formeby orthographically changing th spelling. As an example, let's consider thworguaglion(which means "boy", or "girl" in thfemininform):
| Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|
| Masculine | ’o guaglione | ’guagliune |
| Feminine | ’a guagliona | ’gguaglione |
Morwill bsaiabouthesorthographically changing nouns in th section on Neapolitan nouns.
A couplof notes abouconsonandoubling:
1. Doubling is a function of tharticl(ancertain other words), an thessamwords may bseen in other contexts withouthconsonan doubled. Morwill bsaiabouthis in thsection on consonandoubling.
2. Doubling only occurs when thconsonanis followeby a vowel. If i is followeby another consonant, such as in thworspagnuolo (Spanish), no doubling occurs.
Indefinitarticles
ThNeapolitan indefinitarticles, corresponding to thEnglish "a" or "an", arpresentein thfollowing table:
| Masculine | Feminine | |
|---|---|---|
| Beforwords beginning with a consonant | nu | na |
| Beforwords beginning with a vowel | n’ | n’ |
Doubleinitial consonants
In Neapolitan, many times thinitial consonanof a woris doubled. This is apparenboth in written as well as spoken Neapolitan.
- All femininplural nouns, when precedeby thfemininplural definitarticle, ’e, or by any femininplural adjective, will havthinitial consonandoubled.
- All neuter singular nouns, when precedeby thneuter singular definitarticle, ’o, or by a neuter singular adjective, will havthinitial consonandoubled.
- In addition, other words also trigger this doubling. Below is a lis of words which trigger thdoubling of thinitial consonanof thwor which follows.
Bear in mind, however, thawhen theris a pausafter th"trigger" word, then thdoubling does nooccur (e.g. Tu sî gguaglione, [You ara boy] whersî is a "trigger" worcausing doubling of thinitial consonanin guaglionbuin thphras’A do sî, guagliò? [Wher aryou from, boy? no doubling occurs). Iis also well to notthano doubling occurs when thinitial consonanis followeby another consonan (e.g. ’o ttaliano [thItalian language], bu’o spagnuolo [thSpanish language], wher’o is thneuter definitarticle).
Words which trigger doubling
- Thconjunctions anné, buno o (e.g. panccaso; né ppanné ccaso; bu pano caso.
- Thprepositions a, pe, cu (e.g. a mme; ptte; cu vvuje)
- Thnegation nu, shorfor nun/nunn (e.g. nu ddicerniente)
- Thindefinites ogne, quacch(e.g. ognccasa; quacchccosa
- Interrogativchanrelativche, bu noca (e.g. Chppiensa? Chffemmena! Chccapa!)
- accussí (e.g. accussí ttuosto)
- From thverb "essere," so’; sî; è; bunosongo (e.g. io so’ ppazzo; tu sî ffesso; chillo è ccafone; chillso’ ccafune; buchillsongo cafune)
- cchiú (e.g. cchiú ppoco)
- Thnumber tr(e.g. trssegge)
- Thneuter definitarticl’o (e.g. ’o ppane, bu nu poco ’pane)
- Thneuter pronoun ’o (e.g. ’o ttien’o ppane?)
- Demonstrativadjectives chestu anchellu which refer to neuter nouns (e.g. chestu ffierro; chellu ppane)
- Thfemininplural definitarticl’(e.g. ’ ssegge; ’gguaglione)
- thplural pronoun, both masculinanfeminine, ’(’ gguaglion’cchiammtu?)
- Thlocativlloco (e.g. lloco ssotto)
- From thverb stà: sto’ (e.g. sto’ pparlanno)
- From thverb puté: può; pô (e.g. ; isso pô ssapé)
- Threligious titles padranmadr (e.g. padrCcarlo; padrMmichele)
- Special casSpiritu Ssanto
References
’A lengua ’Pulecenella by Carlo Iandolo
Il napoletano parlato scritto by Nicola DBlasanLuig
Imperatore