Neapolitan language

Neapolitan (in Neapolitan Napulitan, in Italian Napoletano) is a Romance language, belonging to the Italo-Romance group, and, in its different variants, constituent of the diatopic system known as southern Italian dialects, spoken in Campania and in several neighboring regions of central and southern Italy (Southern Marche, Abruzzo, Molise, Southern Lazio, North-Central Apulia, Basilicata and Northern Calabria). Its speakers comprise a group of more than 11 million people..

This is the language in which all Neapolitan folk songs are written, such as 'O surdato 'nnammurato, 'O sole mio i>, Funiculì, funiculà, Torna a Surriento or Santa Lucia, among others.

Historical, social and cultural aspects

Origin

Like all Romance languages, Neapolitan derives from Latin. Like many other languages of Italy, Neapolitan has an Italic (more exactly Oscan) substratum, as well as a significant Greek substratum (a language spoken in Naples, along with Latin, during much of classical antiquity) and, like any another linguistic variety, also adstratum influences, derived both from the other Italo-Romance variants and from other more distant Neo-Latin linguistic continuities (Gallo-Romance and Ibero-Romance) and also from non-Romance continuities (mainly Byzantine Greek).

Under the sovereigns of the Crown of Aragon, Neapolitan was proposed as the language of administration, replacing Latin, without ever imposing Catalan or other languages, but the attempt failed with the deposition of Frederick I of Naples (1501) and the beginning of the viceroyalty, during which, by the will of the Neapolitan literati of the Accademia Pontaniana (such as Giovanni Pontano and Jacopo Sannazzaro, among others), the language of the administration began to be Italian, used as an administrative language in all pre-unitary Italian States from the 16th century onwards. Later, at the beginning of the 19th century, in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, as in the previous Kingdom of Naples, it was It continued to use, de iure, Italian as an administrative and literary language, so Neapolitan never fully enjoyed the status of administrative language.

First testimonies

Neapolitan (like Sicilian and other central-southern varieties) has a long literary tradition. There are written testimonies of Neapolitan from the year 960, such as the famous Placito di Capua, considered the first document in a Romance language from Italy, which was written using what was the most common Neo-Latin vernacular in the south. of Italy at that time (also called volgare pugliese, "vernacular of Puglia", another name by which the Neapolitan was known in the Early Middle Ages). The texts say like this:

Sao ko kelle terre, per kelle fini que ki contene, trenta anni le possette parte Sancti Benedicti.

Capua, March 960

Sao cco kelle terre, per kelle fini que tebe monstrai, Pergoaldi forum, que ki contene, et trenta anni le possette.

Sessa, March 963

Kella terra, per kelle fini que bobe mustrai, sancte Marie è, et trenta anni la posset parte sancte Marie.

Teano, October 963

Sao cco kelle terre, per kelle fini que tebe mustrai, trenta anni le possette parte sancte Marie.

Teano, October 963

The first work in prose is a text by Matteo Spinelli, mayor of Giovinazzo, known as Diurnali, a chronicle of the most important events in the Kingdom of Sicily from the mid-12th century to the year 1268.

Dialects

The following dialects constitute the dialect continuum known as Neapolitan (the numbers refer to the map):

• I. South Marchigiano and Abruzzese:
  • Ia. Southern Marchigiano (Ascoli Piceno Province).
  • Ib. Teramano (province of Teramo and northern part of the province of Pescara).
  • Ic. Abruzzese eastern Adriatic (south part of the province of Pescara, central-eastern part of the province of L'Aquila and Chieti province).
  • Go. Western Abruzzese (south part of the province of L'Aquila).
• II. Molisano (province of Isernia and province of Campobasso).
• III. Pugliese:
  • IIIa. Dauno-appenninico (western part of the province of Foggia).
  • IIIb. Garganico (eastern part of the province of Foggia).
  • IIIc. Apulo-barese (province and Bari, northern part of the province of Brindisi and northern part of the province of Tarento).
  • IIIc. Tarentino (western part of the province of Tarento).
• IV. Champion:
  • IVa. South Laziale (south part of the province of Frosinone and south-eastern part of the province of Latin).
  • IVb. Dialectos de Nápoles (provincia de Caserta, city of Naples and province of Naples, western part of the province of Benevento, western part of the province of Avellino and central-septentrional part of the province of Salerno).
  • IVc. Irpino (eastern part of Avellino province and eastern part of Benevento province).
  • IVd. Cilentano (south part of Salerno province).
• V. Lucáno and Calabrés Norte:
  • Go. Northwest Lucáno (North part of Potenza Province).
  • Vb. Maternal (Matera Province).
  • Vc. Central Lucáno (central part of the province of Potenza).
  • You. Dialectos of the Lausberg area (most southern part of Potenza province and northernmost part of Cosenza province). They are located between the north end of Calabria and the south end of and Basilicata (or Lucania). In this area it is possible to begin to warn some characteristics of Sicilian dialects.
  • Go. Northern Calabrés (northern part of the province of Cosenza and north-eastern part of the province of Crotona). They constitute dialects of transition between the continued dialect of the Neapolitan language and the dialects of the Sicilian language.

The southernmost regions of Italy—most of Calabria and southern Apulia, as well as Sicily—are the place of Sicilian varieties, rather than Neapolitans, although they have mutual influences.

Linguistic description

Classification

On a philological level, Neapolitan is closely related to both Sicilian, Romanesco and Italian (derived from the Tuscan dialect of central Italy). Standard Italian, Romanesco, Neapolitan and Sicilian share isoglosses south of the La Spezia-Rimini line, all four being an integral part of the linguistic continuity known as Italo-Romance.

Phonology

• Neapolitan is distinguished from Italian by a vocálica reduction in word and by a vocálica reduction at the end of the word as shown by the following examples that compare it to the standard Italian:

nap. [sta ıfem intended for discussion] (sta femmena bbella) 'This beautiful woman'/ it. questa donna bella

nap. [sta ıb become conscious of each other] (stabella femmena) 'This beautiful woman'/ it. questa bella donna

• Latin groups CL, GL, BL, FL, PL suffer a more intense palatalization than the one found in Italian, and even in Spanish (where the lateral trait is usually preserved):

lat. CLÀV 'llave'  nap. [kjav circle] /  it. Chiave [kjave]

lat. *GL/2001/1T 'codicious, glutton'  nap. [ljut marking] /  it. ghiotto [groans]

lat. PLANGNENCIA 'plano, llano'  nap. [kjanambi] /  it. piano [Chuckles]

lat. PLÃNG giftR gift 'Clear'  nap. [kja]のののの]の]] /  it. piangere [...]

lat. BLUESTEM ARUND 'blasfemar'  nap. [jastě'm destined] /  it. bestemiare [bestexiamja isolation]

Got. *blank- 'blanco'  nap. [Jordan] /  it. bianco [engineering]

lat. UNITED NATIONS 'llama'  nap. [ýmbs] /  it. fiamma [^fjam:a]

lat. FL expiM 'río'  nap. [・um calling] /  it. fiume [ rhyme]

Comparison with other languages

Spelling

Like Italian, the c followed by e or i is pronounced ch, while It is pronounced /k/ in front of a, o, u. To keep the /k/ sound in front of e or i, we will have to add an h: joke (this) is pronounced /'kĭs.te/. To get the sound "ch" An i is added in front of the other vowels: muscio (lazy).

Unlike Italian, in Neapolitan, final vowels are almost always pronounced /ə/ depending on the position of the word in the phrase. Also, the Neapolitan has the j in its alphabet. This is pronounced like /j/ or "y" in Spanish: nap. your eye; cast. yours.