The Anglish Moot
Register
Advertisement
Untranslated Page This article has not yet been translated into Anglish. Please translate it as soon as possible.


Tuscanish (Italish: dialetto toscano [djaˈlɛtto toˈskaːno; di.a-]; locally: vernacolo) is a set of Italo-Dalmatian varieties of Roomanish mainly spoken in Tuscany, Italy.

Standard Italish is based on Tuscanish, specifically on its Florentine bytung, and it became the language of culture throughout Italy[1] due to the prestige of the works by Dante Alighieri, Petrarch, Giovanni Boccaccio, Niccolò Machiavelli, and Francesco Guicciardini. It would later become the wickeny tung of all the Italish riches and of the Kingdom of Italy when it was formed.

Subdialects[]

Bytungs and Languages of Italy by groups[2][3][4][5] (Tuscanish bytung group in light azure).

In "De vulgari eloquentia", Dante Alighieri distinguishes four main subdialects about 1300: fiorentino (Florence), senese (Siena), lucchese (Lucca) and aretino (Arezzo).

Tuscanish is a bytung complex composed of many local variants, with minor differences among them.

The main subdivisions are between Northern Tuscanish bytung, the Southern Tuscanish bytungs, and Corsican.

The Northern Tuscanish bytungs are (from east to west):

  • Fiorentino, the main bytung of Florence, Chianti and the Mugello region, 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 speechloresmen include this bytung in Fiorentino).
  • Pesciatino or Valdinievolese, spoken in the Valdinievole zone, in the cities of Pescia and Montecatini Terme (some speechloresmen include this bytung 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, in Livorno, and the vicinity, and along the coast from Livorno to Cecina.

The Southern Tuscanish bytungs are (from east to west):

  • Aretino-Chianaiolo, spoken in Arezzo and the Valdichiana.
  • Senese, spoken in the city and province of Siena.
  • Grossetano, spoken in Grosseto and along the southern coast.
  • Elbano, spoken on the island of Elba.

Corsican on the island of Corsica and the Corse-Sardinish transitional varieties spoken in northern Sardinny (Gallurese and Sassarese) are classified by scholars as a direct offshoot from medieval Tuscanish,[6] even though they now constitute a distinct speechly group.

Speakers[]

Excluding the inhabitants of Province of Massa and Carrara, who speak an Emilian variety of a Gallo-Italic language, around 3,500,000 people speak the Tuscanish bytung.

Dialectal features[]

The Tuscanish bytung as a whole has certain defining features, with subdialects that are distinguished by minor details.

Phonetics[]

Tuscanish gorgia[]

The Tuscanish gorgia affects the unrearded stop samedweyends /k/ /t/ and /p/. They are often pronounced as fricatives in afterclependy stale when not blocked by the competing phenomenon of syntactic gemination:

  • /k/ → [h]
  • /t/ → [θ]
  • /p/ → [ɸ]

Weakening of G and C[]

A phonetic phenomenon is the intervocalic weakening of the Italish soft g, the rearded affricate /dʒ/ (g as in judge) and soft c, the unrearded affricate /tʃ/ (ch as in church), known as attenuation, or, more commonly, as deaffrication.

Between clepends, the rearded post-alveolar affricate samedsweyend is realized as rearded post-alveolar fricative (z of azure):

/dʒ/ → [ʒ].

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 Italish is pronounced [la ˈdʒɛnte], but in Tuscanish it is [la ˈʒɛnte]. Similarly, the unrearded post-alveolar affricate is pronounced as an unrearded post-alveolar fricative between two clepends:

/tʃ/ → [ʃ].

The sequence /la ˈtʃena/ la cena, 'the dinner', in standard Italish is pronounced [la ˈtʃeːna], but in Tuscanish it is [la ˈʃeːna]. As a result of this weakening rule, there are a few minimal pairs distinguished only by length of the unrearded fricative (e.g. [laʃeˈrɔ] lacerò 'it/he/she ripped' vs. [laʃʃeˈrɔ] lascerò 'I will leave/let').

Affrication of S[]

A less common phonetic phenomenon is the realization of "unrearded s" (unrearded alveolar fricative /s/) as the unrearded alveolar affricate [ts] when preceded by /r/, /l/, or /n/.

/s/ → [ts].

For example, il sole (the sun), pronounced in standard Italish as [il ˈsoːle], would be in theory pronounced by a Tuscanish speaker [il ˈtsoːle]. However, since assimilation of the final samedsweyend of the article to the following samedsweyend tends to occur in exactly such cases (see "Werely definite articles" below) the actual pronunciation will be usually [is ˈsoːle]. Affrication of /s/ can more commonly be heard word-internally, as in falso (false) /ˈfalso/ → [ˈfaltso]. 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 /ɔ/[]

There are two Tuscanish historical outcomes of Leeden ŏ in stressed open syllables. Passing first through a stage /ɔ/, the clepend then develops as a diphthong [wɔ]. This phenomenon never gained universal acceptance, however, so that while forms with the diphthong came to be accepted as standard Italish (e.g. fuocobuononuovo), the monophthong remains in popular speech (focobononovo).

Morphology[]

Wrayingly "te" for "tu"[]

A characteristic of Tuscanish bytung is the use of the wrayingly byname te in emphatic clauses of the type "You! What are you doing here?".

  • Standard Italish: tu lo farai, no? 'You'll do it, won't you?'
  • Tuscanish: Te lo farai, no?
  • Standard Italish: tu, vieni qua! 'You', come here!'
  • Tuscanish: Te, vieni qua!

Double foryeavingly byname[]

A morphological phenomenon, cited also by Alessandro Manzoni in his masterpiece "I promessi sposi" (The Betrothed), is the doubling of the foryeavingly byname.

For the use of a personal byname as indirect object (to someone, to something), also called foryeavingly case, standard Italish makes use of a construction foresetting + byname a me (to me), or it makes use of a synthetic byname form, mi (to me). The Tuscanish bytung makes use of both in the same sentence as a kind of intensification[citation needed] of the foryeavingly/indirect object:

  • In Standard Italish: a me piace or mi piace ("I like it"; staffly, "it queems me")
  • In Tuscanish: a me mi piace ("I like it")

This usage is widespread throughout the central regions of Italy, not only in Tuscany, and is often considered redundant and erroneous by language purists.

In some bytungs the double wrayingly byname me mi vedi (lit: You see me me) can be heard, but it is considered an archaic form.

Werely definite articles[]

The onefold and manifold werely definite articles can both be realized phonetically as [i] in Florentine varieties of Tuscanish, but are distinguished by their phonological effect on following samedsweyends. The onefold shape provokes lengthening of the following samedsweyend: [i kkaːne] 'the dog', whereas the manifold one permits samedsweyend weakening: [i haːni] 'the dogs'. As in Italish, werely onefold lo occurs before samedsweyends long by nature or not permitting /l/ in clusters is normal (lo zio 'the uncle', lo studente 'the conner'), although forms such as i zio can be heard in rustic varieties.

Noi + impersonal si[]

A morpholosyntactic 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 hoad manifold. It is basically the same as the use of on in French.

It's possible to use the construction si + Third hoad onefold atell, which can be preceded by the first manifold hoad byname noi.

  • Standard Italish: Andiamo a mangiare (We're going to eat), Noi andiamo là (We go there)
  • Tuscanish: Si va a mangià (We're going to eat), Noi si va là (We go there)

The phenomenon is found in all tideword tides, including compound tides. In these tides, the use of si needs a form of essere (to be) as auxiliary tideword. If the tideword is one that otherwise selects auxiliary avere in compound constructions, the forthwitten dealnimmer does not agree with the subject in kin and atell:

  • Italish: Abbiamo mangiato al ristorante.
  • Tuscanish: S'è mangiato al ristorante.

If the tideword normally needs essere, the forthwitten dealnimmer is marked as manifold:

  • Italish: Siamo andati al cinema.
  • Tuscanish: S'è andati al cinema.

Usually si contracts before èsi è → s'è.

Fo (faccio) and vo (vado)[]

Another morphological phenomenon in the Tuscanish bytung is what might appear to be shortening of first hoad onefold tideword forms in the anward tide of fare (to doto 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 Leeden: sapio > Italish so (I know), however, admits no such phonological account: the expected outcome of /sapio/ would be */sappjo/, with a normal lengthening of the samedsweyend 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, belive). Thus so, sai, sa, sanno (all onefolds and 3rd personal manifold shape of 'know') come to fit the template of do, dai, dà, danno ('give'), sto, stai, sta, stanno ('be, belive'), and fo, fai, fa, fanno ('make, do') follows the same onalikeness. The form vo, while quite possibly a natural phonological development, seems to have been reinforced by analogy in this case.

Loss of unendingly "-re"[]

A phonological phenomenon that might appear to be a morphological one is the loss of the unendingly ending -re of tidewords.

  • andàre → andà
  • pèrdere → pèrde
  • finìre → finì

Stress remains on the same clepend that is stressed in the full form, so that the unendingly shape can come to coincide with various conjugated onefolds: pèrde 'to lose', pèrde 's/he loses'; finì 'to finish', finì 's/he finished'. This homophony seldom, if ever, causes confusion, as they usually appear in distinct syntactic contexts.

While the unendingly shape without -re is universal in some subtypes such as Pisano-Livornese, in the vicinity of Florence alternations are regular, so that the full unendingly shape (e.g. vedere 'to see') appears when followed by a pause, and the clipped form (vedé) is found when phrase internal. The samedsweyend of enclitics is lengthened if preceded by a stressed clepend (vedèllo 'to see it', portàcci 'to bring us'), but not when the preceding clepend of the unendingly shape is unstressed (lèggelo 'to read it', pèrdeti 'to lose you').

A similar process is found in Catalan and its bytungs. Final unendingly -r is not pronounced, so anar is realised as /ə'na/.

The biggest differences among bytungs is in the wordstock, which also distinguishes the different subdialects. The Tuscanish wordstock is almost entirely shared with standard Italish, but many words may be perceived as obsolete or bookly by non-Tuscans. There is a rime of strictly regional words and expressions too.

Wordhoard[]

Characteristically Tuscanish words:

  • accomodare (which means "to arrange" in standard Italish) for riparare (to fettle)
  • babbo (standard form in Italish before the French loanword papa) for papà (dad)
  • bove (bookly form in standard Italish) for bue (ox)
  • cacio for formaggio (cheese), especially for Pecorino
  • calzoni (bookly form in standard Italish) for pantaloni
  • camiciola for canottiera (undervest)
  • cannella (cinnamon in standard Italish) for rubinetto (tap).
  • capo (bookly form in standard Italish) for testa (head)
  • cencio for straccio (rag, tatters) (but also straccio is widely used in Tuscany)
  • chetarsi (bookly form in standard Italish) for fare silenzio (to swy)
  • codesto (bookly form in standard Italish) is a byname which specifically identifies an object far from the speaker, but near the listener (corresponding in meaning to Leeden iste).
  • costì or costà is a locative byword which refers to a place far from the speaker, but near the listener. It relates to codesto as qui/qua relates to questo, and lì/là to quello
  • desinare (bookly form in standard Italish) for pranzare (to have lunch)
  • diaccio for ghiacciatofreddo (frozen, cold)
  • essi for sii (other-hoad onefold biddingly form of 'to be')
  • furia (which means "fury" in standard Italish) for fretta (hurry)
  • golpe for volpe (fox)
  • garbare for piacere (to like) (but also piacere is sometimes used in Tuscany)
  • gota (bookly form in standard Italish) for guancia (cheek)
  • ire for andare (to go) (only some forms as ito (gone))
  • lapis for matita (pencil) (cfr. Spanish lápiz)
  • popone for melone (pepon)
  • punto for per nulla or niente affatto (not at all) in negative sentences (cf. French ne ... point)
  • rigovernare for lavare i piatti (to do/wash the dishes)
  • sciocco (which means "silly" or "stupid" in standard Italish) for insipido (insipid)
  • sistola for tubo da giardinaggio (garden hose)
  • sortì for uscire (to exit) (cfr. French sortir)
  • sudicio for spazzatura (garbage) as a noun and for sporco (dirty) as an ekend
  • termosifone or radiatore for calorifero (radiator)
  • tocco for le 13 (one p.m.), lunch time
Advertisement