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EspañolTUSCAN DIALECT
The 'Tuscan dialect' (''dialetto toscano'') or the 'Tuscan language' (''lingua toscana'') is an Italian dialect spoken in Tuscany, Italy. It wandered less than other dialects from the Latin language and evolved linearly and homogenously, without major influences from other foreign languages.
It is the basis dialect for the Italian language, thanks to the masterpieces of Dante Alighieri, Francesco Petrarca, Giovanni Boccaccio, Niccolò Machiavelli and Francesco Guicciardini, making it the "literary language" of the peninsula.
When the Kingdom of Italy was proclaimed in 1861, a unique national language was needed to communicate among Italian regions, in which people spoke different dialects or languages. With the support of the writer Alessandro Manzoni, the literary version of Tuscan dialect was chosen.
Subdialects
The Tuscan dialect is an ensemble with many lesser local dialects, with small differences among them.
The main subdivision is between 'Northern Tuscan dialects' and 'Southern Tuscan dialects'.
The 'Northern Tuscan dialects' are (from east to west):
★ the 'Fiorentino', main dialect of the city of Florence, of Casentino and Mugello, also spoken in Prato and along the river Arno until the city of Fucecchio.
★ the 'Pistoiese', spoken in the city of Pistoia and nearest zones (some linguists think this dialect is not independent from ''Fiorentino'').
★ the 'Pesciatino' or 'Valdinievolese', spoken in Valdinievole valley, in the cities of Pescia and Montecatini Terme (some linguists think this dialect is not independent from ''Lucchese'').
★ the 'Lucchese', spoken in Lucca and nearest hills (named ''Lucchesia'').
★ the 'Versiliese' spoken in Versilia's historical area
★ the 'Viareggino' spoken in Viareggio and the bordering commons
★ the 'Pisano-Livornese' spoken in Pisa and in Livorno and nearest zones along the southern coast until Piombino city.
The 'Southern Tuscan dialects' are (from east to west):
★ The 'Aretino-Chianaiolo', spoken in Arezzo and Chiana-valley
★ The 'Senese', spoken in Siena and its province
★ The 'Grossetano' spoken in Grosseto and its province
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 has homogenous features inside itself but all subdialects have some small differences among themselves.
Phonetics
Tuscan gorgia
:''Main article: Tuscan gorgia''
Weakening of G and C
A phonetic phenomenon is the intervocalic weakening of the Italian ''soft g'' (''g'' in '''G'eorge'') and ''soft c'' (''ch'' in '''ch'urch''), known as ''attenuation''.
Between two vowels, the ''voiced post-alveolar affricate'' consonant is realized as ''voiced post-alveolar fricative'':
This phenomenon is very evident and can be heard in daily speech (common also in Umbria and elsewhere in Central Italy): the word ''la gente'', the people, in standard Italian is spoken as // [], but in Tuscan is spoken as [].
Similarly, the ''voiceless post-alveolar affricate'' consonant is pronounced as a ''voiceless post-alveolar fricative'' between two vowels:
The word ''la cena'', the dinner, in standard Italian is spoken as // [], but in Tuscan it is spoken as [].
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 [], 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.
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 gains full acceptance by all speakers, however, so that while forms with the diphthong come 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 syntethic pronoun form, 'mi' (to me). The Tuscan dialect makes use of both them in the same sentence as a kind of intensifying of the dative/indirect object:
★ in Standard Italian: [''a me piace''] or [''mi piace''] (I like it)
★ in Tuscan: [''a me mi piace''] (I like it)
This form 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 and is no longer current.
Masculine definite articles
The singular and plural masculine definite articles are both phonetically [i] in Florentine varieties of Tuscan, but are distinguished by their phonological effect on following consonants. The singular provokes lengthening: [i kkaːne] 'the dog', whereas the plural permits consonant weakening: [i haːni] 'the dogs'. As in Italian, masc. sing. ''lo'' 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 use of ''On'' in French language.
It's possible to make use of the construction '''Si''' + '''Third person in singular''', which can be joined by the first plural person pronoun '''Noi''', because the particle "''si''" is no more 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 mangiare''] (We're going to eat), [''Noi si va là''] (We go there)
The phenomenon is found in every verb tense, including compound tenses. In these tenses, the use ''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
Fo (faccio) and vo (vado)
Another morphological phenomenon in the Tuscan dialect is what might appear to be 'shortening' of the first singular persons for the present tense of the verbs '''fare''' (''to do'', ''to make'') and '''andare''' (''to go'').
★ Fare: ''faccio'' → 'fo' (I do, I make)
★ Andare: ''vado'' → 'vo' (I go)
These forms are due to two causes. 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 common 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) come to fit the template of ''do, dai, dà, danno'', ''sto, stai, sta, stanno'', and ''fo, fai, fa, fanno'' follows the same pattern. The form 'vo', while quite possibly a natural phonological development, is thus also supported by dint of fitting a viable template.
Loss of infinitival "-re"
A phonological phenomenon that might appear morphological, quite naturally native to Tuscany, 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', ''finì'' 's/he finished'. Distinctions in syntax assure that this homophony seldom, if ever, causes confusion.
The motionless stress can be explained with an intermediate form in ''-r'' (as in the Spanish verbal infinitive).
While the infinitive without ''-re'' is constant in some subtypes such as Pisano-Livornese, in the area of Florence alternations are regular, so that the full infinitive (e.g. ''vedere'' 'to see') appears when followed by pause, and the clipped form (''vedé'') is phrase internal. The consonant of enclitics is lengthened if preceded by stressed vowel (''vedéllo'' 'to see it', ''portácci'' 'to bring us'), but not if the preceding vowel of the infinitive is unstressed (''lèggelo'' 'to read it', ''pèrdeti'' 'to lose you').
Lexicon
The biggest differences among dialects are in the lexicon, which also distinguishes the different subdialects.
The Tuscan lexicon share with standard Italian the almost totality of its words, but has a good number of only regional words.
We show now some of the most known Tuscan words:
★ '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)
★ '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)
★ '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)
★ 'sciocco' (which means "silly" or ''stupid'' in standard Italian) for ''sciapo'' (insipid)
★ 'sudicio' for ''spazzatura'' (garbage) as a noun and for ''sporco'' (dirty) as an adjective
See also
★ ''Pinocchio'' by Carlo Collodi is written in Italian but has frequent Florentinisms.
External links
★ Atlante lessicale toscano (ALT) - Dialectometry
★ The Linguasphere Register
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