Bolognese dialect

Bolognese is a dialect of Emilian spoken for the most part in the city of Bologna and its hinterland, but also in the district of Castelfranco Emilia in the province of Modena, and in the towns of Sambuca Pistoiese, Cento, Sant'Agostino, and Poggio Renatico.

Terminology

Although the term dialect is commonly used in reference to all minority languages native to Italy, most of them are not mutually intelligible with Italian. Bolognese is no exception and so is an Emilian dialect, not an Italian one.

Classification

Bolognese is a dialect of Emilian, one of the Gallo-Italic languages of the Romance family. It shares many common features with other Gallo-Italic languages such as Piedmontese, Lombard, Romagnol and Ligurian, and it is closer to them than to Italian.
The Bolognese dialect presents a rather rich variety of vernacular forms within its area of diffusion. The linguist Daniele Vitali distinguishes six main subvariants which, although presenting grammatical unity, differ in phonetic and lexical traits:

Dialetto bolognese cittadino;
Dialetti bolognesi montani medi;
Dialetti bolognesi montani alti;
Dialetti bolognesi della pianura occidentale;
Dialetti bolognesi della pianura orientale;
Dialetti bolognesi della pianura settentrionale.
History

Middle Ages

Bolognese evolved a group of Gallo-Romance languages sharing features with neighbouring northern Italian languages. It developed more distinctly into the Middle Ages as a dialect of the Emilian language. During the High Middle Ages, a number of troubadours composing lyrical poetry were active in Bologna, especially during the 13th century. That served to raise cultural awareness to the possibility of composing songs, poems and other works in vernacular languages. One of the first references to Bolognese as a distinct language was made by Dante Alighieri, in his De vulgari eloquentia, written in the beginning of the 14th century.

Modern

During the boom of interest in linguistic diversity during the 19th century, a number of efforts were made to create vocabularies, grammars, and collections of axioms, folk tales, and literature. The first dictionary was compiled in 1901 by Gaspare Ungarelli, who also attempted to create a writing system using the Italian alphabet. A period of stigmatisation followed in the 20th century, where children were punished for speaking the dialect in school, as it was considered to be a sign of poor education and etiquette.
In 1964, Alberto Menarini proposed an alphabet with many of the same letters still used. In recent times, Bolognese has enjoyed a period of rebirth with some words, such as umarell, derived from Bolognese umarèl, becoming popular beyond Bologna itself.

Phonology

Here are some prominent features of Bolognese phonology:

centralized vowels,,,,,, and rather than,,,,,, or
phonemic distinction between short vowels and corresponding long vowels/diphthongs
nucleus vowel and coda consonant length having an inverse relationship
realisation of labio–alveolar consonants
syncopation resulting in complex consonant clusters
frequent slacking of word-final voiceless obstruents
more exaggerated intonation than in Italian

The phonemes of Bolognese are realized phonetically very differently depending on the area in or around Bologna. Much free variation occurs in words from complex phonological processes.

Consonants

Bolognese has 25 consonant phonemes:

	Bilabial	Labio- dental	Dental	Alveolar	Labio- alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Labio- velar
Nasal
Plosive
Affricate
Fricative
Approximant
Trill

The consonant only occurs allophonically or on Italian loanwords.

Vowels

Bolognese dialect has 2 stressed diphthongs, namely /ai/ and /ʌu/.
Bolognese only allows the vowels /a/, /e/, /i/, /o/, /u/ on unstressed syllables.

Phonotactics

The general syllable structure of Bolognese syllables is:
Thus, Bolognese words can have up to three consonants in the initial group and two consonants in the final group . Bolognese only allows 2 diphthongs namely /ai/ and /ʌu/. Orthographically, three consonants can exist simultaneously on coda. However, it arises from -er only when the next word starts with a vowel and in actuality it's pronounced /-ŋ.r./

Orthography

Vowel

On monosyllabic words, accents are not marked if a word ends in a consonant: can, sacc. However, it is marked if it ends in a vowel pà, rà.
The vowel å and ä are always stressed including the diphthong åu and ai. If another vowel is accented alongside ai, then the diphthong ai is not stressed, for example: maicàtt. This rule doesn't apply on the article äl and compound words such as såuranómm where the stress falls on ó.
The vowel í and ú are only used for loanwords to indicate stressed short i and u. For example: chíllo, ''carbúrro''
Consonant

Followed by a, o, u
Followed by i, e
End of a syllable or followed by consonant

The letter n is pronounced /n/ before vowels and after long vowels. nn digraph is pronounced /n/.
The letter n is pronounced /ŋ/ finally or before consonants. /ŋ/ is lengthened after stressed vowel.
The letter q is only used in the beginning of words. Therefore, it is written quâter but âcua.
The letter j is only used between vowels. Therefore, it is written tâja, tajja but tâi, tai.
The digraph ṅn is only used for feminine nouns.
The trigraph gli is never found on native Bolognese words as Italian gli corresponds to j in Bolognese. They are found in Italian loanwords for example: butigliéṅna, sêglier, bigliàtt and names such as Itâglia, Emégglia, Giógglia.
A "-" is sometimes added to disambiguate separate syllables, for example: mâgn-ni? the interrogative form of mâgnen.
Short vowels are always followed by a long consonant, and vice versa. For example: sacc and sâc, méll and mêl, córr and côr. This rule doesn't apply on compound words such as peppacûl.
In some words, /ts/ and /dz/ can be written as ts/ds and dṡ thus reflecting its etymology and pronunciation. For example: tstón = c'tón, dscårrer = c'cårrer, dṡdétta = g'détta
Palatization of l and n frequently occurs before the pronoun i and on articles such as äli ôv, däli ôv . Example: al i à détt ch'a n i vâg pió is pronounced /aʎ.ʎi.adˈdetː kaɲ.ɲiˈvaːg ˈpjo/
The dropping of the last vowel in a word is indicated with an apostrophe. For example: ch'al séppa, s'a l savêva, l'ôca, lî l'é, sått'âcua. However, if the vowel is located at the beginning of a word, it is generally unmarked. For example: d avréll, l èṡen, ló l é, csa vût.
Grammar

Noun

Bolognese distinguishes two genders, masculine and feminine, and two numbers, single and plural. In most nouns, the suffix -a is added to the masculine word to indicate femininity: defizänt, defizänta; påndg, påndga.
The formation of Bolognese plurals is complicated. Unlike Italian, inflection usually happens not by adding suffixes but rather by apophony:

å → ó: biånnd, "blond", biónnd, "blonds"
ô → û: żnôc', "knee", żnûc', "knees"

However, when words that end with -èl or -ôl are pluralised, the -èl or -ôl is changed to -î and -û respectively: martèl, "hammer", martî, "hammers"; fiôl, "son", fiû "sons". There are some exceptions to that rule, such as nurmèl, "normal", which is unchanged when made plural, and some others, such as sàntel, "godfather", which are unchanged when made plural because words are not truncated, that is, with a stress that does not fall on è or ô.
Masculine words that end in a consonant are unchanged when made plural and so the number can be identified only by the preceding article: al râm, "the branch", i râm, "the branches". In addition, pluralised feminine words that are not constructed from a masculine word do not have an -a: la rôda, "the wheel", äl rôd, "the wheels". The plurals of feminine words constructed from masculine words are formed by using an -i instead of an -a: biånnda, "blonde", biånndi, "blondes"; ziéṅna "aunt", ziéṅni, "aunts".
Exception: bån, bôna
For masculine nouns whose feminine prefix is -assa, it will undergo metaphony due to different stress placement.

Masculine

No observable patterns exist for ô or ò. The raising of ô or ò into û on plural forms result if said vowel comes right before Latin nominative plural suffix -ī, for example: al ciôd - i ciûd and al òc' - i ûc'. Otherwise, it is invariable for example: al sôld - i sôld and l òmen - i òmen. However, sound changes have long since obscured this pattern.

Feminine

Alteration

Alteration is the formation of words from others that are not changed in their fundamental features; instead, the way in which the concept is considered changes.
The alterations can be added together to form chains:

pôver, puvrén, puvrinén, puvrininén = povero, poverino

The alteration suffix is always stressed. Therefore, metaphony occurs:

åura, uratta = ora, oretta
dòna, dunèla = donna, donnina
fiåur, fiurlén = fiore, fiorellino
vaider, vidrén = vetro, vetrino

Often alterations change the gender of words:

la dòna, al dunén, al dunån = la donna, la donnina, la donnona
la mâchina, al machinén, al machinån = l’auto, la piccola auto, la grande auto
l’unbrèla, l unbarlén, l unbarlån = l’ombrello, l’ombrellino, l’ombrellone