Romanesco dialect


Romanesco is one of the Central Italian dialects spoken in the Metropolitan City of Rome Capital, especially in the core city. It is linguistically close to Tuscan and Standard Italian, with some notable differences from these two. Rich in vivid expressions and sayings, Romanesco is used in a typical diglossic setting, mainly for informal/colloquial communication, with code-switching and translanguaging with the standard language.

History

First traces

The vernacular language of Rome, of which the short Commodilla catacomb inscription might be considered the earliest attestation, is believed to have been regarded as low-prestige, as can be seen in the 11th-century Saint Clement and Sisinnius inscription, featuring a dialogue wherein the saint, who speaks a slightly solecistic and misspelled form of Medieval Latin, is given higher moral ground by juxtaposing his liturgical language with the common speech employed by Sisinnius and his servants.

Old Romanesco

The 13th century saw the first works of literature written in Roman vernacular, such as Storie de Troja et de Roma and Le miracole de Roma, characterized by a coexistence of Latin and vernacular elements.
The status of the dialect as low-class was consolidated in the 1300s, when Dante Alighieri described it in his Latin essay De vulgari eloquentia as the worst one in Italy, a tristiloquium, linking it to the uncouthness of the people, criticizing their custom of addressing even people commonly perceived as socially superior by using the informal pronoun tu, instead of formal voi.
The work that best represents this phase of the dialect is a chronicle—known in Italian as the Cronica dell'Anonimo Romano, and also by the title Vita di Cola di Rienzo —written in the latter half of the century by an anonymous Roman author.
During the last decades of the 14th century, Romanesco came to be perceived, even among people of high social status, as having higher prestige than before, and started appearing in votive and burial inscriptions, as well as in notarial documents.

Features

An analysis published in 2022 presents the following as defining characteristics of old Roman vernacular.
Vowels
  • Vowel breaking of original stressed ⟨⟩ > e.g.:
  • : > tiempo
  • : > muorto
  • Lack of raising of stressed vowels before
  • Lack of raising of pretonic
  • Conservation of unstressed when followed by a trill consonant
    Consonants
  • Assimilation
  • * progressive, e.g.:
  • *: ⟨⟩ > : > munno
  • *: ⟨⟩ > : > commattere ; > commerte
  • *: ⟨⟩ > : > callo
  • * regressive, e.g.:
  • *: ⟨⟩ > : > cossa
  • *: ⟨⟩ > : > falename
  • Betacism
  • * ⟨⟩ > when geminated or preceded by a consonant other than :
  • *: abbelenare
  • * ⟨⟩ > when word-initial, postvocalic, or preceded by :
  • *: > vagno
  • *: > paravola
  • *: > varva
  • Palatalization
  • : >, e.g.: , > roscio
  • : >, e.g.: > Accia
  • : >, e.g.: > ielo
  • Labiodentalization ⟨⟩ >, e.g.:
  • : > verra
  • : > vonnella
  • ⟨⟩ >
  • : > scignie
  • : > aiognere
  • : > cagno
  • Affrication of to after
  • : tuoizero
  • : apparzo
  • : menza
  • ⟨⟩ >, e.g.:
  • : > paro
  • : > camisa
  • Conservation of semiconsonantal ⟨⟩, e.g.:
  • : > iace
  • Paragogic syllable -ne appended to oxytones, e.g.:
  • : è > ene
  • Lack of voicing of voiceless plosives in intervocalic position, and between a vowel and a resonant:
  • : > laco
  • : > patre
  • L-vocalization, e.g.:
  • : > ''aitro''
    Morphology
  • Presence of nouns with plural endings -a, -ora
  • Presence of nouns with plural ending -o, reflecting the Latin 4th-declension ending
  • Presence of nouns with singular ending -e, reflecting the Latin 5th-declension ending
  • as the masculine definite article
  • 2nd- and 3rd-person singular possessive pronouns — tio, sio — analogically reshaped on the basis of mio ; compare Tuscan,,
  • Presence of enclitic personal possessive pronouns
  • Accusative singular personal pronouns mi, ti, si
  • Presence of the numeral doi
  • 3rd-person singular preterite endings -ao, -eo, ''-io''

    Early Modern period

Starting with the 16th century, the Roman dialect underwent an increasingly stronger influence from the Tuscan dialect starting with the reigns of the two Medici popes and with the Sack of Rome in 1527, two events which provoked a large immigration from Tuscany. Therefore, current Romanesco has grammar and roots that are rather different from other dialects in Central Italy.

Modern Period

The path towards a progressive Tuscanization of the dialect can be observed in the works of the major Romanesco writers and poets of the past two centuries: Giuseppe Gioachino Belli, whose sonetti romaneschi represent the most important work in this dialect and an eternal monument to 19th century Roman people; Cesare Pascarella ; Giggi Zanazzo ; and Carlo Alberto Salustri, nicknamed Trilussa.

Diffusion

Before Rome became the capital city of Italy, Romanesco was spoken only inside the walls of the city, while the little towns surrounding Rome had their own dialects. Nowadays, these dialects have been replaced with a variant of Romanesco, which therefore is now spoken in an area larger than the original one. It slightly pervades the everyday language of most of the immigrants who live in the large city.

Pronunciation

Romanesco pronunciation and spelling differs from Standard Italian in these cases:
  • is used where standard Italian uses. This is spelt, a letter seldom used in present-day Italian. Compare Italian figlio "son" and Romanesco fijo or fìo when assimilated;
  • geminate does not exist anymore: for example, azzurro ;, verrebbe . A Roman pun recites: "Tera, chitara e guera, co' ddu' ere, sinnò è erore" : ere and erore are also "wrong", as they are erre and errore in Standard Italian. This phenomenon presumably developed after 1870, as it was not present in the classical 19th century Romanesco of Belli;
  • becomes before another consonant: sòrdi, Italian soldi "money";
  • in Romanesco, as in most Central and Southern Italian languages and dialects, and are always geminated where permissible: e.g. libbro for Standard Italian libro "book", aggenda for agenda "diary, agenda".
  • the dropping of vowels at the beginning of a word when followed by a nasal consonant, for example 'nzomma, 'n, 'mparà, gni.
  • assimilation with different consonant groups. For example, turns into , turns into , turns into .

    Quote

Noteworthy figures

Today, Romanesco is generally considered more of a regional idiom than a true language. Classical Romanesco, which reached high literature with Giuseppe Gioachino Belli, has disappeared.
External forces such as immigration and the dominance of Italian are playing a role in the dissolution of the 1900s dialect in the city centre, transplanting a new and rawer version of it in the surrounding suburbs and periphery, where it's more widely spoken than elsewhere in the city, far away from the now gentrified, tourist central areas. Below is a comparison table of the main differences between the "Classical" Roman dialect and the one in current use, especially in pronunciation uncommonly written or with difficulty, where much homologation with the codified version of Tuscan can be noted, yet along with fresh-new dialectal features which contribute to the modern sound of the idiom the majority of the Italian population is familiar with thanks to social media and gangsta rap songs:
Classical RomanescoModern RomanescoEnglishEmended Florentine
dovevimo /doˈveimo/, dovemio /doˈvemjo/dovamo /daˈamo/we had todovevamo
anneressivoannavate, andreste /anˈdress̟e/ye would goandreste, andavate
annisconneinguattàto hidenascondere
ce l’avevimo /ˌtʃelaˈveimo/, ce l’avemio /ˌtʃelaˈvemjo/ce l’avamo /tʃaaˈamo/ we had ce l’avevamo
ognaunghianailunghia
nu je la fo /nujˌjelaˈfɔ/nja faccio /ˌɲaaˈfattʃo/I can't do it/handle this/resistnon ce la faccio
uscì, escìscìto go outuscire
intrippasseinquartasse trip"to gain weight ingrassare

Notable artists using Romanesco