Information about Tuscan Dialect

Tuscan Toscano
Spoken in:	Tuscany (Italy) except the Province of Massa-Carrara
Total speakers:	3,500,000
Language family:	}}}  Italic   Romance    Italo-Western     Italo-Dalmatian      Tuscan}}}
Language codes
ISO 639-1:	none
ISO 639-2:
ISO 639-3:	—

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 Petrarch, 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 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 IPA: [ʤ] (g in George) and soft c IPA: [ʧ] (ch in church), known as attenuation.

Between two vowels, the voiced post-alveolar affricate consonant is realized as voiced post-alveolar fricative:

/ʤ/ → [ʒ].

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 /la 'ʤɛnte/ [la 'ʤɛnte], but in Tuscan is spoken as [la 'ʒɛnte].

Similarly, the voiceless post-alveolar affricate consonant is pronounced as a voiceless post-alveolar fricative between two vowels:

/ʧ/ → [ʃ].

The word la cena, the dinner, in standard Italian is spoken as /la 'ʧena/ [la 'ʧe:na], but in Tuscan it is spoken as [la 'ʃe:na].

Affrication of S

A common phonetic phenomenon is the transformation of voiceless s or voiceless alveolar fricative /s/ into the voiceless alveolar affricate IPA: [ʦ] when preceded by /r/, /l/, or /n/.

/s/ → [ʦ].

For example, "il sole" (the sun), pronounced in standard Italian [il 'soːle], will be pronounced by a Tuscan speaker [il 'ʦoːle]; this can be heard also word internally, as in "falso" (false) /'falso/ → ['falʦo]. This is a common phenomenon in Central Italy.

No dipththongization of /ɔ/

There are two Tuscan historical outcomes of Latin ŏ in stressed open syllables. Passing first through a stage [ɔ], the vowel then develops as a diphthong /wɔ/. 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' before è.

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