Neapolitan language

Classification

Neapolitan is a Romance language and is considered as part of Southern Italo-Romance. There are notable differences among the various dialects, but they are all generally mutually intelligible.

Italian and Neapolitan are of variable mutual comprehensibility, depending on affective and linguistic factors. There are notable grammatical differences, such as Neapolitan having nouns in the neuter form and a unique plural formation, as well as historical phonological developments, which often obscure the cognacy of lexical items.

Its evolution has been similar to that of Italian and other Romance languages from their roots in Vulgar Latin. It may reflect a pre-Latin Oscan substratum, as in the pronunciation of the d sound as an r sound (rhotacism) at the beginning of a word or between two vowels: e.g. doje (feminine) or duje (masculine), meaning "two", is pronounced, and often spelled, as roje/ruje; vedé ("to see") as veré, and often spelled so; also cadé/caré ("to fall") and Madonna/Maronna. Another purported Oscan influence is the historical assimilation of the consonant cluster as , pronounced (this is generally reflected in spelling more consistently: munno vs Italian mondo "world"; quanno vs Italian quando "when"), along with the development of as ~ (tammuro vs Italian tamburo "drum"), also consistently reflected in spelling. Other effects of the Oscan substratum are postulated, but substratum claims are highly controversial. Neapolitan has mostly Italian language roots and an adstratum influenced by other Romance languages (Catalan, Spanish and Franco-Provençal), Germanic languages and Greek (both ancient and modern). The language had never been standardised, and the word for tree has three different spellings: arbero, arvero and àvaro.

Neapolitan has enjoyed a rich literary, musical and theatrical history (notably Giambattista Basile, Eduardo Scarpetta, his son Eduardo De Filippo, Salvatore Di Giacomo and Totò). Thanks to this heritage and the musical work of Renato Carosone in the 1950s, Neapolitan is still in use in popular music, even gaining national popularity in the songs of Pino Daniele and the Nuova Compagnia di Canto Popolare.

The language has no official status within Italy and is not taught in schools. The University of Naples Federico II offers (from 2003) courses in Campanian Dialectology at the faculty of Sociology, whose actual aim is not to teach students to speak the language but to study its history, usage, literature and social role. There are also ongoing legislative attempts at the national level to have it recognized as an official minority language of Italy. It is a recognized ISO 639 Joint Advisory Committee language with the ISO 639-3 language code of nap.

Here is the IPA pronunciation of the Neapolitan spoken in the city of Naples:

Alphabet and pronunciation

Neapolitan orthography consists of 22 Latin letters. Much like Italian orthography, it does not contain k, w, x, or y even though these letters might be found in some foreign loan words; unlike Italian, it does contain the letter j.

All Romance languages are closely related. Although Neapolitan shares a high degree of its vocabulary with Tuscan-derived Italian, the official language of Italy, differences in pronunciation can make the connection unrecognizable to those without knowledge of Neapolitan. The most striking phonological difference is the Neapolitan weakening of unstressed vowels into schwa (schwa is pronounced like the a in about or the u in upon). However, it is also possible (and quite common for some Neapolitans) to speak Italian with a "Neapolitan accent"; that is, by pronouncing un-stressed vowels as schwa or by pronouncing the phoneme as (like the sh in ship) instead of (like the s in sea or the ss in pass) when is in initial position followed by a consonant, but not when it is followed by a dental occlusive or (at least in the purest form of the language) but by otherwise using the vocabulary and grammatical forms of Italian.

Therefore, while pronunciation presents the strongest barrier to comprehension, the grammar of Neapolitan is what sets it apart from Italian. In Neapolitan, for example, the gender and number of a word is expressed by a change in the accented vowel because it no longer distinguishes final unstressed , and (e.g. luongo , longa ; Italian lungo, lunga; masc. "long", fem. "long"), whereas in Italian it is expressed by a change in the final vowel. These and other morpho-syntactic differences distinguish the Neapolitan language from the Italian language and the Neapolitan accent.

Neapolitan has had a significant influence on the intonation of Rioplatense Spanish spoken in Buenos Aires and the surrounding region of Argentina and in the entire country of Uruguay.

Vowels

While there are only five graphic vowels in Neapolitan, phonemically, there are eight. Stressed vowels e and o can be either "closed" or "open" and the pronunciation is different for the two. The grave accent (à, è, ò) is used to denote open vowels, and the acute accent (é, í, ó, ú) is used to denote closed vowels, with alternative ì and ù. However, accent marks are not commonly used in the actual spelling of words except when they occur on the final syllable of a word, such as Totò, arrivà, or pecché, and when they appear here in other positions, it is only to demonstrate where the stress, or accent, falls in some words. Also, the circumflex is used to mark a long vowel where it would not normally occur (e.g. sî "you are").

Consonants

Digraphs and trigraphs

The following consonants are always geminated when they follow a vowel.

Grammar

Definite articles

The Neapolitan classical definite articles (corresponding to the English word "the") are 'a (feminine singular), 'o (masculine singular) and 'e (plural for both). They are traditionally spelled with the apostrophe to signify the elided sound l.

Before a word beginning with a consonant:

"C:" = the initial consonant of the following word is geminated if followed by a vowel.

These definite articles are always pronounced distinctly.

Before a word beginning with a vowel, l' or ll' are used for both masculine and feminine, singular and plural. Although both forms can be found, the ll' form is by far the most common.

In Neapolitan, the gender of a noun is not easily determined by the article, so other means must be used. In the case of 'o, which can be either masculine singular or neuter singular (there is no neuter plural in Neapolitan), the initial consonant of the noun is doubled when it is neuter. For example, the name of a language in Neapolitan is always neuter, so if we see 'o nnapulitano we know it refers to the Neapolitan language, whereas 'o napulitano would refer to a Neapolitan man.

Likewise, since 'e can be either masculine or feminine plural, when it is feminine plural, the initial consonant of the noun is doubled. For example, consider 'a lista, which in Neapolitan is feminine singular, meaning "the list". In the plural, it becomes 'e lliste.

There can also be problems with nouns whose singular form ends in e. Since plural nouns usually end in e whether masculine or feminine, the masculine plural is often signaled orthographically, that is, by altering the spelling. As an example, consider the word guaglione, which means "boy" or (in the feminine form) "girl":

More will be said about these orthographically changing nouns in the section on Neapolitan nouns.

A couple of notes about consonant doubling:

• Doubling is a function of the article (and certain other words), and these same words may be seen in other contexts without the consonant doubled. More will be said about this in the section on consonant doubling.
• Doubling only occurs when a vowel follows the consonant. No doubling occurs if it is followed by another consonant, such as in the word spagnuolo (Spanish).

Indefinite articles

The Neapolitan indefinite articles, corresponding to the English a or an, are presented in the following table:

Verbal conjugation

In Neapolitan there are four finite moods: indicative, subjunctive, conditional and imperative, and three non-finite modes: infinitive, gerund and participle. Each mood has an active and a passive form. The only auxiliary verbs used in the active form is (h)avé (Eng. "to have", It. avere), which contrasts with Italian, in which the intransitive and reflexive verbs take èssere for their auxiliary. For example, we have:

Neapolitan

Aggio

AUX.have.1SG.PRES

stato

be.PTCP.PAST

a

in

Napule

Naples

ajere.

yesterday

I was in Naples yesterday.

Italian

Sono

AUX.be.1S.PRES

stato

be.PTCP.PAST

a

in

Napoli

Naples

ieri.

yesterday

I was in Naples yesterday.

Doubled initial consonants

In Neapolitan, many times the initial consonant of a word is doubled. This is called syntactic gemination (raddoppiamento sintattico in Italian). This linguistic phenomenon occurs also in Italian and in Finnish.

• All feminine plural nouns, preceded by the feminine plural definite article, 'e, or any feminine plural adjective, have their initial consonant doubled.
• All neuter singular nouns, when preceded by the neuter singular definite article, 'o, or by a neuter singular adjective, have their initial consonant doubled.
• In addition, other words also trigger this doubling. Below is a list of words that trigger the doubling of the initial consonant of the following word.

However, when there is a pause after the "trigger" word, the phonological doubling does not occur (e.g. tu sî (g)guaglione, "You are a boy", where sî is a "trigger" word causing doubling of the initial consonant in guaglione, but in the phrase 'e do sî, guaglió? "Where are you from, boy?", no doubling occurs. Neither does doubling occur when the initial consonant is followed by another consonant (other than l or r), e.g. 'o ttaliano "the Italian language", but 'o spagnuolo "the Spanish language", where 'o is the neuter definite article). This doubling phenomenon happens phonologically (in pronunciation), and the doubling is not always represented in spelling. However, many Neapolitan-language editions do represent syntactic gemination in writing, resulting in many words spelled with initial double consonants. So, je so' pazzo ("I am crazy") may also be spelled je so' ppazzo (regardless of the spelling, it is pronounced with syntactic gemination). In Italian and Finnish, syntactic gemination is not reflected in writing.

Words that trigger doubling in pronunciation

• The conjunctions e and né but not o (e.g. pane e (c)caso; né (p)pane né (c)caso; but pane o caso)
• The prepositions a, pe, cu (e.g. a (m)me; pe (t)te; cu (v)vuje)
• The negation nu, short for nun (e.g. nu ddicere niente)
• The indefinites ogne, cocche (e.g. ogne (c)casa; cocche (c)cosa)
• Interrogative che and relative che but not ca (e.g. che (p)piense? che (f)femmena! che (c)capa!)
• accussí (e.g. accussí (b)bello)
• From the verb "essere", so'; sî; è but not songo (e.g. je so' (p)pazzo; tu sî (f)fesso; chella è (M)Maria; chilli so' (c)cafune but chilli songo cafune)
• chiú (e.g. chiú (p)poco)
• The number tre (e.g. tre (s)segge)
• The neuter definite article 'o (e.g. 'o (p)pane, but nu poco 'e pane)
• The neuter pronoun 'o (e.g. 'o (t)tiene 'o (p)pane?)
• Demonstrative adjectives chistu and chillu which refer to neuter nouns in indefinite quantities (e.g. chistu (f)fierro; chillu (p)pane) but not in definite quantities (e.g. Chistu fierro; chillu pane)
• The feminine plural definite article 'e (e.g. 'e (s)segge; 'e (g)guaglione)
• The plural feminine pronoun 'e, e.g., 'e (g)guaglione 'e (c)chiamme tu? "
• The plural masculine pronoun 'e preceding a verb, but not when 'e is an article; in 'e guagliune 'e (c)chiamme tu?, the first 'e is an article, so it does not trigger doubling; the second 'e does trigger doubling because it is a masculine plural pronoun.
• The locative lloco (e.g. lloco (s)sotto)
• From the verb stà: sto' (e.g. sto' (p)parlanno)
• From the verb puté: può; pô (e.g. isso pô (s)sapé)
• Special case Spiritu (S)Santo

Additional sources

• Iandolo, Carlo (2001). A lengua 'e Pulecenella: Grammatica napoletana (in Italian). Sorrento: Franco Di Mauro. ISBN 978-8885263710.
• De Blasi, Nicola; Imperatore, Luigi (2001). Il napoletano parlato e scritto: Con note di grammatica storica [Written and Spoken Neapolitan: With Notes on Historic Grammar] (in Italian) (2nd ed.). Napoli: Dante & Descartes. ISBN 978-8888142050.
• Del Vecchio, Emilano (3 July 2014). "Neapolitan: A Great Cultural Heritage". TermCoord.
• Verde, Massimiliano (17 June 2017). "Consegnato il primo Certificato Europeo di Lingua Napoletana" [Granted the first European Certificate of the Neapolitan language]. NapoliToday (in Italian). First Course of Neapolitan Language according to the QCER CEFR with the Patronage of City of Naples realized by Dr.Massimiliano Verde "Corso di Lingua e Cultura Napoletana" with a document of study in Neapolitan Language by Dr.Verde

First public document in Neapolitan Language of the XXI century according to a text of Dr.Verde; the touristic Map of the III Municipality of Naples in Neapolitan Language:

• Palmieri, Paola (22 June 2017). "Napoli per turisti: arriva la prima mappa con info in napoletano e italiano!" [Naples for tourists: Released the first map with text in Neapolitan and Italian!]. Grandenapoli (in Italian).
• "A Napoli nasce la prima mappa turistica con info in italiano e napoletano". Vesuvio Live (in Italian). 21 June 2017.