Dialetto siciliano –Jasmine

Neapolitan dialect

When Italy was unified in 1861, only 2.5% of the country spoke Italian, and it was almost 100 years before Italian became the predominant language to be spoken on the streets and in homes in Italy. However, after the invention of television, it quickly overtook other dialects, for example the Neapolitan dialect. Elena Ferrante's Italian novel 'L'amica geniale' follows the lives of Elena Greco and Lila Cerullo as they navigate the complexities of growing up in 1950s Naples. Ferrante constantly tells the reader when a character is speaking Neapolitan or Italian by writing "he/she said in dialect" to differentiate between the two. Ferrante portrays how the Italian language and the Neapolitan dialect were seen in the 1950s when Elena's character suddenly uses 'proper Italian' when talking to Lila, which gives her a certain sense of superiority, strengthening the relationship between her and Lila, while excluding Carmela (who only speaks dialect). This shows how different Italian and Neapolitan are, and also illustrates the fact that in the 1950s Neapolitan was seen as 'simple' and 'unsophisticated' compared to Italian.

In addition to this, the disappearance of dialect in the middle class has something to do with the class distinction: the middle class wanted to separate itself from the working class, and Italian was the language to get ahead in Italy and speaking dialect as the working class did was looked down upon. At this time in Southern Italy, families and merchants preferred to speak Neapolitan. Neapolitan goes back to 'Vulgar Latin', like all Romance languages (French, Spanish and Portuguese for example), and is almost impossible to learn; it seems that the fluency of Italian is almost an obstacle to acquiring Neapolitan even northern Italians find Neapolitan difficult, yet many are fascinated by it. The word 'world' in English is 'mondo' in Italian, and 'munno' in Neapolitan, and the word 'when' in English is 'when' in Italian but 'quanno' in Neapolitan. We can see that there are many differences between the spelling and pronunciation of Italian and Neapolitan, but it is the gestures, beauty and brilliance of Neapolitan that make it hard to ignore, and if you ever find yourself walking the streets of Naples, you will have a chance to hear this beautiful dialect.

By Jemima

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