Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 13.djvu/517

 LANGUAGE.] ITALY 495 we even find a reduction of nf into ml (nf, nr, nb, mb), both in Sicilian and Neapolitan (e.g., at Casteltermini in Sicily mbieniu, inferno, and in the Abruzzi cumbonn, mbonri, confondere, in- fondere). Here we iind ourselves in a series of phenomena to which it may seem that some special contributions were furnished by Oscan and Umbrian (nt, mp, no into nd, &c.), but for which more secure and general, and so to say &quot; isothermal,&quot; analogies are found in modern Greek and Albanian. The Sicilian does not appeal- to fit in here as far as the formuhe nt and mp are concerned; it rather agrees with the Neapolitan through rt passing into rd ; and it may even be said to go counter to this tendency by reducing ncj to nc (e.g., punciri, pungere). Nay, even in the passing of the sonant into the surd, the Neapolitan dialects would yield special and important contributions (nor is even the Sicilian limited to the case just specified), among which we will only mention the change of d be tween vowels into t in the last syllable of proparoxytones (e.g., ummcto, umido). From these series of sonants changing into surds comes a peculiar feature of the southern dialects. A pretty common characteristic is the regular progressive assimilation by which nd is reduced to nn, mb to mm, and even nv also to mm (nv, nb, mb, mm), e.g., Sicil. Sinniri, Neap. Unncre, scendere ; Sicil. chiitmmu, Neap, chiummr, piombo ; Sicil. and Neap, mmidia, invidia. As belonging to this class of phenomena the Falseo- Italic analogy (ml into nn, n), of which the Umbrian furnishes special evidence, readily suggests itself. Another important com mon characteristic is the reduction of pj, bj, fj, to c (kj), $, 5 (of. the Genoese; B. 1), whence, e.g., Sicil. chianu, Neap, chiane, piano (piano, pljano, pjano) ; Sicil. sicca, Neap, sccca, sepia ; Sicil. ragtfa, Neap. arragga, rabbia ; Sicil. suri (curt), Neap. Sore, fiore. Further is to be noted the tendency to the sibi- lation of cc, ci for which Sicil. jazzu, ghiaceio, and Neap. lizcfr, lecito, may serve as examples (Arch., ii. 149), a tendency more particularly betrayed in Upper Italy. There is a common incli nation also to elide the initial unaccented palatal vowel, and to pre fix a, especially before r (this second tendency is found likewise in Southern Sardinian, &c. ; see Arch., ii. 138); e.g., Sicil. ntenniri, Neap, ndemiere, intendere ; Sicil. arricamdri, Neap, arragamare, ricamare (see Arch., ii. 150). In complete, contrast to the ten dency to get rid of double consonants which has been particularly noted in Venetian (C. 1), we here come to the great division of Italy where the tendency grows strong to gemination (or the doubling of consonants) ; and the Neapolitan in this respect goes farther than the Sicil ian(c.gr., Sicil. doppu, dopo; nscmmula, insieme, in-simul; Neap, dellccato, dilicato ; limmeto, umido; debboJc). As to the phonetic phenomena connected with the syntax (see B. 2), it is sufficient to cite such Sicilian examples as n iSuna ronna, nesuna donna, alongside of c e donni, c e donne ; cincti jorna, cinque giorni, alongside of chiu ghiorna, piu giorni ; and the Neapolitan la vocca, la bocca, alongside of a bocca n bocca, ad buccam, &c. &quot;We now proceed to the special consideration, first, of the Sicilian and, secondly, of the dialects of the mainland. n. Sicilian. The Sicilian voealism is conspicuously etymological. Though differing in colour from the Tuscan, it is not less noble, and between the two there are remarkable points of contact. The dominant variety ignores the diphthongs of & and of 6, as it has been seen that they are ignored in Sardinia (B. 2), and here also the i and the zt appear intact ; but the 6 and the u are fittingly represented by i and u ; and with equal symmetry unaccented c and o are reproduced by i and v. Examples : teni, tiene ; n6vu, nuovo ; pilu, pelo ; jurju, giogo ; cridiri, credere ; sim, sera ; vina, vena ; suit, il sole ; ura, ora. The e and 6 of position are represented by c and o (vermi, verme ; nuvetjdu, novello ; morti, la morte; corn u), and thus normally they correspond to the open c and o of the Tuscan. And if in some cases the Sicilian appears to be exceptional (stidda, stella ; vinniri, vcndere ; furma, &c.), it usually corresponds even in this with the Tuscan, where also we find the same apparent exception of the closed instead of the open vowel (stella, vcndere, forma, &c., Arch., ii. 146). In the evolution of the consonants it is enough to add here the change of //into gJij (e.g., figyhiii, figlio) and of II into d l (e.g., cjadtlu, gallo). b. Dialects of the Neapolitan Mainland. The Calabrian (by which is to be understood more particularly the vernacular group of the two Further Calabrias 1 ) may be fairly considered as a continuation of the Sicilian type, as is seen from the following examples : cori, cuore ; petra. ; fimmina, femina ; ruci, voce ; omtri, onore; figyhitt, figlio; spaddc, spalle; trizm, treccia(here the d of the nexus nd, how ever, is not subject to the assimilation which is common to Sicilian and Neapolitan in general : e.g., qunnd.u, cangendu, piangendo). Even the h for & =fj, as in httri (Sicil. Suri, fiore), which is character istic in Calabrian, has its forerunners in the island (see Arch., ii. 456). Along the coast of the extreme south of Italy, when once we have passed the interruptions caused by the Basilisco type (so called from the Basilicata), the Sicilian voealism again presents itself in the Otrantine. especially in the seaboard of Capo di Leuca. In the Lecce variety of the Otrantine the voealism which has just been described as Sicilian also keeps its ground in the main (cf. Morosi, Arch., iv. ): sim, sera ; Icitv.; oliveto ; ^X /H ; vra, ora; dulv.ro, Nay more, the Sicilian phenomenon of // into glij (Jtgghiu, figlio, &c. ) is well marked in Terra d Otranto and also in Terra di Bari, and even extends through the Capitanata and the Basilicata (cf. D Ovidio, Arch., iv. 159-60). As strongly marked in the Terra d Otranto is the insular phenomenon of H into dd (dr), which is also very widely distributed through the Neapolitan territories on the eastern side of the Apennines, sending outshoots even to the Abruzzo. But in Terra d Otranto we are already in the midst of the diphthongs of e and of 8, both non-positional and positional, the development or permanence of which is determined by the quality of the unaccented final vowel, as generally happens in the dialects of the south. The diphthongal product of the o, and hence also of the 6 of position, is here uc. The following are examples from the Lecce variety of the dialect : core, pi. cueri ; metu, mieti, mete, mieto, mieti, miete (Lat. metere) ; scntu, sicnti, scnte ; olu, iieli, ola, volo, voli, vola ; mordu, m itcrdi, morde. The uc recalls the fundamen tal reduction which belongs to the Gallic (not to speak of the Spanish) regions, and stretches through the Terra di Bari, where there are other diphthongs curiously (suggestive of the Gallic: e.g., at Bitonto alongside of lucche, luogo, sucnnf, sonno, we have the oi and the ai from i or e of the previous phase (vecoine., vicino), and the au from o of the previous phase (anaurc, onore), besides a diphthongal dis turbance of the d. Here also occurs the change of d into an e more or less pure (thus, at Cisternino, scunsulctc, sconsolata ; at Canosa di Puglia, arruetc, arrivata ; n-gliepc, &quot;in capa,&quot; that is, in capo) ; to which may be added the continual weakening or elision of the unac cented vowels not only at the end but in the body of the word (thus, at Bitonto, vendctt, sjyrans). A similar type meets us as we cross into Capitanata (Cerignola : facdivr, facera ; affeise, oflese ; sfazidnnc, soddisfazione ; n-gheipr, in capo ; nzulteite, insultata ; arraggefr, arrabbiato) ; such forms being apparently the outposts of the Abruzzan, which, however, is only reached through the Molise a district not very populous even now, and still more thinly peopled in bygone days whose prevailing forms of speech in some measure interrupt the historical continuity of the dialects of the Adriatic versant, presenting, as it were, an irruption from the other side of the Apennines. In the head valley of the Molise, at Agnone, the legitimate precursors of the Abruzzan vernaculars reappear (fatoica, fatica; perdoiva, perdeva; voire, vero; paina, pen a; segncura ; chcure ; Sdlerictr., scellerati, where, however, the disturbance of the a is only occasional, i.e., is dependent on the i formerly heard in the end of the word ; cf. maltrattata, spcrdva, &c. ). The following are pure Abruzzan examples. (1) From Bucchianico (Abruzzo Citeriore) : veive,, vivo ; rrajf, re ; allanre, allora ; cra-une, corona ; circM, cercare ; inelr, male ; grenn^, grande; queiinc; but nsultate, insultata ; strode, strada (where again it is seen that the reduction of the d depends on the quality of the final unaccented vowel, and that it is not produced exclusively by i, which would give rise to a further reduction : scillarite, scellerati ; umpire, impari). (2) From Pratola Peligna (Abruzzo Ulteriore II.) : ma jr., mia ; naitre, onore ; njuriet*, inguriata ; despcrete, disperata (alongside of vcnnecii, vendi- care). It almost appears that a continuity with Emilian ought to be established across the Marches (where another irruption of greater &quot; Italianity&quot; has taken place : a third of more dubious origin has been indicated for Venice, C. 1); see Arch., ii. 445. A negative characteristic for Abruzzan is theabsence of c=pj and of S=fj ; and the reason seems evident. Here the pj and^) themselves appear to be modern or of recent reduction, the ancient formula; sometimes occurring intact (as in the Bergainasc for Upper Italy), e.g., irtdvje and prditjc alongside of pidnjc, pragnere. 1 To the south of the Abruzzi begins and in the Abruzzi grows prominent that contrast in regard to the fonnuhe alt aid (resolved in the Neapolitan and Sicilian into aut, &c., just as in the Fiedmontese, &c.) by which the types aldarc, altare, and callr, caldo, are reached. For the rest, when the condition and connexions of the vowel system still retained by so large a proportion of the dialects of the eastern versant of the Neapolitan Apennines, and the difference which exists in regard to the preservation of the unaccented vowels between the Ligurian and the Gallo-Italic forms of speech on the other versant of the northern Apennines, are considered, one can not fail to see how much justice there is in the longitudinal oj Apenninian partition of the Italian dialects indicated by Dante. - But, to continue, in the Basilicata, which drains into the Gulf of Taranto, and may be said to lie within the Apennines, not only is the elision of final unaccented vowels a prevailing character istic ; there are also frequent elisions of the unaccented vowels within the word. Thus at Matera : sintcnn lafcmn chessa cds, sen- tendo la femina questa cosa ; disprat, disperata ; at Saponara di Grumento: uomnn scilrati, uomini scellerati; mnctta, vendetta. But even if we return to the Mediterranean versant and, leaving the Sicilian type of the Calabrias, retrace our steps till we pass into the Neapolitan pure and simple, we find that even in Naples the unaccented final vowels behave badly, the labial turning to z (Udlr, bello) and even the a (bclla) being greatly weakened. And hero So again even still pleitve ami prove, piove, which suggests a fine Latinism of another sort still retained, nengue, ningucrc; so Unit in the most ancient chronicle of Aqulla (str. 437) the reading se p overa o nennuera is truly dialectic,-.