The characteristics of the Arianese dialect appear rather atypical compared to the usual Irpinia vernacular canons by virtue of the geographical position of the town, located along the northern edge of
Irpinia at the height of the main pass of the
Campanian Apennines (the so-called
saddle of Ariano), therefore in the extreme hinterland of
Campania and immediately close to the
Dauno-
Apulian side.[1] The Arianese dialect was able to resist relatively better the contamination of the lower Campania region in general and the
Neapolitan one in particular (
Naples became the capital of
the Kingdom since the 13th century),[2] but it remained exposed in some measure to the
Apulian (and more precisely Daunian) dialectal influences,[1] rather evident above all at a phonetic level.[3] For similar reasons, there is also a certain influence of the
Irpinia dialects, and especially for the Arianese dialect, on the vernaculars spoken along the Apulian side of the
Daunia mountains (the so-called Dauno-Irpinia dialects)[4] and even, albeit only superficially, on the
linguistic islands present there.[5][6] It should also be noted the presence of a certain contact with the large
Benevento dialect area,[7] mainly attributable to the geographical proximity as well as to the
Early Medieval historical events.[8][9][10] Since the first half of the 19th century, however, Arianese has been considered one of the main dialects of the entire Campanian group.[11]
In the context of the Kingdom of Naples, the town was then nicknamed "la chiave delle puglie" (the key to Apulia) as it was an essential key in the connections between the capital
Naples and the nearby Apulian provinces,[17] with which there were intense contacts and exchanges:[18] in addition to this, in the 15th century there was a massive influx of refugees from
Trani, who settled in the extramural village which took its name from them ("Tranìsi", i.e. "Tranesi", people from Trani);[19] this rock quarter would later house the numerous
Ariano Irpino ceramics kilns,[20] and it is precisely on some locally produced glazed ceramic tiles (dated 1772 and depicting
big-game hunting scenes) that we find the first written attestations of the Arianese dialect, consisting in a complex series of covertly licentious or allusive slang expressions and as such not always easily interpretable.[21] However, dialectal inflections, already significantly permeated by elements of Apulian origin, emerge from much more ancient times and even in documents of the early Middle Ages written in the local
vulgar Latin.[22][23]
It should also be considered that the
diocese of Ariano, from the moment of its establishment and until the
great schism, followed the
Byzantine Rite similarly to the Apulian dioceses, although it depended on a
Longobard archbishopric such as that of Benevento.[24] And it is also significant that until 1930 the city was known under the eloquent denomination of Ariano di Puglia,[25] made official starting from 1868[26] but already in use for many centuries by writers[27] (even in the
medieval Latin form Arianum in Apulia)[28] although the local vernacular has always favored the simple original form Ariano, attested as far back as 782.[29][30]
Phonology
Among the salient features of the local dialect is the pronunciation of the tonic e / o vowels which, due to a partial syllabic isochronism of clear Adriatic origin,[31] are generally closed in a free syllable in plain words,[32] unlike than in the rest of Irpinia where the open stamp prevails.[33] Therefore in Ariano it's said: "la mugliéra téne nóve sóre" (= "the wife has nine sisters"), whereas in the standard Irpinia it's have "(l) a muglièra tene nòve sòre". On the other hand, in
slippery words the local pronunciation of the tonic vowels tends to reopen, as is well evident in the case of nouns combined with
enclitic possessives: "muglièrima" (="my wife"), "sòreta" (="your sister").[34]
Peculiar, and likely attributable to an Apulian influence,[32] is also the way of pronouncing the tonic vowel a which in Ariano[35] tends towards e[36] while elsewhere in Irpinia it tends rather towards o,[31] especially in a free or final syllable; thus, for example, the word "fare" is pronounced /fæ:/ in Arianese, /fɑː/ in standard Irpino.
Consider also, in compound tenses, the anomalous vowel alternation in the different persons of the auxiliary verb:
à ritto (="hai detto", "you said")
è dditto (="ha detto", "he/she/it said");
actually, while the first construct probably derives from the trivial truncation of a primitive *ài ritto (this can be deduced from the lack of
syntactic gemination of the following syllable), the second would instead have originated from an ancient *à dditto.[37] In other cases the local use of the stressed vowels a / e in the pronunciation of an auxiliary verb is instead freely interchangeable and independent of external factors: thus, for example, one can say "àggiu capito" or "èggiu capito" (="ho capito", "i understood" ), without there being any difference in meaning between the two expressions.[38]
At a purely orthographic level, in addition to the almost systematic omission of the etymological h in the conjugated forms of the auxiliary verb "avere", we note the frequent use of the letter j (and sometimes also of the w) to indicate a
semiconsonant in initial or intervocalic position, while the graphemes š and ẓ (or similar ones) are often used to signal respectively the possible
palatalization of s (in a preconsonantal position) and the rather infrequent sonorization of z.[39][40][41][42]
Overall, however, the differences between the Arianese dialect and the various vernaculars widespread in the small neighboring towns are quite evident (although not excessively profound), where the typical Irpinia cadences tend to be preserved in an even more genuine way,in fact in the rest of Irpinia it is said everywhere à dditto.[43] although even these appear more or less dissimilar from each other, sometimes altered by a usually inconspicuous slang component but in some cases very well marked (an example is given by the slang ciaschino, once spoken in the nearby
Baronia [
it]).[44]
Radically different, despite the continuous and frequent interchanges,[6][45] are instead the idioms used by the communities belonging to the territorial linguistic minorities, such as the
Albanians of
Greci (once also present in Ariano),[13][46][47] the
Franco-Provençal of
Valmaggiore [
it] (also infiltrated as far as the city of Ariano,[48] where conspicuous traces of their presence remain)[49][50][51][52][53] as well as the ancient Schiavoni[47] (also present in Ariano and surroundings);[54] the latter, unlike the related
Molise Croats, have lost their linguistic individuality after however having had a decisive influence on the history and culture of
Ginestra degli Schiavoni,
Sant'Arcangelo Trimonte (formerly known as Montemale or Montemalo) and
Villanova del Battista (the ancient Polcarino degli Schiavoni),[55] three communities linked since the very beginning to the diocese of Ariano (although since 1997 the parish of Sant'Arcangelo Trimonte has been transferred to the
archdiocese of Benevento in exchange for
Savignano Irpino and the already cited Greeks).[56]
Moreover, some vernacular differences, albeit small, are even felt between one area and another of the same municipality: thus, for example, the word "dietro" (behind) is translated into dialect as addréto in some sectors of the Arianese territory, while arréto in others (from note, however, how both forms present the typical closed tonic); such a variety of nuances is attributable to the wide diffusion of rural settlements scattered over a very vast (the largest in
Campania)[57] and somewhat impervious countryside.[58] Added to this is a certain sociolinguistic differentiation between a "cultured" and a "peasant" vernacular, the latter characterized by more altered but at the same time more colorful forms and cadences, with a greater propensity for
rhotacism and
betacism (for example, "due o tre volte" (two or three times) will be pronounced "doj-tre vvote" in the "cultured" variant, but "roj-tre bbote" in the "peasant" one).[59] Not infrequently the subtle vernacular differences between the various localities of the countryside, as well as between the different social classes, have offered easy starting points for local political satire.[60][61]
Italian:
Tutti abbracciano il contadino: "Tu sei il miglior compare mio; Ti darò la libertà, ma porta sempre roba qua"
Arianese:
Tutti abbràzzano lu cafone: "Tu si lu meglio cumparone; T'aggia rà la libertà, ma porta sàrcine sempe qua"
English:
Everyone hugs the farmer: "You are my best friend; I will give you freedom, but always bring stuff here"
^Suggestions coming from the
Benevento area can be attributed, for example, to the widespread diffusion of the myth of the
janara, a sort of evil witch who, unlike the
mazzamurello (a benevolent goblin), struck terror among the populations.
^Donatone, Guido (1980). La Maiolica di Ariano Irpino.
Cava de' Tirreni. p. 202.
^For example, note the following deed (signed in Ariano in the year 1062) "Declaro me abere undecim trophe de olibe in loco Balle", where the word trophe (="young plants") is an ancient word of
Greek origin now disappeared everywhere , but very common in medieval writings albeit in the exclusively Apulian area.
^This phenomenon is also found in
Lacedonia, another Irpinia municipality located on the border with Apulia.
Del Donno, Manfredi (1965).
Idiomi dialettali della Campania. Montemurro. p. 19.
^As in various other
central-southern and
Sicilian dialects, the palatalization of s derives from ancient links -squ- / -scl- / -spl- / -stl- (with contextual drop of the phonemes u / l), or from
loanwords from
Neapolitan. The sonorization of the z is instead found only in loanwords from
Provençal, French or Italian.
^Note, for example, the difference in pronunciation between scasà (="to move") and šcascià (="to break down"), where the monogram š- actually has the same sound as the subsequent trigram -sci-; or between spitazzà (="to break") and smiẓẓà (="to halve"), in this case analogously to Italian. Furthermore, consonant doublings are constantly transcribed, even at the beginning of the word (for example ssuppilà, "to uncork").
^Mario, Sicuranza (1988). Prima Lingua – Piccolo Dizionario del Dialetto Arianese.
Foggia: Centro Grafico Meridionale.
^Russo, Aniello (2004). Grammatica del dialetto irpino.
Avellino: International Printing Editore.
^This information is confirmed in 1788 by Abbot Francesco Antonio Vitale, infra,
pp. 27–28.
^
abAround 1500 the feudal lords of Ariano used to keep Albanian and Schiavoni winemakers at their service.
Proceedings of the Pontaniana Academy (1825), Giannini, 1920, p. 60. See also T. Vitale, infra,
p. 112.
^Touring club italiano (1978).
Puglia (4. ed. Con 13 carte geografiche, 14 piante di città, 28 piante di antichità ed edifici e 21 stemmi ed.). Milano: Touring club italiano. p. 62.
ISBN88-365-0020-X.
OCLC5172282.
^The Franco-Provençal presence must have concentrated in the Sambuco district (Saùco in dialect), and in particular in the caves that are part of it, since in that district the vernacular had a marked
Gallo-Romance cadence (in both phonetic and lexical terms) at least until the first half of the 18th century.
^According to a local popular legend, the Arianese dialect itself derives from a hypothetical Provençal idiom (="franco-provençal") which penetrated the territory following the
Normans.
^D'Antuono, Ottaviano; Guardabascio, Raffaele, eds. (1989). "Poeti a la scuria e... poeti alluttrinati" – La satira politica ad Ariano dal 1889 al 1989 (in Italian). Associazione circoli culturali – Ariano Irpino. Lioni: Poligrafica Irpina.
^Di Gruttola, Nicola (1982). Lu llorgio di tatone (in Italian). Lioni: Melito.
^"Otantonio Lappazzo", pseudonym of di Gruttola, Nicola (1946). Puvisia sciolda a pere di ranogna (in Italian). Ariano Irpino.{{
cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (
link)