If you think that becoming fluent in the world’s most beautiful language, Italian, is the end of the story then you’re wrong. It’s just the beginning! Each region of Italy has its own vernacular tongue. Recently I visited the Veneto and local people sussed out that I came from Tuscany because I’d picked up Italian with a Tuscan accent and used Tuscan expressions (e.g. for ‘stupid’ I used ‘bischero’ and for ‘carefully’ I used ‘a modino’ etc.).
Vernacular, a local turn of phrase or way of expressing oneself, often turns into a distinct dialect. In many parts of Italy a dialect can be different enough from RAI Italian to form a separate language. Anyone who has visited cities like Naples Turin or Trieste will realise that their inhabitants will turn from speaking in their own distinct language in order to speak to you in RAI Italian so that you can understand each other.
It’s more difficult in Tuscany to spot this national/regional difference since it’s the Tuscan tongue that has been used as the basis of contemporary Italian. Most significantly, the greatest work of Italian literature, Dante’s ‘Divine Comedy’ is written in a Tuscan which is the foundation of modern Italian.
We associate comedies with funniness and such greats as the much missed Ken Dodd but the meaning of ‘comedy’ in Dante’s work means that it is written in the ‘low’ or vernacular style as she is spoke in the market-place and finishes with a happy ending, instead of the high or ‘tragic’ style which uses Latin and concludes with a sad ending. That explains why there are not that many jokes in the ‘comedy’ (although there are a few, e.g. ‘Inferno’ canto 21 line 139…)!
In Tuscany, as in other regions, there are variants of the regional vernacular.
The main ones are:
- Florentine
- Sienese
- Western Tuscan (Pisan – Lucchese – Livornese – Pistoian).
- Arretine (Arezzo)
- Grosseto-Amiata
- Apuan
Western Tuscan and Apuan are the ones that affect us. Even here, however, because of the nature of the land with its villages separated by high hills and mountains there are further sub-divisions:
These are
- Upper Garfagnanese (above Castelnuovo)
- Lower Garfagnanese (below Castelnuovo)
- Barchigiano (Region around Barga which is not part of Garfagnana but which belonged to Florence)
Local inhabitants can quite easily place where someone comes from in our Serchio valley from the way they speak. One of the most distinctive accents is from Vagli di Sopra. Try following what people are saying in one of the bars there, even if you are fluent in Italian!
We were recently present at a book presentation in nearby Borgo a Mozzano. Gabriele Matraia’s “ ‘l diaule nela trafùsora” (roughly translated as ‘she’s got the devil in her fanny = she’s impatient for sex’, diaule = Diavolo = devil, trafùsora = accia = a fabric made of 75% wool, 25% of cotton, flax or hemp, and also meaning the female genital organ) presents the variant of western Tuscan, Luccan province, Serchio valley, Apuan area spoken in the village of Cune, where Matraia lives.
Gabriele Matraia has taught literature in secondary schools in Garfagnana and Borgo a Mozzano, where he was three times mayor. Matraia has also published two volumes of poetry and has curated publications on ancient Luccan organs – musical, not biological, I hasten to clarify – and a volume on the urban structure of Cune.
‘Some like it hot’, as I would politely translate the title of Matraia’s latest literary offering, makes fascinating reading for anyone with a knowledge of Italian and who is interested in linguistics and its relationship to local culture. The book is divided into four main sections.
- Sayings/songs/rhymes.
- Grammar.
- Dictionary. I found this part, which forms the book’s largest section, particularly fascinating. For example, ‘ciucio’ means ‘cat’, còcca is a hen or a girl.
- Appendix, with some musical notations and a story written in the local dialect.
The book is exquisitely illustrated by Fiorentina Maria Moriani Poli and has an excellent introduction by Massimiliano Argentieri.
(L’arbuolo = item used to shake chestnuts, maize or olives so as to separate impurities from them)
‘L’diaul nela trafùsora’ can be found at Borgo a Mozzano’s tourist office. I was unable to find an ISBN number for it.
From London to La Costa (and Lucca and Beyond) Part Three 