Language in Sant'Angelo, Avellino, 1868

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ElleMo
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Language in Sant'Angelo, Avellino, 1868

Post by ElleMo »

I would like to find more information about the languages/dialects in Italy in the 1800s. Can anyone direct me to where I can get more info.

Specifically, I would like to find out what dialect my great great-grandparents and their parents would have been speaking in 1868 when my Great Grandmother was born.

I assume they would be speaking a Neapolitan dialect. I've seen reference to Irpino/Irpinian dialect (a dialect of Neopolitan???) but cannot find any information from a reliable source.

Is that what they would have spoken? Would they have learned standardize Italian too?

They were laborers and farmers; my great grandmother never attended school; not sure about her husband, my great grandfather
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suanj
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Re: Language in Sant'Angelo, Avellino, 1868

Post by suanj »

I know many people coming from Avellino province; as a well of all Campania provinces.
The matrix of the dialect is certainly Neapolitan, but the dialect of Avellino provice is most similar to Benevento's province dialect rather than pure Neapolitan dialect.
The differences are,
first of all by the tone of voice, which is more normal,
the words are not screaming if there is no need...
The vowels are slightly less open, and the triphthongs are no much used, instead in Naples many words having the triphthongs...
we can say that the Avellino dialect is like the Neapolitan dialect but softer.. Surely in the past, ordinary people knew very few Italian words and spoke almost exclusively of the dialect.. My grandfather was born and lived in the

in a province bordering on that of Avellino, he was born in 1882 if I remember very well, and I don't remember just one time that he spoke italian, just the dialect. I believe tha was so in all Italy, because even though they were literates, normality was the dialect. the Italian was pertinent to mayors, doctors, notaries and priests. Italians learned in elementary schools were used to write a letter, make a written question, but to put it completely, it remained in memory but it was not used much... When I did elementary schools, the teacher told us all that we had to speak Italian at home, in the family, because otherwise we thought in dialect and had to translate into Italian .... It was hard to speak Italian in the family, because they mocked us.

I am pretty sure that in old time the simple people of Avellino province only spoke dialect...

Over the years some words will disappear, others will be coined, because the dialect is a language, and as long as it is not abandoned by everyone, it evolves just like a Language...
But the dialect has always been preferred, because it is picturesque, immediately comprehensible to natives, it is concise, and has the heritage of the entire province past history....

I don't believe that is possible to find something online, but the better sources are the local songs, dialectical poems, especially if old, because they keep the pronunciation intact...
Best regards,
suanj
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ElleMo
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Re: Language in Sant'Angelo, Avellino, 1868

Post by ElleMo »

Thank you!
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