Neapolitan language

Neapolitan (Neapolitan: nnapulitano, Italian: napoletano) is a Romance language spoken in the city of Naples (Neapolitan: Napule, Italian: Napoli), Italy and the surrounding areas of the Campania region. As of 1976, there were 7,047,399 native speakers (some recent estimates range as high as 7,800,000). There are many dialects of Neapolitan, and the language as a whole has often fallen victim of its status as a "language without prestige", that is, it gets classified as a dialect itself.

It is generally considered a Western Romance language, although some postulate a Southern Romance classification. There are notable grammatical differences from standard Italian in Neapolitan such as neutral nouns, no distinct plural articles, and unique plural formation. Its evolution has been similar to that of Italian and other Romance languages from roots in Vulgar Latin. It has also developed with a pre-Latin Oscan influence, which is noticeable in the pronunciation of the d sound as an r sound (rhotacism) (eg.- vere (to see), care (to fall), Maronna (Madonna)). Neapolitan has many loanwords from Arabic and Spanish.

Neapolitan has enjoyed a rich literary, musical and theatrical history (notably Giambattista Basile, Eduardo de Filippo, and Totò).

The language has no legal status within Italy and thus may not be taught in state run schools. Efforts are being made to change this, including a bid in 2003 to have a Neapolitan curriculum offered at the Università Federico II in Naples. This attempt was defeated with the comment that Neapolitan was a "low-class" language. There are also ongoing legislative attempts at the national level to have it recognized as an official minority language of Italy. It is however an officially recognized ISO 639 Joint Advisory Committee language with the language code of NAP.

Neapolitan is often conflated with Calabrian, the language of the region of Calabria, which is reported to be markedly different and has had an independent development and literary history.

For comparison, The Lord's Prayer is here reproduced in Neapolitan, Northern and Southern Calabrian and Italian.

Neapolitan Northern Calabrian Southern Calabrian Italian
Pate nuoste ca staje ncielo, Patre nuorru chi sta ntru cielu, Tata nostru chi' sini nt'o celu, Padre Nostro, che sei nei cieli,
santificammo 'o nomme tujo chi sia santificatu u nume tuoio, ù si tena pe' santu u noma toi, sia santificato il tuo nome.
faje vení 'o regno tujo, venisse u riegnu tuoio, ù vena u rregnu toi, Venga il tuo regno,
sempe c' 'a vuluntà toja, se facisse a vuluntà tuoia, ù si facia a voluntà sia fatta la tua volontà,
accussí ncielo e nterra. sia ntru cielu ca nterra. com'esta nt'o celu, u stessa sup'a terra. come in cielo, così in terra.
Fance avè 'o ppane tutt' 'e juorne Ranne oje u pane nuorro e tutti i juorni, Dùnandi ped oja u pana nostru e tutti i juorna Dacci oggi il nostro pane quotidiano,
lèvece 'e rièbbete perdunacce i rebita nuorri, e' pardùnandi i debiti, e rimetti a noi i nostri debiti,
comme nuje 'e llevamme all'ate, cumu nue perdunammu i rebituri nuorri. comu nù nc'i perdunamu ad i debituri nostri. come noi li rimettiamo ai nostri debitori.
nun nce fa spantecà, Un ce mannare ntra tentazione, On nci dassara nt'a tentazioni, E non ci indurre in tentazione,
e llevace 'o male 'a tuorno. ma liberacce e ru male. ma liberandi d'o mala ma liberaci dal male.
Amen. Ammèn. Ammèn. Amen.

External links


nl:Napolitaans

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