Salentino () is a dialect of the
Extreme Southern Italian ( in Italian)
spoken in the
Salento
Salento (Salentino: ''Salentu'', Salentino Griko: ''Σαλέντο'') is a cultural, historical and geographic region at the southern end of the administrative region of Apulia in Southern Italy. It is a sub-peninsula of the Italian Peninsula, ...
peninsula, which is the southern part of the region of
Apulia
it, Pugliese
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at the southern "heel" of the Italian peninsula.
Overview
Salentino is a dialect of the
Extreme Southern Italian language group (in Italian ''Italiano meridionale estremo''). It is thus closer to the
Southern Calabrian dialect and the dialects of
Sicily
(man) it, Siciliana (woman)
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than to the geographically less distant dialects of central and northern
Apulia
it, Pugliese
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.
The traditional areas where Salentino is spoken are the aforementioned
Province of Lecce
The Province of Lecce ( it, Provincia di Lecce; Salentino: ) is a province in the Apulia region of Italy whose capital is the city of Lecce. The province is called the "Heel of Italy". Located on the Salento peninsula, it is the second most-p ...
, much of the southern part of the province of
Brindisi
Brindisi ( , ) ; la, Brundisium; grc, Βρεντέσιον, translit=Brentésion; cms, Brunda), group=pron is a city in the region of Apulia in southern Italy, the capital of the province of Brindisi, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea.
Histo ...
, and the southern part of
Taranto
Taranto (, also ; ; nap, label=Tarantino, Tarde; Latin: Tarentum; Old Italian: ''Tarento''; Ancient Greek: Τάρᾱς) is a coastal city in Apulia, Southern Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Taranto, serving as an important comme ...
province.
History
The Salentino dialect is a product of the different powers and/or populations that have had a presence in the peninsula over the centuries: indigenous
Messapian,
Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic pe ...
,
Roman
Roman or Romans most often refers to:
* Rome, the capital city of Italy
* Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD
*Roman people, the people of ancient Rome
*''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lett ...
,
Byzantine Greek
Medieval Greek (also known as Middle Greek, Byzantine Greek, or Romaic) is the stage of the Greek language between the end of classical antiquity in the 5th–6th centuries and the end of the Middle Ages, conventionally dated to the Ottoman c ...
,
Lombard,
French
French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to France
** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents
** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...
and
Spanish
Spanish might refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
**Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries
**Spanish cuisine
Other places
* Spanish, Ontario, Can ...
influences are all, to differing levels, present in the modern dialect, but the
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
substratum has had a particular impact on the phonology and the lexicon of this language. Salentino is thus a derivative of local dialects of
Vulgar Latin
Vulgar Latin, also known as Popular or Colloquial Latin, is the range of non-formal registers of Latin spoken from the Late Roman Republic onward. Through time, Vulgar Latin would evolve into numerous Romance languages. Its literary counterpa ...
, with a strong Greek substratum.
During the
Middle Ages
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...
, the area was home to both
Romance
Romance (from Vulgar Latin , "in the Roman language", i.e., "Latin") may refer to:
Common meanings
* Romance (love), emotional attraction towards another person and the courtship behaviors undertaken to express the feelings
* Romance languages, ...
-based dialects - the precursors to the modern Salentino - and
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
-based dialects in roughly equal measure. The areas of Greek speech have retreated over time, but the Salento remains one of two areas of southern Italy, the other being southern Calabria, where the
Griko
Griko, sometimes spelled Grico, is the dialect of Italiot Greek spoken by Griko people in Salento (province of Lecce) and (also called Grecanic) in Calabria. Some Greek linguists consider it to be a Modern Greek dialect and often call it ( el, ...
dialect can still be heard in some villages (today known collectively as the
Grecia Salentina).
Characteristics
The term ''Salentino'' should be considered a general word to describe the various
Romance
Romance (from Vulgar Latin , "in the Roman language", i.e., "Latin") may refer to:
Common meanings
* Romance (love), emotional attraction towards another person and the courtship behaviors undertaken to express the feelings
* Romance languages, ...
vernaculars of the Salento peninsula, rather than one to describe a unified standard language spoken throughout the area. Indeed, in common with most other Italian languages, there are no agreed standards for spelling, grammar or pronunciation, with each locality and even generation having its own peculiarities. What unites the various local dialects of the Salento is their shared differences from the dialects further north in
Apulia
it, Pugliese
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, such as the
Tarantino
Quentin Jerome Tarantino (; born March 27, 1963) is an American film director, writer, producer, and actor. His films are characterized by stylized violence, extended dialogue, profanity, dark humor, non-linear storylines, cameos, ensemble ...
and
Barese dialect, and their similarities with other varieties of Sicilian, particularly those found in
Calabria
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. In Sicily efforts have been made by the
non-profit
A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...
Cadèmia Siciliana to standardise the orthography for written insular Sicilian. They have also adopted a 'polycentric' approach which suggests that Salentino should have its own orthography within a family of Sicilian orthographies.
Contemporary authors
Orazio Testarotta di Taviano (1870-1964): his real name is Oronzo Miggiano. The pseudonym by which it is known was chosen for specific reasons: the name Horace refers to the
Latin poet with whom he shares the satirical character of his works; while Testarotta is the Italian translation of the ''capiruttu dialect because'' it always fell to the ground. His is a poem that uses satire to denounce the political and social situation of the time. In fact, there are three fundamental themes on which it is based: the political and social condition from
fascism
Fascism is a far-right, authoritarian, ultra-nationalist political ideology and movement,: "extreme militaristic nationalism, contempt for electoral democracy and political and cultural liberalism, a belief in natural social hierarchy and t ...
to the
republican age; the condition of the people in relation to the economy; the industrial and technological progress that disrupts the entire system.
Giuseppe Susanna (1851-1929): his poetry has an ideological and progressive function, therefore in stark contrast to the previous dialectal poetry. The main objective in susanna's works is the
emancipation of the proletariat and
peasants
A peasant is a pre-industrial agricultural laborer or a farmer with limited land-ownership, especially one living in the Middle Ages under feudalism and paying rent, tax, fees, or services to a landlord. In Europe, three classes of peasants ...
, based on a language no longer sentimental like that of the late 1800s.
Pietro Gatti di Ceglie Messapica
Pietro is an Italian masculine given name. Notable people with the name include:
People
* Pietro I Candiano (c. 842–887), briefly the 16th Doge of Venice
* Pietro Tribuno (died 912), 17th Doge of Venice, from 887 to his death
* Pietro II Ca ...
(1913-2013): together with Nicola G. De Donno and Erminio Caputo, he is one of the greatest representatives of that generation of authors who worked especially in the post-war period. It is a period characterized by greater freedom of writing and continuous experimentation. Above all, dialect poetry was radically renewed, now characterized by strong individualism and
subjectivism
Subjectivism is the doctrine that "our own mental activity is the only unquestionable fact of our experience", instead of shared or communal, and that there is no external or objective truth.
The success of this position is historically attribute ...
.
Nicola Giuseppe De Donno di Maglie (1920-2004): he is part of the generation of authors born between 1915 and 1930. In his works he deals with very current themes and problems, ranging from
autobiographism to satire to
religious
Religion is usually defined as a social- cultural system of designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relates humanity to supernatur ...
or
social topics. It uses dialect as an autonomous language, free from any expressive compromise.
Erminio Caputo (born in Campobasso, in 1921): he also belongs to the generation of writers born in the first thirty years of the century. Born to Salento parents, he settled in
Lecce
Lecce ( ); el, label= Griko, Luppìu, script=Latn; la, Lupiae; grc, Λουπίαι, translit=Loupíai), group=pron is a historic city of 95,766 inhabitants (2015) in southern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Lecce, the provi ...
in 1965, after occasional stays in
Tuscany
it, Toscano (man) it, Toscana (woman)
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and marche. Unlike De Donno, who was an important point of reference for him, his is a
predominantly religious poetics, linked not so much to the external reality that surrounds him, but to the inner, intimate reality of the soul.
See also
*
Salento
Salento (Salentino: ''Salentu'', Salentino Griko: ''Σαλέντο'') is a cultural, historical and geographic region at the southern end of the administrative region of Apulia in Southern Italy. It is a sub-peninsula of the Italian Peninsula, ...
*
Apulia
it, Pugliese
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*
Griko language
Griko, sometimes spelled Grico, is the dialect of Italiot Greek spoken by Griko people in Salento (province of Lecce) and (also called Grecanic) in Calabria. Some Greek linguists consider it to be a Modern Greek dialect and often call it ( el, � ...
*
Magna Graecia
Magna Graecia (, ; , , grc, Μεγάλη Ἑλλάς, ', it, Magna Grecia) was the name given by the Romans to the coastal areas of Southern Italy in the present-day Italian regions of Calabria, Apulia, Basilicata, Campania and Sicily; the ...
*
Catepanate of Italy
The Catepanate (or Catapanate) of Italy ( el, ''Katepaníkion Italías'') was a province of the Byzantine Empire from 965 until 1071. At its greatest extent, it comprised mainland Italy south of a line drawn from Monte Gargano to the Gulf of S ...
References
{{Romance languages
Extreme Southern Italian dialects
Language
Language is a structured system of communication. The structure of a language is its grammar and the free components are its vocabulary. Languages are the primary means by which humans communicate, and may be conveyed through a variety of ...