The dialect of Castelmezzano is a Romance variety spoken in
Castelmezzano in the
Province of Potenza in
Italy
Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...
. It constitutes a dialect of the
Neapolitan language
Neapolitan (Exonym and endonym, autonym: ; ) is a Romance language of the Italo-Romance languages, Italo-Romance group spoken in most of continental Southern Italy. It is named after the Kingdom of Naples, which once covered most of the area, ...
that differs from the rest (and from neighbouring imported
Gallo-Italic varieties) in its treatment of Latin back vowels, showing an evolution more reminiscent of
Eastern Romance: Latin /ŭ/ merges with /ū/ rather than with /ō/.
Castelmezzano is but the kernel of an
area
Area is the measure of a region's size on a surface. The area of a plane region or ''plane area'' refers to the area of a shape or planar lamina, while '' surface area'' refers to the area of an open surface or the boundary of a three-di ...
, dubbed the by
Lausberg, which shares the same vowel development. It includes
Castronuovo di Sant'Andrea,
Sant'Arcangelo,
Roccanova,
San Martino d'Agri,
Aliano (and
Alianello),
Gallicchio,
Missanello,
Armento,
Pietrapertosa,
Anzi,
Campomaggiore,
Albano di Lucania,
Trivigno,
Brindisi di Montagna,
Corleto Perticara and
Guardia Perticara.
This type of vocalism may once have been characteristic of most of southern Italy and possibly even other areas that now have
Italo-Western vowel outcomes.
It can be viewed as a compromise, in that it has a Sardinian-like treatment of the back vowels, as is also observed in the
southern part of the Lausberg area, while also having an Italo-Western-like treatment of the front vowels (merging Latin /ĭ/ with /ē/), as found in other varieties of Neapolitan.
Comparison of vowel changes
A comparison of vowel changes shows only limited relatability of the languages and the dialect yet Dalmatian sound changes may sometimes differ from the usual phonological development that can be ascertained.
References
Italo-Dalmatian languages
Neapolitan language
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