Genoese Dialect

Genoese Dialect

Genoese (Zeneize) is a dialect of the Ligurian language, the one spoken in Genoa (the principal city of the Liguria region in Italy).

Ligurian is listed by Ethnologue as a language in its own right, of the Romance branch, and not to be confused with the ancient Ligurian language. Like the languages of Lombardy, Piedmont, and surrounding regions, it is of Gallo-Italic derivation.

In its differences from standard Italian, Genoese is somewhat similar to French. The language is far from dying out. While most remaining speakers of it are elderly, many young people still speak the language. Further, there are several associations dedicated to keeping the language alive. One such association is O Castello in Chiavari, Genoa, Italy.

Written literature has been produced in Genoese since the thirteenth century, but the spelling has never been regularized. However, since 2008 there is an official orthography set up by the Académia Ligùstica do Brénno, which attempts to put its script in order based on citizen speech of the Portoria area. Their rules, which may be seen here, are useful to write in all Ligurian language varieties.

Genoese phonology includes a number of similarities with French. One of these is the heavily nasalized vowels before nasal consonants (i.e. in VN(C) sequences). This also occurs when Genoese speakers speak standard Italian. There used to be an alveolar approximant (English-like) /ɹ/ opposed to an alveolar trill /r/ (using the eighteenth century genoese spelling: caro "dear" vs. carro "cart"), but it is no longer heard in the city. It may still survive in some rural areas of Liguria, such as Calizzano and Sassello. Audio samples may be heard here. By far the most widespread type of /r/ today is the alveolar tap (identical to unstressed Standard Italian /r/). There are several distinctive local accents of Genoese. Nervi, Quinto and Quarto are heard to the east of Genoa. Voltri, Prà, Pegli and Sestri are heard to the west. There are also accents of the central Polcevera Valley and Bisagno.

Genoese is also an influence on the Llanito vernacular of Gibraltar.