Tarantino Dialect - History

History

The Tarantino dialect traces its origins into ancient times, when the territory was dominated by Messapii populations.

The colonization of the Greeks founded Taranto not only as the capital of Magna Graecia but as a center of poetry and theatre. The Greeks had left considerable influence on Tarantino, both lexical and morpho-syntax, and a very peculiar accent that scholars had to correspond to it with Doric. These influences are still found in many Tarantino words of Greek origin.

Subsequently, the city of Taranto became a Roman city, thus introducing much vulgar vocabulary.

During the Byzantine and Lombard periods, Tarantino acquired a unique approach to the time period: the o pronunciation changed to ue and the e pronunciation changed to ie; thus Tarantino vocabulary was further enriched with new words.

With the arrival of the Normans in 1071 and the Angevins all the way through to 1400, the dialect lost much of its eastern influences and was influenced by French and Gallo-Italic elements.

By the Middle Ages, the city became a Saracen domain with the consequent introduction of Arabic words. In 1502, Taranto went under Catalan-Aragonese rule.

In 1801 the city was once again under the dominion of French troops, who left their mark with their Franco-Provençal language.

Taranto has long been linked to the Kingdom of Naples, which would explain some words in common with the Neapolitan language. The Arab influences, combined with the French and Latin, have led to a massive de-sonorisation of voice, turning them into semi-mutations, which can cause a significant increase in phonetics of the consonant links .