guy Posted December 1, 2012 Report Share Posted December 1, 2012 The year 2011 marked the 150th anniversary of modern Italy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bryaxis Hecatee Posted December 2, 2012 Report Share Posted December 2, 2012 Yes it's quite noticeable when you stay for a bit of time outside of the main touristic areas. In Sicily last month I had a guide on the punic island of Motya who did recite sicilian poetri in the dialect, I'm not bad in Italian (at least for understanding it, and I'am understood by most peoples there) but it was really quite different. I was with a couple from the Genova area and they told us they could hardly understand it, in fact I was almost understanding it better than they did ! Beside the pronunciation there are also sentences which are rather different, expressions in greeting, in daily politeness, etc... which are quite different, it was really noticeable when I made the gap from Sicily to Rome in one night ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melvadius Posted December 2, 2012 Report Share Posted December 2, 2012 Although not as pronounced (no pun intended) differences in dialect are a feature of most countries not just Italy. A good few years back my parents had good friends who happened to be native Gaelic speakers from different islands in the Outer Hebrides in Scotland. The wife turned to her husband and asked him to do something when they were round for a 'formal' meal. She asked the question in Gaelic so not being Gaelic speakers they didn't understand but apparently neither did the husband since when he got out another table cloth the wife changed back into English and said why he had got that out instead of a napkin like she asked. It was only in the ensuing discussion that they realised that the same word meant different things on the islands they came from in their local Gaelic dialects - despite actually being only a few miles apart. In English there are still some regional differences in dialect which have not been removed by the ubiquitus presence of TV's but they are tending to smooth out despite the continuing adolesent desire to have a new 'language' format using slang words. All that tends to mean is that there is a faster turnover in words and phrases in 'common' usage but many of the older words and phrases keep coming back. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Artimi Posted December 2, 2012 Report Share Posted December 2, 2012 (edited) this discussion has been very interesting. My parents came from 2 different villages in Ukraine. there some differences in nouns that I remember. The word for potatoe was totally different in each village and totally different from 'standard' Ukrainian. When trying to learn Russian at University, our professor gave nice little interesting tidbits of knowledge. The vowel 'o' changed radically from north to central to southern Russian. Since at that point I still understood Ukrainian, learning Russian proved far harder than trying to learn French... Unfortunately I never continued learning any foreign language. But I keep trying to learn Latin... I think I will be fluent when I am about 105 years old :D/>/> Edited December 2, 2012 by Artimi Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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