Dialects that maintain a distinction between final /-u/ and /-o/ are outlined in red.
Area Perimediana
Area Mediana
Central Italian (Italian: dialetti mediani), or Latin–Umbrian–Marchegian and in Italian linguistics as "middle Italian dialects", refers to a language variety or group of dialects of Italo-Romance spoken in the so-called Area Mediana, which covers a swathe of the central Italian peninsula. Area Mediana is also used in a narrower sense to describe the southern part, in which case the northern one may be referred to as the Area Perimediana, a distinction that will be made throughout this article. The two areas are split along a line running approximately from Rome in the southwest to Ancona in the northeast.[1]
In the early Middle Ages, Central Italian extended north into Romagna and covered all of modern-day Lazio. Since then, however, some of the dialects spoken in those areas have been assimilated into Gallo-Italic and Southern Italo-Romance respectively.[2] In addition, the dialect of Rome has undergone considerable Tuscanization from the fifteenth century onwards, such that it has lost many of its Central Italian features.[3][4]
Except for its southern fringe, the Area Mediana is characterized by a contrast between the final vowels /-u/ and /-o/, which distinguishes it from both the Area Perimediana and from Southern Italo-Romance.[6][7] Cf. Spoletine[ˈkreːto,ˈtittu] < Latin crēdō, tēctum 'I believe, roof'. An additional isogloss that runs along the border between the two areas, but often overlaps it in either direction, is that of post-nasal plosive voicing, as in [manˈt̬ellu] 'cloak'. This is a feature that the Area Mediana shares with neighbouring Southern Italo-Romance.[8]
In the Area Mediana are found the following vocalic phenomena:
In most areas, stressed mid-vowels are raised by one degree of aperture if the following syllable contains either /u/ or /i/. This is referred to as 'Sabine metaphony'. Compare the following examples from the Ascrean dialect:[9][10]
[meːla,miːlu] 'apples, apple'
[ʃpoːsa,ʃpuːsu] 'wife, husband'
[wɛcca,weccu] 'old' (F/M)
[nᴐːwa,noːwu] 'new' (F/M)
In a few areas, metaphony results in diphthongization for stressed low-mid vowels, while high-mids undergo normal raising to /i,u/. Compare the following examples from the Nursine dialect:[10]
[metto,mitti] 'I put, you put'
[soːla,suːlu] 'alone' (F/M)
[bbɛlla,bbjɛjju] 'beautiful' (F/M)
[mᴐrte,mwᴐrti] 'death, dead (PL)'
Southeast of Rome, around Nemi, low-mid vowels undergo metaphonic diphthongization, while high-mids resist raising to /i,u/. This was also the case for Old Romanesco, which had alternations such as /ˈpɛde,ˈpjɛdi/ 'foot, feet'.[11][10]
In some areas with Sabine metaphony, if a word has a stressed mid-vowel, then final /-u/ lowers to /-o/ in a sort of height-based vowel harmony. Compare */ˈbɛllu,ˈfreddu/ > /ˈbeʎʎu,ˈfriddu/ (metaphony) > Tornimpartese/ˈbeʎʎo,ˈfriddu/ 'beautiful, cold'.[12][13]
Sound-changes (or lack thereof) that distinguish most or all of Central Italian from Tuscan include the following, many of them shared with Southern Italo-Romance:[14][13]
/nd/ > /nn/, as in Latin vēndere > [ˈwenne] 'to sell'.
/mb,nv/ > /mm/, as in Latin plumbum > [ˈpjummu] 'lead'.
/ld/ > /ll/, as in Latin cal(i)da > [ˈkalla] 'hot'.
Retention of /j/, as in Latin Maium > [ˈmaːju] 'May'.
/mj/ > /ɲ(ɲ)/, as in Latin vindēmia > [wenˈneɲɲa] 'grape harvest'.
/rj/ > /r/, as in Latin caprārium > [kraˈpaːru] 'goatherd'.
Sound-changes with a limited distribution within the Area Mediana include:[15]
/ɡ-/ > /j/ or ∅, as in Latin cattum > [ˈɡattu] > Nursine[ˈjjattu], Reatine[ˈattu] 'cat'.
/ɡn/ > /(i̯)n/, as in Latin agnum, ligna > Tagliacozzese/ˈai̯nu,ˈlena/ 'lamb, firewood'.
/d,v/ > ∅ word-initially and intervocalically, as in Latin dentem, vaccam, crudum, ovum > /ɛnteakkakruːou/ in Rieti and L'Aquila.
Around Terni, and to its immediate northeast, this deletion only applies in intervocalic position.
In the north of the Area Perimediana, a number of Gallo-Italic features are found:[16]
/a/ > /ɛ/ in stressed open syllables, as in /ˈpa.ne/ > /ˈpɛ.ne/ 'bread', around Perugia and areas to its north.[17][note 1]
In the same area, habitual reduction or deletion of vowels in unstressed internal syllables, as in /ˈtrappole/ > /ˈtrapp(ə)le/ 'traps'.
Voicing of intervocalic /t/ to /d/ and degemination of long consonants around Ancona and to its west.[18]
In both of the aforementioned areas: lack, or reversal, of the sound-changes /nd/ > /nn/ and /mb,nv/ > /mm/ that are found in the rest of Central Italian.[18]
The following changes to final vowels are found in the Area Perimediana:
/-u/ > /-o/, as in Latin musteum > Montelaghese[ˈmoʃʃo], everywhere except for a small 'island' around Pitigliano.[19]
/-i/ > /-e/, as in /iˈkani/ > /eˈkane/ 'the dogs', in some of the dialects situated along a long arc from Montalto di Castro in the southwest to Fabriano in the northeast.[17][20]
In part of the Area Mediana, below a line running northeast from Rome to Rieti and Norcia, the 3PL ending of non-first conjugation verbs is, unusually, /-u/ (rather than /-o/), which acts as a trigger for metaphony. Cf. Latin vēndunt > Leonessan[ˈvinnu] 'they sell'.[21][22]
In the same area, a series of irregular first-conjugation verbs also show 3PL /-u/ (as opposed to the /-o/ or /-onno/ found elsewhere). Examples include [au,dau,fau,vau] 'they have/give/do/go'.[23]
Latin fourth-declension nouns have been retained as such in many cases. Cf. Latin manum, manūs 'hand(s)' > Fabrichese[ˈmaːno] (invariant) and Latin fīcum, fīcūs 'fig(s)' > Canepinese[ˈfiːko] (invariant).[24]
Latin neuters of the -um/-a type survive more extensively than in Tuscan. Cf. Latin olīvētum, olīvēta > Roiatese[liˈviːtu,leˈveːta] 'olive-grove(s)'. Even originally non-neuter nouns are sometimes drawn into this class, as in Latin hortum, hortī > Segnese[ˈᴐrto,ˈᴐrta] 'garden(s)'.[25][note 2]
The plurals, which are grammatically feminine, are replaced by the feminine ending /-e/ in some dialects, leading to outcomes such as Spoletine [ˈlabbru,ˈlabbre] 'lip(s)'. Both plurals may also alternate within the same dialect, as in Treiese[ˈᴐːa~ˈᴐːe] 'eggs'.
The Latin neuter plural /-ora/, as in tempora 'times', was extended to several other words in medieval times, but today the phenomenon is limited to areas such as Serrone, where one finds cases like [ˈraːmo,ˈraːmora] 'branch(es)'. In Serviglianese, the final vowel changes to /-e/, as in [ˈfiːko,ˈfiːkore] 'fig(s)'.
In several dialects, final syllables beginning with /n/, /l/, or /r/ may be deleted in masculine nouns. In varieties such as Matelicese, this occurs only in the singular, not the plural, leading to outcomes such as */paˈtrone,paˈtroni/ > [paˈtro,paˈtruːni] 'lord, lords'. In varieties such as Serviglianese, this deletion occurs both in the singular and the plural, resulting in [paˈtro,paˈtru], with metaphony-induced vowel distinctions remaining as a marker of number.[26]
Loporcaro, Michele; Paciaroni, Tania (2016). "The dialects of central Italy". In Ledgeway, Adam; Maiden, Martin (eds.). The Oxford guide to the Romance languages. Oxford University Press. pp. 228–245. doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199677108.003.0015.
Vignuzzi, Ugo (1997). "Lazio, Umbria, and the Marche". In Maiden, Martin; Parry, Mair (eds.). The dialects of Italy. London: Routledge. pp. 311–320.