Sabino dialect

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Bold Italic (talk | contribs) at 20:59, 15 August 2009 (moved Cicolano-Reatino-Aquilano to Sabino dialect: Cicolano-Reatino-Aquilano is just a subtype of the Sabino dialect, and is covered in a section of the same page). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Sabino or Cicolano-Reatino-Aquilano is a Romance language spoken in Central Italy, exactly in an area which includes northern part of province of Aquila and the whole province of Rieti, with some linguistic islands in the Rome's one. It is a dialect of Central Italian, the one who keeps still Late Latin vocalism, also known as archaic vocalism.

Sabino
Aquilano, Reatino, Cicolano.
Native to Italy
RegionLazio (provinces of Rieti, Rome), Northern Abruzzo (province of Aquila)
Indo-European
Language codes
ISO 639-3

It is divided in three main groups, each one representing a local form of Sabino.

  • Aquilano (also known as Cicolano-Reatino-Aquilano): it is the most important dialect of Sabino and it is considered as the standard form. The area where it's spoken covers the largest part of Sabino's zone, in province of Rieti and in northern province of Aquila.
  • Carseolano or Sublacense, a form of Sabino spoken in province of Rome ((Subiaco) and in Carsoli.
  • Tagliacozzano, a transition form of Sabino with Southern Italian which is spoken in Tagliacozzo, Scurcola Marsicana and in upper Liri Valley.

Common features

  • Many authors consider Sabino as an independent group of Italian language distinguished from Central Italian. It is the only dialect which keeps the two affixes -o and -u of Late Latin, so there are words like cabaju 'horse', from latin caballus, and scrio 'I write', from Latin scribo.
  • In a large zone between Rieti and Aniene Valley local dialects keeps the Late Latin vocalic system: words in which stressed vowel are e or o the final affix is -o, in words in which stressed vowel are i or u the final affix is -u (riccu 'rich', novu 'new', omo 'man', otto 'eight').
  • Apocope of infinitive affixes: magnà(re) 'to eat', occìde(re) 'to kill', dormì(re), 'to sleep'.
  • Splitting of -RR- in Rieti district (tera < TERRA, 'soil').

See also