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{{Short description|Regional varieties of the Italian language}}
{{Italian language|state=expanded}}
'''Regional Italian''' ({{langx|it|italiano regionale}}, {{IPA|it|itaˈljaːno redʒoˈnaːle|pron}}) is any regional<ref group=note>"Regional" in the broad sense of the word; not to be confused with the Italian endonym {{wikt-lang|it|regione}}, for [[Regions of Italy|Italy's administrative units]].</ref> [[variety (linguistics)|variety]] of the [[Italian language]].

Such [[nonstandard dialect|vernacular varieties]] and standard Italian exist along a [[sociolect]] [[dialect continuum|continuum]], and are not to be confused with the local non-immigrant [[languages of Italy]]<ref group=note>Notwithstanding their linguistic status, most of the actual [[languages of Italy]] (with particular reference to the non-recognised ones) are called "dialects" ({{Wikt-lang|it|dialetto|dialetti}}) by the general population.</ref> that predate the national tongue or any regional variety thereof. Among these languages, the various [[Tuscan dialect|Tuscan]], [[Corsican language|Corsican]] and some [[Central Italian]] lects are, to some extent, the closest ones to standard Italian in terms of linguistic features, since the latter is based on a somewhat polished form of [[Florentine dialect|Florentine]].

The various forms of Regional Italian have phonological, [[Morphology (linguistics)|morphological]], [[Syntax|syntactic]], [[Prosody (linguistics)|prosodic]] and [[Lexicon (linguistics)|lexical]] features which originate from the underlying [[Stratum (linguistics)#Substratum|substrate]] of the original language of the locale.

== Regional Italian and the languages of Italy ==
The difference between Regional Italian and the actual [[languages of Italy]], often imprecisely referred to as [[dialect]]s, is exemplified by the following: in [[Venetian language|Venetian]], the language spoken in [[Veneto]], "we are arriving" would be translated into {{lang|vec|sémo drio rivàr}}, which is quite distinct from the Standard Italian {{lang|it|stiamo arrivando}}. In the regional Italian of Veneto, the same expression would be ''stémo rivando'' or ''siamo dietro ad arrivare''. The same relationship holds throughout the rest of Italy: the local version of standard Italian is usually influenced by the underlying local language, which can be very different from Italian with regard to [[phonology]], [[morphology (linguistics)|morphology]], [[syntax]], and [[vocabulary]].<ref>{{cite book|author=G. Berruto|title=Sociolinguistica dell'italiano contemporaneo|publisher=Carocci|year=2012|language=it|page=13}}.</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/italiano-regionale_(Enciclopedia-dell'Italiano)|title=Italiano regionale|access-date=7 June 2022|language=it}}</ref> Anyone who knows Standard Italian well can usually understand Regional Italian quite well, while not managing to grasp the regional languages.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.unistrada.it/docenti/24/MaterialeDidattico/2014/150/Litaliano%20regionale.pdf|title=L'italiano regionale|access-date=7 June 2022|language=it}}</ref>

== Origin ==
Many contemporary Italian regions already had different [[Stratum (linguistics)|substrates]] before the conquest of Italy and the islands by the ancient Romans: [[Northern Italy]] had a [[Ligurian language (ancient)|Ligurian]], [[Venetic]], [[Rhaetic]] and [[Celtic languages|Celtic]] substrate in the areas once known as [[Cisalpine Gaul]] ("Gaul on this side of the Alps"); [[Central Italy]] had an [[Osco-Umbrian languages|Umbrian]] and [[Etruscan language|Etruscan]] substrate; [[Southern Italy]] and [[Sicily]] had an [[Osco-Umbrian languages|Oscan]] and [[Italic languages|Italic]]-[[Greek language|Greek]] substrate respectively; and finally, [[Sardinia]] had an [[Paleo-Sardinian language|indigenous]] ([[Nuragic civilization|Nuragic]]) and [[Punic language|Punic]] substrate. These languages in their respective territories contributed in [[Creole genesis|creolising]] Latin, the official language of the [[Roman Empire]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.roberto-crosio.net/DIDATTICA_IN_RETE/latino_diff.htm|title=Evoluzione del latino e nascita delle lingue romanze in Europa.|access-date=7 June 2022|language=it}}</ref>

Even though the [[Sicilian School]], using the [[Sicilian language]], had been prominent earlier, by the 14th century the [[Tuscan dialect]] of [[Florence]] had gained prestige once [[Dante Alighieri]], [[Petrarch|Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch)]] and [[Giovanni Boccaccio]] all wrote major works in it: the ''[[Divine Comedy]]'', the {{lang|it|[[Il Canzoniere|Canzoniere]]}} and the ''[[The Decameron|Decameron]]''. Italian, defined as such, began to spread and be used as a literary and prestigious means of expression across the whole peninsula, Sicily and [[Corsica]] in the late [[Middle Ages]];<ref>Marazzini, {{lang|it|Breve storia della lingua italiana}}, 2004, cit., p. 54. {{in lang|it}}</ref> on the other hand, it would be introduced to Sardinia by a specific order only in the second half of the 18th century (1760), when the island's ownership passed over to the [[House of Savoy]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.lamiasardegna.it/storia-savoia.htm|title=La Sardegna agli Asburgo che la cedono ai Savoia ed inizia la lunga dominazione sabauda|access-date=7 June 2022|language=it}}</ref> It was up to [[Pietro Bembo]], a Venetian, to identify Florentine as ''the'' language for the peninsula in the {{lang|it|Prose nelle quali si ragiona della volgar lingua}} (1525), in which he set up Petrarch as the perfect model.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://library.weschool.com/lezione/bembo-prose-della-volgar-lingua-baldassar-castiglione-5995.html|title='Prose della volgar lingua' di Pietro Bembo: introduzione all'opera|access-date=7 June 2022|language=it}}</ref> Italian, however, was a literary language and so was a written rather than spoken language, except in Tuscany and Corsica.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.treccani.it/magazine/lingua_italiana/articoli/scritto_e_parlato/Europa15.html|title=La lingua dei còrsi: il volto di un'isola|access-date=7 June 2022|language=it}}</ref>

The popular diffusion of a unified Italian language was the main goal of [[Alessandro Manzoni]], who advocated for a single national language mainly derived from "cultured" Florentine language.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/lingua-dell-ottocento_%28Enciclopedia-dell%27Italiano%29/|title=Ottocento, lingua dell'|access-date=8 June 2022|language=it}}</ref> Having lived in Paris for many years, Manzoni had noticed that [[French language|French]] (defined as the capital's dialect) was a very lively language, spoken by ordinary people in the city's streets.<ref name="treccani">{{cite web|url=https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/alessandro-manzoni_(Enciclopedia-dell'Italiano)/|title=Manzoni, Alessandro|access-date=8 June 2022|language=it}}</ref> On the other hand, the only Italian city where even the commoners spoke something similar to literary Italian was Florence, so he thought that Italians should choose Florentine as the basis for the national language.<ref name="treccani"/>

The [[Italian history|Italian Peninsula's history]] of fragmentation and colonization by foreign powers (especially [[France]], [[Spain]] and the [[Austrian Empire]]) between the fall of the [[Western Roman Empire]] and its unification in 1861 played a considerable role in further jeopardizing the linguistic situation. When the unification process took place, the newly founded country used Italian mainly as a literary language.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://accademiadellacrusca.it/it/contenuti/una-di-lingua-un-percorso-espositivo-sulla-lingua-italiana-negli-anni-dell-unit-d-italia/2335|title=Una di lingua. Un percorso espositivo sulla lingua italiana negli anni dell'unità d'Italia|access-date=8 June 2022|language=it}}</ref> Many [[Romance languages|Romance]] and non-Romance [[regional language]]s were spoken throughout the Italian Peninsula and the islands, each with their own local dialects.

Italian as a spoken language was born in two "linguistic labs"<ref>Tullio De Mauro, ''Storia linguistica dell'Italia unita'', Bari, Laterza, 1963.</ref> consisting of the metropolitan areas in [[Milan]] and [[Rome]], which functioned as magnets for internal migration. Immigrants were only left with the national language as a [[lingua franca]] to communicate with both the locals and other immigrants. After unification, Italian started to be taught at primary schools and its use by ordinary people increased considerably, along with mass [[literacy]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/scolarizzazione_%28Enciclopedia-dei-ragazzi%29/|title=Scolarizzazione|access-date=8 June 2022|language=it}}</ref> The regional varieties of Italian, as a product of standard Italian mixing with the regional languages, were also born.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/language-centre/documents/levarietta/lettura_le_varieta__dell_italiano.pdf|title=Le varietà dell'italiano|access-date=8 June 2022|language=it}}</ref>

The various [[Languages of Italy|regional languages]] would be retained by the population as their normal means of expression until the 1950s, when breakthroughs in literacy and the advent of TV broadcasting made Italian become more and more widespread, usually in its regional varieties.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.treccani.it/magazine/lingua_italiana/speciali/divulgazione/Donfrancesco.html|title=Tv, dalla lingua educativa alla lingua Educational|access-date=8 June 2022|language=it}}</ref>

== Characteristics of regional Italian ==
[[File:La spezia-rimini line.png|upright=1.3|thumb|right|Rimini-La Spezia line]]
Establishing precise boundaries is very difficult in linguistics, and this operation at the limit can be accomplished for individual phenomena (such as the realization of a sound), but not for all of them: it is necessary to proceed in part by abstractions. In general, an [[isogloss]] is an imaginary line that marks the boundary of a linguistic phenomenon. The line traditionally referred to as [[La Spezia-Rimini line|La Spezia-Rimini]] (though it is currently moving to the Massa-Senigallia line) is an important isogloss for Southern Europe, which delimits a continuum of languages and dialects characterized by similar phenomena that differ from others for these same phenomena.<ref name="jplinguistics">{{cite web|url=https://www.jplinguistics.com/italian-language-and-culture/the-la-spezia-rimini-line-where-italian-varieties-collide|title=THE LA SPEZIA-RIMINI LINE: WHERE ITALIAN VARIETIES COLLIDE|access-date=10 June 2022}}</ref>

This imaginary line is used here to define not only a boundary between dialect groups, but also between Northern regional Italian on the one hand and Central and Southern regional Italian on the other.<ref name="jplinguistics"/> Other well-defined areas are the Tuscan, the [[Extreme Southern Italian]] (comprising the peninsular part of [[Calabria]], [[Salento]] and [[Sicily]]), and finally the Sardinian ones.<ref name="jplinguistics"/>

Based on borders like La Spezia-Rimini, here are the most well-identified groups of regional Italian.

=== Northern Italy ===
Northern regional Italian is characterized by a different distribution of the open and closed ''e'' and ''o'' ({{IPA|it|e, ɛ, o, ɔ|}}) compared to the Florentine model, particularly evident in [[Milan]], where the open ''e'' is pronounced at the end of the word (''perché'' {{IPA|it|perˈkɛ|}}) or in the word body in closed syllable (i.e. followed by consonant: ''stesso'' {{IPA|it|ˈstɛsso|}}) and the closed ''e'' in word body in open syllable (i.e. not followed by consonant: ''bene'' {{IPA|it|ˈbeːne|}}). Except for the extreme [[Riviera di Levante|Ligurian Levante]], in [[Liguria]], and especially in the capital, there is the opposite phenomenon: there is a tendency to close all the ''e'' even where the Italian standard does not exhibit it. In [[Genoa]] and [[Bologna]] for example the names ''Mattèo'', ''Irène'', ''Emanuèle'' and the name of the city itself are pronounced with the closed ''e''; moreover, there is no difference in the pronunciation of the word ''pesca'' either to mean "peach" (standard {{IPA|it|ˈpɛska|}}) and "fishing" (standard {{IPA|it|ˈpeska|}}), both pronounced {{IPA|it|ˈpeska|}}.

There is also a strong tendency to pronounce all the e's before a [[nasal consonant]] as closed (usually when the nasal consonant is in the same [[syllable]] of the e) so that /ɛ/ becomes /e/. Sempre (always) is pronounced as {{IPA|it|ˈsempre|}} in Northern Italy while the standard pronunciation is {{IPA|it
|ˈsɛmpre|}}, The only exceptions being the words that end in -enne and -emme
A characteristic of the North in opposition to the South is the almost always voiced ({{IPA|it|z|}}) consonant in intervocalic position, whereas in the south it is always voiceless: {{IPA|it|ˈkɔːza|}} vs. {{IPA|it|ˈkɔːsa|}}. Also in opposition to the south, the north is characterized by the reduction of phonosyntactic doubling at the beginning of the word (after vowels) and the almost total abandonment of the preterite tense in verb forms as it is not present in the majority of Gallo-italic languages (they are replaced by the present perfect).

Sometimes, for older speakers, northern varieties lack geminated consonants (see [[gemination]]), especially in [[Veneto]]. The lack of the gemination standardly found in combinations of prepositions + articles (e.g. alla, dello, sull' etc.) is very widespread in casual speech, resulting in "sull'albero" sounding like {{IPA|it|suˈlalbero|}} in contrast with the standard pronunciation {{IPA|it|sulˈlalbero|}}.

The consonants /ʃ, tʃ, dʒ/ are [[labialized]] in standard Italian ([ʃʷ, tʃʷ, dʒʷ]), but in northern varieties they're not.

Final N's (even  though they're not usually found in words with an Italian origin) are usually pronounced as [[velars]] in northern varieties, so the typical Venetian surname "Martin" is pronounced as {{IPA|it|marˈtiŋ|}} in Northern Italy but {{IPA|it|marˈtin|}} in Central and Southern Italy.

In some cases, certain unstressed vowels may be pronounced more subtly or reduced in Northern Italian varieties compared to standard Italian. One example is the pronunciation of the suffix -ano for conjugating a first conjugation verb (-are) to a third plural person (they), which most of the time is phonetically realized as {{IPA|[-ɐno]}}

Widespread use of [[determiner]]s before feminine names (''la Giulia'') is also noted in almost all the north while the determiner coupled with male names (''il Carlo'') is typical of the [[Po Valley]].

In the northern vocabulary words like ''anguria'' (also common in Sardinia and Sicily), which means "[[watermelon]]", instead of ''cocomero'', ''bologna'' for ''[[mortadella]]'' (but not everywhere), ''piuttosto che'' ("rather than") in the sense of "or" and not "instead", etc. are in use. The last, in particular, is a custom that has begun to spread also in other areas of Italy, stirring up linguistic concern,<ref>{{Cite web|title=Uso di piuttosto che con valore disgiuntivo - Consulenza Linguistica - Accademia della Crusca|url=https://accademiadellacrusca.it/it/consulenza/uso-di-piuttosto-che-con-valore-disgiuntivo/11|access-date=2022-02-13|website=accademiadellacrusca.it}}</ref> as it is used with a semantic sense in contrast to that of standard Italian.

=== Tuscany ===
In Tuscany and especially in [[Florence]], the [[Tuscan gorgia]] is very well known. That is, the [[lenition]] of the occlusive consonants in the post-vocalic position, including at the beginning of the word if the previous word ends up by vowel: ''la casa'' "the house" {{IPA|it-IT-52|la ˈhaːsa|}}, even to its total disappearance. Also phonological in nature are forms without the diphthong ''uo'' of Standard Italian (''ova'', ''scola'', ''bona'', ''foco'' instead of ''uova'', ''scuola'', ''buona'', ''fuoco''), while in the syntax a tripartite system of demonstrative adjectives is in use: ''questo'' ("this") to indicate something close to the speaker (first person), ''codesto'' (lost in other varieties) for something close to the contact person (second person), or ''quello'' "that" for something far from both (third person). A Tuscan stereotype is use of forms resembling the impersonal for the first person plural: ''(noi) si va'' instead of ''noi andiamo'' ("we are going"), past tense ''(noi) si è andati'', and use of ''te'' rather than ''tu'' as second person singular subject pronoun: ''Te che fai stasera?'' rather than ''Tu che fai stasera?'' ("What are you doing tonight?"). Also typical of several areas including Tuscany is the use of the article before a female given name (''la Elena'', ''la Giulia''); such use passed from Tuscany to other regions when used before the surname of well-known people, particularly of the past (''il [[Alessandro Manzoni|Manzoni]]''). In the vocabulary there is the use of ''spenge'' instead of ''spegne'' ("extinguishes") or words like ''balocco'' instead of ''giocattolo'' ("toy"), ''busse'' instead of ''percosse'' or ''botte'' ("beatings"), ''rena'' instead of ''sabbia'' ("sand"), ''cencio'' instead of ''panno'' ("cloth").

The Tuscan historical dialects (including [[Corsican language|Corsican]]) belong to the same linguistic system as Italian, with few substantial morphological, syntactic or lexical differences compared to the standard language. As a result, unlike further from Tuscany in Italy, there are no major obstacles to mutual intelligibility of the local Romance languages and Regional Italian.

=== Central Italy, Southern Italy and Sicily ===
Central and Southern regional Italian is characterized by the usage of the [[affricate consonant]]s in place of [[fricative consonant|fricative]]s after [[nasal consonant]]s (''insolito'' {{IPA|it|inˈtsɔːlito|}} instead of {{IPA|it|inˈsɔːlito|}}), and by the doubling of the ''g''<nowiki/>s and ''b''<nowiki/>s (''abile'' {{IPA|it|ˈabbile|}} instead of {{IPA|it|ˈaːbile|}}, ''regina'' {{IPA|it|redˈdʒiːna|}} instead of {{IPA|it|reˈdʒiːna|}}). A popular trait in the everyday southern speech is the usage of the [[apocope]] of the final syllable of the words, (''ma'<nowiki/>'' for ''mamma'' "mom", ''professo'<nowiki/>'' for ''professore'' "professor", ''compa'<nowiki/>'' for ''compare'' "buddy, homie" etc.).

In continental Southern Italy there is a different distribution of closed and open vowels (The pronunciation "giòrno" with an open ''o'' is very widespread in [[Campania]] for example), while in Calabria, Salento and Sicily closed vowels are completely missing and speakers just pronounce open vowels ({{IPA|it|ɛ, ɔ|}}), while in the other regions the discrepancies with the pronunciation Standards are minor (albeit relevant) and non-homogeneous; on the Adriatic side is more evident, as in certain areas of central-east [[Abruzzo]] (Chieti-Sulmona), largely in central-northern [[Apulia]] (Foggia-Bari-Taranto), and in eastern [[Basilicata]] (Matera) where it is present The so-called "syllabic isocronism": free syllable vowels are all pronounced closed and those in close syllables all open (see the well-known example ''un póco di pòllo'' instead of ''un pòco di póllo'' "a bit of chicken"); Even in the [[Teramo]] area (northern Abruzzo), and up to Pescara, the vowels are pronounced with a single open sound (for example ''dove volete andare stasera?'' {{IPA|it|ˈdɔːvɛ vɔˈlɛːtɛ anˈdaːrɛ staˈsɛːra|}}, Thus showing an inexplicable coincidence with the phonetic outcomes of Sicily and Calabria, although there is no direct link with them. As already mentioned here, the intervocalic s is always voiceless, and the use of the [[Preterite Tense|preterite]] is also frequent instead of the use of the [[present perfect]]. In continental southern Italy, from [[Rome]] down to Calabria, possessive pronouns often are placed after the noun: for example ''il libro mio'' instead of ''il mio libro'' ("my book").

Another characteristic of regional Italian varieties in central and southern Italy is [[deaffrication]] of /tʃ/ between vowels, both word-internally and across word boundaries. In almost all peninsular Italy from Tuscany to Sicily ''luce'' is pronounced {{IPA|it|ˈluːʃe|}} rather than {{IPA|it|ˈluːtʃe|}}, ''la cena'' is pronounced {{IPA|it|la ˈʃeːna|}} instead of {{IPA|it|la ˈtʃeːna|}} as it is pronounced in northern Italy and in standard Italian.

===Sardinia===
Based on the significant linguistic distance between the [[Sardinian language]] (and [[Sardinia#Languages|any other]] traditionally spoken by [[Sardinians|the islanders]]) and Italian, the Sardinian-influenced Italian emerging from the [[Prestige (sociolinguistics)#Language contact|contact]] between such languages is to be considered an [[ethnolect]] and [[sociolect]] of its own, as features divergent from Italian are local in origin, not attributable to more widespread Northern or Southern Italian varieties.<ref>{{Cite web|title=L'italiano nelle regioni in "L'Italia e le sue Regioni"|url=https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/l-italiano-nelle-regioni_(L%27Italia-e-le-sue-Regioni)|access-date=2022-02-13|website=www.treccani.it|language=it-IT}}</ref> While Sardinian phonetics and the introduction of Sardinian words in a full Italian conversation are prevalent, especially if they are Italianised in the process (e.g. {{lang|sc|tzurpu}} "blind" and ''scimpru'' "dumb" becoming ''ciurpo'' and ''scimpro''), the regional Sardinian variety of Italian embracing the most diverging syntactic and morphological changes is situated at the low end of the diastratic spectrum, and its usage, though relatively common among the less educated, is not positively valued by either bilingual Sardinian speakers, who regard it as neither Sardinian nor Italian and nickname it ''italianu porcheddìnu'' ("piggy Italian", standing for "broken Italian"), or Italian monolinguals from Sardinia and other parts of the country.

Sardinianised Italian is marked by the prevalence, even in common speech, of the verb's inversion, following rules of Sardinian (and Latin) but not Italian, which uses a [[subject-verb-object]] structure. The (often auxiliary) verb usually ends up at the end of the sentence, especially in exclamatory and interrogative sentences (e.g. ''Uscendo stai?'', literally "Going out are you?", from the Sardinian ''Essinde ses?'', instead of ''Stai uscendo?''; ''Studiando stavo!'' "Been studying have I!", from ''Istudiende fia!'', instead of ''Stavo studiando!''; ''Legna vi serve?'' "In need of some wood are you?" from ''Linna bos serbit?'', instead of ''Avete bisogno di un po' di legna?''). It is also common for interrogative sentences to use a pleonastic ''tutto'' "all", from the Sardinian ''totu'', as in ''Cosa tutto hai visto?'' "What all have you seen?" from ''Ite totu as bidu?'' compared with the standard Italian ''Cosa hai visto?''. The present continuous makes use of the verb ''essere'' "to be" as in English rather than ''stare'' (e.g. ''Sempre andando e venendo è!'' "Always walking up and down she/he is!" from ''Semper/Sempri andande e beninde est!'' compared with the standard Italian ''Sta sempre andando e venendo!''): that is because the present continuous built with verb ''stare'' does not, in such regional variety, express the idea of an action ongoing at a certain point, but rather something that will take place in the very near future, almost on the point of happening (e.g. ''Sto andando a scuola'' with the meaning of "I'm about to go to school" rather than "Right now as we speak, I'm going to school"). It is also common to use [[Antiphrasis|antiphrastic]] formulas which are alien to Italian,<ref>''Retorica e italiano regionale: il caso dell'antifrasi nell'italiano regionale sardo'', Cristina Lavinio, in Cortelazzo & Mioni 1990</ref> by means of the particle ''già'' (Sard. ''jai'' / ''giai'') which is similar to the [[German language|German]] use of ''ja... schon'' especially for ironic purposes, in order to convey sardonic remarks (e.g. ''Già sei tutto studiato, tu!'' "You're so well educated!" from ''Jai ses totu istudiatu, tue!'' which roughly stands for "You are so ignorant and full of yourself!", or ''Già è poco bello!'' "He/It is not so beautiful!" from ''Jai est pacu bellu!'' meaning actually "He/It is so beautiful!"). One also needs to take into consideration the presence of a number of other Sardinian-specific idiomatic phrases being literally translated into Italian (like ''Cosa sembra?'' "What does it look like?" from ''Ite paret?'' meaning "How do you do?" compared to the standard Italian ''Come stai?'', ''Mi dice sempre cosa!'' "She/He's always scolding me!" from the Sardinian ''Semper cosa mi narat!'' compared to the standard Italian ''Mi rimprovera sempre!'', or again ''Non fa!'' "No chance!" from ''Non fachet!'' / ''Non fait!'' compared to standard Italian ''Non si può!''), that would make little sense to an Italian speaker from another region.

As mentioned earlier, a significant number of Sardinian and other local loanwords (be they Italianised or not) are also present in regional varieties of Italian (e.g. ''porcetto'' from the Sardinian ''porcheddu'' / ''porceddu'', ''scacciacqua'' from the Sardinian ''parabba'' / ''paracua'' "raincoat", ''continente'' "Mainland" and ''continentale'' "Mainlander" with reference to the rest of the country and its people as well,<ref>''Grande dizionario della lingua italiana'', UTET, Torino, V. III, p.654</ref><ref>Antonietta Dettori, 2007, ''Tra identità e alterità. "Continente" e "continentale" in Sardegna'', in Dialetto, memoria & fantasia, Atti del Convegno (Sappada / Plodn, 28 giugno - 2 luglio 2006), a cura di G. Marcato, Padova, Unipress, pp. 393-403.</ref> etc.).

Some words may even reflect ignorance of the original language on the speaker's part when referring to a singular noun in Italian with Sardinian plurals, due to a lack of understanding of how singular and plurals nouns are formed in Sardinian: common mistakes are "una [[seada]]'''s'''", "un [[cantu a tenore|tenore]]'''s'''", etc.

Regarding phonology, the regional Italian spoken in Sardinia follows the same five-vowel system of the Sardinian language without length differentiation, rather than the standard Italian seven-vowel system. [[Metaphony]] has also been observed: tonic ''e'' and ''o'' ({{IPA|sc|e, o|}}) have a closed sound whenever they are followed by a closed vowel (''i'', ''u''), and they have it open if they are followed by an open one (''a'', ''e'', ''o''). [[Hypercorrection]] is also common when applying the Italian rule of [[syntactic gemination]]; intervocalic ''t'', ''p'', ''v'', ''c'' are usually elongated. Intervocalic {{IPA|/s/}} voicing is the same as in Northern Italy, that is {{IPA|[z]}}.

==See also==
{{Portal|Italy|Languages}}
* [[Italian language]]
* [[Languages of Italy]]
* [[Standard language]]

== Notes ==
{{Reflist|group=note}}

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== Bibliography ==
{{Refbegin}}
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* Bruni, Francesco: ''L'italiano nelle regioni'', Turin: UTET, 1992.
* Canepari. Luciano. 1983. ''Italiano standard a pronunce regionali.'' Padova: CLEUP. 
* Cardinaletti, Anna and Nicola Munaro, eds.: ''Italiano, italiani regionali e dialetti'', Milan: Franco Angeli, 2009.
* Comrie, Bernard, Matthews, Stephen and Polinsky, Maria: ''The Atlas of Languages: The Origin and Development of Languages Throughout the World. Rev. ed.'', New York 2003.
* Cortelazzo, Manlio and Carla Marcato, ''Dizionario etimologico dei dialetti italiani'', Turin: UTET libreria, 2005, {{ISBN|88-7750-039-5}}.
* Devoto, Giacomo and Gabriella Giacomelli: ''I dialetti delle regioni d'Italia'', Florence: Sansoni Editore, 1971 (3rd edition, Tascabili Bompiani, 2002).
* Grassi, Corrado, Alberto A. Sobrero and Tullio Telmon: ''Fondamenti di dialettologia italiana'', Bari: Laterza, 2012.
* Grimes, Barbara F. (ed.): ''Ethnologue: Languages of the World''. Vol. 1, 2000.
* Hall, Robert A. Jr.: ''External History of the Romance Languages'', New York: Elsevier, 1974.
* Haller, Hermann W.: ''The Hidden Italy: A Bilingual Edition of Italian Dialect Poetry'', Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1986. 
* Loporcaro, Michele: ''Profilo linguistico dei dialetti italiani'', Bari: Laterza, 2009.
* Maiden, Martin and Parry, Mair, eds.: ''The Dialects of Italy'', London: Routledge, 1997.
* Maiden, Martin: ''A Linguistic History of Italian'', London: Longman, 1995.
* Marcato, Carla: ''Dialetto, dialetti e italiano'', Bologna: il Mulino, 2002.
* Rognoni, Andrea: ''Grammatica dei dialetti della Lombardia'', [[Oscar Mondadori]], 2005.
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{{Languages of Italy}}
{{Italy topics}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Dialects of Italian| ]]
[[Category:Italian language]]
[[Category:Dialect levelling]]