NEAPOLITAN - A Language of Southern ITALY

[@Langfocus]

Go to ground.news/langfocus to stay fully informed on breaking news and to compare coverage. Sign up for free or subscribe through my link before Oct 10, 2023 for 30% off unlimited access.

[@F.D.R48483]

Of course if you don't also dedicate a video to Sicilian which is a language with more than 5 varieties and dialects as many as there are municipalities in Sicily... it makes you a little angry

[@nyko921]

​​@@F.D.R48483actually the sicilian language also comprehends the dialects of southern calabria and Salento. Anyway it makes sense for him to have done a video about neapolitan first, since it has more speakers (being the second most spoken language in Italy with 7 millions of them (sicilian has 5 million)) and being arguably the second most influential italian language (after italian) influencing many terms of the Italian-American community, such as gabagool, mutsarell, arugula, fazool, rigott etc. Also, every italian language changes from town to town, sicilian isn't special.

[@F.D.R48483]

Quando citavo le varietà...intendevo proprio calabrese e salentino👍🏼 (Tecnicamente è la prima lingua neolatina poetica d'Italia...la scuola poetica siciliana Federico II... E comunque bisognerebbe capire che le varietà insulari (e non) sono così diverse da parlare di gruppo "siculo-romanzo"...non si tratta solo diversità lessicali ma anche grammaticali: Io italiano Eju,jeu,je,j,iu,eu,ju,jo (Solo per dire) Oltre che per l'impostazione della frase e per il sistema verbale. Non si tratta di chi è più speciale...ma di riconoscere il valore di un patrimonio che ci appartiene.

[@Langfocus]

@@F.D.R48483 I would like to do it sometime, but the nature of my videos means that it always takes a long time for me to do any specific topic. Neapolitan has been on my list of next ten videos for over a year (ie. it took me over a year to make 10 videos).

[@ronimarienbergy8421]

@@Langfocus PP kudotut

[@guilhermegnipper9313]

My grandads family is from Naples, and came to Brazil in the 30s. My grandad always thought he spoke Italian, until he went to Italy in the 70s and realized he couldn’t understand anyone in Rome. Then he went to Naples and suddenly everyone thought he was local. That’s when he realized that his parents spoke napolitan and not Italian

[@nermainmerl6108]

Went to brazil in the 30s? Very sus

[@skcrw252]

Opposite experience: spoke Italian and went to Naples once and realilzed we couldn't understand each other at all.

[@TheAtomoh]

@@nermainmerl6108 Maybe he had issues with Mussolini's dictatorship. Those who stayed in Italy and later fought against Mussolini were called "partigiani" or partisans in english.

[@guilhermegnipper9313]

@@nermainmerl6108 they were just very poor in Italy

[@Just4Kixs]

Too bad you don't speak it though.

[@askadia]

As an Italian, I feel like Neapolitan has the right to be called a language, just as Sardinian is.

[@nyko921]

Linguisticamente parlando lo è, ed è già considerato tale da praticamente tutti i linguisti del mondo e associazioni come l'unesco (che lo hanno anche classificato come "a rischio"). (Non il dialetto napoletano di Napoli però. La lingua napoletana comprende anche i dialetti pugliesi (tranne quelli salentini, abruzzesi, lucani, molisani, della Calabria del nord e del sud del Lazio e delle Marche)

[@sal_strazzullo]

It is, only Italian people generally call it a dialect, but it's a political distinction not a linguistical one

[@F.D.R48483]

Sono tutte lingue, perché dagli albori a oggi si sono evolute (e indebolite ma hanno mantenuto la loro arcaicità e divergenza rispetto all'italiano) stessa cosa non si può dire per il toscano e il romanesco...il toscano è un italiano vernacolare non più quello di Dante e il romanesco è andato perduto del tutto,oggi esiste il Romanaccio una forma vernacolare dell'italiano totalmente diversa dal romanesco che a suo tempo era una lingua effettiva con grammatica e peculiarità. La cosa vergognosa è che hanno preso il napoletano e il sardo e hanno lasciato indietro tutte le altre lingue (di cui si hanno tra l'altro i resoconti linguistici nativi a fine 1800, con il regno di Italia tutti si stavano allarmando che di lì a pochi anni si sarebbero perse le lingue autoctone...come purtroppo dagli anni del fascismo a oggi è stato tutto in discesa...vedasi il siciliano riconosciuto dall'UNESCO come lingua a rischio ma non tutelata (e per siciliano si intendono più di 5 varietà linguistiche escluse quelle del continente...e capiamoci il siciliano è stata la prima lingua poetica d'Italia prima ancora di Dante)

[@FlagAnthem]

​@@nyko921ed è lì che sbagliano. A Pescara e a Bari non si parla Napoletano

[@FlagAnthem]

​@@F.D.R48483il siciliano dantesco sta al siciliano modernk quanto il suo volgare al fiorentino di oggi.

[@francescobcasali8040]

My happiness as a Neapolitan after finally seeing your video is absurd, I'm extremely happy to see it gaining recognition, and now answering your question. I use Neapolitan in my everyday life when talking to friends or family that I know will understand me, Neapolitan has been repressed as a language for decades and it's seen as a street language and often avoided in polite conversations, hence why I avoid using it with strangers most of the times. (It be relevant to mention that I do not live in Naples nor Italy anymore so that also affect my behavior towards it)

[@asinglebraincell6584]

This makes me happy and I'm not even a Neapolitan speaker!!! So heartwarming to see this spotlighted!!!

[@FlagAnthem]

Keep speaking it

[@dangerislander]

Is Neapolitan still being spoken by the younger generation? Or is it slowly dying out with the young ones?

[@francescobcasali8040]

@@dangerislander yeah it's absolutely used by younger folks, only issue is that sometimes young people want to grow in a certain line of work and that usually forces them to (at least in a working environment) slowly stop speaking Neapolitan. My mother for example when in the 80's and 90's worked as a model in Naples and during meetings, official parties or any work related thing she was almost forced to speak Italian cause again, Neapolitan is seen as a street language, it's very marginalized

[@thereita1052]

Beati voi che siete ancora in grado di parlare il vostro dialetto...

[@sgiovangelo47]

As an American with Italian grandparents from Naples (and Abruzzo), I was delighted to hear some of the Neapolitan expressions I remember hearing as a boy, used by the generation of immigrants to Chicago who were born in and around Naples in the 1890s and1900s, the era of my grandparents and other relatives. I haven't heard the Neapolitan dialect in 60 years since all our old family members are now gone; hearing these familiar expressions brought back wonderful memories of my grandparents and great aunts and uncles. I realize now at age 75, that I really never heard standard Italian in our "Little Italy" neighborhood in Chicago; it was the dialects of Campania. Grazie per i bellissimi recordi!

[@Wonderkid44]

Classix, glad you enjoyed

[@Luca-uc2ro]

Si ricorda l'abruzzese?

[@sgiovangelo47]

@@Luca-uc2ro no non ricordo di aver sentito il abruzzese. I miei nonni erano della provincia di Chieti. Mio nonno era un sarto e aveva il suo negozio a Chicago, 1914-1966. Con i suoi clienti parlava italiano e inglese. Alcuni anni fa, quando andai a trovare i miei cugini in Abruzzo, con me parlavano solo italiano, ma e tra loro l'abruzzese. Avevo studiato italiana per un anno quando ero all'universita a Chicago, mia citta natale

[@sgiovangelo47]

il mio cognome originale era "Giovannangelo." Quando il nonno Allesandro venne negli Stati Uniti nel 1912, abbrevia il nostro nome in "Giovangelo." Pensava che sarebbe stato piu facile da pronunciare per gli americani. Mi desse quando avevo circa 20 anni che riteneva piu semplice cambiare il suo nome, esempio "D'Angelo" ma mia nonna era foremente contraria ad un cambiamento cosi radicale dei nome!

[@Luca-uc2ro]

@@sgiovangelo47 che storia interessante

[@TheMyth92]

Considering the fact that modern Neapolitan has no standard since it's not an official language and therefore is neither taught in schools nor used in any institution, you did an amazing job, I am blown away (I just disagree on minor details, but on the other hand you taught me things I didn't even know, and I'm neapolitan!). Of course this also means that there is no standard spelling, and various different choices can be made as to how to write it. As per your question for neapolitan speakers, I'd personally say that it's very difficult to quantify how much we use neapolitan or standard italian. Think of standard italian and neapolitan as the two ends of a spectrum: depending on the context, they can and do get mixed :)

[@migue24]

That's so sad that there is no standard or writing system set up for this beautiful language.

[@gabor6259]

TheMyth92, what do you think, will the languages of Italy remain or will they disappear? Is linguistic diversity declining in Italy? Do you see some tendencies?

[@TheMyth92]

@@gabor6259 yes, definitely linguistic diversity has already declined: neapolitan and other southern languages are kind of ok I guess, but regional romance languages of northern Italy are far more endangered.

[@justsomeofmyfavs]

There ARE a couple of standardized spelling systems (in that they are consistent within themselves), and one of them is much, much more dominant than the others (the "classical" one) when Neapolitan is written down in academic or organizational setting.

[@TrollBJJ]

As native speaker as you i say standard neapolitan is spoken only in theater and no one is able to write it. We speak our version of neapolitan mixed with italian Also in formal situation. For not neapolitan speakers... you will neve able to use the schwa

[@emanuelebucolo3574]

I'm Sicilian, we speak a regional dialect/language quite distinct from Neapolitan especially in terms of phonology but at the same time we have many similarities in terms of vocabulary, so in general we can understand it quite well

[@taimunozhan]

Fun fact: the regional varieties from southernmost Italy (including Sicilian, Calabrese and Salentino) are known academically as Extreme Southern Italian*, which is a perfectly reasonable descriptive name but it's also kind of fun to call a language 'extreme'! * Bear in mind that the "Italian" in "Extreme Southern Italian" is a geographical references (literally the 'language varieties of the southernmost parts of the Italic Peninsula), it doesn't imply that they are dialects of standard Italian. Most linguists would argue that Sicilian and Calabrese are dialects of their own regional language, just like Neapolitan.

[@JohnnyLynnLee]

As a Brazilin who speaks Italian I can say that SPANISH and Portuguese are WAY more similar than Napoletano and Italian. Hands down. I can understand some Spanish,. I understand almost ZERO Napoletano (even given I'm a native Speaker of Portuguse).

[@damirhlobik6488]

​Ciao, vengo dalla Croazia, ho studiato italiano al liceo e ho parenti in Italia, i dialetti sono la ricchezza di ogni lingua, il problema è che noi che abbiamo studiato l'italiano "vero" non capiamo il dialetto, mentre il napoletano e il siciliano sono lingue a noi “sconosciute” e difficilmente riusciamo a capirle. Ho studiato anche inglese, ma non capisco lo scozzese

[@emanuelebucolo3574]

@@damirhlobik6488 si sono molto difficili da comprendere soprattutto se ascoltate. Scritte probabilmente le capiresti meglio ma anche in quel caso ci sono molte parole che in italiano non ci sono o significano altro, per esempio in siciliano per dire il verbo "guardare" diciamo "taliari" oppure per dire "piccione" diciamo "palumma" e "muccaturi" al posto di "fazzoletto"

[@emanuelebucolo3574]

@@taimunozhan yes I knew it, let's say that here in Sicily we take our language very seriously, also because it is one of the first to be formed from Latin. However, Sicilian and Calabrian are both dialects of the same regional language, the only problem is that unlike Neapolitan there is no standard form of Sicilian, each area has its own dialect and sometimes it can be very different from area to area (for example the dialect of Palermo and the dialect of Catania, although very similar, have very marked differences)

[@MrJoebrooklyn1969]

This was your best one yet!! I'm Italian-American from Naples!!! I was raised speaking Napolitano. I had to take a Latin language in College for 3 semesters and took Italian because I thought it'd be easy, it wasn't! I love Napolitano!!!

[@anothersquid]

I took classes in Italian before going to Italy. I speak French. The classes were easy. I end up in Naples with my Italian-speaking wife, and we were both left wondering if we'd had some kind of brain lapse. Neapolitan kind of *sounds* like Italian, but for a 3rd-language speaker, it definitely is not mutually intelligible. All these years, I assumed it was just us. until now. Immediately on the first clip I recognized it. So, I suppose we did have a brain lapse, in that it didn't occur to us that they might not be speaking Italian.

[@PainterVierax]

Napolitain sure sounds close to Italian but the silent letters and the shift in pronunciation makes its musicality closer to French and Portuguese. It's like Occitan in reverse.

[@WildVoltorb]

I doesn't sound like Portuguese at all, lol. I'm a native Portuguese speaker, I was able to understand some of the Italian but none of the napolitan.

[@PainterVierax]

@@WildVoltorb I'm not talking about vocabulary or intelligibility but the tones and the phonemes of the language.

[@FlagAnthem]

Naples is one of those cities that kept a good level of diglossia

[@marcoac-sx6lq]

Pure neapolitan doesn't sound at all like Italian

[@petonchiospataponchio366]

I'm Italian and I absolutely would consider Neapolitan a separate language. As some have already said, Italian and Neapolitan are used by southerners as two ends of a spectrum, with one being used more or alongside the other depending on context. If one were to speak to me using strictly Neapolitan phonology, vocabulary, syntax etc. then I may well have an easier time understanding Spanish. And as a side note, given that its status as a language is debated and not officially recognised, there is no standardised written form, let alone courses on it. Because of this, I learned something new from this video: I had no idea Neapolitan had a neuter gender until just now!

[@ferreirap.]

Comunque questa cosa del genere neutro a me non convince tanto! In spagnolo ad esempio "el bueno" e "lo bueno" sono rispettivamente maschile e neutro. E l'articolo cambia. In italiano "il bello del gruppo" e "il bello della vita" sono entrambi maschili, perché non cambia nulla né nella pronuncia né nella scrittura. Se succede la stessa cosa in napoletano, non vedo alcuna ragione di dichiarare l'esistenza di un genere neutro.

[@petonchiospataponchio366]

@@ferreirap. mi pare di capire che il genere neutro in napoletano comporta il raddoppiamento fonosintattico nel sostantivo che segue l'articolo, mentre col genere maschile questo non accade. Anche gli aggettivi e pronomi dimostrativi variano dal genere maschile a quello neutro.

[@ferreirap.]

@@petonchiospataponchio366 Grazie per il chiarimento!

[@Ennio444]

I find Neapolitan has very similar phonetics to Catalan. Not because of influence, just because it seems to be a common dychotomy, a romance language with few vowels and full voiced endings (like Spanish or Italian, mundo/mondo) surrounded by languages which are much more free with their phonetic development and much "lazier" (Catalan or Neapolitan, món/munno)

[@sasshiro]

I’ve also thought that as well, coming from a Spanish speaker that has dabbled in both standard Italian and Catalá.

[@nicogutyfranco]

I think it can also be due to the fact that the kingdom of naples was part of the crown of aragon

[@LucaPasini2]

On the other hand, as a northern Italian who speaks and understand to some extent his own regional language (Romagnol), I have to say that as far as grammar goes, Catalan has much more in common with the languages from the north of Italy than with those from the south: after all they're all part of the same gallo-romance language, as opposed to the italo-romance to whom standard Italian and Neapolitan belong.

[@Ennio444]

@@nicogutyfranco I dont think so, catalan immigration was not really important save for a handful of nobles, and these traits are also found in other "peripherical" languages like Asturleonese or Venetian.

[@taimunozhan]

Oddly enough, while learning Italian (and also looking at some Neapolitan and Sicilian every now and then) I found that standard Italian tends to be closer to Catalan in its vocabulary while Neapolitan and Sicilian both lean closer to Spanish, even though similarity in pronunciation go the other way round.

[@dionysus1394]

Thank you Paul for once again shedding light on another language that has had its rich heritage and culture repressed by linguistic nationalism, Nnapulitano is a sibling language to Italian just as all other Romance languages in Italy.

[@stephanobarbosa5805]

Forza Napoli !! Quei ragazzi de la curva B

[@dionysus1394]

@@altaurelli812 do you live in Naples itself? Is the variety of Neapolitan dialects not immensely diverse due to lack of standardization? I’m not sure how this is incorrect given that Paul is a very thorough and trustworthy researcher typically. How do you feel this is incorrect

[@aleksandrnestrato]

Dude, I can tell you even more on that! Nnapulitano had formed as a language by the time the Tuscan dialects were just a continuum of dialects, well before the Florentine dialect had its rise. (To those who din't know, dialects of Tuscany, the dialect of Florence in particular, became, with some deviations, the Standard Italian language.)

[@carmineferrara9232]

Thank You Paul for this video. As Neapolitan speaker I felt proud of it. I speak Neapolitan with everyone from Frosinone to Sicily because they understand me most of the time. From Rome to the north, I speak Italian because they won't understand me. For the Neapolitan speakers, let's always speak Neapolitan to not let it die. We are proud to be Italians but also and mostly proud to be Neapolitans

[@rhsmn2334]

that's very inspiring man, i'm telling you as a speaker of another oppressed and dying language

[@jhonnyrock]

PLEASE @Langfocus, make a similar video on Sicilian! You would make a lot of us in New York very happy! It's a very beautiful language with Latin (of course) but also Greek, Arabic, Spanish, and French influence! I look forward to seeing this video sometime in the future because you are awesome!

[@Langfocus]

Hopefully sometime!

[@jhonnyrock]

@@Langfocus GOAT 🐐 🔥🔥🔥

[@LucaPasini2]

@@Langfocus If you wanted to keep exploring Italian regional languages I could try to help with Romagnol, which I think is a really interesting example of a gallo-romance language

[@cipaisone]

@@Langfocusannacamuni

[@FlagAnthem]

​@@LucaPasini2at salút! 😊 Just should be careful because there is a lot of denialism and assimilitionism against Romagna.

[@antonioposa4070]

Beautiful, beautiful video. As an Italian from one of those light blue areas on the east, I find your work very detailed and culturally respectful. I was moved by hearing such a detailed analysis and especially if coming from someone who's not Italian and not from Southern Italy, attributing full dignity to this language. In fact in Italy speaking Neapolitan or one of its dialects is considered unpleasant, uneducated and generally frowned upon (if not in theatre or music). Even talking with a southern Italian accent is considered weird, cheap or funny at best. Thanks for shining a spotlight on "us"!

[@aleottobre2031]

Tips: "ué" is used to greet someone when you meet them (hello), "cià" is used to say goodbye. In Italian, "ciao" is used for both occasions. The article "o" is "u" in the area where I live. Besides, as you said, there are many varieties of the Neapolitan language all over Campania, but do trust me when I say that vocabulary and pronunciation change every 5km. On the top of that, there is an area in the North West of Campania where people speak a dialect which is not that intelligible with the Neapolitan spoken elsewhere! Non-locals have hard times getting it. Totally different. I'm deeply impressed by the accuracy of this video, absolutely brilliant. I've always loved your channel! Cià!

[@Pandorso]

I'm a native speaker of a dialect of Neapolitan, the dialect from Bari, and dude, you're really good at explaining languages!

[@guilainkervellec6541]

My great grandfather was from Andria and I'm very interrested about wich language he used to speak. Is the dialect of Bari similar to the dialect of Andria ?

[@Pandorso]

@@guilainkervellec6541 a bit, but you should consider the fact that here, in Italy, every town, from the biggest to the smallest, speaks its own dialect/variant. I bet if I tried to speak my dialect with someone from Andria we would have some troubles understanding each other. For example I know for a fact that in a town very close to Bari, Bitritto, they use the SVOV model, so they repeat the verb at the end of the sentence.

[@guilainkervellec6541]

@@Pandorso Grazie ! I really want to learn more about the dialects of that region to reconnecting to my italian ancestries. I don't know if you realize the chance you have in Italy for preserving your historical dialects, we don't have this chance in France.

[@Pandorso]

@@guilainkervellec6541 in southern Italy, and especially in Bari, dialcects are really despised: the city is divided between "Bari bene" (literally, "the good side of Bari) and "Bari male" (the bad side). Bari bene doesn't tolerate the use of the dialects in formal and informal speech, and even at home, while Bari male is more conservative and tends to use it more (also because they are more used to the dialect and usually they know how to speak it better because they have listened to it since they were little). Our dialect is seen as vulgar, bad-sounding and, most importantly, a sign of ignorance.

[@guilainkervellec6541]

@@Pandorso So they are neighborhoods where the dominant language is standard Italian and other neighborhoods where dominant language is Barese ? That's so interesting, I thougt almost everybody could speak the dialect.

[@GetOffMyLog]

Wow Neapolitan is quite beautiful! To my ear it has a bit of a European Portuguese and Italian sound, but with a distinct and quite beautiful rhythm.

[@joaoreis2715]

It might be due to the stressing that we european portugueses also do quite a lot. But from the sample in the video, and my week in Naples, to me as an European Portuguese it does not resemble my own language at all (what sometimes happen with some slavic languages I need to admit ahaha). But yeah, a non-native is less biased I guess!

[@potat2976]

​@@joaoreis2715 I am not a native, for me both of them sound like gibberish since I only know my native language, English and barely any French

[@chrisbean]

​@@joaoreis2715it doesn't resemble at all to Portuguese. It sounds as a mix of Slavic (Croatian) and Hungarian if you don't pay attention to what she says, and even so, it's difficult to grab loose words compared to Italian, which has open vowels and longer words. Idk, it's an interesting language but it sounds remotely as romance language.

[@eldeion4146]

Correction: “capello” means “hair” in Italian, not hat. “Cappello” (with a double p) is “hat”

[@Langfocus]

Yes, you're right.

[@shitpostazzi]

Thank you so much for covering our beautiful language! As someone who lives there I can testify that it's still quite commonly spoken but not by the middle/upper class since it's considered "too vulgar", although most neapolitans (me included) use it the most when angry or cussing at others

[@idraote]

I must disagree with that. I have two Neapolitan friends who belong to the well-to-do middle class and they speak Neapolitan perfectly well. They use a perfect Italian with me, and they use a pure, sophisticated Neapolitan when in Naples.

[@shitpostazzi]

@idraote i see, but from my experience it has been as I said in the previous comment. Of course not every experience is the same

[@fanaticofmetal]

Neapolitan is a gorgeous language, such a shame it's not recognised!

[@dariogismondi8236]

Great video. One thing to add: Neapolitan has some expressions that don’t exists in standard Italian and are simply amazing!

[@aaronmarks9366]

Oo, what are some examples?

[@custodecimiteriale]

Thanks once again for undelining that what we call "dialects" are regional languages structurally separate from Italian. A fact that most Italians ignore. However, since I'm from the North of Italy and my regional language is Emilian (or better, a peripheral Emilian variety sharing some features with Lombard, Ligurian and Piedmontese) I generally don't understand Neapolitan except those words or sentences that became popular through tv shows.

[@sciking8756]

are you from Piaseinza? :)

[@custodecimiteriale]

@@sciking8756 Yes, I am!

[@gozzilla78]

Ahah! Dű piasintein a ved un American cal parla in napulitan su KZbin…. As capisa pű gniint.

[@pasqualestriano1754]

I am from Naples and I hve to say your description is very much accurate and detailed indeed. I am 50 years old and have been living in the north of italy for many years alreay and this may have an influence, in any case I use it with my close families (that is brothers, sisters, ma and pa, cousins) childhood’s friends and sometimes at home but jus for fun (my wife is not neapolitan). I consider both neapolitan and standard italian mother languages for me, with no distinction as i can think and use them both indifferently. Congratulations Paul, great job. Brav’!

[@diemme568]

"bràv' " c' sta bbuon' 🙂 (Milano-abruzzese)

[@FlagAnthem]

Well done. Keep them up

[@rogeriomonteiro760]

As a native portuguese it is interesting to see some common features like using the definite articles o,a, the pro drop tendency and the using of unstressed silabes in the end that tend to loose their sound. It is also interesting the distinction between non-permanent and permanent conditions as in Portuguese (stare-essere) (estar-ser).

[@watchit3746]

it is closer to Spanish. Neapolitan uses the verb "to stay" as "to be" and the verb "to hold" as "to have". Examples: "I'm at home" in NEA is "song ara cas'" in SPA "estoy en casa" in POR "estou em casa" but in ITA "sono a casa" more similar to the FRE "je suis à la maison". On the other hand if you want to say "I'm hungry tonight" in NEA "teng fam' stasira" in SPA "tengo hambre esta noche" in POR "estou com fome esta noite" and in ITA "sono affamato stasera" or FRE "J'ai faim".

[@Krka1716]

@@watchit3746 No farther than Spanish, in your example!...🙂 In POR can be either 'tenho fome esta noite' or 'estou com fome esta noite'... or even 'estou esfomeado esta noite' or 'estou esfaimado esta noite' or 'estou faminto esta noite'... In POR, the form 'ser' denotes a more permanent or intrinsic, state or quality: 'sou um esfomeado' - I'm always hungry...😉

[@pinolaviero2264]

I'm from Germany but I have family in southern Italy but I wouldn't say that I speak neapolitan but rather Italian because I have trouble understanding people in my village when they speak their local dialect of neapolitan. But this video made me realise how my Italian is quite close to neapolitan sometimes. It also made me realise how cool it is that we are really specific with what we call the language we speak because no one in my village ever said they speak neapolitan but just that they speak Salandrese, named after our village with just over 2.000 inhabitants. Thanks for making this great video about this wonderful language.

[@nyko921]

In Italy the majority of the population is ignorant about the linguistic situation of the country. Most people think of the dialects they speak as dialects of italian and as such refer to them only as the name of the specific dialect. There is also the problem that the name neapolitan refer both to the language and to the dialect of naples, so many people think that you speak the dialect of naples when you say that you speak neapolitan.

[@lllazyoli]

I am from Germany as well but my mother comes from the Apulia region. So I heard both standard Italian as well as the dialect as a kid but I don't speak it fluently myself. At first it was very difficult for me to understand Neapolitan but relying on what I remembered from the Leccese dialect helped me a lot to "get in the groove" and after a few hours I could understand it decently enough. Without that knowledge I would have been totally lost. It does remind me a bit of Spanish / Catalan though.

[@ubikromano4793]

As a native speaker of Neapolitan, I use it on a daily basis with family and friends, while at work, school and any official or public occasion I use almost excusively Standard Italian. I'd say that is pretty common among people of younger generations, while I believe that older people used 99% neapolitan (my grandparents, for example, understood standard Italian but never spoke it).

[@asinglebraincell6584]

This is awesome!!! I'm so happy! We grew up with Sicilian but even just seeing Neapolitan mentioned and given a chance to become known to people is so awesome! Very Beautiful language also...

[@seid3366]

The mad lad is back with romance. Neapolitan with its reputation of being "a dialect of Italian," too many differences have opened my eyes to it being a separate language from Italian. the biggest factor for me is the neuter gender, used mainly for abstract nouns (but sometimes concrete ones) ex. bread Nea: 'o ppane (gemination gives away neuter nouns lots of times) Ita: il pane

[@nyko921]

As a native speaker of neapolitan (even though my native dialect isn't the one of naples), I'm reluctant to call those real neuter nouns. The only thing that sets them apart from masculine nouns is just the gemination of the first consonant. Everything else about them is masculine: the articles, the adjective referring to them and the their feeling, they just feel masculine. It's like the neuter gender in romanian, which are just nouns switching from one gender to the other when becoming plural. Italian has the same exact phenomenon though and we don't consider those nouns neutral, we just think of them as gender changing. I think the case the neuter in neapolitan and romanian are just linguists (probably old ones) starting to lose it a bit

[@idraote]

The "neuter gender" is probably the last feature that I would use to distinguish Italian from Neapolitan. Phonetics are more than enough already.

[@manfredneilmann4305]

​@@mapache-ehcapamLO Bueno, LO siguiente, LO de siempre, etc.

[@jecko980]

It's the same in Italian, neuter was basically masculine so it just evolved as simply masculine

[@FlagAnthem]

​@@jecko980there are feminine words with neutral meaning as well. Like "gente" (literally people)

[@felixmagath1471]

Great video. Just a note: the word capello/capill at 7:04 means "hair" not "hat. Anyway I usually use a mixture of Italian/Neapolitan with friends and more rarely family while when speaking with strangers or in formal situations I only use Italian

[@arjay9745]

Neapolitan is listed as a separate language on the language learning platform italki and there are usually teachers available there. I took some lessons and enjoyed them thoroughly. The music alone is a good reason to learn.

[@angelolaurenzaMJJ]

As a neapolitan speaker, I use my regional language every day and understand it quite well, but It's more difficult to understand the neapolitan of older generations, which is less contaminated by italian. Moreover, neapolitan developped some of its features only in the last cantury. For example, we used to use conditional before, we can listen it in classic neapolitan songs such as "Je vurria* sape' na cosa da te" and "Je te vurria* vasa' ", where the conditional "vurria" (in italian vorrei) is used instead of the more modern "vulesse". There are other particular features I'd like to add to the ones in the video. The verb "tene' " is also used with the meaning of "must, have to", in a similar way to the spanish. It's just "devo" or "ho da" (have to, literally) in italian. My fear is that neapolitan will slowly turn in a variation of italian, we don't study it at school and we are encouraged to use italian. Fun fact: Neapolis (new city) is so called because It was built on the ruins of Paleopolis (old city). It's actually just a way we used to call the city to distinguish It from the older one, but its original name was (and we use it still today) Partenope, from the greek Parthenos, which means "The Virgin". It's funny how a city with this name also has a strong Mary cult. There are several Mary all over the region, each of them with her own "powers". Historians believe that these were all nature gods that neapolitans converted in Holy Mary to escape the persecution of pagan gods.

[@MaVeRiX02]

As a non-italian whose birth language is latin american spanish and took [standard] italian in school for about 4 years, this video was great because i had to watch a couple seasons of gomorra with no subtitles and used ever brain cell i had to understand what was going on lol. great video, man!

[@alessandrosodano2365]

As a Neapolitan and a scholar of my language, I appreciated this video. However, I must notice that it was intentionally focused on the pronunciation of Neapolitan, rather than on its writing rules. More in detail, the schwa sound in the end of words must be written with a vowel, mostly taken from the Latin ablative case. Let me give you some examples, taken from the video itself. "Agg' capit'" (I understood), should be "aggio capito"; "comm te chiamm" must be written "Comme te chiamme"; and so on.

[@idraote]

Hello Paul, thank your for this accurate and comprehensive video. A few minor corrections are the following: 7:04 - capello doesn't mean ""hat"" which is "cappello", but ""single hair from the head"" 8:31 - Italian doubling is a mere phonetical phenomenon whereas in Neapolitan it has morphological implications. Doubling is considered a desirable feature in standard Italian but only in Tuscany it is used consistently and correctly. 11:03 - ""capo"" is only partially a false friend because it can mean ""head"" 12:51 - ""statt"" is not a simple conjugation of "sta" as a reflexive pronoun is added As a native speaker of standard Italian, Neapolitan is entirely unintelligible to me or at least it was until I decided that Classic Neapolitan songs were a thing of beauty and I exposed myself to them. With constant exposure intelligibility improves, but I am still unable to understand two Neapolitans talking to each other quickly.

[@remyinrome]

Dear Paul, thank you so much for making this video and also contributing to the recognition of the language of Naples. I visit "Parthenope" quite a lot (maybe 11-12 times per year) since it is just about 1-hour train from Rome where I live. I love how Neapolitans are so proud with their strong identity and cultural richness in daily life, and speaking "O nnapulitan" is protected by the regional law. I hope that in the future, you will consider to make a similar video about "Romanesco" - the one that is spoken by the local Romans of Rome. I believed that Romanesco and Napulitano shared the similar story, but everything changed when the Florentine Medici popes came to the field, and then the Unification (il Risorgimento) that officially set Rome the capital of Italy. Unlike the Neapolitan language, Romanesco is already fading away slowly and widely considered "a dialect" of Italian nowadays. Speaking Romanesco is also not that encouraged, where the domination of Standard Italian is everywhere in the heart of the country, from education to politics, from newspaper to TV and media. But in the core of the metropolitan city of Rome, people still use it apparently and I always adore how middle-aged local men speak to each other with enthusiasm in their daily conversation, whether in the neighborhood where Ceasar was born more than 2000 years ago or in the "quartiere Africano" northern urban area of the city. For me, hearing Romanesco almost everyday, I could feel the irresistible wildness and mysteries, but I also can feel the fantastic attraction, the profound passion, and definitely the Romance itself. And last but not least, a lot of fun. We may all know "When in Rome, do as the Romans do", so I think that maybe the next time some of us here will be in Rome, don't forget to try to "speak as the Romans speak", Romanesco. I hope Paul will consider "the Roman dialect" and may feature it in one of the Langfocus's videos in the future. Thank you for your work and Bona Dorce Vita! Aho' da 'n pischello vietnamita a Roma!

[@aaronmarks9366]

This is beautiful, thanks for sharing! I'd love for Paul to do a video on Romanesco.

[@sergiopiparo4084]

As a Italian/Sicilian speaker Neapolitan language always puts a smile on my face 😊

[@ShallowSedai]

I started watching My Brilliant Friend and though i dont speak Italian I have enough exposure to realize the "dialect" being used was not standard Italian. Lead me to this video. Thank you!

[@nyko921]

I hope there'll be also a few samples of other dialects (expecially those of the pugliese variety) to show how diverse the language is

[@Nicods]

Neapolitan is a dialect, but not a dialect of standard Italian, it's a dialect of Italiano Meridionale Intermedio (Middle Southern Italian) which is indeed a different language spoken in different varieties all mutually intelligible in most of centre-south and south of peninsular Italian. It was previously called Pugliese, not refferd to the modern Italian region of Puglia (Apulia) but to the fact that in late middle ages Apulia was a popular name for the whole continental area of the Norman Kingdom of Sicily.

[@nyko921]

Wasn't the "linguistic name" of the language Italo-romanzo alto-meridionale (Upper-southern italo-romance)?

[@FlagAnthem]

Not a language, but a family of languages.

[@FlagAnthem]

​@@nyko921it depends on the authors.

[@nyko921]

​@@FlagAnthemda pugliese non definirei il mio dialetto una lingua diversa da quello di Napoli però. Chiaro sono diversi, ma non abbastanza da non essere non intelligibili e poi c'è quel continuum dialettale che fa sì che non si sia quasi nessun cambio netto che mi fa dire "ah sì questo paesino parla palesemente pugliese mentre quello lì a 15km parla palesemente campano".

[@FlagAnthem]

​@@nyko921forse ma dovrebbero cercare una nuovs terminologia per non incappare nell'errore letale del centralismo. Finirà che a Bari e a Foggia insegneranno una lingua più vicina a napoli che non nel posto. Lo so perché qualche CRETINO sta insegnando una pseudolingua basata sul modenese spacciandola per "Emilianoromagnolo", con teatrino di stupore quandi i "patàca" di turno si ostinavano a parlarmi in una lingua che non era la mia. Poi grazie un po' anche al cavolo che "ci si capisce abbastanza" ma vale per ogni lingua romanza da Lisbona a Cişinau, ma mi chiedo: basta per arrendersi all'assimilazione? Io dico di no

[@JorgeOmarEC]

As a Spanish native speaker and Italian speaker, Neapolitan language seems so recognizable by two ways. The fact that Neapolitan uses the relative verbs of "to be" like in Spanish surprises me. I learned so much about this language, great video.

[@watchit3746]

this is also because the Kingdom of Neaples was a viceroyalty of Spain for centuries, so Neapolitan language reinforced some Castillan/Spanish characteristics. With very few exceptions, Neapolitan uses the verb "to stay" where in standard italian you would use "to be" (example: in ita "dove sei?" "sono a casa" in nea "arov staj" "stong ara cas'" and in spa "¿dónde estás?" "estoy en casa" - note: ara means "to the", in italian as in spanish you use instead in/en, wich means precisely inside.) Also in Neapolitan you mostly use the verb "to hold" to mean "to have", as in spanish and not italian. (example: in ita "ho fame" becomes in nea "teng fam'" as in spanish "tengo hambre". Fun fact: in Neapolitan (and I think also in Sicilian, maybe borrowed from Neapolitan) one way to say "I'm afraid" is "mi spagno" because of the brutality of the Spanish Soldiers.

[@JorgeOmarEC]

@@watchit3746 That last one makes me laugh, and I can get it, more or less in American Spanish we have some expressions like that. For the "have" examples I only comment that there's a mess in romances language about how we get possession and the auxiliar verbs, in Spanish, Italian, Neapolitan and other ones I know more or less. That's interesting, it says how the variations of latin conceive that stuffs and others, for any reasons, historical, cultural, sociological, etc. The fact that Spanish presence at the region made its moves and get notable in these expressions is one of them, I guess of course. That was something interesting to know and learn, great.

[@settenovetre]

There was an episode during my parents' honeymoon to the Canaries when my dad and a taxi driver communicated in their own languages understanding each other. My dad spoke Neapolitan, the taxi driver the Canarian dialect of Spanish and they understood each other relatively well. The taxi driver actually thought my dad was from the Spanish mainland lol

[@chetecredivecachera9099]

I personally use neapolitan with my family and my friends. I wish one day will be recognised as official language and taught in school too, as well as neapolitan literature.

[@mason241]

I hope that happens! Just curious, who are some Neopolitian authors worth reading?

[@chetecredivecachera9099]

Do you know Perrault and Grimm brothers? Well, the vast majority of their stories comes from "Lo cunto de li cunti overo lo trattenemiento de peccerille" by Giambattista Basile (Cinderella, for instance, is the most famous I guess). Then we have the heroi-comic poem "Vaiasseide" by Giulio Cesare cortese. Then, the romance "La notte de Piedegrotta, azzoè Lo filantropo de la Pignasecca" by Giacomo Marulli. And there are lots of playwrighters, such as Giacomo Marulli himself, Antonio Petito, Raffaele Viviani, Eduardo Scarpetta... and in today era, Roberto De Simone. We have a really long history about the music theatre: the comic opera was invented in Naples. And as modern poets the most famous ones are Salvatore di Giacomo and Totò. I guess. Anyway, I do not know if there are translation of theese works...@@mason241

[@aquila9810]

@@mason241 are you interested in books written in neapolitan language or translated books from famous writers from naples?

[@FlagAnthem]

Be careful of what you wish, you might end with a brutally washed "neapolitan" wiping out dialects of neighboring region. Here in Romagna someone has tried that with me

[@francesco3772]

​@@FlagAnthemil prezzo della conformità

[@Giulio-yo9by]

As an Italian from the north, I’ve always found Neapolitan’s sounds and accent very nice and friendly. It’s very recognizable, it sounds happy and optimistic! I didn’t know how rich this language was and no, I can’t understand it. Dialects should REALLY get their big institutional role in the South; now I’m ashamed of what we are not doing to protect southern languages. Thanks for informing us Italians too! Viva il sud! Forza, Napoli! P.S. A small correction on 11:00: “capo” indicates “head” in Italian too, it’s a common literary synonym used in pretty much every novel out here (ex. “Abbassare il capo”, to lower the head), but you'll never hear it in spoken language ;)

[@Giulio-yo9by]

@natural783 guarda, io conosco delle persone che parlano milanese, ma sono tutte sopra i 40. Nessun adolescente (nel caso saranno veramente pochi) lo parla. Nel caso del sud, è diverso: mentre qua si condivide una comune mentalità europea, al sud non è così: sono di popoli diversi con la propria storia e la lingua è parte della loro identità culturale. Se devi proteggere i dialetti, chiaramente, li proteggi tutti, ma sono quelli del sud, a mio avviso, a dover essere preservati, perché sono dominanti e riflettono l'appartenenza alla loro vera patria.

[@Giulio-yo9by]

​@natural783 con "mentalità europea" (il nord appartiene alla Mitteleuropa) intendo dire che non esiste appartenenza regionale o nazionale e quindi, come hai detto anche tu, non c'è più il cittadino milanese. Qui è un melting pot di culture e lingue; i dialetti moriranno. Il sud, invece, che è tutto fuorché europeo, mantiene questa sua immensa identità culturale e linguistica. Diciamo la stessa cosa, ma con termini diversi. Piuttosto, non capisco bene perché usi la parola "nazionalismo": in Italia non c'è proprio il patriottismo, figurarsi il nazionalismo. La tentata uniformità linguistica, a mio modo di vedere, mira a creare un popolo unito, cosa però impossibile per l'Italia, che dovrebbe piuttosto riconoscere, sostenere e far dialogare le proprie culture

[@FlagAnthem]

​@@Giulio-yo9byi "dialetti" non muoiono, vengono suicidati. A cominciare com picchiare in testa chi ha ancora un legame con la terra e la sua cultura.

[@FlagAnthem]

​@natural783non c'entra anzi rema contro. Gratta sotto un europeista e ci trovi uno dei peggio assimilazionisti. Perché tutti europei, italiani neh, lombardi o siciliani inutile folklore arretrato da sradicare. Devo ancora vedere le lacrime versate per l'estinzione del Livone

[@Hastdupech8509]

​@@Giulio-yo9bycapisco le migliori intenzioni, ma mitteleuropea? Ma per piacere, al massimo lo saranno i territori confinanti del Nord-Est, ma Milano mitteleuropa proprio no. Il Sud Italia poi è Europa, mica lo è solo quella germanica. Ma che discorsi sono, il Portogallo e l'Andalusia non lo sono? La Grecia non lo è? Boh, disarmante. Guarda, è molto semplice perché non si parlano dialetti al Nord: immigrati e autoctoni dovevano capirsi e per farlo hanno optato per la lingua comune e non per le varietà che parlavano, percepite come storture di essa: se dobbiamo parlare una lingua comune, tanto vale usare quella "pulita". Non scomodiamo credenze popolari dato che in Baviera ancora parlano Bairisch oppure in Catalogna, terra di migrazione della Spagna, hanno saputo preservare la propria lingua. E basta con sti complessi d'inferiorità, non siete la Germania e va bene così, davvero.

[@GurthWindandFire]

I just got back from Italy, my family was proud of me for being able to speak to them finally, but they also complained I talk “too Roman” and I need to speak more Neapolitan, it’s in a difficult spot because it’s difficult to find a teacher for one of the harder, more spoken dialects of Italian like this

[@valeriobertoncello1809]

10:57 actually "capo" can also mean "head" in Italian, it's just somewhat more literary than "testa"

[@brunnomenxa]

I really like the subtle humor on this channel.

[@lorenzodepaoli]

Neapolitan has had an interesting history as a language of music and theatre. Depending to how it's used, it can sound either extremely musical or extremely harsh to a standard Italian, non-neapolitan speakers. This is why you can find it used to portray the downtrodden (in most media) as well as the aristocracy (expecially in theatre), or how it can be used in both (saccarine) ballads as well as rap or trap songs..

[@MP-fx4jb]

I'm neapolitan and i loved this lesson. Thank u for your work.

[@mazimov]

As a Neapolitan myself, I can't thank you enough for this video!!!! Shining a light on my language is so refreshing. My parents were very strict with me when It came to languages. At school, I had to speak Italian, but at home It was either Neapolitan or English. They were adamant about not using the "invaders" language (italian) =) And because I had to learn two since I was a kid, growing up I could learn more and more languages much easier than others. I am so proud of my city and our mother tongue. I love italian, but when It comes to express my feelings, or if I am in a hurry, neapolitan is my go to. And will always be =) thanks again for fantastic thorough research on this. Great JOB!

[@belle_pomme]

This actually made me smile, having watched a few interviews in Naples about Neapolitan and learning that some parents prohibit their children from speaking Neapolitan "dialect" because it's perceived as vulgar. May regional languages of Italy thrive for the future generations.

[@belle_pomme]

However, may I ask how old you are? Is Neapolitan spoken among younger generations or teenagers?

[@mrxmgs3768]

Native speaker of Spanish, I can understand some Standard Italian, I think mostly because of familiarity an exposure to it, but Neapolitan sounds completely different and I don't understand it at all. I think it has enough differences to be a language on its own.

[@nyko921]

It is a language of its own, it only lack official recognition by the government

[@ronalddevine9587]

Fascinating as always. I live in the greater New Haven, Connecticut area and most of the Italian immigrants came from Amalfi. The dialect is also different. For example, pizza is APIZZA, pronounced Ah-beets. Ricotta is rigawt(pronunciation),etc. I have a cousin who married a man from Italy. His father was Sicilian, his mother Milanese. They spoke to each other in Roman dialect!

[@sciking8756]

a pizza is article plus noun :) A pizza = the pizza

[@gianlucamanzo2559]

This video was so interesting and educational. I live about 25 km away from Naples and I can speak both Italian and Neapolitan. I use Italian with people I don’t know and with people from other parts of Italy, and I use Neapolitan with friends and family. However, I only started speaking Neapolitan about 5 years ago. I never used it when I was a child. That’s why I’m still not 100% fluent in it, at least not compared to those who learned it even before learning standard Italian (and they cannot even speak standard Italian decently or don’t feel comfortable with it). Understanding Neapolitan and speaking it are two entirely different things, and I’m looking forward to continuing to improve since I’ve learned to love this language, and I want to master it perfectly!

[@aviator2117]

FINALLY! BEEN WAITING SO LONG!

[@andreysma3798]

This is such a beautiful video, not only because of the great effort Paul put, but because it gathers two types of people: Native Neapolitan speakers, and Oriundi (i.e., foreigners of Italian descent) whose ancestor(s) spoke some variety of Neapolitan. My case is the latter, as I am Costa Rican. My paternal grandpa came from Morano Calabro, in Northern Calabria. While Calabria is largely Sicilian-based in speech, there is a small strip in which the regional speech is based in Neapolitan, such was the case of my grandpa's hometown. Thanks for the opportunity to learn about this language, Paul.

[@rickynoodles2816]

Ive studied various romance languages, including Italian and I can confidently say I understand more than half of the Italian audio used in this video, but almost none of the Neopolitan. 😂 I hope in the future there will be more resources to learn this beautiful language

[@matteosollecito2448]

My mother spoke only Barese at home until she went elementary school in the Bronx. I’m 65 and learned standard Italian in shool and did a junior year in urbino in the marche. There were some things that were similar to Barese even that far north on the east coast. The word gabinetto was used for toilet and they did the g for c swap a lot.for example, everyone called the nearby seaport of Ancona “Angona.” My Italian was pretty good, but when I went down to Bari I didn’t understand anyone. However, the minute I spoke standard Italian to someone they immediately dropped Barese and answered me in regular Italian.

[@ltubabbo529]

Il barese può essere ostico anche per un napoletano nonostante le tante cose in comune. Urbino è proprio al "confine", cioè Urbino si trova in una zona di transizione tra le lingue del nord e quelle del centro sud, perciò si crea un mix diciamo. Tuttavia che io sappia a Urbino la C rimane C, è nelle altre province delle Marche (Macerata, Fermo, Ascoli e in parte Ancona) che invece si dice AnGona. Probabilmente hai parlato con studenti fuori sede.

[@edwardsaulnier892]

I agree with you, Paul, about classifying Neopolitan as a separate Italo-Romance language rather than simply a dialect of Italian.

[@joseantoniodepilares6509]

I moved to Naples aged 14, speaking my native (Andalusían) Spanish and some Italian. At first Neapolitan was as alien as it got, I couldn't understand anything, then as I got more and more fluent in Italian I began picking up the local language. And I can say with absolute certainty that they are two completly different languages. The phonology makes Neapolitan as distinct from Standard Italian as Portuguese is from Spanish.

[@Dracopol]

The Italian song, "Funiculi, Funicula!" is actually from the Neapolitan dialect. One famous saying about Naples was, "See Naples and die."

[@FlagAnthem]

From *Naples dialect

[@manfredneilmann4305]

Does anybody know what it means?

[@juggernaut93]

@@manfredneilmann4305 the song was written to commemorate the opening of the first funicular on the Vesuvius (funicolare in Italian)

[@Reazzurro90]

It's changing the word "funicolare" into a verb. "Use the funicolare there" (funiculì) and over there (funiculà).

[@LauraTenora]

This channel gets better and better all the time! Big fan!

[@lucassilvano113]

As a Brazilian, I feel like being a native Portuguese speaker didn't help me to understand, but my knowledge of French and Romanian (Intermediate in both) helped me a lot to understand. - I would be happy if you could remake the Basque and Maltese videos :D

[@WildVoltorb]

Why did you learn Romanian?

[@JohnnyLynnLee]

As a Brazilin who speaks Italian I can say that SPANISH and Portuguese are WAY more similar than Napoletano and Italian. Hands down. I can understand some Spanish,. I understand almost ZERO Napoletano (even given I'm a native Speaker of Portuguese).And no one would ague that Spanish and Portuguese are NOT different languages. And NOPE. Before leaning Italian I couldn't understand spoken Italian AT ALL. a little bit of written Italian only.

[@lucassilvano113]

@@WildVoltorb why not? are you romanian? i need help 🥺

[@lucassilvano113]

@@JohnnyLynnLee meu deus, isso é mt doido, duas linguas de mesma origem e mesmo assim tão diferentes. Português e Galego são tão igualzinho lkkkk

[@JohnnyLynnLee]

@@lucassilvano113 Isso pq italian é a MAIS NOVA. Italiano veio depois. Napolitano teve muito tempo rpa se desenvolver em pararelo.

[@Akaykimuy]

I'm from the north, I can't understand basically anything when talking at full speed, Spanish is easier to understand. But I can understand most of it when written.

[@lp-xl9ld]

Please do a related video about Northern Italian, specifically the "dialect" of Milan. This comes up in Umberto Eco's novel FOUCAULT'S PENDULUM, one of my favorite books, and I'd like to know more about it. (And I'm sure others would as well.)

[@FlagAnthem]

Oh man WHAT A TRIP was that book!

[@shroomer952]

As a native Italian speaker I have a very hard time understanding the neapolitan language, even though I come from a relatively close part of the country. In most cases, Italians tend to have a baseline understanding of the language as it has left a mark in Italian culture as a whole, through literature, music and movies

[@topazbutterfly1853]

The final possessives for family members also accurs in Romanian, though it is considered rural and sometimes funny; at best, it can appear in informal contexts. For example: maică-ta or mă-ta (your mother), taică-meu / taică-miu / taică-mio (depends on the dialect; my father), bună-sa (his/her grandma), soacră-ta (your mother-in-law). In fact, sòcreta sounds very similar to how I would pronounce soacră-ta in my regional dialect, and I find it very funny.

[@MiThreeSunz]

Great video Paul! Very informative and educational for me as a second generation Canadian of Italian descent (Marchegiano & Calabrese). 👍🇮🇹🇨🇦

[@huangec]

Hi Paul! I've been a subscriber for years now, and I hope you'll do one on Venetian one day! I lived there for nearly 9 years and I adore the way they speak. Venetian sounds completely different from Neapolitan, and even most other Italians find it difficult to understand them.

[@mygetawayart]

As a speaker of Sicilian (i also understand northern Lucanian because i'm half Lucanian and i go there all the time for family), i understand Neapolitan about as much as i understand Spanish.

[@isimerias]

Is Lucanian seriously different enough that it didn’t help you understand Neapolitan more than Spanish?!

[@devnull528]

If you understand Lucanian you should understand everything more or less

[@jesseppianist4454]

I love these videos. It's probably very difficult to do, but I'd love to see more videos on other lesser known languages, specifically Australian languages like Pitjantjatjara or Native American languages like Crow or Shoshone.

[@John_Weiss]

Paul's problem is finding native speakers to use for the example sentences. And not just finding someone who _claims_ to speak it and doesn't. He's been burned by _that_ more than once.

[@migue24]

There is a video about the Native languages of Mexico, like Nahuatl. Nahuatl is actually related to Shoshone. That may keep you satisfied until another Native American video is made.

[@jesseppianist4454]

@migue24 Yes, thanks for the comment. I've already watched all of his videos. Really the reason I ask for those two Native American languages is because I grew up in the area that they're spoken. If he doesn't get to them, that's fine. It was just a request.

[@raymadrigal5269]

Seeing videos from lesser known yuto-nahuan languages would be very interesting! Especially the fact that although they are related, Nahuatl and Shoshone are as far apart as Spanish and Hindi!

[@romaindemarais]

Interesting idea for a video: The diversity of dialects in France, many of very various origins: celtic, latin (corsican, provençal, languedocien, bearnais etc.), germanic (flamish, alsacien, lorrain etc.), basque... without even speaking of creoles spoken in West Indies, kanak in new caledonia and Polynesian languages Many do not realize the number of dialects spoken in France...

[@tizgerard_9816]

As a Neapolitan, personally I use them both, but I tend to use standard Italian on more occasions. Obviously when I'm with my friends or my family I often use Neapolitan, it's our language after all.

[@Hastdupech8509]

Where is the voice speaking Neapolitan from? I come from Nola and heard some features being off

[@sasharama5485]

As an Italian l love the richness of our languages. Italian brings us together but we all have our distinctive identity.😊

[@FlagAnthem]

Sure it is. Italy is way more united than the average italian might think of

[@nonusolarozationeatoumatic6239]

You can't understand my happiness on seeing this video that explains with a frightening accuracy the Neapolitan language ❤❤❤ It's a language I speak that doesn't get recognised and is dying very very fast 😢 Also I'm a native Sicilian speaker, a language that is very distinct even from Neapolitan (it also has a lot of similarities with Romanian rather than Italian), it is surviving quite long because as I said it's very distinct but it will probably die as well together with the accent and "ways of saying" It's a small thing but I appreciated so much the fact you said Neapolitan has influence from ancient Oscan and explained where, this is just amazing discovering how ancient pre-roman languages still influence us I hope if you will do a video about Sicilian you will find something about pre-roman influence Thank you for taking care and preserving the languages of Mezzogiorno🫶🏻

[@vladimir520]

As a Romanian, it is shocking to see some unexpected similarities between Neapolitan and my native language! Word-final vowel reduction is probably what also caused a lot of feminine nouns in Romanian to end in -ă (a schwa), and probably verb conjugations as well. Neapolitan "mano" sounds a bit like Romanian "mână ", "chiam'" like "cheamă". Neapolian "Scusat" also looks a lot like Romanian "Scuzați" (the last i isn't pronounced, it makes the ț = ts palatalized). Possessive suffixes are also used when referring to family in Romanian, e.g. soacră-ta "your mother-in-law", although it's colloquial and not really polite, and there's also different ways of shortening vocabulary for parents that changes politeness (taică-tu vs. tac-tu "your father", maică-ta vs. mă-ta "your mother", the last of which is considerably impolite).

[@adriantm8430]

It's interesting though that in terms of vocabulary the examples from Italian were closer to Romanian in most of the cases (except probably for loanwords from French)

[@Mariarco]

Very similar 🤯

[@aiocafea]

i would say at the end of scuzați the sound is weakly palatalised, it depends on the speaker, but yeah i also felt quite shocked i assume it's also the fact that as there are so many romance languages, all of our features only have so many paths to elvolve down, so naturally some will converge without too much contact, coupled with the fact we are rarely exposed to romance languages other than the big national standards big thing, we also kept a three-gender system and tiny thing, we borrowed the same word for parsley: πετροσέλῑνον -> pătrunjel (though now that i looked it up it used to be in latin too, it may be that the neapolitans did keep a stronger greek connection)

[@Wolfmon31]

This explains why my family and many other american italians pronounce italian words the way we do. we arent just lazy americans butchering the language. we are speaking neopolitan.

[@Langfocus]

Right, I think a lot of the North American diaspora speak Neapolitan or Sicilian.

[@chetecredivecachera9099]

Once in Sain Peter Basilica in Vatican an italoamerican asked the guardian how to "go 'ngopp'". He taught he was speaking italian.

[@arrunzo]

Yup! Almost all the Italian immigration in the United States was from Southern Italy, so broadly speaking, there was an influence from different southern Italian languages (Neapolitan and Sicilian). When you combine all these factors (lack of linguistic standardization, general assimilation, illiteracy), it's easy to see how words and pronunciations can evolve (or become corrupted).

[@Reazzurro90]

Yes this is correct. This is mostly influenced by neapolitan. This is unknown by a lot of Italians in Italy.

[@ciaoatutti307]

​@@Reazzurro90not true, we all know majority of italo americans in US are from the South, we study history too...

[@connemignonne]

I think this might be my favourite video from your channel, this rocks. Would love to see more dialects/languages recognised!

[@giusax89]

Just wanted to point out that "capo" can mean "head" in SI as well. It's just a bit more old-fashioned by now but it doesn't exclusively mean "leader" (although it's true that's the most frequent use). At any rate, thanks for the splendid work. Neapolitan is my native language (Foggia variety) and I learned a lot from this nonetheless!

[@aaronmarks9366]

I find it interesting that the same literal/metaphorical split is found in the English and German words for 'head'. For the literal anatomical head, English has "head", and German has "Kopf", but German also has "Haupt", a cognate of the English word, and it is more metaphorical in meaning: for example "Hauptstadt" = capital city, "Hauptmann" = captain.

[@kekeke8988]

@@aaronmarks9366 I would never guess those were cognates. Literally only the first letter is the same.

[@aaronmarks9366]

@@kekeke8988 Ooo, there are some real bizarre cognates out there. It's why I love historical linguistics. Another cool one is German "Tier" and English "deer"

[@claudioristagno6460]

In Italian we actually say "stammi bene" instead of "stai bene" for "take care". Gabinett' does not derive from cabinet, in italian we have the word "gabinetto" with g, the consonant does not become voiced, it is already voiced.

[@wyqtor]

Napoletan: sòcreta / Romanian: soacră-ta (same stress position on the first syllable, except that in Romanian we changed long o to the 'oa' diphthong). Even the 'e' here is pronounced more like a schwa sound, which in Romanian is its own letter, ă!

[@ferreirap.]

As a Sicilian, I can almost understand everything from the sample at 1:01 , but I have to listen very carefully, because most words are similar but not quite the same. For example, we don't say "n'coppa", but "n'capu". Other words I can understand from knowing Portuguese and Spanish. "Abbasciu" I can understand because it's like the portuguese "baixo", but in Sicilian we say "sutta". "Mesale" also resambles the Portuguese and Spanish "mesa", but we call it "taula". "Cutticu" corresponds to "contigo", but we say "ccu ttìa". I could continue, but you get the idea!

[@JacopoT]

Hey Paul, great video as always. I am native of Romagna, so my ear is attuned to Gallo-Italic dialects. I roughly got 10-15% of the audio in Neapolitan. 😅 Just want to report a small mistake at 7:04: the last word is “hair”, not “hat”.

[@DomingosCJM]

Capelli -> 'cabelo' in portuguese.

[@FlagAnthem]

Burdél 😊

[@rhsmn2334]

i'm surprised to see a Romance language using as an actual palatal approximant

[@hckoenig]

Great video about an underappreciated language. Its status reminds me of Scots, Low German and Swiss German. All of them are families of closely related dialects distinct enough from their "big sisters" to deserve being classified as languages of their own.

[@faithlesshound5621]

Looking at the written representation of Neapolitan, I am struck by the profusion of apostrophes which indicate where it diverges from Standard Italian. There is a movement for "Scots without apostrophes" which emphasises that it is a historically distinct language and not a faulty or degenerate version of English. However, leaving them out makes it harder for those familiar only with the official tongue to understand written dialect. Examples: ba' = ball, wa' = wall, wi' = with. English has the additional baggage of letters re-inserted by scholars in the Renaissance to indicate where it diverged from Latin, which nobody pronounces, e.g. the silent "d" in debt and doubt, which had already disappeared in written Middle English. There are also those letters which have become silent in the southern dialects of English but remain active in the north, such as "gh" in night, pronounced "nite" in the south but "nicht" in the north. Spelling reform would clarify how to speak the southern language while distancing it from Scots.

[@rjltrevisan]

As a speaker of Brazilian Portuguese, when comparing Neapolitan and Standard Italian with Brazilian Portuguese, I think that in general Standard Italian is more similar, but at the same time Neapolitan is closer to Brazilian Portuguese where Standard Italian differs, so in the end the proximity to my native language end up being equivalent, but for different reasons.

[@ground_news]

Thank you, Paul. Incredible work you put into your videos! Happy to be supporting your work. For anyone interested, check out the link above and let us know if you have any questions.

[@samcotten2416]

I’m an Italian speaker, and when you played that audio sample of spoken Neapolitan I couldn’t understand for a moment, but eventually my brain got into it and I was able to pick up probably about 80% of it. It sounds similar enough to Standard Italian so that I can generally follow it. I could probably have a complete conversation with a Neapolitan speaker using Italian; I can, after all, do that with Chilean and Peruvian Spanish speakers.

[@hcneos9134]

Please do one on the Sicilian language!

[@JoelCaseyJonesMusic]

Yes please!

[@TheGamerGeek01]

Being an italian speaker and having lived in all major regional centers of the south, including naples, bari and palermo, it always surpised me how different yet similar these regional dialects are. I don't think dialects do them justice, they really are their own languages: the dialects are what are spoken in the villages in the country side. Italy is so unique in how isolated (as far as european standards go) these regional languages have evolved into the modern age. I met elderly people who spoke the regional language as their madre lingua. There are overarching influences between these southern languages which makes them always somewhat mutually intelligible. The spanish, french, greek and arabic influences are audible in all of them. Having learned how to understand napolitano it was easy for my ears to pick up barese and siciliano afterwards.

[@flaviomongiovi8105]

As a speaker of Sicilian, I would love to help you on any of your future videos about my language! I'd say that neapolitan is unintelligible when spoken fast, but spoken slowly I guess it could be done; there are major differences in grammar between the two though.

[@SteinGauslaaStrindhaug]

11:03 This seems to happen quite a lot, name for a very specific part of the body is a cognate and/or false friend of a much broader body part. In Norwegian we have the word "legg" which sounds almost exactly like English "leg" but the Norwegian word refers to the calf of the leg only. The Norwegian word for leg is "bein" which is the same word as we use for bone (we avoid confusion by most often referring to legs in definite form and bones in indefinite form; unless we add a description such as "the bone in the upper arm")

[@eliascsjunior]

As a Portuguese, Spanish and French speaker I cant believe someone would call it a dialect of Italian. They are quite different o.O

[@sciking8756]

In Italy we call dialects languages more close to French than to Standard Italian. Just politics, Dante said Italians spoke the same language before the Tower of Babel fell, which in his opinion created Italian "dialects", and so that became basically the Italian official take on its languages. Our minority languages law was written when there was a quite strong independence movement in Northern Italy, so every major regional language was not included

[@franz9573]

Also among the Neapolitan family there are great differences, if someone from Foggia speaks a strict dialect, then those from Naples also do not understand much even if it is considered as one family. I have an abruzzo-molise variation, which is not as strict as the Neapolitan from the city of Naples, Also in my dialect there are some Spanish and French words, but less Greek, because we were not part of Magna Grecia.

[@FlagAnthem]

​@@sciking8756Italian is from the Renaissance

[@mariapicciBeauty]

I’m from Campania, specifically from Caserta, the variant of Neapolitan we use is different in EVERY province of our region… We of course understand each other, but there are tiny little differences between each (little and big) towns here in Campania. I use only Neapolitan with my family, some of my friends speak only Neapolitan, some other Italian only… sometimes we mix… it really depends on the person and the context too.

[@ltubabbo529]

In Campania le differenze sono poche, poi certo, per campanilismo si tende sempre a dire che ci sia qualche ostacolo. A parte i dialetti del Cilento meridionale, gli altri sono molto simili.

[@campanianrepublic82]

@@ltubabbo529 In Campania parliamo sostanzialmente allo stesso modo con piccole varianti....ma l'intonazione, le vocali chiuse, la "musicalita" è la stessa in tutte le cinque province campane. Noi siamo un po cpme l'Alto Adige.....Diversi anche dagli altri del Sud. Siamo ALTRO !

[@ltubabbo529]

@@campanianrepublic82 Non è così, il campano è imparentato con tutti i dialetti limitrofi (abruzzese, molisano, ecc.), non è niente di distaccato. E nel sud del Cilento non si parla come nel resto della Campania.

[@alejandracapriolo3917]

I grew up in Napoli, in an area where people speak mostly standard Italian (with some Neapolitan words and expressions). I always thought I could understand Neapolitan, but at the age of 16 I changed school and went to a different district where most people would speak Neapolitan as first language. It was immediately clear that my knowledge of Neapolitan was very poor and it took me a full year before I could clearly understand everything when my classmates were talking in a group of native speakers. My Neapolitan is still quite clumsy and has an undeniable Italian accent. I wouldn't say I speak Neapolitan, but i can firmly claim that I do fully understand Neapolitan now, although I still surprise myself learning new idioms and vocabulary.

[@John_Weiss]

I knew it! I knew that 'Nnapulitano dropped trailing vowels and voiced some of the unvoiced plosives! A lot of Italian-Americans came from Naples & Campania [including 3 of my mother's grandparents; her other grandfather was from Italy, but we don't know where]. This is why Italian-Americans say so many Italian food-words with the last vowel left off: "manicott' ", "ricott' ", "cec' " [instead of "ceci"], "prosciutt' ", "mozarell' " … and the infamous "gaba goo", one of the ways that "gabagool" get's sloshed, which in turn comes from saying, "capacoll' " with the consonants all voiced. My mom's father and his siblings all spoke 'Nnapulitano … well, we kids thought they were "speaking Italian", but it was Neapolitan … and my mom's mother learned 'Nnapulitano so she could speak with my grandfather's relatives. Grandmother's mom was from Campania, but her father was from someplace else in Italy, and came to America as an infant or was born here. So he was fully Americanized, and his wife started learning English on the train to Brooklyn. So my grandmother and her siblings grew up only speaking English. Grandmother would tell a story of when she and my grandfather was in Naples visiting his cousins … it's a long story, but the interesting part is when she was in a bakery, having a bit of a mix-up trying to find a particular pastry. Well, when Grandmother apologized for the confusion and explained she was from America, the shop keeper shouted to the back, "Come and hear this American! Come hear her speak Our Language!" Apparently, during her stay, Grandmother picked up 'Nnapulitano really, _really well._

[@jokath5620]

I'm trying to learn Neapolitan to understand the lyrics of their songs, i love their music and I appreciate the people of Naples they have been kind to me. Even though I have visited this city several times I want to come again. Or live there but I'm not so lucky. 🥺

[@just1frosty516]

I’ve been waiting for this video for so long

[@RaZoRxan]

Note that Neapolitan language also has the conditional. This was used in the past, in the more "classical" version of the Neapolitan language. We can find this mostly in classical Neapolitan music and literature. For example, "Vuless nu bicchiere'e vin'" in canonical Neapolitan would be "Vurria nu bicchier'e vin'."

[@FlagAnthem]

​@natural783in un mondo senza stati nazionalisti stareste a parlare spagnolo sotto una corona retrograda che fuori napoli il deserto. Le lingue hanno una loro evoluzione

[@aquila9810]

@@FlagAnthem ho i miei dubbi sul fatto che avremmo parlato spagnolo dato che le lingue napoletane, siciliane e sardo/corse sono sopravvissute a quasi 400 anni di dominazione spagnola

[@FlagAnthem]

​@@aquila9810si vada a rileggere cosa pensava la tanto rimpianta real casa di borbone dei napoletani e dei meridionali e poi ne riparliamo

[@arrunzo]

Èst interessante per que hao notato que se usa lo subjunctivo imperfècto de lo vèrbo "querer" en espannîolo como la forma conditionale independèntemente de altras lenguas. Per exèmplo, se pòte dícere "Quisiera un vaso de agua" en lòco de alternativas como "Me gustaría" aut "Querría".

[@tradizioni_festereligiose]

As a guy from Campania, specifically Caserta county, I really appreciate you for this video. Great!

[@fabiolimadasilva3398]

Conheço Nápoles. Enquanto o funcionário do hotel falava comigo em espanhol, com outros funcionários era somente em napolitano.

[@themidweekfixture5059]

Your showing of Gapit' and Capito at ~17:30 is really cool because it also is how a lot of Italian-American descendants (most were from Campania or Sicilia) get words like Gabagool from Capicolla, C turns to G, drop the last vowel, add a little NY accent, badabing badaboom, Gabagool

[@themidweekfixture5059]

That could be a really good idea for a future video btw, explaining how some American foreign language dialects and words have regional holdover characteristics

[@ltubabbo529]

La pronuncia è con la G, ma si scrive come comunque con la C

[@alexandruchiriac2179]

as a Romanian speaker, Neapolitan seems familiar in an interesting way. even though in some cases italian is closer to romanian in terms of vocabulary, some reflexes and tendencies, as well as phonetic features give a little romanian vibe:)