Hi Metatron, the "Can an Italian understand.." is my favorite series on this channel. probably because I find mutual intelligibility to be one of the most fascinating linguistic phenomenons. If you ever consider revisiting Portuguese whether it's for a video or even off camera for curiosity's sake, I would suggest looking into Angolan Portuguese or Portuguese from Mozambique. I've always found these varieties (especially that of Mozambique) to be easier to understand as a Spanish speaker. They feel to me like a comfortable middle ground between Brazilian and European Portuguese. The African varieties of Portuguese don't have as many nasal sounds as Brazilian and don't "cram" their words as much as European and to top it off they speak at a relaxed pace while enunciating clearly. There is a small youtuber with a channel called "Mozambicando". It's s a great channel for anyone trying to build their comprehension of Portuguese. The content consists of vlogs, interviews, and language related discussions. Sorry for the ramble. Keep up the amazing videos!
Thanks and I'm glad to hear that. Yes I will revisit Portuguese. Just like I already made two videos about Spanish, I will make dedicated videos to specific cities in both Brazil and Portugal. Thanks
“Nothing” hahaha I burst out laughing along with you, Metatron. I studied Italian in university for almost a year but I understood absolutely nothing from that first rant.
I’m an American of Italian heritage. My grandfather’s family was from Naples and my grandmother’s family was from Palermo. I am told that my grandfather learned to speak my grandmother’s dialect of Sicilian, mostly so that he could more effectively argue with her and her family. I wish there was a recording for Metatron to comment on.
The guy at 3:40 literally says "Damn the earth where those tender trees were sown the lemons of which served to render shinier the little brass knobs that adorn those wooden caskets of rotten fir where the best departed among your family's departed are gathered".
There are still more official romance languages you haven't done yet! How about Romantsch from Switzerland? There are several dialects that are quite different, but also an 'official' dialect (Romansch Grischun) that's used in writing and on TV, but isn't actually spoken by anyone.
@@oyoo3323 Yes it is. How are creoles not part of the families of the languages they are descended from? It's literally just French with heavy African influence and a simplified orthography.
@servantofaeie1569 not quite. Creoles are not classified as part of the family of their doner languages because they actually AREN'T what you described. What you described would indeed be a member of the same family, but not in fact a creole. Creoles have a base language from which they borrow vocabulary, but their grammar (which is not necessarily simplified), and thus the skeleton is often based on some other language, usually the native one of the first speakers of the creole. In the case of Haitian, its basic skeleton is based a varied mixture of a bunch of West African Niger-Congo languages, with only some French in there. French is only the language's skin, not whole body. This is exactly what makes creoles distinct from just regular descendant languages with foreign influence. They are, by definition, mixed languages.
Iamme ! From Bergamo province, more difficult than Romanian. ;-) As you say, Italian with a Neapolitan accent is one thing, "napoletano stretto" is another.
This is so interesting!! Would like to hear and understand more about these languages! Especially Sicilian & Sardinian! And of course Venetian & Friulian..
4:16 in what context is "your dead ones" used? In Romanian we use "your dead ones" as an insult, with many different variations of insulting someone's dead ones, and I just googled and apparently they do this in Spanish as well, that's really awesome to find out, would be cool if that is used in Italian too
I don't understand much as a Portugese, but what these guys have in common (in the movie) is that gesturing and the fact that they are screaming more than talking to another. I have seen this happening this vacation in Algarve too where a restaurant owner explained ot other portuguese that some restaurant they were fancying was not really Portuguese at all (and some sort of a shame in the town for that reason). Really the same attitude etc.
If you get to read this comment, these are my suggestions for a Sardinian intelligibility test Baroniese (village of Orosei), the more conservative variant, preserves the latin velar c ua-cam.com/video/wwvUsP0kapo/v-deo.html Logudorese (Macomer village), a less conservative variant, the latin velar c is partially preserved, it becomes g/ɣ in intervocalic position ua-cam.com/video/_pu88YGYSuw/v-deo.html Campidanese (City of Cagliari), the most innovative variant, the latin velar c becomes a palatal t͡ʃ or ʒ in intervocalic position ua-cam.com/video/DsAvpXp1Txs/v-deo.html Sassarese, (city of Sassari), a lingua franca that mixes Sardinian, Italian/Corsican and Ligurian, therefore only geographically Sardinian, but is interesting for its unusual sounds, especially for the ɬ which is hardly or even never found in the Romance languages ua-cam.com/video/rHXGVVx-NcY/v-deo.html
the one clip where the woman says the coffee is like bean water..there is a frame on wall with Toto (Antonio DeCurtis) who did many Neopolitan movies. My late boyfriend was born in Catania, but lived near Napoli in Vico Equense.. When he spoke Sicilian, I could not understand.. and Neopolitan is not easy either.È stato principe Don Corrado Cattaneo d'Volta du San Nicandro. Lui e morto 2011. Mi manche Lui. I find the Venetian dialetto and Genova dialtto difficile anche
I have very good Italian (as a first generation Italo-Australian). Italian was my first language until Kindergarten. My dad was from Abruzzi, and my mum from le Isole-Eolie (Pr. Messina). So we spoke Italian at home, Abruzzese when in Pescara, and Sicilian when on the island of Salina (Eolie). But not being born in Italy, I would sometimes get dialect mixed up into my Italian (eg: Io voglio bevere, io voglio dicere ...etc), .. ... until I studied Italian formally at Uni (aka Aussie for "university" :) Although your Italian is NLP Native Level Proficiency (DOC!), and you speak fluent Sicilian, (and fantastic English btw). But when I was watching the TV series "Gommora" & "L'amica geniale" ..... I had to do a mini-study of Neapolitan, as with my standard Italian ..... I was missing big chunks of language (understanding). Especially in "Gommora". But it's interesting to see that even with fluent native Sicilian and Italian ... you "sometimes" also find "il Napolitano stretto- stretto" ..... difficult . That makes me feel better as I just couldn't follow some of "Gommora" with my Standard Italian & Abruzzese. So thanks for your video. Your videos are very interesting linguistically speaking. Also your history video doc's rock too. :). You must have a healthy IQ. Grazie di nuovo. Sei geniale!
To better appreciate the beauty of Streto Napoletano just listen to the songs of Massimo Ranieri. One in particular album, " O' Surrdato n'amurrato " (there are youtube videos) is so beautiful it brings me to tears. Please do a take on Siciian vs Romano.
This is so weird; I have been watching metatron for so long and I cannot put my finger on what makes him so familiar to me. So I had my sound off and watched him for a bit talk and I would bet you he was a Greek speaking(I am Greek). Of course he might have heritage being southern Italian but still its so unreal.
@@graemeduncan1232 Thanks for the answer mate! Though honestly it doesnt really matter most people from the south of europe have many things in common so in certain cases they might be mistaken for one another. Take care!
I watched Gommorra in original with subtitles. Seems like they swallow the endings a lot and o is often a u-sound like they say O Ciro (also with the title O in front) to the one character I noticed.
The pronunciation of the letter O in Neapolitan words is kind of like how Portuguese speakers pronounce the letter O like a U. Also, as far as I know, something that is relatively unique to Neapolitan compared to other Romance languages is the presence of "schwas" (like the sound of "uh" in English). This also occurs in Portuguese, some dialects of Catalan, and most definitely in Romanian, even having its own letter ("ă"). Interesting stuff!
The continuum in Italy is beautiful, I wonder if it’s a similar situation to scots where functionally they their own language but met with some deprestigation of languages being called “diaclects”
@@barbellvgo2424 how far north Scots and how deep into Cardiff are we talkin here 😂 it must also be said that’s Scot’s and Scot’s english aren’t the same thing Scot’s English is standard English with a Scottish accent and Scot’s is a seperate but very closely related language which is why I compared the situation to that of i dialetti in Italy
even Scots is easier for me compared to Neapolitan, whereas for Scottish English that's not even a problem as I'd even watch my Scottish lecturer(with a thick accent) on 2x speed on Panopto. It's mostly due to anglophones being really lazy linguistically and not have intuition in that matter.@@lewiitoons4227
I'm enjoying the series Metatron, I'm interested to know if you ever "realise" that a word is dialect when you speak to another Italian and they seem confused. I'm Australian and sometimes feel unsure if the word I'm going to use is used in other English speaking countries
It can happen, I witnessed it a few times: someone from some area of Italy uses a word which is absolutely common and it is considered perfect Italian for them but it is completely unknown or not used in other parts.
Would be very interesting to see the difference in comprehension when it comes to different varieties of the same regional language, Like Apulia's variety of Neapolitan is already much different to my ears. If you ever do a video about Sardinian I would appreciate if you included at least an example of Logudorese and Campidanese varieties/dialects. Also there are many places where they speak another language inside the same region and would be great to see how the regional languages can influence another language, like the Greek speaking community in Messina.
@@giulianopisciottano8302 a part of Apulians speak a variety of Neapolitan, altho it is very different from Napoli's Neapolitan en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_of_Italy#/media/File%3ALinguistic_map_of_Italy_-_Legend.svg
In the same way that logudorese is different from campidanese, and there are actually a spectrum of dozens of sub-varieties in the middle, same is true for the northern variety of Apulian and Napoli's Neapolitan variety
@@metatronacademy da napoletano: e se posso permettermi, ma un bel rant su sti americani che insistono nel dire: Sicilia non è italia? Giuro che mi viene un ulcera ogni volta che mi ci imbatto sull'internet
@cohorspraetoria8157 Guarda se è per questo gli Italo-Americani dicono pure che non sono bianchi, tranne quando poi gli fa comodo, e dicono Gabagool e Galamad 😂
@@elioamedeoI don't know why would Sicilians say they are not white? I know there are Spaniards, most famous, Antonio Banderas, who says that he is a Latino. But for me this race division us ridiculous. Especially in Europe. Of course someone from Norway or Sweden look different to those from the south of Spain or from Italy, but they all white to me. Even if I look at Ukraine. We have ethnicities like Kyrymly, who are Turkik, not Slavic, but they are pretty pale to me. Moreover in my family everyone from my mother's side have darker skin and from my father's are with pale skin. But it would be ridiculous to say that my mother is not white....
@@oleksandrbyelyenko435 I don't know what to tell you, it's just what I hear Italian Americans say. I think Americans are just weird when it comes to certain topics. Also I don't know how they would react to people like me and my sister, who look more nordic, especially her, she looks kinda Danish, and we're not even particularly rare in Italy. Americans just have unrealistic expectations when it comes to Europe in general I think
Zeneise i think a bit , because its like a between state. In fact funny it is, there s few stuff in certain southern piemont stuff and all the ligurian and transitional stuff that converge with Sicily and stuff, like Corsican stuff a bit. Intemeliese like in old nissard ( like i talk it im a native ) i was surprised that we used stuff like " Oh la meschina " kind of expression among others. But Turinese i don't think he would , its hard to understand, its a difficult language.
One thing that bothers me about clips in Neapolitan is that they're usually comedic. For whatever reason, Italy has decided to make Naples the butt of every joke in every movie and series it makes. If anyone here is interested in hearing how beautiful Neapolitan sounds when spoken without the intent of hilarity, I recommend the song Dorme cu' mmé by La Maschera, which has a spoken part that gives a really nice impression of how sweet and melodic it can be in everyday life.
@@metatronacademy Also, can you make one about Salentino? There is a difference of opinion if it's a dialect of Sicilian or a separate language in the Italiano Meridionale Estremo continuum.
I'm loving this series of videos! As a Maltese national, I am also fluent in Italian, and I find that I pretty much agree with you as to what is intelligible and what isn't. May I suggest that doing a video about the Maltese language might be an interesting experiment. Maltese is a semitic language evolved from Siculo-arabic, however it borrows a large percentage of vocabulary from romance languages, mostly Italian and Sicilian. I have Sicilian friends who say that they understand a lot of Maltese due to this. Due to its peculiar history, very often Maltese has two or more words for a given concept, one derived from the semitic side and one from the romance, therefore it is possible to speak in distinct registers, favouring one or the other aspect of the language, sounding either more italian or more semitic. Perhaps you'd find it interesting to try your hand (or ear) at making sense of Maltese at some point.
I also think that video would be very interesting. Because Maltese is so different yet an Italian would feel like they can grasp what's being said. So that would be a really cool experiment.
Many years ago in England I had a Maltese girlfriend and when she spoke with her brothers and father I could understand what they were speaking about, but not the sense of the whole conversation. i still remember the words "forza" and "grazie hafna". PS. I was semi-bilingual Italian-English at the time, but we also spoke in French because, if I remember rightly, they came to England from Alexandria in Egypt.
My uncle studied in Italy and he also knew Arabic language living in Tunisia and Morocco for some years, and oneday he visited Malta and he understood what locals said, while he was at the market, and he replied them and they said he can speak Maltese😂😂😂😂
I'm Italian-American and my mother's grandparents were from Salerno and my father's grandparents were from Messina. Growing up my mother had no concept of Italian dialects and just assumed that Neapolitan was, in fact, Italian since all her grandparents spoke it and all the Italian immigrants in her neighborhood spoke it. It wasn't until she got engaged to my father that she realized that not everyone from Italy spoke the same. My mother's mom said she hardly understood a word when she first met my father's mom and that she was simply smiling and nodding throughout the conversation 🤣
Yes, this can sometimes be quite curious and funny. I am Italian and I am also an Italian teacher and I teach Italian language in schools here in Germany. I remember an anecdote of a German lady married to a Sicilian who had learned practically all of the Sicilian dialect from her husband. One day she came to school to pick up her son and stopped to tell me something. She began to speak in a deep and strong Sicilian dialect. I am not Sicilian, I am from the Campania region, by the way I am also from Salerno, and I know my dialect, but of course I do not know Sicilian. This lady, arrived at a certain point, noticed that I did not understand everything she was saying and said to me (in German).... “but you do not understand Italian ?” And I replied.... "dear lady, if you had spoken Italian, there would have been no problem, but what you have said so far was only in deep and strong Sicilian dialect." The lady was practically convinced that she was speaking in standard Italian to me. 😊
My family came here in the early 1900s from Naples and avellino. They called standard Italian high italian and told the family it's not correct and not to speak it lol. We never did. Only neapolitan
@@emmanuelwood8702 of course it's my opinion, but having lived for 30 years in Naples and being an actual Neapolitan speaker I have contrasting thoughts. It could be a beautiful language, but it is used and abused by voulgar and ignorant people that ruin it and make it voulgar as they are.
I am Italian and I am also an Italian teacher and I teach Italian language in schools here in Germany. I remember an anecdote of a German lady married to a Sicilian who had learned practically all of the Sicilian dialect from her husband. One day she came to school to pick up her son and stopped to tell me something. She began to speak in a deep and strong Sicilian dialect. I am not Sicilian, I am from the Campania region, and I know my dialect, but of course I do not know Sicilian. This lady, arrived at a certain point, noticed that I did not understand everything she was saying and said to me (in German).... “but you do not understand Italian ?” And I replied.... "dear lady, if you had spoken Italian, there would have been no problem, but what you have said so far was only in deep and strong Sicilian dialect." The lady was practically convinced that she was speaking in standard Italian to me. :)
@@antoninoscro1834 Il fatto però è un altro, che se tu, come quella signora tedesca, pensi di parlare in italiano con la gente e poi ti accorgi che la gente non ti capisce, non è che sia poi una gran cosa ! La colpa se vogliamo è stata del marito che con la moglie ha parlato sempre e solo in dialetto siciliano. Non le ha fatto capire che esiste l’italiano standard che vale per tutta l’Italia e che se tu esci fuori da quel paesino della Sicilia e giri per l’Italia, rischi che la gente ovviamente non ti capisce. Se fossi stato io al posto del marito, le avrei insegnato per prima l’italiano standard e poi in un secondo momento anche il mio dialetto. Quella signora che evidentemente parlava di solito solo con i familiari del marito oppure quando andavano in Sicilia nel paesino, con parenti o amici e lì ovviamente la capivano tutti, è rimasta un po’ scioccata quando ha capito che quello che lei aveva imparato era solo il dialetto di una determinata regione, mentre lei pensava evidentemente di parlare in italiano. Ecco perché lei, quando si è accorta che io non riuscivo a seguirla, mi disse, in tedesco, “Ma lei non capisce l’italiano ?”
@@antoninoscro1834 Io qui in Germania vivevo molti anni fa nel sud, dove c’era un forte dialetto locale. Io ho avuto l’abilità di cercare di imparare e di parlare sempre in tedesco standard. Questo quando poi mi sono trasferito qui al nord, in una regione, in una zona dove si parla proprio il tedesco standard e dove non c’è un dialetto, se io qui avessi parlato solo quel dialetto di quella zona nel sud, rischiavo che qui non mi capiva quasi nessuno.
Egregio signore in Sicilia si e'sempre parlata la lingua siciliana ,e la maggior parte della gente che emigrava fino agli anni 70 parlava quella lingua ,onde per cui non c'e da colpevolizzare proprio nessuno. @@aris1956
I am a Canadian of Italian heritage. Over here, we have people from every region of Italy and most of us grew up getting exposed to a range of regional dialects. Mine was less frequent, Marchegiano, but many of my friends were Abbruzzesi, Calabresi, Siciliani, Napoletani, and a few Friulani. You would think that would help me understand these languages when I hear them. Per niente!!😂
if I didn't get it too wrong In the first frase at: 2:17 he is basically cursing against the land that was used to plant the lemon tree that produced the lemons that were used to make shiny the handles the coffin where the ancestors of whoever punctured his tires.
Sicilians speak their own distinct language with at least 10 dialects. 4 exclusive to Palermo alone. Most Siciliani speak standard Italian. My grandmother when she was living in 1985 had a neighbor who was from il Nord. She couldn’t understand a thing she was talking about!
Would be cool about Corso and Abruzzese and Romano. Being both originally from Central Italy they are mostly intelligible too. Anw really like the new format! Let me know what I asked you some months ago about the subtitles in Italian. Keep it up compaesano!
I’m enjoying this series Metatron ! It’d be cool if you did an episode on Mexican Spanish even though I know you already did some Spanish. Mexican people do not believe me when I tell them how similar Sicilian is to Spanish. When I break down words that are close they are amazed to learn we even use basically the same words. Another idea is an episode on Corsican. When I searched a translation of Sicilian google translate keeps telling me it’s Corsican. I think these would be interesting for people to see how similar both are pretty easy to understand for a native Sicilian. One being close and yet one being so far away from Italy all the way in the Americas.
@@graemeduncan1232 You’re right. It is closer to Tuscan but sounds southern like Sicilian. Very interesting the familiarity of it to me, being it’s geographical location. I would’ve thought different before learning more about it.
Your Romance series has inspired me to do a series of my own - "Can a Navajo understand Apache, Chipewyan, Hupa...etc.?" Thanks Metatron. I love your videos!
A very nice series of videos! As for me, I'm from Venice and I couldn't understand anything spoken in Neapolitan without subtitles! Maybe could you try Venetian? It plays a similar role in Veneto as Neapolitan in Campania and Southern Italy.
Seconded! I'd love to see Raffaele's thoughts on Sardinian given that it is said to overall be the closest living Romance language to Latin--or at least, one of its varieties. Honestly, it's probably inevitable that he takes a look at it, so we'll see!
I would really like to understand why romainan sound so similar to neapolitan language. It's not only "cap" but a lot of other words. Plus both languages make an intense use of sounds like ă. Is it just a coindence (like both languages have more direct relationship with latin than italian) or there is a reason (common greek roots, mass migrations between south italy and balcans)? Maybe it could be material for a video 😊
@@carmineingaldi47l’italiano è letteralmente la seconda lingua più vicina al latino dopo il sardo con il 12% d’evoluzione, non comprendo come possa il napoletano, una lingua con forte sostrato osco, essere più vicina al latino rispetto alla nostra lingua nazionale. Per non parlare del rumeno, profondamente influenzato in pronuncia e vocabolario dai propri vicini slavi e ungheresi.
I have two suggestions and a comment re Madrid Spanish 1. Ladino - the language of the Jews expelled from Spain in 1492 that can be found in the Balkans and in Istanbul Turkey 2. Gallego - the language of Galicia in northwestern Spain that is Portuguese spoken with Spanish sounds which is much easier to understand As a latin American I find Madrid Spanish ( the th sound extremely irritating) - we substitute "s" for it and Iberiah Standard Spanish to be extremely stuffy
Great video, I enjoyed it as usual. My friends from Firenze told me that I speak well and understand the accent from the north. I asked them how different can the other accents be? Then you uploaded the bicycle video and my jaw dropped😂. I couldn't pick up anything when he went full speed.
What I got is that if an italian from other parts go to Naples region, they won't be able to understand the local language. That's why they need to speak standard italian in this situations. Is it right?
Yes but it's the same for all regions. Every region has a regional language, so for example if a Neapolitan goes to Lombardy he wouldn't be able to understand Lombard dialect
Maybe do Friulian language next? I’ve heard it’s closer to Latin than Italian but I have no expertise to verify it myself. It would be very interesting to hear your opinion!
@@Nissardpertugiuwell I had a friend from brescia and once came with a friulan friend and I was amazed as not only I could understand most of it being from València, and I couldn’t believe it when he said: ‘si fasim una birra o si gratam als cullons?’ -> se fem una birra o se gratem als collons (cullons en catalonia😂)
As a Sicilian, what's your opinion on the Calabrian dialect? Is it more similar to Sicilian or Neapolitan? It'd probably depended on the region, I assume.
Would be lovely to see you try to understand the "Talian" dialect that we speak here in southern Brazil, although it's quite spread in origin and influence, most of it comes from Veneto and Romagnol, i myself am trying to learn it so i may keep the heritage of the "coloni" that traveled from northern Italy to Mèrica (as in the general continent) Love the series, been binge watching it for a good while now.
I think the second time you understood what the man with the bike said, but you didn't want to translate the barrage of fancy insults and profanity that the guy said 😂
My suggestion for another video in this series is the language of Romansch. If you’re not aware, it is a Romance language spoken in some parts of Switzerland and is one of the closest descendants to classical Latin.
I'm from Romania,and speak my share of languages,especially latin ones. Had a job once,as a seller on a cruise ship,where i had a tiny crowd in front of me. Mostly we spoke english,but at one point i had a couple from Quebec,to which i spoke in french,another few to whom i spoke in spanish,the rest in english, juggling sentences from one language to another,on the fly. One lady said:"My God dear,how many languages do you speak as an american? I'm not american ma'am,english's not my first language! But your accent,i don't believe you,she replied!" Then my manager,who was also from Romania,comes out and asks me a few questions,in our language-moment i look to that lady and say,well that's my language. All in all,i find latin languages easy to learn,way easier than germanic ones,even surprised my once italian gf how easy i could read italian (which i never took a course,never watch that much media); even catalan i found somewhat easy to understand,not that different from spanish-the only one that eludes me is Romansch...I watched people speak it,watched some news reel...it's quite different. Interesting though,hope they keep it.
Has a very strong Germanic substratum. I do not see how it is any more closely descended from classical Latin than the other Romance languages surrounding it.
@@Xochiyolotl Yeah maybe it’s incorrect to say that it’s that closely related. Still phonetically it sounds much more Latin that French or any of the other Latin dialects/languages that were influenced by Germanic.
Do Corsican, mate. I think you'd find there's a lot of variety in Corsican dialects, but Corsican overall sounds like bastard Genoese dialect with a Sardinian accent.
I am Brazilian, and learned Italian in Rome, lived there for eight years. But Neapolitan, the real stuff, is no bloody dialect. It is a whole distinct language. No way to understand.
Napulitano must be the Italian equivalent of American Deep South Bayou English, it all runs together the same way some Cajun bubba's speech would! This would actually be the language my ancestors spoke in the most remote, country part of Italy, Molise. I like Sicilian, it reminds me of Catalan and... well... I can actually decipher it lol.
You should do something with the Bari dialect. Or the one from Bergamo. True story: my father, may God rest him, at times complained that when he was in the army he couldn't understand people form Bergamo when they spoke. When it was MY turn to be in the army, in the C.A.R. (corso addestramento reclute), the communal room in front of mine was composed ONLY of men from Bari. Man, when they started going at it between them in the purest form of their dialect (I dare call it like that because I am Italian)... I haven't experienced tight dialect from Bergamo, but the one from Bari, you needed the subtitles. The only word I understood was "piccione" and NO, they weren't talking about a dove. 😆 On average they sounded ARABIC. 🙂
So, by this logic....is Calabrese even easier for you to understand since it is the bridge between Sicilian and Neopolitan, or does the remote landscape of Calabria lend itself to even less intelligable dialects?
Please don’t call our language “a dialect “. Is insulting to us. I love what you do but always remember that Neapolitan is a language. Fyi the Neapolitan it is also spoken in other Italian regions but slightly changed.
To my ear the Neapolitans sound like Germans speaking Italian. I notice in this series that how much is understood is directly proportional to how much it sounds like Latin. :)
Neapolitan has a strong oscan substratum, which was an oriental italic language, this is why it sounds like the weirder version of latin. Actually, the variant spoken in Puteoli is even more different in pronunciation.
Hi Metatron, the "Can an Italian understand.." is my favorite series on this channel. probably because I find mutual intelligibility to be one of the most fascinating linguistic phenomenons. If you ever consider revisiting Portuguese whether it's for a video or even off camera for curiosity's sake, I would suggest looking into Angolan Portuguese or Portuguese from Mozambique. I've always found these varieties (especially that of Mozambique) to be easier to understand as a Spanish speaker. They feel to me like a comfortable middle ground between Brazilian and European Portuguese. The African varieties of Portuguese don't have as many nasal sounds as Brazilian and don't "cram" their words as much as European and to top it off they speak at a relaxed pace while enunciating clearly. There is a small youtuber with a channel called "Mozambicando". It's s a great channel for anyone trying to build their comprehension of Portuguese. The content consists of vlogs, interviews, and language related discussions. Sorry for the ramble. Keep up the amazing videos!
Thanks and I'm glad to hear that. Yes I will revisit Portuguese. Just like I already made two videos about Spanish, I will make dedicated videos to specific cities in both Brazil and Portugal. Thanks
@@metatronacademyCheck out Corsican and Sardinian too if you ever find the time! Thanks
@@metatronacademy As a Sicilian American who's never been to Sicily, this is fascinating. Thank you.
“Nothing” hahaha
I burst out laughing along with you, Metatron. I studied Italian in university for almost a year but I understood absolutely nothing from that first rant.
I’m Italian and live here and I understood “sto murto” sto morto
I’m an American of Italian heritage. My grandfather’s family was from Naples and my grandmother’s family was from Palermo. I am told that my grandfather learned to speak my grandmother’s dialect of Sicilian, mostly so that he could more effectively argue with her and her family. I wish there was a recording for Metatron to comment on.
The guy at 3:40 literally says "Damn the earth where those tender trees were sown the lemons of which served to render shinier the little brass knobs that adorn those wooden caskets of rotten fir where the best departed among your family's departed are gathered".
There are still more official romance languages you haven't done yet! How about Romantsch from Switzerland? There are several dialects that are quite different, but also an 'official' dialect (Romansch Grischun) that's used in writing and on TV, but isn't actually spoken by anyone.
And Haitian Creole
@@servantofaeie1569not Romance, but certainly would be worth checking.
@@oyoo3323 Yes it is. How are creoles not part of the families of the languages they are descended from? It's literally just French with heavy African influence and a simplified orthography.
@servantofaeie1569 not quite. Creoles are not classified as part of the family of their doner languages because they actually AREN'T what you described. What you described would indeed be a member of the same family, but not in fact a creole. Creoles have a base language from which they borrow vocabulary, but their grammar (which is not necessarily simplified), and thus the skeleton is often based on some other language, usually the native one of the first speakers of the creole. In the case of Haitian, its basic skeleton is based a varied mixture of a bunch of West African Niger-Congo languages, with only some French in there. French is only the language's skin, not whole body. This is exactly what makes creoles distinct from just regular descendant languages with foreign influence. They are, by definition, mixed languages.
@@oyoo3323 Then they belong to both families, not neither.
Iamme ! From Bergamo province, more difficult than Romanian. ;-) As you say, Italian with a Neapolitan accent is one thing, "napoletano stretto" is another.
This is so interesting!! Would like to hear and understand more about these languages! Especially Sicilian & Sardinian! And of course Venetian & Friulian..
I loved the voice of the first actor - I don't speak any Italian but he got his point across.
4:16 in what context is "your dead ones" used? In Romanian we use "your dead ones" as an insult, with many different variations of insulting someone's dead ones, and I just googled and apparently they do this in Spanish as well, that's really awesome to find out, would be cool if that is used in Italian too
Yep, it's an insult when they say that. They are cursing you, your family and even your ancestors.
in italy is an insult too...
I don't understand much as a Portugese, but what these guys have in common (in the movie) is that gesturing and the fact that they are screaming more than talking to another. I have seen this happening this vacation in Algarve too where a restaurant owner explained ot other portuguese that some restaurant they were fancying was not really Portuguese at all (and some sort of a shame in the town for that reason). Really the same attitude etc.
If you get to read this comment, these are my suggestions for a Sardinian intelligibility test
Baroniese (village of Orosei), the more conservative variant, preserves the latin velar c
ua-cam.com/video/wwvUsP0kapo/v-deo.html
Logudorese (Macomer village), a less conservative variant, the latin velar c is partially preserved, it becomes g/ɣ in intervocalic position ua-cam.com/video/_pu88YGYSuw/v-deo.html
Campidanese (City of Cagliari), the most innovative variant, the latin velar c becomes a palatal t͡ʃ or ʒ in intervocalic position
ua-cam.com/video/DsAvpXp1Txs/v-deo.html
Sassarese, (city of Sassari), a lingua franca that mixes Sardinian, Italian/Corsican and Ligurian, therefore only geographically Sardinian, but is interesting for its unusual sounds, especially for the ɬ which is hardly or even never found in the Romance languages
ua-cam.com/video/rHXGVVx-NcY/v-deo.html
the one clip where the woman says the coffee is like bean water..there is a frame on wall with Toto (Antonio DeCurtis) who did many Neopolitan movies. My late boyfriend was born in Catania, but lived near Napoli in Vico Equense.. When he spoke Sicilian, I could not understand.. and Neopolitan is not easy either.È stato principe Don Corrado Cattaneo d'Volta du San Nicandro. Lui e morto 2011. Mi manche Lui. I find the Venetian dialetto and Genova dialtto difficile anche
In the film Benvenuti al Sud they explain that speakers of southern dialects tend to knock the vowels off the ends of words.
It'd be great if you could do the same test with Sardinian. That would be challenging! Keep up the good work 👍
Also Pilchardian and Harengian.
@@pierreabbat6157 and Anchovian as well
I have very good Italian (as a first generation Italo-Australian). Italian was my first language until Kindergarten. My dad was from Abruzzi, and my mum from le Isole-Eolie (Pr. Messina). So we spoke Italian at home, Abruzzese when in Pescara, and Sicilian when on the island of Salina (Eolie). But not being born in Italy, I would sometimes get dialect mixed up into my Italian (eg: Io voglio bevere, io voglio dicere ...etc), .. ... until I studied Italian formally at Uni (aka Aussie for "university" :) Although your Italian is NLP Native Level Proficiency (DOC!), and you speak fluent Sicilian, (and fantastic English btw). But when I was watching the TV series "Gommora" & "L'amica geniale" ..... I had to do a mini-study of Neapolitan, as with my standard Italian ..... I was missing big chunks of language (understanding). Especially in "Gommora". But it's interesting to see that even with fluent native Sicilian and Italian ... you "sometimes" also find "il Napolitano stretto- stretto" ..... difficult . That makes me feel better as I just couldn't follow some of "Gommora" with my Standard Italian & Abruzzese. So thanks for your video. Your videos are very interesting linguistically speaking. Also your history video doc's rock too. :). You must have a healthy IQ. Grazie di nuovo. Sei geniale!
To better appreciate the beauty of Streto Napoletano just listen to the songs of Massimo Ranieri. One in particular album, " O' Surrdato n'amurrato " (there are youtube videos) is so beautiful it brings me to tears. Please do a take on Siciian vs Romano.
This is so weird; I have been watching metatron for so long and I cannot put my finger on what makes him so familiar to me. So I had my sound off and watched him for a bit talk and I would bet you he was a Greek speaking(I am Greek). Of course he might have heritage being southern Italian but still its so unreal.
@@graemeduncan1232 Thanks for the answer mate! Though honestly it doesnt really matter most people from the south of europe have many things in common so in certain cases they might be mistaken for one another. Take care!
What about one of the Rhaeto romance languages? Fûrlan, Ladin, or Rumantsch?
I have family from Naples, Palermo, Rome and Trapani! Cheers!
Im from argentina, here in buenos aires there is also a neighborhood called palermo. Fascinating
Can't wait for the Roman edition!
you should this with sardo! it's such a cool and underrated language tbh
I watched Gommorra in original with subtitles. Seems like they swallow the endings a lot and o is often a u-sound like they say O Ciro (also with the title O in front) to the one character I noticed.
The pronunciation of the letter O in Neapolitan words is kind of like how Portuguese speakers pronounce the letter O like a U. Also, as far as I know, something that is relatively unique to Neapolitan compared to other Romance languages is the presence of "schwas" (like the sound of "uh" in English). This also occurs in Portuguese, some dialects of Catalan, and most definitely in Romanian, even having its own letter ("ă"). Interesting stuff!
Great TV series. Really tough for a foreigner to hear & understand.
Of course they understand Neapolitan.. there’s a brotherhood between Neapolitans and Sicilian people.
utile e divertente...grazie....
I detect a real similarity between the Napolitano and Abruzzese dialects.
The continuum in Italy is beautiful, I wonder if it’s a similar situation to scots where functionally they their own language but met with some deprestigation of languages being called “diaclects”
Not really ,I’ve lived in the UK for a decade and lived in London and Cardiff, yet I understand Scots far more than Neapolitans.
@@barbellvgo2424 how far north Scots and how deep into Cardiff are we talkin here 😂 it must also be said that’s Scot’s and Scot’s english aren’t the same thing Scot’s English is standard English with a Scottish accent and Scot’s is a seperate but very closely related language which is why I compared the situation to that of i dialetti in Italy
even Scots is easier for me compared to Neapolitan, whereas for Scottish English that's not even a problem as I'd even watch my Scottish lecturer(with a thick accent) on 2x speed on Panopto. It's mostly due to anglophones being really lazy linguistically and not have intuition in that matter.@@lewiitoons4227
"E cos'è qua ?! L'acqua dei faggioli?! " 😂😂😂
I'm enjoying the series Metatron, I'm interested to know if you ever "realise" that a word is dialect when you speak to another Italian and they seem confused. I'm Australian and sometimes feel unsure if the word I'm going to use is used in other English speaking countries
A bit different because the "dialects" of Italy aren't actually dialects, they are languages derived from latin, like Spanish, Portuguese, french etc.
It can happen, I witnessed it a few times: someone from some area of Italy uses a word which is absolutely common and it is considered perfect Italian for them but it is completely unknown or not used in other parts.
Wow, I watched the entire video and only at the end noticed you're wearing something... historical?
Awesome comparison
Ciao metatron! Sarebbe bello se provassi a capire o xeneize:)
To the untrained ear, I can’t tell the difference between Italian or Neapolitan.
Would be very interesting to see the difference in comprehension when it comes to different varieties of the same regional language,
Like Apulia's variety of Neapolitan is already much different to my ears.
If you ever do a video about Sardinian I would appreciate if you included at least an example of Logudorese and Campidanese varieties/dialects.
Also there are many places where they speak another language inside the same region and would be great to see how the regional languages can influence another language, like the Greek speaking community in Messina.
Apulians speak apulian. Not Neapolitan
@@giulianopisciottano8302 a part of Apulians speak a variety of Neapolitan, altho it is very different from Napoli's Neapolitan en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_of_Italy#/media/File%3ALinguistic_map_of_Italy_-_Legend.svg
In the same way that logudorese is different from campidanese, and there are actually a spectrum of dozens of sub-varieties in the middle, same is true for the northern variety of Apulian and Napoli's Neapolitan variety
Ebbrav!
usually Neapolitans must learn Sicilian, but the mutual understanding is almost complete
Its like Spanish and Portuguese or more distant?
I even personally consider Spanish more of a dialect compared to Neapolitan.
If you want a real fun challenge, try Puerto Rican Spanish
From an English perspective; any chance you can do the same for the Scots language? Thanks 🙏
Prova ad ascoltare la canzone "o guarracino" , è molto interessante per la lingua napoletana
"ma che è ccà, l'acqua dd''e faggioli"?
My hearth cringed, most people would say "fasule"
Maltese, Barese, Calabrese, Mexican Spanish and Puerto Ricano Spanish please!
Wow
As a Brazilian I don't understand practically anything they both say.
6:44 beau,bea băut 🇷🇴
Lingua! Nun é Dialetto! 'O Nnapuletano o 'Neapolitan' è 'na lingua!
Simm e napule paisa'
Does Calabria speak Sicilian or Neapolitan?
Calabrian
2:23 he said beddu ?
Beddu means beautiful in Sicilian
@@giulianopisciottano8302 also in Calabrian and surprise...Corsican
Can a Sicilian understand Maltese?
Hi Metatron, you speak Excellent English. Now try the Daddy of English....Frisian.
N g o p p
I bet you not going to understand the Barese language 😂😂sono anche io di Palermo (villabate)ciao ❤❤
Mannaggia 'a capa toja Metatron! LoL, now that you're listening to Napoletano you're Sicilian, not Italian, eh? Mascalzone... 😅
Per forza, se avessi scritto “Can an Italian understand Neapolitan”, avrebbe dato l’impressione che i napoletani non sono italiani ;)
@@metatronacademy da napoletano: e se posso permettermi, ma un bel rant su sti americani che insistono nel dire: Sicilia non è italia? Giuro che mi viene un ulcera ogni volta che mi ci imbatto sull'internet
@cohorspraetoria8157 Guarda se è per questo gli Italo-Americani dicono pure che non sono bianchi, tranne quando poi gli fa comodo, e dicono Gabagool e Galamad 😂
@@elioamedeoI don't know why would Sicilians say they are not white? I know there are Spaniards, most famous, Antonio Banderas, who says that he is a Latino. But for me this race division us ridiculous. Especially in Europe. Of course someone from Norway or Sweden look different to those from the south of Spain or from Italy, but they all white to me. Even if I look at Ukraine. We have ethnicities like Kyrymly, who are Turkik, not Slavic, but they are pretty pale to me. Moreover in my family everyone from my mother's side have darker skin and from my father's are with pale skin. But it would be ridiculous to say that my mother is not white....
@@oleksandrbyelyenko435 I don't know what to tell you, it's just what I hear Italian Americans say. I think Americans are just weird when it comes to certain topics. Also I don't know how they would react to people like me and my sister, who look more nordic, especially her, she looks kinda Danish, and we're not even particularly rare in Italy. Americans just have unrealistic expectations when it comes to Europe in general I think
Can a Sicilian understand Piedmontese? 😅
I don't think so 😁
Zeneise i think a bit , because its like a between state.
In fact funny it is, there s few stuff in certain southern piemont stuff and all the ligurian and transitional stuff that converge with Sicily and stuff, like Corsican stuff a bit.
Intemeliese like in old nissard ( like i talk it im a native ) i was surprised that we used stuff like " Oh la meschina " kind of expression among others.
But Turinese i don't think he would , its hard to understand, its a difficult language.
Nabboledanu is awesome
I think... Quite a lot..
These dialects of the south are enough intellegible...
Napoletano is the arabic language of Italy.
Next, you should try sign language. Because of italians Like to talk with their hands
Not me,and I'm Italian
One thing that bothers me about clips in Neapolitan is that they're usually comedic. For whatever reason, Italy has decided to make Naples the butt of every joke in every movie and series it makes. If anyone here is interested in hearing how beautiful Neapolitan sounds when spoken without the intent of hilarity, I recommend the song Dorme cu' mmé by La Maschera, which has a spoken part that gives a really nice impression of how sweet and melodic it can be in everyday life.
I will make a separate video on Neapolitan poetry, just like I'll make one about Sicilian poetry.
@@metatronacademy That makes me very happy :).
Well, "Gomorra" is not much of a comedy.
@@metatronacademy Also, can you make one about Salentino? There is a difference of opinion if it's a dialect of Sicilian or a separate language in the Italiano Meridionale Estremo continuum.
@@Kinotaurus You're right. What I should have said was that for most Italians, Neapolitans are either clowns or crooks.
I'm loving this series of videos! As a Maltese national, I am also fluent in Italian, and I find that I pretty much agree with you as to what is intelligible and what isn't. May I suggest that doing a video about the Maltese language might be an interesting experiment. Maltese is a semitic language evolved from Siculo-arabic, however it borrows a large percentage of vocabulary from romance languages, mostly Italian and Sicilian. I have Sicilian friends who say that they understand a lot of Maltese due to this. Due to its peculiar history, very often Maltese has two or more words for a given concept, one derived from the semitic side and one from the romance, therefore it is possible to speak in distinct registers, favouring one or the other aspect of the language, sounding either more italian or more semitic. Perhaps you'd find it interesting to try your hand (or ear) at making sense of Maltese at some point.
I agree it would be very interesting to listen to some Maltese and see how much he understand
I also think that video would be very interesting. Because Maltese is so different yet an Italian would feel like they can grasp what's being said. So that would be a really cool experiment.
Many years ago in England I had a Maltese girlfriend and when she spoke with her brothers and father I could understand what they were speaking about, but not the sense of the whole conversation. i still remember the words "forza" and "grazie hafna". PS. I was semi-bilingual Italian-English at the time, but we also spoke in French because, if I remember rightly, they came to England from Alexandria in Egypt.
I didn't know! Se scrivo in italiano mi capisci?
My uncle studied in Italy and he also knew Arabic language living in Tunisia and Morocco for some years, and oneday he visited Malta and he understood what locals said, while he was at the market, and he replied them and they said he can speak Maltese😂😂😂😂
I'm Italian-American and my mother's grandparents were from Salerno and my father's grandparents were from Messina. Growing up my mother had no concept of Italian dialects and just assumed that Neapolitan was, in fact, Italian since all her grandparents spoke it and all the Italian immigrants in her neighborhood spoke it. It wasn't until she got engaged to my father that she realized that not everyone from Italy spoke the same. My mother's mom said she hardly understood a word when she first met my father's mom and that she was simply smiling and nodding throughout the conversation 🤣
Yes, this can sometimes be quite curious and funny. I am Italian and I am also an Italian teacher and I teach Italian language in schools here in Germany. I remember an anecdote of a German lady married to a Sicilian who had learned practically all of the Sicilian dialect from her husband. One day she came to school to pick up her son and stopped to tell me something. She began to speak in a deep and strong Sicilian dialect. I am not Sicilian, I am from the Campania region, by the way I am also from Salerno, and I know my dialect, but of course I do not know Sicilian. This lady, arrived at a certain point, noticed that I did not understand everything she was saying and said to me (in German).... “but you do not understand Italian ?” And I replied.... "dear lady, if you had spoken Italian, there would have been no problem, but what you have said so far was only in deep and strong Sicilian dialect."
The lady was practically convinced that she was speaking in standard Italian to me. 😊
My family came here in the early 1900s from Naples and avellino. They called standard Italian high italian and told the family it's not correct and not to speak it lol. We never did. Only neapolitan
Napoletano is such a beautiful language.
@@MrDeskart vafanapoli
No it sucks.
I'm Neapolitan
@@giuseppeesposito7094 Thats your opinion buddy.
@@emmanuelwood8702 of course it's my opinion, but having lived for 30 years in Naples and being an actual Neapolitan speaker I have contrasting thoughts. It could be a beautiful language, but it is used and abused by voulgar and ignorant people that ruin it and make it voulgar as they are.
@@giuseppeesposito7094 That happens with every language buddy. From my perspective its the most colorful and expressive language in italy.
I am Italian and I am also an Italian teacher and I teach Italian language in schools here in Germany. I remember an anecdote of a German lady married to a Sicilian who had learned practically all of the Sicilian dialect from her husband. One day she came to school to pick up her son and stopped to tell me something. She began to speak in a deep and strong Sicilian dialect. I am not Sicilian, I am from the Campania region, and I know my dialect, but of course I do not know Sicilian. This lady, arrived at a certain point, noticed that I did not understand everything she was saying and said to me (in German).... “but you do not understand Italian ?” And I replied.... "dear lady, if you had spoken Italian, there would have been no problem, but what you have said so far was only in deep and strong Sicilian dialect."
The lady was practically convinced that she was speaking in standard Italian to me. :)
Meno male così almeno qualcuno sa che Noi Siciliani abbiamo una nostra lingua ed una identita'diversa .
@@antoninoscro1834 Il fatto però è un altro, che se tu, come quella signora tedesca, pensi di parlare in italiano con la gente e poi ti accorgi che la gente non ti capisce, non è che sia poi una gran cosa ! La colpa se vogliamo è stata del marito che con la moglie ha parlato sempre e solo in dialetto siciliano. Non le ha fatto capire che esiste l’italiano standard che vale per tutta l’Italia e che se tu esci fuori da quel paesino della Sicilia e giri per l’Italia, rischi che la gente ovviamente non ti capisce. Se fossi stato io al posto del marito, le avrei insegnato per prima l’italiano standard e poi in un secondo momento anche il mio dialetto. Quella signora che evidentemente parlava di solito solo con i familiari del marito oppure quando andavano in Sicilia nel paesino, con parenti o amici e lì ovviamente la capivano tutti, è rimasta un po’ scioccata quando ha capito che quello che lei aveva imparato era solo il dialetto di una determinata regione, mentre lei pensava evidentemente di parlare in italiano. Ecco perché lei, quando si è accorta che io non riuscivo a seguirla, mi disse, in tedesco, “Ma lei non capisce l’italiano ?”
@@antoninoscro1834 Io qui in Germania vivevo molti anni fa nel sud, dove c’era un forte dialetto locale. Io ho avuto l’abilità di cercare di imparare e di parlare sempre in tedesco standard. Questo quando poi mi sono trasferito qui al nord, in una regione, in una zona dove si parla proprio il tedesco standard e dove non c’è un dialetto, se io qui avessi parlato solo quel dialetto di quella zona nel sud, rischiavo che qui non mi capiva quasi nessuno.
Egregio signore in Sicilia si e'sempre parlata la lingua siciliana ,e la maggior parte della gente che emigrava fino agli anni 70 parlava quella lingua ,onde per cui non c'e da colpevolizzare proprio nessuno. @@aris1956
I am a Canadian of Italian heritage. Over here, we have people from every region of Italy and most of us grew up getting exposed to a range of regional dialects. Mine was less frequent, Marchegiano, but many of my friends were Abbruzzesi, Calabresi, Siciliani, Napoletani, and a few Friulani. You would think that would help me understand these languages when I hear them. Per niente!!😂
Abruzzesi*
corsican or romansh!!
if I didn't get it too wrong In the first frase at: 2:17 he is basically cursing against the land that was used to plant the lemon tree that produced the lemons that were used to make shiny the handles the coffin where the ancestors of whoever punctured his tires.
Sicilians speak their own distinct language with at least 10 dialects. 4 exclusive to Palermo alone. Most Siciliani speak standard Italian. My grandmother when she was living in 1985 had a neighbor who was from il Nord. She couldn’t understand a thing she was talking about!
Metatron ma una commedia di DeFilippo? O una poesia? Non era meglio dei grezzi 'nmiezz 'a via? 😂
Would be cool about Corso and Abruzzese and Romano.
Being both originally from Central Italy they are mostly intelligible too.
Anw really like the new format!
Let me know what I asked you some months ago about the subtitles in Italian.
Keep it up compaesano!
I’m enjoying this series Metatron ! It’d be cool if you did an episode on Mexican Spanish even though I know you already did some Spanish. Mexican people do not believe me when I tell them how similar Sicilian is to Spanish. When I break down words that are close they are amazed to learn we even use basically the same words. Another idea is an episode on Corsican. When I searched a translation of Sicilian google translate keeps telling me it’s Corsican. I think these would be interesting for people to see how similar both are pretty easy to understand for a native Sicilian. One being close and yet one being so far away from Italy all the way in the Americas.
I will!
@@metatronacademy Nice ! I’m looking forward to it.
@@graemeduncan1232 You’re right. It is closer to Tuscan but sounds southern like Sicilian. Very interesting the familiarity of it to me, being it’s geographical location. I would’ve thought different before learning more about it.
Your Romance series has inspired me to do a series of my own - "Can a Navajo understand Apache, Chipewyan, Hupa...etc.?" Thanks Metatron. I love your videos!
So, can they? We should be told.
A very nice series of videos! As for me, I'm from Venice and I couldn't understand anything spoken in Neapolitan without subtitles! Maybe could you try Venetian? It plays a similar role in Veneto as Neapolitan in Campania and Southern Italy.
I absolutely will try Venetian. Grazie!
Ti devo dire la verità: son di Napoli e diverse frasi non le ho capite nemmeno io 😅
@@marsper8692idem ahahah
Magari sei Turco :)@@marsper8692
Complimenti e auguri per il canale, che cresca a dismisura! Contenuti di qualità
I think someone already said maybe listening to Sardinian would be interesting to see
Seconded! I'd love to see Raffaele's thoughts on Sardinian given that it is said to overall be the closest living Romance language to Latin--or at least, one of its varieties. Honestly, it's probably inevitable that he takes a look at it, so we'll see!
Corsu.
Cap is one of those words where Southern Italian dialects and Romanian are very close . (Cap
Cap. (derived fron Latin Caput) instead of testa as in Standard Italian
In stardard Italian "capo" it exists, but it's considered a word a little bit "old". "Testa" in latin means earthenware pot.
Capo is also used in standarf italian for head
I would really like to understand why romainan sound so similar to neapolitan language. It's not only "cap" but a lot of other words. Plus both languages make an intense use of sounds like ă. Is it just a coindence (like both languages have more direct relationship with latin than italian) or there is a reason (common greek roots, mass migrations between south italy and balcans)? Maybe it could be material for a video 😊
@@carmineingaldi47l’italiano è letteralmente la seconda lingua più vicina al latino dopo il sardo con il 12% d’evoluzione, non comprendo come possa il napoletano, una lingua con forte sostrato osco, essere più vicina al latino rispetto alla nostra lingua nazionale. Per non parlare del rumeno, profondamente influenzato in pronuncia e vocabolario dai propri vicini slavi e ungheresi.
I have two suggestions and a comment re Madrid Spanish
1. Ladino - the language of the Jews expelled from Spain in 1492 that can be found in the Balkans and in Istanbul Turkey
2. Gallego - the language of Galicia in northwestern Spain that is Portuguese spoken with Spanish sounds which is much easier to understand
As a latin American I find Madrid Spanish ( the th sound extremely irritating) - we substitute "s" for it and Iberiah Standard Spanish to be extremely stuffy
In Sicilia ascoltano (e cantano) tutti le canzoni napoletane. Quantomeno nei quartieri popolari. In pratica è come una lingua co-ufficiale😀
Great video, I enjoyed it as usual. My friends from Firenze told me that I speak well and understand the accent from the north. I asked them how different can the other accents be? Then you uploaded the bicycle video and my jaw dropped😂. I couldn't pick up anything when he went full speed.
What I got is that if an italian from other parts go to Naples region, they won't be able to understand the local language. That's why they need to speak standard italian in this situations.
Is it right?
Yes but it's the same for all regions. Every region has a regional language, so for example if a Neapolitan goes to Lombardy he wouldn't be able to understand Lombard dialect
Maybe do Friulian language next? I’ve heard it’s closer to Latin than Italian but I have no expertise to verify it myself. It would be very interesting to hear your opinion!
Its quite alien language with tight accent over there
@@Nissardpertugiuwell I had a friend from brescia and once came with a friulan friend and I was amazed as not only I could understand most of it being from València, and I couldn’t believe it when he said: ‘si fasim una birra o si gratam als cullons?’ -> se fem una birra o se gratem als collons (cullons en catalonia😂)
@@gateret Ahì grata...
As a Sicilian, what's your opinion on the Calabrian dialect? Is it more similar to Sicilian or Neapolitan? It'd probably depended on the region, I assume.
In my opinion, cosentino and the varieties of would be closer to napoletano .. but Reggio, catanzarese etc closer to Sicilian ..
Would be lovely to see you try to understand the "Talian" dialect that we speak here in southern Brazil, although it's quite spread in origin and influence, most of it comes from Veneto and Romagnol, i myself am trying to learn it so i may keep the heritage of the "coloni" that traveled from northern Italy to Mèrica (as in the general continent)
Love the series, been binge watching it for a good while now.
Respect from Napoli. Continua così Raffaele!
I think the second time you understood what the man with the bike said, but you didn't want to translate the barrage of fancy insults and profanity that the guy said 😂
My suggestion for another video in this series is the language of Romansch. If you’re not aware, it is a Romance language spoken in some parts of Switzerland and is one of the closest descendants to classical Latin.
I'm from Romania,and speak my share of languages,especially latin ones.
Had a job once,as a seller on a cruise ship,where i had a tiny crowd in front of me. Mostly we spoke english,but at one point i had a couple from Quebec,to which i spoke in french,another few to whom i spoke in spanish,the rest in english, juggling sentences from one language to another,on the fly.
One lady said:"My God dear,how many languages do you speak as an american?
I'm not american ma'am,english's not my first language!
But your accent,i don't believe you,she replied!"
Then my manager,who was also from Romania,comes out and asks me a few questions,in our language-moment i look to that lady and say,well that's my language.
All in all,i find latin languages easy to learn,way easier than germanic ones,even surprised my once italian gf how easy i could read italian (which i never took a course,never watch that much media); even catalan i found somewhat easy to understand,not that different from spanish-the only one that eludes me is Romansch...I watched people speak it,watched some news reel...it's quite different. Interesting though,hope they keep it.
Has a very strong Germanic substratum. I do not see how it is any more closely descended from classical Latin than the other Romance languages surrounding it.
@@Xochiyolotl Yeah maybe it’s incorrect to say that it’s that closely related. Still phonetically it sounds much more Latin that French or any of the other Latin dialects/languages that were influenced by Germanic.
When he spoke board neoplatiano he sounds just like my grandma when she is angry or complaining haha I wonder if she gets more board when upset
Do Corsican, mate. I think you'd find there's a lot of variety in Corsican dialects, but Corsican overall sounds like bastard Genoese dialect with a Sardinian accent.
I LOVE your channel and wish one day I could master the Napoletan dialect ;))
I am Brazilian, and learned Italian in Rome, lived there for eight years. But Neapolitan, the real stuff, is no bloody dialect. It is a whole distinct language. No way to understand.
I love Neopolitan Sicilian Barese Calabrese all the southern dialects. So fascinating. Gotta love our country and people 🇮🇹✌🏼🇺🇸
Are you going to do Occitan? It would be interesting if it were even easier to understand than Catalan given it is in the middle.
Napulitano must be the Italian equivalent of American Deep South Bayou English, it all runs together the same way some Cajun bubba's speech would! This would actually be the language my ancestors spoke in the most remote, country part of Italy, Molise. I like Sicilian, it reminds me of Catalan and... well... I can actually decipher it lol.
You should do something with the Bari dialect. Or the one from Bergamo.
True story: my father, may God rest him, at times complained that when he was in the army he couldn't understand people form Bergamo when they spoke.
When it was MY turn to be in the army, in the C.A.R. (corso addestramento reclute), the communal room in front of mine was composed ONLY of men from Bari.
Man, when they started going at it between them in the purest form of their dialect (I dare call it like that because I am Italian)... I haven't experienced tight dialect from Bergamo, but the one from Bari, you needed the subtitles. The only word I understood was "piccione" and NO, they weren't talking about a dove. 😆
On average they sounded ARABIC. 🙂
So, by this logic....is Calabrese even easier for you to understand since it is the bridge between Sicilian and Neopolitan, or does the remote landscape of Calabria lend itself to even less intelligable dialects?
How about Ladino, the language, related to Castilian, spoken by Sephardic Jews whose ancestors fled Spain after 1492?
Haha, I looove dialects!
Shouldn’t Italians learn the Italian dialects or languages before learning English? Especially linguists…
Please don’t call our language “a dialect “. Is insulting to us. I love what you do but always remember that Neapolitan is a language. Fyi the Neapolitan it is also spoken in other Italian regions but slightly changed.
To my ear the Neapolitans sound like Germans speaking Italian.
I notice in this series that how much is understood is directly proportional to how much it sounds like Latin. :)
Neapolitan has a strong oscan substratum, which was an oriental italic language, this is why it sounds like the weirder version of latin. Actually, the variant spoken in Puteoli is even more different in pronunciation.