Genoese (Zeneize) is the variety of the ligurian language spoken in Genoa, the capital city of Liguria (Italy) . Ligurian is a Romance language, consisting of a group of Gallo-Italic dialects currently spoken in Liguria, northern Italy, and parts of the Mediterranean coastal zone of France, and Monaco. ... The Ancient Port of Genoa. ... Liguria is a coastal region of north-western Italy, the third smallest of the Italian regions. ...

The Ligurian is listed by Ethnologue as a language in its own right (not to be confused with the ancient Ligurian language). Along with the languages of Lombardy, Piedmont, and surrounding regions, it is of Gallo-Italic Romance derivation. It is officially and unappropriately often referred to as an italian dialect , mostly for political reasons , even though it doesn't belong to the same family as the Italian language. Ligurian is a Romance language, consisting of a group of Gallo-Italic dialects currently spoken in Liguria, northern Italy, and parts of the Mediterranean coastal zone of France, and Monaco. ... Ethnologue: Languages of the World is a web and print publication of SIL International (formerly known as the Summer Institute of Linguistics), a Christian linguistic service organization which studies lesser-known languages primarily to provide the speakers with Bibles in their native language. ... The Ligurian language was spoken in pre-Roman times and into the Roman era by an ancient people of north-western Italy and south-eastern France known as the Ligures. ... Lombardy (Italian: Lombardia) is a region in northern Italy between the Alps and the Po river valley. ... Piedmont (Italian: Piemonte) is a region of northwestern Italy. ... Gallo-Italic is a language family within the Gallo-Romance languages. ... The Romance languages, also called Romanic languages, are a subfamily of the Italic languages, specifically the descendants of the Vulgar Latin dialects spoken by the common people evolving in different areas after the break-up of the Roman Empire. ... A dialect (from the Greek word διάλεκτος, dialektos) is a variety of a language used by people from a particular geographic area. ... Italian ( , or lingua italiana) is a Romance language spoken by about 70 million people, primarily in Italy. ...

In terms of differences from Standard Italian, Genoese exhibits some similarities with French. The language is dying out, being still widely spoken by the elderly population only.

Starting from the 13th century, there has been a continuous literary production in Genoese; this was not sufficient, however, to see the development of a regularized spelling. (12th century - 13th century - 14th century - other centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 13th century was that century which lasted from 1201 to 1300. ...

Genoese phonology includes but very few likenesses with French, for instance heavily nasalized vowels before nasal consonants (i.e. in VN(C) sequences), which also occur when Genoese speakers speak Standard Italian. There used to be a alveolar /r/ opposed to an apical /r/, but the former is to be considered completely extinct within the city precinct. There is also no (English-like) contracted approximant for /r/ (as mistakenly indicated by Forner). By far the most widespread type of /r/ today is the alveolar tap [ɾ] (identical to unstressed Standard Italian /r/). The vowels of modern (Standard) Arabic and (Israeli) Hebrew from the phonological point of view. ...

Accents include those to the east of Genoa (Nervi, Quinto, Quarto), to the west (Voltri, Prà, Pegli, Sestri), and in the central Polcevera Valley and Bisagno. In linguistics, an accent is a pronunciation characteristic of a particular group of people relative to another group. ...

Tongue twisters

• So asæ s'a sâ a sä asæ pe sâ a säsissa = I don't have a clue whether the salt is going to be enough to salt the sausage
• Sciâ scïe scignua, sciando sciâ xœa in scî scï = Ski, madam, skying you fly on skis
• Ao mœ nœo gh'è nœe nae nœe; a ciû nœa de nœe nae nœe a n'œ anâ = At the new pier there are nine new ships; the newest of the nine new ships doesn't want to go)
• Gi'angiai g'han gi'oggi gi'uegge gi'unge cume gi'atri? = Do angels have eyes, ears, and (finger)nails like everyone else? [variant of the Cogorno comune].

Expressions

• Son zeneize, rizo ræo, strenzo i denti e parlo ciæo = "I'm Genoese, I seldom laugh, I grind my teeth, and I say what I mean" (lit. "speak clearly)

• The child complains: Ho famme = I'm hungry. The mother answers: Grattite e zenugge e fatte e lasagne = Scratch your knees and make lasagna
• Pòsci-to ëse alûghetòu
• Chi veû vive da bon cristian, da-i begghin o stagghe lôntan = If you want to live as a good Christian, stay away from those who pretend to be devout; a traditional warning to beware of fanatics and hypocrites.
• L'è megio e braghe sguaræ 'nt'o cû, che-o cû sguaròu int'e braghe. = It is better to have trousers that are torn in the ass, than to have ass that is torn in trousers.

Phonology

Genoese has 8 vowels, 20 consonants, and 3 semivowels.

Vowels:

• /a/ barba /'barba/ (zio=uncle; It. barba=beard)
• /e/ tésta /'testa/ (testa=head)
• /ɛ/ ægua /'ɛ:gwa/ (acqua=water)
• /i/ bibin /bi'biN/ (tacchino)
• /o/ côse /'ko:se/ (che cosa?=what?)
• /ø/ frisciœ /fri'ʃø:/ (frittella)
• /u/ cumme /'kumme/ (come?=how?)
• /y/ fügassa /fy'gassa/ (focaccia, a bread)

Photo of focaccia bread with rosemary garnish. ...

External links

• ->The Wikipedia in ligurian language
• Genoese phonology (Italian)
• How to write Genoese (Italian)