Dialetto di Osimo nel Romance Grammaticalization Cline. Un’indagine tipologica in prospettiva diacronica

Phonetic transcription and adjective forms

From third to first

The phonetic transcription of some words includes: /bic’cjɛ:ro/ 'bicchiere', /’fjo:ro/ 'fiore', /’me:zo/ 'mese', /’peʃʃo/ 'pesce', derived from PISCEM. In contrast, from the fourth to second: /’bra:ʒa/ 'brace', /’dɔ:ða/ 'dote', and /’polvera/ 'polvere' from DOTEM and PULVEREM.

Adjectives

Discussing the adjectives of the Osimo dialect, it is important to note that their inflectional classes follow those of nouns: “the ancient Latin I class has masculine forms in -/o ~ i/ and feminine forms in -/a ~ e/, while the masculine and feminine forms of the ancient II class imitate the nouns of groups 3 and 4” (Cintioli 2015: 65).

Additionally, there are class metaplasms in forms such as granno ~ granna 'grande', dolcio ~ dolcia 'dolce', tristo ~ trista 'cattivo ~ cattiva' (and not 'triste').

Comparative and superlative adjectives

Regarding comparative and superlative adjectives:

• The comparison is usually regular and formed with the adverb più combined with the adjective in the positive degree. The comparatives derived from MAIOR, MINOR, and PEIOR are never used, instead replaced by forms like più granno or più grosso 'maggiore', più piccolo 'minore', più peggio or più tristo 'peggiore', più meio or più bono 'migliore'. The second term of comparison is introduced by the preposition de (e.g., lu è più tristo de te 'he is worse than you').
• The relative superlative is generally regular; the absolute superlative lacks forms derived from OPTIMUS, MAXIMUS, etc., and regular forms ending in -issimo are not used either. Typically, the superlative is formed periphrastically with multo be’ or ‘mbel po’ following the adjective in the positive degree (e.g., lia è trista multo be’ 'she is very bad', lu è bello ‘mbel po’ 'he is very handsome').

Pronouns

Personal pronouns

Stressed forms

• Subject: io, tu (almost always replaced by te), lu/lia, no/nualtri/nuà, vo/vualtri/vuà, lora.
• Object: me, te, lu/lia, no, vo, lora.

Unstressed forms

Singular: me, te (always, even in dative function), lu, la (for direct object, ié for indirect object); plural: ce, ve (for direct and indirect object), li, le (for direct object, ié for indirect object). However, for the third person singular and plural, the periphrastic forms a lu, a lia, a lora are more commonly used.

Notable features include the generalized use of te 'tu', lu 'he', lia 'she', and lora 'they' as subjects, and the use of nualtri ~ vualtri for 'we ~ you'. Additionally, the survival of essa as a subject in phrases like essa guardàa 'she watched' and esso in the expression da pr esso 'by oneself' is noteworthy.

Possessive pronouns

Concerning possessives, forms like mia ~ tua ~ sua are used for all genders and numbers. These forms remain strong in rural areas, while in urban centers, concordant forms like mio, mii, mie; tuo, tui, tue; suo, sui, sue are also used. The forms nostro, -a, -i, -e and vostro, -a, -i, -e are used like in Italian, and for the third person, the form de lora is almost exclusively used.

The unstressed forms mi ~ tu ~ su are quite rare and generally used only with kinship terms, in expressions like mi madre 'my mother', tu padre 'your father', su zio 'his/her uncle', etc. However, in these cases, the enclitic possessive is preferred: mammeda 'your mother', babbedo 'your father', la nonnesa 'his/her grandmother', lo ziso 'his/her uncle', etc.

Finally, it is noted that, as per a common usage in all central-southern dialects, when used as an adjective, the possessive always follows the noun (e.g., la maestra mia, el piatto tua 'the dish yours', etc.).

Demonstrative pronouns

It is appropriate to treat separately those demonstratives used as adjectives (which will be discussed further in §2.5.) and those used as nouns.

The demonstrative adjectives (and pronouns) of the Osimo dialect present three degrees, conforming to the standard Italian:

• questo, -a, -i, -e (unstressed forms: sto, -a, -i, -e) 'this' < ECC(M) ĒSTU(M): to indicate the object close to the speaker;
• quesso, -a, -i, -e (unstressed forms: sso, -a, -i, -e) 'codesto' < ECC(M) ĪPSU(M): to indicate the object close to the listener;
• quello, -a, -i, -e (unstressed forms: kul, kula, kui, kule) 'that' < ECC(M) ĪLLU(M): to indicate the object away from both the speaker and the listener.

The demonstratives used as nouns include the now rare forms: kustù, kussù, kullìa, kustòra, kussòra.

Indefinite, interrogative, and relative pronouns

In conclusion, we also report the most commonly used forms of indefinite, interrogative, and relative pronouns.

However, in neo-standard Italian, this system has been reduced from three to two degrees. The demonstrative codesto, used to refer to the object close to the listener, has fallen out of use, and its functions have been absorbed by the more frequent questo and quello.

• For indefinite pronouns: unu, una 'somebody, someone', qualchidù, qualchiduna, calchidù, calchiduna 'someone', nisciù, nisciuna 'no one', gnicosa, gnicò 'everything', qualcosa, qualcò 'something', qualche 'some'.
• For interrogatives, note the forms qualo ~ quala 'which', notable for the class metaplasm they have undergone, and the forms chi, che, cosa. In Osimo, this last form can appear in various nuances, due to the apocope and raising of /o/ (changing to /u/), frequently resulting in co/cu and cusa.
• For relative pronouns, only the forms che and chi are used, and never il quale, la quale, etc., or forms with cui.

Articles

Definite and indefinite articles

We will first analyze the definite articles, singular and plural, and then the indefinite articles.

Definite articles

For definite articles, it is important to differentiate the cases where the article is used before a word starting with a consonant from those used before a word starting with a vowel. Specifically, in front of words starting with a consonant, the masculine singular forms lo/lu (in front of /s/ and /r/), l/el (in front of other consonants) and the plural form i (used in front of all consonants), and the feminine forms la (singular, in front of all consonants) and le (plural, in front of all consonants) are used. In contrast, in front of words starting with a vowel, only the forms ell/ll are used, without distinction between masculine and feminine, singular and plural.

Cintioli (2015: 66), following Niccoli (1938), argues that “the weak form el ~ i must have been introduced not too long ago, probably under the influence of the Ancona dialect” because, as Niccoli (1938: 91) observes, “for the masculine singular, the original form, and the more common use in the countryside, is lu; this form is still used in the town only in front of ‘s’ impure, while in other cases only el is used.” Nowadays, however, the use of the strong article has been reduced even in the countryside, so forms like lo porco ~ li porchi 'the pig ~ the pigs' are no longer used anywhere, as they might have been at least until the early years of the last century.

Indefinite articles

As for indefinite articles, in Osimo, the forms un/n for masculine and na/n for feminine are used.

Verbs

Conjugations and usage

Like in Italian, the morphology of the verbs of the Osimo dialect is based on three conjugations, whose respective theme vowels are /a ~ e ~ i/. We will first focus on their inflection, providing examples for the two auxiliaries essere and avere and three verbs belonging to different conjugations, and then on their usage. However, before proceeding, it is appropriate to make some general morphological and syntactic considerations, essential to understanding the main features of the verbs we are about to analyze and to begin contextualizing the topics we will discuss in §§2.3.-2.4.

Firstly, in Osimo, the passato remoto is very rarely used; in fact, we could say it is practically extinct (§2.3.). Only a few remnants remain, mostly used in the countryside, where the environment is naturally more conservative. Bellaspiga (1955: 97-98) and Niccoli (1938: 93-94) state that “this is [...] one of the most characteristic features of the dialect, and since some of the rarest metaphonetic forms still remaining, or at least the most characteristic of them, appear in the perfect tense forms, it is logical to deduce that the Osimo dialect increasingly loses its traits of Southern dialect until it acquires a hybrid physiognomy quite similar to that now possessed by the Ancona dialect.” The passato remoto in Osimo is therefore systematically replaced by the passato prossimo, according to a usage typical of many other dialectal varieties of the Peninsula, mostly central and northern, as well as the neo-standard Italian.

Secondly, it is important to note that the present subjunctive has also almost completely disappeared and is replaced by the present indicative, just as the imperfect subjunctive is generally replaced by the imperfect indicative.