April article for We The Italians: Tuscan Tune

Tuscan Tune

by Giulia Casati, as seen in We The Italians

I Welcome back to our tour of Italy. This time we are landing in Tuscany, the beautiful hilly region famous for its charming hills and bucolic landscapes. But if you ask me, it’s for its absolutely lovely way of speaking and accent. 

As I told you a long long time ago, when I first introduced the Italian language to you, Italian comes from the Tuscan dialects. This makes it a little difficult to define a real Tuscan dialect today, but it does not mean they don’t exist. However, in this article, I would like to focus more on the Tuscan way of speaking, the sounds of Tuscan, and the peculiar use of Italian words in context that are absolutely unique to this region. 

Let’s dive right into it. First of all, let’s talk about the sounds that I consider one of the sexiest ways of speaking Italian. Tuscans have a particular way of pronouncing certain letters and words that makes them unique. The one that every Italian would point out first is the way they pronounce their “c.” In Italian, when in front of an “a,” “o,” or “u,” the “c” is pronounce like a “k,” but in Tuscan, it becomes almost an “h” sound when the “ca,” “co,” “cu,” are found in the middle of a word. So, words like amaca – hammock – sound more like “amaha.” There is one sentence Italians use to make themselves “sound Tuscan” and it is: La Coca Cola con la cannuccia corta corta, that is “A Coke with a very short straw.” Just look at all those “c”s. In Tuscan, “c”s change also when followed by “e” and “i” which, in Italian, usually create a ”c” sound like in the words “change” or “choice.” Well, in Tuscan they sound more like “sh” sounds. So a word like dici (pronounced dee-tchee), as in “you say,” sound more like dee-shee. But, done with the stereotypes, let’s actually look at some other characteristics of this area. 

I must say that there are other sounds and letters that do disappear. Often in sounds like “uo,” for example in buono – good/tasty – the “u” disappears, and it just leaves the “o” alone, and the word buono becomes bono. In other cases, it is the “q” that disappears and its loyal partner “u” (remember: In Italian the letter “q” is always followed by a “u”). So, if you are speaking and saying something like “take this,” prendi questo, it will be more like prendi hesto. 

Then, there are the common Italian words that only Tuscans would use in certain contexts. Let’s take the word punto – period, full stop, dot. Or at least that’s what it means in Italian. In Tuscany, punto is used also to refer to “nothing,” “at all,” “no one.” So to say, “I am not happy at all,” instead of simply saying non sono contenta per nulla, you can say non sono punto contenta. Another case is sciocco, which in standard Italian means “silly,” but here it can also refer to food, meaning that it lacks a bit of salt. Compagno – peer, mate, fellow in standard Italian – means “same” in Tuscan; babbo, which means “stupid” in most of Italy, but here it means “dad.”  And the list is long. 

There are also words they have changed or made up completely. Acquaio (literally water holder) is used for “sink” instead of lavandino/lavabo. Sortire, means “go out”, much different from the Italian uscire, but much closer to the French sortir, indeed to “go out.” Also, you might hear the word icché (pronounce ik-eh) instead of the regular che – what – especially in questions. And Giubba to say “jacket” instead of giubbetto. And even spengere to say “turn off” instead of spegnere. Again, where did the “n” go? 

There are also some structures that are particularly used in Tuscany. For example, the use of the impersonal form (si + 3° person singular) when actually talking about “we.” How do you know if they are talking generally or specifically about them? Simple, they use noi, “we,” before the impersonal form: noi si mangia bene. Another peculiarity is that the article il used for masculine, singular nouns, becomes i, while the masculine, plural i becomes e. For example, i cane and e hani. Or in certain areas it is even a simple l’ for masculine singular and plural and feminine singular and plural when the word begins with a vowel. For example, let’s see the word egg: Singular l’ovo; plural l’ova.

   Generally speaking there are a lot of characteristics to the dialects of this area, but what is interesting is the mix of what to Italians sound like “old words” used in the everyday language, with a mix of interesting sounds that sound foreign to the ear, a bit exotic maybe, but also very familiar. That’s the magic of the languages of Italy.