Genoese is the main dialect of the Ligurian language, spoken in Genoa. Ligurian, like the languages of Lombardy, Piedmont, and surrounding regions, is listed by Ethnologue as a language in its own right, of the RomanceGallo-Italic branch. Ligurian is far from dying out: while most remaining speakers of it are elderly, many young people still speak the language, and there are several associations dedicated to keeping the language alive, such as O Castello in Chiavari and A Compagna in Genoa. Written literature has been produced in Genoese since the 13th century, but the spelling has never been completely regularized. However, since 2008, there is an official orthography set up by the Academia Ligustica do Brenno, which attempts to put its script in order based on citizen speech of the Portoria area. Their rules are useful to write in all Ligurian language varieties. Genoese has had an influence on the Llanito vernacular of Gibraltar.
Tongue twisters
Mi sò 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 scîe scignôa, sciando Sciâ xêua in scî scî. = Ski, madam, skying you fly on skis.
A-o mêu nêuo gh'é nêue nâe nêue; a ciù nêua de nêue nâe nêue a n'êu anâ. = At the new pier there are nine new ships; the newest of the nine new ships doesn't want to go.
Gi'àngiai g'han gi'oggi gi'uegge gi'unge cume gi'atri? = Do angels have eyes, ears, and nails like everyone else?
Expressions
Son zeneize, rîzo ræo, strénzo i dénti e parlo ciæo. = "I'm Genoese, I seldom laugh, I grind my teeth, and I say what I mean".
The child complains: Ò famme. = I'm hungry. The mother answers: Gràttite e zenogge e fatte e lasagne. = Scratch your knees and make lasagna.
Chi vêu vîve da bon crestiàn, da-i begghìn o stagghe lontàn. = 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.
No se peu sciusciâ e sciorbî. = You can't have or do two contradicting things at the same time.
Belìn! = Wow! or Damn! .
Songs
One of the most famous folk songs written in the Genoese dialect is called Ma se ghe penso written by Mario Cappello. Towards the end of the 20th century, artist Fabrizio De André wrote an entire album called Crêuza de mä in the Genoese dialect.
^ is a circumflex accent placed above a vowel and doubles its length.
ao is read as the Italian “au” or the genovese “ou” or a long Italian “o”.
è is read as a brief open e. The symbol æ, made up of vowels a ed e, is read as an open long "e"; in groups ænn-a and æn it is read as an open short “e”.
e and é are read as a closed short “e”; ê is read as a long closed “e”.
eu is read as if it were read in french: in eu and éu the sound is short in êu the sound is long.
j is used infrequently and indicates that i should be heard in words such as: gjêmo, mangjâ, cacjæ, lascjâ, socjêtæ.
o, ó and ô are read as an Italian u like in the wordmuso; the length of ô is double the length of o and ó.
ò and ö are read as o in Italian like in the word cosa; the length of ö is double ò.
u is read as a French u with the exception in groups qu, òu and ou where the u is read as the u in the Italian wordguida.
ç always has a voiceless sound like s in the Italian word sacco.
Word-final n and groups nn-, n- indicate a velar n and are therefore pronounced nasally. The same goes for when n precedes a consonant.
s followed by a vowel, s followed by a voiceless consonant, and s between vowels is always a voiceless, sound like the s in the Italian word sacco. s followed by a voiced consonant becomes voiced, as in Italian.
scc is pronounced, like sc of the Italian word scena followed sonorously by c of the Italian word cilindro.
x is read like the French j.
z, even when it is doubled as zz, is always pronounced as the s in the Italian word rosa.
