Talk:Neapolitan language

The number of speakers cited in the article is for the Napoletano-Calabrese group as a whole. What is the number of speakers for straight up Neapolitan? There are around 1,100,000 inhabitants of the city proper with another million in the immediately girding communities (2001 census). In terms of number of speakers, at what point does the dialectical continuum flow so far out as to lose its Neapolitan-ness as such? E. abu Filumena

The Italic languages are these: -GALLO-ITALIAN: Venetian, Romagnolo, Emilian, Lombard, Piedmontese, Ligurian, Friulian -MEDIAN-ITALIAN: course, standard italian, Roman dialect, Umbrian, Tuscan -SOUTH-ITALIAN: Neapolitan, Apulian, Lucanian and Abruzzese -EXTREME SOUTH ITALIAN: sicilian, Calabrian, Salentine -SARDIANIAN In Italy these are the linguistic groups, the Neapolitan is not spoken in Puglia, Abruzzo and Basilicata, only in the Campania region. I'm Apulian and I do not speak Neapolitan, I speak Apulian. They are two distinct languages but belonging to the same family.

This article mixes up three discrete languoids: 1) the very Neapolitan language, which was co-official (besides Latin) within the Kingdom of Naples in 1442–1501, and was then largely spoken in that Kingdom until Italian unification; 2) the intermediate southern Italian dialects (the map actually refers to them), which stem straightforwardly from Latin and not from the Neapolitan language; 3) the Neapolitan dialect currently spoken within the metropolitan city of Naples. I would therefore propose splitting the current article into three ones, similarly to what Italian Wikipedia does (it:Lingua napoletana, it:Dialetti italiani meridionali, it:Dialetto napoletano).-- 3knolls (talk) 06:25, 8 December 2020 (UTC) [reply ]

I would tend to disagree, the term "dialect" to describe the language currently spoken in Naples is extremely problematic. A tripartite division of that kind is based more on linguistic ideology than anything else.Boynamedsue (talk) 12:41, 10 February 2021 (UTC) [reply ]

Definitely confusing, because this article treats two related, yet distinct, concepts and realities. Unfortunately, 'dialect' is the briefest translation of dialetto, understood in Italy to mean 'local indigenous language'. Italian Wikipedia solves the quandary to some extent by having an article on Dialetto napoletano, i.e. the language of Naples, and one on Lingua napoletana, the historical-political situation of some time back. This article will remain inaccurate and confusing until the two are sorted out clearly so that readers understand that in current usage, napoletano refers to the language of Naples and immediate surroundings. See the first two paragraphs (at present) of Dialetto napoletano for clarification. Barefoot through the chollas (talk) 18:07, 26 February 2025 (UTC) [reply ]

I support the split.

I would argue that the only unambiguous and least problematic way to resolve this is to limit the article to the dialect/language spoken in Naples (and the immediately surrounding comunes). A separate article could then be written on 'Southern Italo-Romance languages' or 'Continental Southern Italian dialects', making this effectively a split. The title of this new article could be decided afterwards through a move proposal. The article clearly needs to be restructured, and so would the two resulting articles. There needn't be a perfect correspondence between the Italian and English Wikipedias as they serve different audiences. IlmarisenVasara 14:47, 3 March 2026 (UTC) [reply ]

Leaving aside a bit of minor quibbling over your last declaration, I agree that two articles are necessary. In both it should be clarified that the historico-political usage of napoletano as a label to include dialetti that are not linguistically Neapolitan is essentially a political remnant, not a linguistically justifiable name, and now in retreat, no longer used by language scholars. (A similarly misleading case of mislabeling in Wikipedia -- though somewhat less severe typologically -- is found in the case of Venetian, where Venetan and Venetian are repeatedly conflated.) Barefoot through the chollas (talk) 21:40, 26 April 2026 (UTC) [reply ]

Why is this text in this article: English pronunciation guidelines are based on General American pronunciation, and the values used may not apply to other dialects. (See also: International Phonetic Alphabet chart for English dialects.) Barefoot through the chollas (talk) 21:13, 26 April 2026 (UTC) [reply ]

Deleted. Erinius (talk) 22:18, 8 May 2026 (UTC) [reply ]

There has been much discussion on the names of the language(s) of Southern Italy. This stems partly from the confusion between regional variants of Standard Italian spoken in the area that has been "Southernized" to appear more like an older, more indigenous language, and the regional and local pride that inhabitants of the Mezzogiorno contain that prescribes whatever vernacular they speak a unique name (eg the inhabitants of Torre Del Greco calling their vernacular "Torrese".) From a linguistic perspective, the name "Neopolitian" for the language spoken mostly south of Rome is a reference to the historical Kingdom of Naples that contained the entirety of continental Southern Italy. However, this can cause offense to speakers of this language outside of Campania and even those Campanians who live outside of Naples itself because they are not, in the geographic or cultural sense, true "Neopolitians." I recommend that the current name "Neopolitian" be kept for this article since it is used by certain linguistic groupings, albeit with the note that the language can also be known as "Intermediate Southern Italian" and having all references to the aforementioned name re-direct to this article. JF1128 (talk) 14:33, 2 May 2026 (UTC) [reply ]

True that the label napoletano for the languages spoken mostly south of Rome is a reference to the historical Kingdom of Naples that contained the entirety of continental Southern Italy. From a linguistic perspective, however, the label can be described somewhat euphemistically as inaccurate, given that for Italians the designation napoletano signifies 'characteristic of Naples', 'originating in Naples', etc. That's also the normal usage in linguistics: napoletano/Neapolitan refers to the language of Naples (and, at most, immediate surroundings). A brief paragraph on the obsolescent socio-political usage of the label suffices in this article. Barefoot through the chollas (talk) 03:28, 5 May 2026 (UTC) [reply ]

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