“Ogni mpedimento è ggiuvamento.”
-Neapolitan Proverb
“Every impediment is a benefit.”
I was reminded of this in the midst of social distancing due to CoVID-19. This particular impediment will ultimately benefit us. But it’s going to suck in the meantime.
Peace,
-S
I’ve been compiling these from the songs and classical poetry I’ve been reading lately, and I figure that they should be put all in one place for reference.
The most used prepositions in turn-of-the-century Napuletano (Neapolitan, or Southern Italian) are:
| Napuletano | Italian | Meaning & Notes: |
|---|---|---|
| d’ / ‘e | di | “of”, d’ in front of vowels, ‘e everywhere else. |
| a | a | “to,” triggers doubling of the next consonant. |
| da / ‘a | da | “from”, often just as da |
| ‘n | in | “in,” usually prefixed on the word it precedes (e.g. ‘nciello). |
| ncoppo | su | “on” |
These combine with the definite articles:
And these combinations are are completely different from Standard Italian:
| ‘o | ‘a | ‘e | ll’ | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| sing. | pl. | ||||
| d’/’e | d”o | d”a | d”e | ‘e ll’ | (same as sing.) |
| a | ô | â | ê | a ll’ | (same as sing.) |
| da/’a | da ‘o | da ‘a | da ‘e | ‘a ll’ | (same as sing.) |
| ‘n | dint”o | dint”a | dint”e | dint’all’ | dint’ali’ |
| ncoppo | ncopp”o | ncopp”a | ncopp”e | ncopp’all’ | ncopp’ali’ |
For da/’a, very often (especially in older Napuletano) it will provoke the article to keep its l (e.g. da lo, da la, da le, da ll’).
Other prepositions in Napuletano follow similar patterns too, such as pe, nfino, etc. and I’ll update this article here with more later.