The Ferrarese dialect (traditional orthography: dialèt frarés) refers to the dialect spoken by the native inhabitants of the city and environs of Ferrara, a city located in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy.
Ferrarese, in addition to Emilia-Romagna, is also spoken in the area of Fertilia, in the Sassari province of Sardinia, owing to the fact that a sizable community from Ferrara established itself in the area following a Mussolini-sponsored development program during the Fascist era.
The classification of this dialect remains an unsettled matter. Historically, Ferrarese has been considered a member of the Gallo-Italic family of dialects, which compose the majority of dialects spoken in Emilia-Romagna. The first proponent of this idea was Bernardino Biondelli, who included it in his 1853 work ''Saggio Sui Dialetti Gallo-Italici''.
More recently however, this traditional categorization has come under increased scrutiny by scholars such as Romano Baiolini and Floriana Guidetti in their 2005 work ''Saggio Di Grammatica Comparata Del Dialetto Ferrarese.'' They and others claim that Ferrarese should instead be categorized as "Latin-Italic '' due to phonological and historical/archeological considerations. Specifically, they argue that the vowel system mirrors Imperial Latin more closely than surrounding dialects such as Bolognese do. Guidetti and Biaolini analyze vocalic quadrilaterals to highlight the differences present between the phonologies of Gallo-Italic and Ferrarese.
Additionally, Guidetti points out in her Q&A paper that Ferrarese differs from many Gallo-Italic dialects in that it has preserved the /a/ phoneme in first-conjugation Latin verbs such as andàr and cantàr, while other dialects such as Romagnol have diachronically shifted to mid-vowels andèr and cantèr.
Regarding the historical and archeological considerations, these scholars argue that Gallo-Italic dialects should be heavily influenced by ancient Gallic peoples (also referred to as Gauls), a group of Celtic, pre-Roman tribes which had settlements across Northern Italy before the eventual conquest of the region by the Romans. Their claim is, therefore, that Ferrarese must not be a Gallo-Italic dialect because no significant archeological remains of settlement prior to Roman urbanization have been discovered in the once marshy and inhospitable area, and that the new Roman settlers in the region could thus not have been overly-influenced by Gallic linguistic observances.
Not all scholars are convinced by these ideas. In The Expression of Indefiniteness in Italo-Ferrarese Bilectal Speakers, doubt is cast on these claims (particularly in section 3.2 Origins, Classification, and Contacts).
Although it is difficult to obtain accurate demographics of speaker numbers, it is generally believed that the overwhelming majority of fluent Ferrarese speakers today are elderly people, while younger generations speak the dialect with varying degrees of fluency and frequency. This trend has been confirmed by a survey conducted by ISTAT (the Italian national institute of statistics) in 2015, which collected data suggesting that the use of dialects is in general decline throughout Italy.
Furthermore, the same study observed that 55,6% of Italians speak almost exclusively in Italian within the family context. This number becomes even higher (63.2%) within the context of speaking with friends. The general trend observed is that younger and more educated people tend to speak Italian more than dialects.
Ferrarese, as an Italian dialect, follows many of the same grammatical patterns present in standard Italian, with the notable exception of clitics, which will be discussed in greater detail below.
Verb: To be
| Ferrarese | Italian | English | |
| mi a sóŋ | Io sono | I am | |
| ti at jé | Tu sei | You are | |
| lu l'è | Lui/Lei è | He/She/It is | |
| nu a séŋ | Noi siamo | We are | |
| vu a si | Voi siete | You (all) are | |
| lór i jè | Loro sono | They are |
| Ferrarese | Italian | English | |
| mi a kaŋt | Io canto | I sing | |
| ti at kàŋti | Tu canti | You sing | |
| lu al kàŋta | Lui/lei canta | He/She/It sings | |
| nu a kaŋtéŋ | Noi cantiamo | We sing | |
| vu a kaŋté | Voi cantate | You (all) sing | |
| lór i kaŋta | Loro cantano | They sing |
The Ferrarese example above exemplifies word particles that aren't present in Standard Italian being used as an integral part of the inflection process. These particles are called "pronominal clitics.".
Ferrarese differs from Standard Italian in that it makes regular use of special particles called "pronominal clitics". A clitic is an umbrella term for words or word particles that "lean" (from the Ancient Greek etymology ἐγκλιτικός enklitikós, meaning "to lean") onto an adjacent word. There are many different types of clitics which have a variety of grammatical, syntactical, and phonological functions, and many languages utilize them. Below are some examples of clitics.
Latin: Senatus Populusque Romanus (-que, meaning “and”)
French: Il en remplit un verre. (en, meaning “with it”)
English: Your friend from Chicago’s arrival “('s”, indicating possession, The arrival of the friend from Chicago)
In Ferrarese, there are several different categories of clitics, which include: subject clitics, object clitics, and quantitative clitics. Below, see attached a table of the various tonic and clitic subject pronouns in the Ferrarese dialect.
Table showing showing paradigms of subject pronouns (tonic and clitic) in the Ferrarese dialect
| Tonic pronouns | Clitic pronouns | ||
| 1 ps | Mi | A | |
| 2 ps | Ti | at (+C) /t (+V) | |
| 3 ps | Lu (M) Lie (F) | al (+C) /l (+V) la (+C) /l (+V) | |
| 1 pp | Nu / Nuàltar | A | |
| 2 pp | Vu/ Uàltar | A | |
| 3 pp | Lòr (M) Lor (F) | i ill |
One of the more interesting syntactic phenomena in the Ferrarese dialect is obligatory extension or reference to nouns through the use of pronominal clitics. Standard Italian, by contrast, does not make normal use of this feature. I will refer to this process as “Noun Expansion and Obligatory Pronominalization”.
i.
FE: “Nu a scorén al frarès”
IT: Parliamo il ferrarese
EN: We speak Ferrarese.
In this example, a pronominal clitic is required to make the sentence grammatically correct. Note that “A” is not the typical tonic pronoun, but the clitic pronoun. While it is possible to drop the tonic pronoun, it is ungrammatical to drop the clitic. This is a unique, obligatory feature that exists in Ferrarese and some other Italian dialects that does not exist in Standard Italian. In the examples below, the tonic pronoun has been dropped, but the clitic pronoun must remain.
ii.
FE: “A són astèmi.”
IT: Sono astemio.
EN: I am a teetotaller.
The following sentences provide a comparison of pronominal clitic between Ferrarese and Standard Italian.
iii.
FE: I n compra mai fruta, il mie sureli
They not buy never fruit, the my sisters
EN: ‘My sisters never buy fruit’
IT: Non comprano mai frutta, le mie sorelle.
Not they buy never fruit, the my sisters.
iv.
FE: T’ an compri mai di pum
You not buy never di+ART.PL apples
EN: ‘You never buy apples’
IT: Non compri mai delle mele
Not you buy never di+ART.PL apples
In example iii, Ferrarese puts a pronoun clitic “i” before the verb “comprano.” This combines with the negation word “an” and through phonological elision becomes “in.” The Italian examples do not employ this feature.
In example iv, the same process is at work, with the only difference being that the subject clitic is the second person “t” which combines with negation “an” to form: “t’an”.
By comparison, there is no subject pronoun clitic preceding the negation in the Standard Italian examples “Non comprano mai frutta, le mie sorelle” and “Non compri mai delle mele”.
In Ferrarese, the introduction of clitics into a sentence or phrase can bring about interesting phonological reactions. In table 10 (Procentese) detailing the tonic and clitic pronouns, the second and third person singular are particularly sensitive to consonantal or vocalic environments.
Ferrarese definite article surfacing
al (m.sg before consonant);
l’ (m.sg before vowel and in proclitic position);
la (f.sg before consonant);
l’ (f.sg before vowel);
i (m.pl before consonant);
j’ (m.pl before vowel);
ill (f.pl before consonant);
j’ or gl’ (f.pl before vowel).
This pattern has important implications for verbs that begin with a vowel, such as “to have” shown below:
| present | future | imperfect | |
| mi a ɣ o | mi a ɣ avrò | mi a ɣ éva | |
| ti at ɣ a | ti at ɣ avrà | ti at ɣ évi | |
| lu al ɣ a | lu al ɣ avrà | lu al ɣ éva | |
| nu a ɣ [av]éŋ | nu a ɣ avréŋ | nu a ɣ évaŋ | |
| vu a ɣ avì | vu a ɣ avrì | vu a ɣ évi | |
| lór i ɣ a | lór i ɣ avrà | lór i ɣ éva |
In this case, the IPA symbol [''ɣ] has been inserted to show the phonological change that occurs (pronounced similarly to an English hard g).
It is important to note, however, that the clitics can elide with other clitic pronouns and the negative particle “n”. In the latter case, a vocal prosthetic vowel is inserted to address the phonological impossibility in Ferrarese of “[tg] or [tn]. This may be seen in examples v and vi below:
v.
FE: T’ag dai
IT: Gli dai
(You+Him+give)
EN: (you give him)
vi.
FE: t’an cant
(you+not+sing)
IT: Non canti
EN: (you don’t sing)
Ferrarese, like many other Romance languages such as Italian and Spanish, makes use of Clitic Left Dislocation. Clitic Left Dislocation (or CLLD) is a process in which a Determiner Phrase (an article + a noun) is shifted to the left edge of the sentence. The Determiner Phrase which has been shifted is then represented in the clause by a pronominal clitic. The dislocated Determiner Phrase can be incorporated into a sentence as an optional adjunct in order to provide more information, but the sentence must be grammatical without them.
Some examples of this phenomenon are provided below:
vii.
Italian
Il vino non lo bevo
The wine not CL.ACC.3SG.m. drink
‘I don’t drink wine’
Ferrarese
Al vin an al bev brisa
the wine CL.NOM-1SG-not CL.ACC.3SG.m. drink NEG
‘I don’t drink wine’