The medieval Roman dialect belonged to the southern family of Italian dialects, and was thus much closer to the Neapolitan language than to the Florentine. A typical example of Romanesco of that period is Vita di Cola di Rienzo, written by an anonymous Roman during the 14th century. Starting with the 16th century, the Roman dialect underwent a stronger and stronger influence from the Tuscan dialect starting with the reigns of the two Medici popes and with the Sack of Rome in 1527, two events which provoked a large immigration from Tuscany. Therefore, current Romanesco has grammar and roots that are rather different from other dialects in Central Italy. The path towards a progressive Tuscanization of the dialect can be observed in the works of the major Romanesco writers and poets of the past two centuries: Giuseppe Gioachino Belli, whose sonetti romaneschi represent the most important work in this dialect and an eternal monument to 19th centuryRoman people; Cesare Pascarella ; Giggi Zanazzo ; and Carlo Alberto Salustri, nicknamed Trilussa.
Diffusion
Before Rome became the capital city of Italy, Romanesco was spoken only inside the walls of the city, while the little towns surrounding Rome had their own dialects. Nowadays, these dialects have been replaced with a variant of Romanesco, which therefore is now spoken in an area larger than the original one. It slightly pervades the everyday language of most of the immigrants who live in the large city.
Pronunciation
Romanesco pronunciation and spelling differs from Standard Italian in these cases:
is used where standard Italian uses. This is spelt "J", a letter which is no longer used in Italian. Compare Italian figlio "son" and Romanesco fijo ;
geminate does not exist anymore: for example, azzuro ;, verebbe . A Roman pun recites: "Tera, chitara e guera, co' ddu' ere, sinnò è erore" : note that ere and erore are also "wrong", as they are erre and errore in Standard Italian. This phenomenon presumably developed after 1870, as it was not present in the classical 19th century Romanesco of Belli;
becomes before another consonant: sòrdi, Italian soldi "money";
in Romanesco, as in most Central and Southern Italian languages and dialects, and are always geminated where permissible: e.g. libbro for Standard Italian libro "book", aggenda for agenda "diary, agenda".
Noteworthy figures
Today, Romanesco is generally considered more of a regional idiom than a true language. Classical Romanesco, which reached high literature with Belli, has disappeared. External forces such as immigration and the dominance of Italian are playing a role in the transformation. Ma nun c'è lingua come la romana Pe' dì una cosa co' ttanto divario Che ppare un magazzino de dogana. — G. G. Belli, "Le lingue der monno" But there is no language like the Roman one To express a concept with so many variants So that it seems a customs warehouse. — G. G. Belli, "Languages of the world"
