Italian vs Neapolitan: Which Language Do Neapolitans Speak Most? | Easy Italian 119

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In Italy there are many dialects and almost all of them are real languages. In Naples, for example, the language spoken together with Italian is Neapolitan. But how much and when do Neapolitans speak Neapolitan?

In Italia ci sono tantissimi dialetti e quasi tutti sono vere e proprie lingue. A Napoli per esempio la lingua parlata assieme all'italiano è il napoletano. Ma quanto e quando parlano napoletano i napoletani?
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Easy Languages is an international video project aiming at supporting people worldwide to learn languages through authentic street interviews and expose the street culture of participating partner countries abroad. Episodes are produced in local languages and contain subtitles in both the original language as well as in English.

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Host: Raffaele Terracciano
Camera: Ida Marino

#learnitalian #easyitalian #easylanguages

[fabriziodagostino]

It should be specified that these interviews are taken in Vomero, the middle-upper class district in the city of Naples. Therefore it reflects the linguistic habits of a particular class of population. Things change if you move to popular districts, where neapolitan is used as main native language

[kevinbarry]

Da Irlandese, è molto importante a mantenere una cultura, lingua, ecc. Spero che le genti di Napoli continueranno a parlare la lingua e essere orgogliosi della lingua.

[buckyharris]

I spent a month in Italy many years ago, visiting Lazio, Toscana, Umbria, and Emilia-Romagna, but I wasn't really aware of any local dialects back then. All the Italians I spoke with were careful to speak only Italiano, and they generally sneered at "dialetto." But recently I discovered the series Gomorra, which I watched with English subtitles. At first I thought, what language are they speaking??? Sometimes it sounded exactly like Spanish, other times it seemed a bit Portuguese, sometimes it was obviously Italian. That exposure made it clear to me that Napoletano is a distinct language in its own right. So I heartily agree with the Neapolitan speakers in this video -- Napoletano is part of the culture, it's a language of passion, and people should definitely keep speaking it! Even the parolacce!

[derpnasty]

Can we get an Easy Neapolitan channel now? Feeling inspired 😅

[adj]

I was born in Canada. My grand parents immigrated here after the war. The “Italian” I learnt as a kid was Neapolitan. So when we would watch something on RAI in actual Italian I was always confused as to why I didn’t understand a thing.

[joeg]

I grew up listening to Neapolitan, and it still has a wonderful familiar comforting sound. It represents the beautiful culture of Naples and its people.

[gi]

I think we should thank Easy Italian for not casting the Napolitan language into the "mere dialect" category. As a venetan, I think it's a shame that the Italian government strives to minimize the importance of our local languages, especially when everybody else properly recognizes them as languages. "Dialect calling" is a real form of discrimination and i hope that napolitan people will continue to speak and teach their language to their children

[giovannam]

My parents were both born in Italy and came to America and as a first generation American, we were raised hearing and speaking the Napoletano dialect. I love it, I love hearing it and brings me great comfort when anyone speaks it. We were still able to learn, read and write in perfect English, and excel in school. When visiting Italy, my favorite part was when we were on the Amalfi coast and hearing the beautiful language come alive, especially with the drivers. I was born and raised in New York and very proud of my New York accent and love when people recognize it, but so saddened to learn how many people in this video seem ashamed of the Napoletano dialect and think it’s more elegant to speak il vero Italiano or they get hit by their parents when caught speaking the dialect. Seriously? And telling I nonni not to speak the dialect??? WTF people? That is called trying to erase a culture, your heritage, traditions, your history. That is what they should be ashamed of. Years ago, many Italians that came to America, changed their last names or first names to fit in better and their family names were forever changed and forgotten, erased. What a damn shame. But it’s ignorance that makes people forget what’s truly important. Retaining your identity and heritage can be done simultaneously while still going to school, work, in public and function as elegantly as you wish, without judging your ancestor’s and where you came from. We are all growing up in a multi lingual world, it shouldn’t be hard to to do this. Hold on to your roots, traditions, dialects and heritages, while still functioning properly in the world. It’s all possible. And stop degrading Napoletano. Let’s accept and embrace everything. Ps… unfortunately my parents have passed and my children are craving to hear the dialect and now want to practice that more. Trust me, they can handle it all. ❤️🥰 🇮🇹

[pablodescamisado]

All of them said that at moments of anger they switch to napolitano. It seems to me that anger is one of the people's pure characteristics, a lot of people can't control their anger, and the language they use at those moments shows what they really are "inside" — napoletani. But then, some people don't want to speak it, and prohibit their children and nonni speak it. As if they would want to stop being who they are.
that would be really a great loss for culture if younger generation will become all Florence-speaking. And "some expressions" are not enough.

[IlGiglioNero]

I am happy that most people want to teach Neapolitan to their children!
One can master both Italian and Neapolitan, that is not a problem.
It would be a pity if Neapolitan and the other territorial languages of Italy were to get lost!

[vttc]

It would have been interesting to hear a comparison of both these languages during this video. What does the dialect sound like?

[izzywizzy]

When I grew up in the south of England my best friend’s family were from Campagna and that is what they spoke at home. So I was accustomed to hearing a mix of English and Napolitano all the way though my secondary school years. I had to learn some just to get by at their house and it is what led to me eventually going to university to learn Italian. It is a shame that some people are ashamed of it. It is a beautiful and passionate language.

[grazianolaudisio]

Born and raised in the Netherlands, but my motherlanguage is Neapolitan (Salernitano version that is, but not very different).

It took me a lot of sweat and tears to learn to speak proper Italian. But I prefer Neapolitan all day, as it touches my soul.

[britischenadligen]

I recently visited Naples and I've noticed it is quite difficult to understand Neapolitans (even if my knowledge of "regular" Italian is limited 😂). One thing I've noticed is that they seem to use a lot of "sh" voices where you'd just say "s" in regular Italian, like in aspettare, bruschetta, schuola, etc. All in all an awesome city, despite the language difficulties.

[billydebianchi]

My great grandparents who came from Naples spoke napulitano. When my mother went to school to learn Italian (she thought it would be an easy A, they taught standard Italian) my great grandmother scolded my mother and told her to get out of that class because they were teaching her the "wrong Italian". They called it high Italian. My family never spoke Italian, only napulitano. Very proud of my heritage and Neapolitan language.

[lr]

I am a teacher in a high school. I am 26 years old and what I noticed is that my students mainly use Neapolitan among them. This was a surprise because when I attended school this was 100% strange. They told me that it's quite normal among them, and the major tendency is among students who are 14/15 years old.
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Premetto che sono un insegnante presso una scuola superiore. Ho 26 anni e la cosa incredibile che ho notato è che i miei studenti giovanissimi usano tra loro il napoletano anche a scuola. Sono giovane ma questo ai miei tempi era abbastanza impensabile. E noto che il fenomeno è in crescita soprattutto nella fascia tra i 14 e i 15 anni.

[theiaselene]

I like to think of language and dialect as a spectrum rather than dialect being a subordinate of language.
It's a shame that some people only speak Italian to the new generation and think that Italian is more "cultured" :( no language is more superior than another

[lr]

When my brother and I were kids my mother would slap us anytime we were using Neapolitan. There was a time when speaking this language was a taboo and associated with ignorance. Results: my brother uses Neapolitan 99% of the time now 🤣

[arieleduardo]

It is a great pity that Italian society continues to despise it and continue to isolate it as a mere rural dialect. A publisher could be willing to release a grammar and other study materials about. As much as standard Italian, there is a rich literary, musical and theatrical history in the Neapolitan, notably Giambattista Basile, Eduardo de Filippo, Salvatore di Giacomo and Totò. My father, who already rests in peace, taught me a lot about his native language. I hope that the Italian government will make every effort to preserve Italy's linguistic diversity as democratic Spain has been doing since its last years, preserving the nationalisms within the Spanish state. Viva Antonio Veneziano, Viva Dante Alighieri e Viva Giambattista Basile! 🇮🇹

[giovannaf.]

Vivo al nord ovest d'Italia ma mia mamma era di origine napoletana.
L'ho sentita parlare in napoletano nelle telefonate con i familiari o nelle poche visite dei parenti.
Trovo sia una lingua molto calorosa ed espressiva.
Purtroppo non so dire quasi nulla (ma neppure nel dialetto locale del nord dove vivo) in quanto ho sempre parlato esclusivamente italiano.
Ma la cosa che mi stupisce è che quando sento parlare in napoletano (a meno che non sia pronunciato molto "stretto") oppure quando ascolto qualche canzone, riesco a comprendere la maggior parte di ciò che viene detto tranne qualche parola.
È come se lo avessi acquisito in modo innato, naturale quasi come una sorta di "imprinting"...
Questa è una cosa che mi fa molto piacere, mi avvicina a quella parte delle mie origini che non ho mai potuto approfondire... 😊