The dialect of Castelmezzano is a Romance variety spoken in

Castelmezzano Castelmezzano (Castelmezzano dialect: ) is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Potenza, in the Southern Italian region of Basilicata. It is bounded by the comuni of Albano di Lucania, Anzi, Laurenzana, Pietrapertosa, Trivigno. It is part of ...

in the

Province of Potenza The Province of Potenza ( it, Provincia di Potenza; Potentino: ) is a province in the Basilicata region of southern Italy. Its capital is the city of Potenza. Geography It has an area of and a total population of 369,538 (as of 2017). There a ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

. It constitutes a dialect of the

Neapolitan language , altname = , states = Italy , region = Abruzzo, Apulia, Basilicata, Calabria, Campania, Lazio, Marche, Molise , ethnicity = ''Mezzogiorno'' Ethnic Italians , speakers = 5.7 million , date ...

that differs from the rest (and from neighbouring imported

Gallo-Italic The Gallo-Italic, Gallo-Italian, Gallo-Cisalpine or simply Cisalpine languages constitute the majority of the Romance languages of northern Italy. They are Piedmontese, Lombard, Emilian, Ligurian, and Romagnol. Although most publications def ...

varieties) in its treatment of Latin back vowels, showing an evolution more reminiscent of Balkan Romance: Latin /ŭ/ merges with /ū/ rather than with /ō/. Castelmezzano is but the kernel of an

area Area is the quantity that expresses the extent of a region on the plane or on a curved surface. The area of a plane region or ''plane area'' refers to the area of a shape A shape or figure is a graphics, graphical representation of an obje ...

, dubbed the () by Lausberg, which shares the same vowel development. It includes

Castronuovo di Sant'Andrea Castronuovo di Sant'Andrea is a town and ''comune The (; plural: ) is a local administrative division of Italy, roughly equivalent to a township or municipality. It is the third-level administrative division of Italy, after regions ('' re ...

Sant'Arcangelo Sant'Arcangelo is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Potenza, in the southern Italian region of Basilicata it, Lucano (man) it, Lucana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , ...

Roccanova Roccanova is a town and ''comune The (; plural: ) is a local administrative division of Italy, roughly equivalent to a township or municipality. It is the third-level administrative division of Italy, after regions ('' regioni'') and provin ...

San Martino d'Agri San Martino d'Agri is a hill town and ''comune The (; plural: ) is a local administrative division of Italy, roughly equivalent to a township or municipality. It is the third-level administrative division of Italy, after regions ('' regioni ...

Aliano Aliano is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Matera, which is located about southwest of Matera, in the Southern Italian region of Basilicata. Aliano was the setting of Carlo Levi's book ''Christ Stopped at Eboli'' (Italian: ''Cristo si ...

(and Alianello),

Gallicchio Gallicchio is a town and ''comune The (; plural: ) is a local administrative division of Italy, roughly equivalent to a township or municipality. It is the third-level administrative division of Italy, after regions ('' regioni'') and provi ...

Missanello Missanello ( Lucano: ) is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Potenza, in the Southern Italian region of Basilicata it, Lucano (man) it, Lucana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 ...

Armento Armento ( Lucano: ) is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Potenza, in the Southern Italian region of Basilicata. The Armento Rider was found in the vicinity of Armento and is now in the British Museum. The Kritonios Crown, a 4th-century BC ...

Pietrapertosa Pietrapertosa is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Potenza, in the Southern Italian region of Basilicata. It is bounded by the comuni of Accettura, Albano di Lucania, Campomaggiore, Castelmezzano, Cirigliano, Corleto Perticara, Gorgoglio ...

, Anzi, Campomaggiore,

Albano di Lucania Albano di Lucania ( Lucano: ) is a town and comune The (; plural: ) is a local administrative division of Italy, roughly equivalent to a township or municipality. It is the third-level administrative division of Italy, after regions ('' r ...

Trivigno Trivigno is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Potenza, in the Southern Italian region of Basilicata. It is the birthplace of the silent film actor and director Robert G. Vignola Robert G. Vignola (born Rocco Giuseppe Vignola, August ...

, Brindisi di Montagna,

Corleto Perticara Corleto Perticara ( Corletano: ) is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Potenza, in the Southern Italian region of Basilicata. It is bounded by the comuni of Armento, Gorgoglione, Guardia Perticara, Laurenzana, Montemurro, Pietrapertosa, Vi ...

and

Guardia Perticara Guardia Perticara is a town and ''comune The (; plural: ) is a local administrative division of Italy, roughly equivalent to a township or municipality. It is the third-level administrative division of Italy, after regions ('' regioni'') a ...

. This type of vocalism may once have been characteristic of most of southern Italy and possibly even other areas that now have

Italo-Western Italo-Western is, in some classifications, the largest branch of the Romance languages. It comprises two of the branches of Romance languages: Italo-Dalmatian and Western Romance. It excludes the Sardinian language and Eastern Romance. Italo ...

vowel outcomes. It can be viewed as a compromise, in that it has a Sardinian-like treatment of the back vowels, as is also observed in the southern part of the Lausberg area, while also having an Italo-Western-like treatment of the front vowels (merging Latin /ĭ/ with /ē/), as found in other varieties of Neapolitan.

Comparison of vowel changes

A comparison of vowel changes shows only limited relatability of the languages and the dialect yet Dalmatian sound changes may sometimes differ from the usual phonological development that can be ascertained.

References

Italo-Dalmatian languages Eastern Romance languages {{romance-lang-stub