Napulitano

Neapolitan
Napulitano
Native to	Italy
Region	Abruzzo, Apulia, Basilicata, Calabria, Campania, Lazio, Marche, Molise.
Native speakers	5.7 million (2002)
Language family	Indo-European Italic Romance Italo-Dalmatian Neapolitan
Language codes
ISO 639-2	nap
ISO 639-3
Glottolog	neap1235  Neapolitan sout3126  South Lucanian = Vd Lausberg
Neapolitan dialects

Neapolitan (autonym: (’o n)napulitano [(o n)napuliˈtɑːnə]; Italian: napoletano) or Southern Italian is the language of much of southern continental Italy (or Southern Italy excluding insular Southern Italy), including the city of Naples. It is named after not the city but the Kingdom of Naples, which once covered most of the area: the city was its capital. On October 14, 2008, a law by the Region of Campania stated that Neapolitan was to be protected. While the term "Neapolitan language" is used in this article to refer to the language group of related dialects found in southern continental Italy, the term may also be used to refer specifically to the dialect of Neapolitan language spoken in the Naples area or in Campania.

Neapolitan was originally derived from Osco-Greco Dorico and Late (popular) Latin but was later influenced by Spanish, French and Arabic.

Neapolitan has had a significant influence on the intonation of Rioplatense Spanish, of the Buenos Aires region of Argentina, and the whole of Uruguay.

The Neapolitan dialects are distributed throughout most of continental southern Italy, historically united during the Kingdom of Naples and the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, specifically southern Lazio (Gaeta and Sora districts), southern Marche, Abruzzo, Molise, Basilicata, Campania (Naples), northern and central Apulia, and northernmost Calabria. The dialects are part of a varied dialect continuum, so the varieties in southern Lazio, Marche, Abruzzo, Molise, Apulia, Lucania and Calabria can typically be recognizable as regional groups of dialects. In western Abruzzo and Lazio the dialects give way to Central Italian dialects such as Romanesco. In central Calabria and southern Apulia, the dialects give way to the Sicilian language. Largely due to massive southern Italian migration in the 20th century, there are also numbers of speakers in Italian diaspora communities in the United States, Canada, Australia, Brazil, Argentina and Venezuela. However, in the United States traditional Neapolitan has had considerable contact with English, and is significantly different from contemporary Neapolitan spoken in Naples. English words are often used in place of Neapolitan words, especially among second-generation speakers.