DEIZE

Italian-Ligurian (Genoese) dictionary

The Council for Ligurian Linguistic Heritage is pleased to present DEIZE (diçionäio elettrònico italian-zeneise), an online Italian-Ligurian (Genoese) dictionary curated by Jean Maillard and with the linguistic support of Fabio Canessa, Alessandro Guasoni, Stefano Lusito, Claudio Rezzoagli, Anselmo Roveda and Fiorenzo Toso.

The phonetic transcriptions, which aim to represent the pronunciation which is most common amongst speakers of the language, are by Stefano Lusito. The criteria for representing pronunciation are those set out by Lusito (2025, § 6, pp. 469-493).

Field research is conducted with the assistance of Camillo Aquilino, Christian Dagnino, Mino Damonte and Ornella Dodero. We are grateful to Martino Rocca for his review and valuable advice on educational matters, and to Lorenzo Bisio for his contribution in researching art history and material culture terminology through documentary sources.

This dictionary stands out for a number of innovative features:

the provision of usage examples, for many of the most frequent lemmas, which place the Genoese equivalents in plausible communicative contexts;
the possibility of accessing tables relating to noun declensions and verb conjugations, generated by specially designed software;
the inclusion of precise pronunciation guidance for each lemma (corresponding to that of the regional capital) through transcription in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) and audio recordings.

In view of the dictionary’s aims – chiefly to support the preservation of vocabulary firmly established in the historical Ligurian literature – this work prioritises authentic Genoese forms rather than those modelled after Italian, even though occasionally the latter may be more widespread in the spoken language. Specific editorial choices – e.g. those concerning the morphological forms considered in this work – can be found in the appropriate sections within the entries of this dictionary.

How to Use This Dictionary

DEIZE is intended to provide as comprehensive a survey as possible of Italian vocabulary, set in comparison with its equivalents in Genoese.

Usage Labels

Usage labels are notes or abbreviations that inform the dictionary user about particular semantic domains to which a given lexeme belongs, its register marking, or other relevant aspects.

The usage labels included in DEIZE are as follows.

Domain Labels

hagion.: Hagionym; name of a sacred figure.
agric.: Agriculture.
anat.: Anatomy.
fam. anthr.: Family anthroponym; surname.
pers. anthr.: Personal anthroponym; given name.
archit.: Architecture.
art: Art.
bot.: Botany.
chem.: Chemistry.
comm.: Commerce.
choron.: Choronym; name of a geographical region.
entomon.: Entomonym; name of an insect species.
ethn.: Ethnonym; name of the inhabitants of a place.
phys.: Physics.
phyton.: Phytonym; name of a plant species.
gastron.: Gastronym; name of a food product.
geogr.: Geography.
hydron.: Hydronym; name of a body of water, coastal feature, island, or similar.
ichthyon.: Ichthyonym; name of a fish species.
ling.: Linguistics.
butch.: Butchery.
naut.: Nautical domain; seafaring.
math.: Mathematics.
med.: Medicine.
meteor.: Meteorology.
mycon.: Myconym; name of a fungus species.
mus.: Music.
ornithon.: Ornithonym; name of a bird species.
oron.: Oronym; name of a mountain, valley, or similar.
poleon.: Poleononym; name of a settlement, locality, or similar.
rel.: Religion.
urbanon.: Urbanonym; name of a street, square, building, or structure within a settlement.
zoon.: Zoonym; name of an animal species.

Frequency Labels

arch.: Archaic. Refers to “a few lexical items potentially present in written usage (…) and perhaps still found in the practice of some speakers, but now replaced by forms entirely distinct in etymology”, such as alleman [aleˈmaŋ] for todesco [tuˈdesku], tedesco [teˈdesku] “German” or amia [ˈamˑja] for lalla [ˈlalˑa] “aunt”.
obs.: Obsolete, out of use. Indicates terms or combinations “found mainly in the residual usage of older generations, and therefore undergoing progressive obsolescence”.
neol.: Neologism. Refers to recently coined or introduced terms whose diffusion is, for the time being, largely limited to certain domains of written language (such as narrative prose or journalistic writing).
rare

Neologisms. Since Genoese is still widely used in written form – not only in everyday texts, but also in narrative prose and journalistic articles – it was deemed appropriate to include in DEIZE words and expressions that have appeared in recent years (roughly from 2015 onwards) in the written use of this language. These are mostly terms connected with new technologies (such as intelligensa artifiçiale “artificial intelligence”) or with political and social changes affecting the local context and beyond (scormatô “overflow channel”, regazzificatô “regasification plant”, moçion de çensua “motion of no confidence”, etc.). These forms have been included in DEIZE for reasons of completeness and documentation; it should, however, be specified that, at least for the time being, their diffusion remains limited and concerns mainly written usage. Terms such as televixon “television set, television” or telefonin “mobile phone” are not considered neologisms, as they are fully established in both written and spoken Genoese.

Register Labels

euph.: Euphemism, euphemistic. Marks “the use of the lexeme in a euphemistic and attenuating sense”.
coll.: Colloquial. Indicates vocabulary that is “more informal than that of ‘familiar’ usage, without reaching the level of outright vulgarity”.
derog.: Derogatory.
fam.: Familiar. Indicates vocabulary occurring in informal contexts, generally accompanied by neutral-register equivalents.
lit.: Literary. Indicates vocabulary found mainly in the written use of Genoese, but obsolete or infrequent in spoken practice.
iron.: Ironical.
pej.: Pejorative.
hum.: Humorous.
vulg.: Vulgar. Indicates vocabulary “of an openly obscene character, much of which has equivalents in a less marked register (that is, depending on the case, neutral, colloquial, or familiar: for example, terms referring to bodily excretions or sexual activity)”.

Treatment of Italianisms and Italianising Forms

Finally, the label ital. marks vocabulary of Italianising origin that is nevertheless widespread in Genoese usage and not perceived as marked in comparison with “genuine” forms: this is the case, for example, of parcheggiâ [parkeˈdʒaː] for parchezzâ [parkeˈzaː] “to park”, or lavata [laˈvaːta] for lavâ [laˈvaː] “wash”, where the difference between the two forms lies in morphological adaptation, or also sparî [spaˈriː] for scentâ [ʃeŋˈtaː] “to disappear”, where the Italianism has a completely different form from the “genuine” Genoese term.

This label is not applied to neologisms formed from Italian that represent the only lexical form available in Genoese to denote a given referent, such as lampadiña [laŋpaˈdiŋˑa] “light bulb” or telefonin [telefuˈniŋ] “mobile phone”. Italianisms that are more or less present in usage but still perceived as marked in comparison with genuine Genoese forms (such as zio [ˈziːu] for barba [ˈbaːrba], zia [ˈziːa] for lalla [ˈlalˑa] or giovedì [dʒuveˈdi] for zeuggia [ˈzødʒˑa], among countless examples) will not be included in DEIZE.

Phonetic transcriptions and audio pronunciation

For all Genoese equivalents of the Italian headwords included in DEIZE, pronunciation is provided in the form of a transcription in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), the system commonly used to represent pronunciation in general dictionaries and, more broadly, in scholarly and specialist contexts.

The transcription aims to reflect an “average” or general pronunciation, corresponding to the most widespread usage among speakers across the Genoese-speaking area as a whole, while excluding features specific to individual localities or idiolects. In particular, primary reference has been made to the urban pronunciation of the Ligurian capital, excluding traits that are more strongly characteristic of coastal and rural varieties. At the same time, widely attested and socially unmarked variation – i.e. variation not perceived by speakers as more or less correct, nor associated with specific social groups – has been taken into account.

For multi-word expressions, in order to provide a representation that is as realistic and close as possible to actual speech, phonosyntactic phenomena – i.e., the set of phonetic processes occurring in connected speech – are also indicated. It should be noted, however, that such phenomena may vary considerably depending on the area and on individual speakers; here too, only those features considered most widespread in usage and unmarked from a sociolectal or geographical perspective have been retained.

For the phonetic criteria used to identify a “common” and “neutral” pronunciation model from a diatopic and sociolectal standpoint, we have relied on the materials and analyses presented in Lusito (2025, § 6, pp. 469-493). As for phonosyntactic aspects, partly already investigated by Parodi (1905), the studies of Forner (1975, pp. 369-386) remain essential.

Bibliography

Quoted passages are taken from the monograph by Lusito (2025, § 5.5, pp. 225-244). At present, that volume offers the most in-depth metalexicographical study on the organisation of contemporary Genoese; many of the considerations set out there have also been applied to DEIZE, despite the reverse direction that characterises this dictionary. The verification of vocabulary in written usage is understood to have been carried out in the materials comprising the Corpus of Contemporary Genoese Prose, edited by Jean Maillard and Stefano Lusito, described in its general features in Lusito (2025, § 3.4, pp. 157-173).

Other Lexicographical Works and Studies

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E. Autelli, C. Konecny, A. Guasoni, R. Imperiale, S. Lusito e F. Toso, GEPHRAS2: The D-Z of Genoese and Italian Phrasemes (Collocations and Idioms), inl. da M. Merli, 2020-2025.
F. Bampi, Nuovo dizionario italiano-genovese illustrato e commentato, Nuona editrice genovese, 2008.
G. Casaccia, Vocabolario genovese-italiano, Fratelli Pagano, 1851.
G. Casaccia, Dizionario genovese-italiano. Seconda edizione accresciuta del doppio e quasi tutta rifatta, Tip. di G. Schenone, 1876.
M. Cortelazzo (à c. de), M. Cuneo (à c. de) e G. Petracco Sicardi (à c. de), Vocabolario delle parlate liguri. Lessici speciali 2-I. I pesci e altri animali marini, Consulta ligure, 1995.
M. Cuneo (à c. de), G. Petracco Sicardi (à c. de), Vocabolario delle parlate liguri. Lessici speciali 2-II. Mare, pesca e marineria, Consulta ligure, 1997.
W. Forner, Generative Phonologie des Dialekts von Genua, Buske, 1975.
G. Frisoni, Dizionario moderno genovese-italiano e italiano-genovese, A. Donath, 1910.
A. Guasoni, F. Toso, Il genovese in tasca, Assimil Italia, 2010.
S. Lusito, Dizionario italiano-genovese, Editoriale Programma, 2022.
S. Lusito, Aspetti teorici e pratici della redazione di un dizionario genovese-italiano della lingua contemporanea. Metalessicografia di una varietà romanza di koinè, Edizioni dell’Orso, 2025.
F. Noberasco, Piccolo vocabolario marinaresco italiano-savonese, Tipografia savonese, 1934.
C. Olivari, Zeneize riso ræo. Vocabolario genovese-italiano italiano-genovese, Liberodiscrivere, 2006.
E. G. Parodi, «Studj liguri», inte Archivio glottologico italiano, pp.105-161, 333-365 16, 1905.
G. Petracco Sicardi (à c. de), Vocabolario delle parlate liguri. Lessici speciali 1. Gli uccelli, Consulta ligure, 1982.
G. Petracco Sicardi (à c. de), F. Toso (à c. de) e P. Cavallaro (à c. de), Vocabolario delle parlate liguri. I: A-C, Consulta ligure, 1985.
G. Petracco Sicardi (à c. de), R. Conte Labella (à c. de), F. Toso (à c. de) e P. Cavallaro (à c. de), Vocabolario delle parlate liguri. II: D-M, Consulta ligure, 1987.
G. Petracco Sicardi (à c. de), F. Toso (à c. de), Vocabolario delle parlate liguri. III: N-S, Consulta ligure, 1990.
G. Petracco Sicardi (à c. de), Vocabolario delle parlate liguri. IV: T-(Z), Consulta ligure, 1992.
F. Toso, Grammatica del genovese. Varietà urbana e di koinè, Le Mani, 1997.
F. Toso, «Il tabarchino. Strutture, evoluzione storica, aspetti sociolinguistici.», inte Il bilinguismo tra conservazione e minaccia. Esempi e presupposti per interventi di politica linguistica e di educazione bilingue, à c. de A. Carli, FrancoAngeli, 2004.
F. Toso, Dizionario italiano-genovese, genovese-italiano, Antonio Vallardi Editore, 2006.
F. Toso, Piccolo dizionario etimologico ligure, Zona, 2015.
F. Toso, Desgel. Dizionario etimologico storico genovese e ligure. Fascicolo di saggio. Lettera N, Edizioni dell’Orso, 2023.