Council for Ligurian Linguistic Heritage

Ligurian Council

DEIZE

Italian-Ligurian (Genoese) dictionary

Armenia

n. p.
  1. poleon.

    Ermenia [ɛrˈmenˑja] ~ [ɛrˈmeɲˑa]1

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1. Cluster [nj] in urban Genoese

The cluster [nj] at the beginning of a word and between vowels is often realized in urban Genoese and related varieties as [ɲ] (the “gn” sound). Thus we have the pronunciation [ˈɲaːtri] for niatri (“gnatri”), [iɲeˈsjuŋ] for inieçion (“igneçion”), [ˈaɲˑa] for ania (“agna”), etc. Note that masculine singulars ending in -nio [-ɲˑu] regularly form their plural in -nni [-nˑi]: testimònio [testiˈmɔɲˑu] > testimònni [testiˈmɔnˑi], capitanio [kapiˈtaɲˑu] > capitanni [kapiˈtanˑi], etc.