Council for Ligurian Linguistic Heritage

Ligurian Council

DEIZE

Italian-Ligurian (Genoese) dictionary

colle del Giovo

m. n. phr.
  1. oron. valico appenninico tra Stella e Sassello

    Zovo [ˈzuːvu] (var. Zoo)1

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1. Loss of intervocalic -[v]-

The term may also occur with syncope (i.e. loss) of intervocalic -[v]-. This is a fairly widespread phenomenon, characterizing on the one hand urban varieties of the lower social strata, and on the other coastal and rural varieties. Thus, words such as apreuvo [aˈprøːvu] “after, behind”, covercio [kuˈvɛːrtʃu] “lid”, crövo [ˈkrɔːvu] “crow” or ravieu [raˈvjøː] “(one piece of) ravioli”, among many others, may appear in the forms apreuo [aˈprøːu], coercio [ˈkwɛːrtʃu], cröo [ˈkrɔːu] or raieu [raˈjøː]. A similar phenomenon is sometimes also found in word-initial positions, for instance in forms of the verb voei [ˈvwej] “to want” (such as veuggio [ˈvødʒˑu] “I want”, vosciuo [vuˈʃyːu] “wanted”) or in a noun such as vòtta [ˈvɔtˑa] “time, occasion”, which thus surface as oei [ˈwej], (euggio [ˈødʒˑu], ösciuo [ɔːˈʃyːu]) and òtta [ˈɔtˑa]. This phenomenon is generally not reflected in the written language, especially in formal or literary contexts. In this dictionary we limit ourselves to indicating only those cases in which the phenomenon may occur in a generalized way; cases in which the loss of -[v]- occurs only in the dialects of certain areas are not indicated (as in forms such as in [ˈiŋ] for vin [ˈviŋ] “wine” or caallo [kaˈalˑu] for cavallo [kaˈvalˑu] “horse”). Further information on the phenomenon, also from a historical perspective, can be found in Toso (2004, pp. 170-175) and in Lusito (2025, pp. 481-484).

Bibliography

  • F. Toso, “Il tabarchino. Strutture, evoluzione storica, aspetti sociolinguistici.”, in Il bilinguismo tra conservazione e minaccia. Esempi e presupposti per interventi di politica linguistica e di educazione bilingue, ed. by A. Carli, FrancoAngeli, 2004
  • 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