Council for Ligurian Linguistic Heritage

Ligurian Council

DEIZE

Italian-Ligurian (Genoese) dictionary

imbecillità

f. n.
  1. l’essere imbecille

    nesciaia [neˈʃajˑa]

    bellinixe [beliˈniːʒe]1,2

    non tollero l’imbecillità di certe persone

    no pòsso comportâ a nesciaia de çerte persoñe

  2. atto o discorso da imbecille

    scemmaia [ʃeˈmajˑa]

    nesciaia [neˈʃajˑa]

    nesciô [neˈʃuː]

    bellinata [beliˈnaːta]2

    mossa [ˈmusˑa]

    avete fatto un’imbecillità che vi costerà cara

    ei fæto unna scemmaia ch’a ve costià caa

Learn more

1. Plurals of feminines in -e

Feminine nouns and adjectives ending in -e remain unchanged in the plural, keeping a form closer to the original Latin declension compared to the Italian equivalents. Thus unna ciave > doe ciave < duae claves “two keys” and unna noxe > træ noxe < tres nuces “three nuts”. Plural forms in -i, such as ciavi and noxi, are Italianisms widely spread especially in urban areas. Exceptions are feminines in -eise, whose plural form is now -eixi as in the masculine: unna zeneise > dötræ zeneixi “some Genoese women”.

2. Spelling of bellin and derivatives

According to the latest and most accurate etymological research conducted by Toso (2015), the term bellin [beˈliŋ] “male sexual organ” is simply a derivative of bello, borrowed from varieties of the Po Valley area with the original meaning of “toy” and specifically “rattle” (from which the meaning of “male sexual organ” later entered Liguria). For this reason, the most coherent spelling of the word (and its derivatives) is with a double consonant (bellin). The same applies to the word’s derivatives (bellan [beˈlaŋ], bellandi [beˈlaŋdi], bellinata [beliˈnaːta], bellinon [beliˈnuŋ], belliniximo [beliˈniːʒimu], etc.). That said, spellings with a single consonant (belin, belandi, belinata, etc.) are also considered fully acceptable, due to their widespread use and to the status of belin as a linguistically emblematic word.

Declensions

m. s m. p f. s f. p
bellinata bellinate
bellinixe bellinixe
mossa mosse
nesciaia nesciaie
nesciô nescioî
scemmaia scemmaie

Bibliography

  • F. Toso, Piccolo dizionario etimologico ligure, Zona, 2015