Council for Ligurian Linguistic Heritage

Ligurian Council

DEIZE

Italian-Ligurian (Genoese) dictionary

specie

f. n.
  1. qcs. che è simile a qcs. altro

    smersa [ˈzmɛːrsa]

    razza [ˈrazˑa]

    fuori dalla finestra c’è una specie di insetto

    feua da-o barcon gh’é unna smersa de insetto

  2. botany zoology categoria di organismi

    speçie [ˈspesˑje] ~ [ˈspetʃˑe]

    il cane è della specie Canis familiaris

    o can o l’é da speçie Canis familiaris

    in questa foresta ci sono molte specie di selvaggina

    inte sta foresta gh’é tante speçie de sæxiña

Learn more

Replacement of -ç- with Italianizing -c-

Today it is quite frequent, especially in informal speech, to replace Genoese forms in -ç- with Italianizing ones in -c-. Thus, for example, the genuine form çentro [ˈseŋtru] “center” is replaced with the Italianism centro [ˈtʃeŋtru], çerto [ˈsɛːrtu] “certain” replaced with certo [ˈtʃɛːrtu], etc.

In this dictionary, also in order to promote the recovery of genuine forms, those with -ç- are given, also considering that graphically they do not differ much from those which may occasionally have wider circulation, thus not creating reading difficulties even for those accustomed to the Italianized forms.

In line with this approach, it was decided to transcribe and present with -ç- even those forms that in pronunciation, at least historically, presented the realization -[s]- as opposed to -[tʃ]- of Italianizing origin, such as proçesso [pruˈsɛsˑu] “process” as opposed to processo [pruˈtʃɛsˑu] or soçietæ [susjeˈtɛː] “society” as opposed to societæ [sutʃeˈtɛː], even though in general usage the affricate consonant pronunciation has now become standard; the same applies to borrowings from other languages such as biçicletta [bisiˈkletˑa] “bicycle” (< from French bicyclette [bisiˈklɛt]).

Declensions

f. s f. p
razza razze
speçie speçie