Time expressions in Ligurian (Genoese)

Units of time

	Unit
millisecond	millisegondo
second	segondo
minute	menuto
hour	oa
day	giorno
week	settemaña
month	meise
year	anno
decade	dex’anni
century	secolo
millennium	millennio  ~

Past, present and future

To refer to the various units of time in the past, present and future, Genoese uses the following standard expressions, shown here for years and hours.

When	Years	Hours
–2	che l’é doî anni , doî anni fa	che l’é doe oe , doe oe fa
–1	l’anno passou , che l’é un anno , un anno fa	che l’é unn’oa , unn’oa fa
pres.	st’anno (chì)	oua
+1	de chì à un anno , l’anno ch’o ven	de chì à unn’oa
+2	de chì à doî anni	de chì à doe oe

The same forms are used for other units: a settemaña passâ “last week”, de chì à vinti menuti “in twenty minutes”, che l’é trei meixi “three months ago”, etc.

Additionally, for days and years the following expressions tend to be used more frequently:

When	Days	Years
–2	vantëi
–1	vëi
pres.	ancheu	inguanno  rare
+1	doman	un atr’anno
+1	doppodoman , poidoman

Parts of the day

	Part
midnight	mëzaneutte
night	neutte
dawn	arba d’öroa
sunrise	spægâ do sô , levâ do sô
morning	mattin
day	giorno
midday	mëzogiorno
afternoon	poidisnâ , depoidisnâ
sunset	chinâ do sô , tramonto
dusk	arba da seia
evening	seia

The variants mattinâ, giornâ, seiaña and nottoaña are used whenever one wants to emphasize the time interval, or the way in which it was spent (femmo unna seiaña co-i amixi de l’universcitæ “we’ll spend an evening with our friends from university”).

Parte	Variant
morning	→ mattinâ
day	→ giornâ
evening	→ seiaña
night	→ nottoaña

Time of the day

In spoken Genoese, usually, hours are expressed in 12-hour format. In the following table we list times in 24-hour format and the corresponding Genoese expressions.

Time	Expression
00:00	mëzaneutte
01:00, 13:00	unn’oa  ~
02:00, 14:00	doe oe
03:00, 15:00	træ oe
04:00, 16:00	quattr’oe
05:00, 17:00	çinqu’oe
06:00, 18:00	sëi oe
07:00, 19:00	sett’oe
08:00, 20:00	eutt’oe
09:00, 21:00	neuv’oe
10:00, 22:00	dex’oe
11:00, 23:00	unz’oe
12:00	mëzogiorno

In order to distinguish times in the AM and the PM, one can add:

• da neutte  “at night” for times between midnight and sunrise,
• da mattin  “in the morning” for times between midnight and the following midday,
• depoidisnâ  “in the afternoon” for times between midday and sunset,
• da seia  “in the evening” for times between sunset and midnight.

	Espressione
midnight	da neutte	da mattin
sunrise
midday	depoidisnâ
sunset		da seia
midnight

The following expressions are used for fractional hours. Note how, for fractional hours, unlike times on the dot, the word oa/oe isn’t used after the hour.

Time	Expression
11:00	l’é unz’oe
11:10	l’é unze e dexe
11:15	l’é unze e un quarto
11:30	l’é unze e meza
11:40	manca vinti à mëzogiorno
11:45	manca un quarto à mëzogiorno

Days of the week

	Day
Monday	lunesdì
Tuesday	mätesdì
Wednesday	mäcordì
Thursday	zeuggia
Friday	venardì
Saturday	sabbo
Sunday	domenega

The names of days of the week are all masculine except for zeuggia “Thursday” and domenega “Sunday” which are feminine.

Months of the year

	Month
January	zenâ
February	frevâ
March	marso
April	arvî
May	mazzo
June	zugno
July	luggio
August	agosto
September	settembre
October	ottobre
November	novembre
December	dexembre

In time expressions, the preposition de is placed before the name of the month: a scheua a comensa de settembre “school starts in September”, son nasciua de zenâ “I was born in January”. The extended form a-o meise de + month is also in use.

When referring to a month of a specific year, instead of de, the compound preposition into: son nasciua into zenâ do 1990 “I was born in January 1990”, a guæra a l’é scciuppâ into settembre do 1939 “war broke out in September 1939”.

Seasons

	Season
winter	inverno
spring	primmaveia
summer	estæ , stæ
autumn	ötunno

In time expressions, the preposition de is placed before the name of the season: d’ötunno cazze e feugge “leaves fall in autumn”, faian stramuo de primmaveia “they moved house in spring”.

Analogously to months, when referring to a season of a specific year the compound preposition inte + det. is used: aivan fæto stramuo inta primmaveia do ’61 “they moved house in the spring of 61”.

Dates

To form dates in Ligurian one must place:

• before the day number, the compound preposition a-i (but, in the case of the first day of the month, the singular form a-o is used);
• before the name of the month, the preposition de;
• before the year, the compound preposition do.

Example
a festa a l’é lunesdì a-i 10 de luggio do 1974 “the party is on Monday, July 10, 1974”
a festa a l’é mätesdì a-o 1º de frevâ do 2000 “the party is on Tuesday, February 1, 2000”
semmo a-i 13 de dexembre do 2004 “today is December 13, 2004”
semmo a-o 1º d’arvî do 1968 “today is April 1, 1968”

In front of the day one can also simply use the determiner i (or o for the first day of the month). The use of the determiner is mandatory when the date is part of a predicative expression.

Example	Pron.
doman l’é lunesdì i 10 de luggio do 1974 “tomorrow is Monday, July 10, 1974”
doman l’é i 13 de dexembre do 2004 “tomorrow is September 13, 2004”

Holidays

The main fixed-date holidays are:

Data	Festività
1 Jan	O primmo de l’anno
6 Jan	Pasqueta
23 Apr	San Zòrzo
24 Apr, 25 Apr	Festa da Liberaçion
24 Jun	San Gioan , San Zane
15 Aug	Feragosto
25 Dec	Dënâ
26 Dec	San Steva
31 Dec	Derê de l’anno

The main floating-date holidays are:

	Holiday
Carnival	Carlevâ
Fat Thursday	Zeuggia grassa
Ash Wednesday	Mäcordì scuöto
Easter	Pasqua
Easter Monday	Lunesdì de l’Angeo

Bibliography

F. Toso, Grammatica del genovese: varietà urbana e di koinè, Le Mani, 1997.

A. Guasoni, F. Toso, Il Genovese in tasca. Guida di conversazione, Assimil, 2010.

A. Acquarone, Parlo Ciæo. La lingua della Liguria. Grammatica, letteratura, storia, tradizioni, De Ferrari, 2015.