Learn Ligurian

Genoese is the most widely spoken variety of Ligurian, as well as the one with the most learning materials. For those approaching the study of Ligurian for the first time, we recommend the following reading list.

Grammar and vocabulary references

The Conseggio is releasing to the public a numer of reference materials on the fundamental aspects of Genoese grammar and lexicon.

Genoese orthography

Genoese verbs

Prepositions

Pronouns

Numeral expressions

Time expressions

This series is edited by Jean Maillard, Stefano Lusito and Alessandro Guasoni.

Recommended books

A very complete book which also the most suitable for beginners is certainly Il Genovese in tasca. Guida di conversazione, edited by A. Guasoni and F. Toso, Assimil, 2010.

The most complete and rigorous grammar is the one by Prof. F. Toso, Grammatica del genovese: varietà urbana e di koinè, Le Mani e associazione «A Compagna», 1997.

An excellent introduction to the language, but sadly hard to find in bookshops, is Parlo Ciæo. La lingua della Liguria. Grammatica, letteratura, storia, tradizioni, edited by A. Acquarone, De Ferrari, 2015.

Dictionaries

Several Ligurian (Genoese) dictionaries are available. We recoomend the following.

The Council’s online Italian-Genoese dictionary, with plenty of examples, declinations, verb conjugation tables, information on pronunciation and much more.

An excellent reference for those looking for a summary of the most frequent Italian terms and their Genoese equivalents is S. Lusito, Dizionario italiano-genovese, Programma, 2022.

This pocket-sized Italian-Genoese and Genoese-Italian dictionary, with over 12,000 enties, was edited by Prof. F. Toso, Dizionario genovese, Vallardi, 1998.

Recommended readings

One you have learnt the fundamentals of the language, the best strategy is to start reading and listening to Ligurian-language content. A good starting point is our recommended reading list.

Go to the Readings section