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Back to the dialect examples, we can take a look at how you say “bacio” in other Italian regions: inPuglia they “vasu”, in Emilia Romagna “bès”, in Umbria “becio”, in Campania “vase”, in Molise“vasce”, in Basilicata “vèse”, in Lombardy "basìn", in Veneto “baso” and so on. How many realities hide into our small and beautiful country!
Sounds and forms of Italian language
Italian grammar is quite a challenge. A few weeks ago, a student of our central
LearnItalyheadquartersin New York asked a question which I think is interesting for everybody, including Italians:why the plural of “monologo” (monologue) is “monologhi” (monologues) and the plural of “meteorologo” (weatherman) is “meteorologi” (weathermen)?
Good question. The answer? Let's start by saying that when it comes to a Neo-Latin language, you always have to be patient. But let’s look for a solution, and let’s review
the rule of plural names that end in “-go”. Generallyin flat polysyllable words, those which have the accent on the penultimate syllable, we tend to keep the velar consonant, and so the plural will be “-ghi”: for instance “albergo/alberghi” (hotel/hotels), “chirurgo/chirurghi” (surgeon/surgeons). On the contrary, words with a slippery accentassume a palatal sound and then we have “medico/medici” (doctor/doctors), “asparago/asparagi” (asparagus/asparagus), “intonaco/intonaci” (plaster/plaster) and so on.
And here are thefirstexceptions:“riepilogo/riepiloghi” (summary/summaries),
analogo/analoghi (analogous/analogous), “decalogo/decaloghi” (decalogue/decalogue),
“monologo/monologhi”(monologue/monologues), “naufrago/naufraghi” (castaway/castaways), “omologo/omologhi” (homologous/homologous) and so on. We add another smallpeculiarityregarding the words that end with “-fago” and “-logo”. In the first case plurals are formed with “-gi”, like “esofago/esofagi” (esophagus/esophagus). In the second case, words or adjectives referring to things form the plural in “-ghi”, while when words or adjectives are referred to professions, they form the plural in “-gi”. The examples are those namely reported by ourstudent: “monologo/monologhi” (monologue/monologues) and “meteorologo/meteorologi” (weatherman/weathermen).
There certainly are manyexceptions, but remember that practice is the quickest solution to all problems, and that in case ofdoubt you can always consult the dictionary. Everything normal ... we too do it, often!
By Manuela Bianchi for learnitalygroup.com