Bolognese (native name: bulgnaiṡ [buʎˈɲai̯z]) is a dialect of Emilian spoken in the most part in the city of Bologna and its hinterland (except east of the Sillaro stream), but also in the district of Castelfranco Emilia in the province of Modena, and in the towns of Sambuca Pistoiese (Tuscany), Cento, Sant'Agostino, and Poggio Renatico (province of Ferrara).
Although the term dialect is commonly used in reference to all minority languages native to Italy, most of them are not mutually intelligible with Italian.
It shares many common features with other Gallo-Italic languages such as Piedmontese, Lombard, Venetian, Romagnol and Ligurian, and it is closer to them than to Italian.
During the High Middle Ages, a number of troubadours composing lyrical poetry were active in Bologna, especially during the 13th century.
That served to raise cultural awareness to the possibility of composing songs, poems and other works in vernacular languages.
One of the first references to Bolognese as a distinct language was made by Dante Alighieri, in his De vulgari eloquentia, written in the beginning of the 14th century.
During the boom of interest in linguistic diversity during the 19th century, a number of efforts were made to create vocabularies, grammars, and collections of axioms, folk tales, and literature.
The first dictionary was compiled in 1901 by Gaspare Ungarelli, who also attempted to create a writing system using the Italian alphabet.
A period of stigmatisation followed in the 20th century, where children were punished for speaking the dialect in school,[citation needed] as it was considered to be a sign of poor education and etiquette.
Orthographically, three consonants can exist simultaneously on coda (dåntr, cåntr, nòstr, sänpr as syncopic forms of dånter, cånter, nòster, sänper).
In most nouns, the suffix -a is added to the masculine word to indicate femininity: defizänt, defizänta; påndg, påndga.
To express dimensions (both large and small), in Bolognese, it is preferable to use the augmentative –ån, -åna and the diminutive én, éna, àtt, àtta, etc.
Even figurative expressions (a little help, a little stylist) should be translated with a few turns of phrase: (un pôc d’ajût, un stiléssta in fâza) Superlativo Relativo article + pió + noun + ed Special forms meglio / migliore peggio / peggiore Orthographic rules Combination with preposition Orthographic rules: The plural of the articles un, una, does not exist.
In Bolognese, the partitive is used more often than in Italian: If the conjugated verb starts with unstressed a, the verbal pronoun a(i) is dropped.
Orthographic rules Demonstrative pronouns or adjective are almost always followed by adverbs indicating degrees of distance: 1.
Notable examples include the verb vgnîr (venire) which has the past participle form of vgnó (venuto) and èser (essere) with stè (stato).
bän (bene), cómm (come), acsé (così), mèl (male), giósst (giusto), mé (meglio), insàmm (insieme), pîz (peggio) incû (oggi), ajîr (ieri), dman (domani), åura (ora), adès (adesso), dåpp (dopo), bèle (già), mâi (mai), sänper (sempre), spass (spesso), sóbbit (subito), allåura (allora), anc (ancora), ed nôv (di nuovo) là (là), lé (lì), qué (qui), dóvv (dove), såtta (sotto), żå (giù), såuvra (sopra), fòra (fuori), dänter (dentro), foravî / fòra d vî (altrove), dnanz (davanti), drî (dietro), luntàn (lontano) tant (tanto), pôc (poco), magâra (molto), gnént (niente), manc (meno), pió (più), quant (quanto), quèṡi (quasi), almànc (almeno) quand?
chisà (chissà), fôrsi (forse), bèle / żà (già), se (se), an (non), nå / nécca (no), sé / ói (sì) Note the difference between article and pronoun for (ón/un), no distinction exist for other numerals: For numbers higher than 10, the ordinal is formed by adding quall di before the cardinal numeral.
For example: Eleven (ónng’) has the ordinal form of Eleventh (quall di ónng’) Higher numbers: Construction: s-santa + sî = s-santsî (without space) setzänt + tränta + nôv = setzänt-träntanôv dåu mélla dòn a n t al dâg brîṡa = non te lo do ch'an t véggna = che tu non venga Bolognese dialect, similar to French, uses double negation usually with the particle (a)n before the verb and the word brîṡa after the verb.
In the western area (mountains and plains, e.g. Lizzano in Belvedere, Castello di Serravalle, San Giovanni in Persiceto) and northern area (e.g. Pieve di Cento, Galliera) “g” is used instead of "i" in continuity with Modenese and Ferrarese [a g vâg, t ig vè, al g và, etc.]
Adjectives not directly connected to a noun or to the verb èser are governed by the preposition ed (possibly in the partitive forms).
2. anc and gnanc becomes anca and gnanca in front of personal pronouns with the exception of nuèter and vuèter.