Every now and then, I come across enthusiastic articles trying to explain “Abruzzese dialect” to an international audience. While I always appreciate the curiosity of expats and travel writers trying to unpack our culture, I often find myself smiling and mildly irritated (I wish I could just say smiling, but hey!) at how neatly these complex linguistic realities get packaged into Wikipedia banalities.
As a native Abruzzese, a translator and interpreter, and a linguist trained in dialectology at the University of L’Aquila under Professor Ugo Vignuzzi (a member of the prestigious Accademia della Crusca and quite literally the man who wrote the book on Italian dialects), I see our speech not as romantic relics disappearing into mountain mist, but as a living, breathing, and highly articulated linguistic system.
If you already follow me you might have participated into my free webinars on abruzzese dialects together with Abruzzissimo Magazine last winter. And you might also know of my Summer school of Italian language and culture in Ofena, in the province of L’Aquila, or of my book Statale 17, storie minime transumanti, the most authoritative book (not my quote, although I totally agree) on Abruzzo history, culture and linguistics in the L’Aquila province. If we’re going to talk about Abruzzese dialects, let’s talk about them properly, beyond the schwa, Instagram stories and textbook basics.
1. It is a borderland, not a dialect
People love to repeat that Abruzzese is “a sister language to Italian, not a child of it.” That’s Romance Linguistics 101. But reducing Abruzzo to a single dialect map divided neatly into three boxes misses the entire point.
Abruzzo is a linguistic crossroads. The Apennines didn’t just isolate valleys; they created different gravitational pulls. To the north and west, you feel the pull of Rome and Central Italian dialects (the Sabine influence in L’Aquila). Heck, talk to any kid, including the kid I was, outside of Abruzzo and you might hear us shift into a more Roman-like dialect because of the cultural and social prestige of our capital city. To the south and along the coast, you enter the Southern Italian linguistic space. As I mentioned in Statale 17: in the city of L’Aquila they speak a Central Italian dialect, but already in the souther suburbs and municipalities of L’Aquila, like Paganica, Onna, San Gregorio, we already speak a Southern Italian dialect. Some even think it sound Neapolitan, which is not so, but I get it where it comes from.
And it’s not just geography: it’s transhumance. For centuries, cattle routes (tratturi) moved people, sheep, dogs, words, and grammar across regions. Ancient tribal roots, populations like the Vestini, Peligni, Marrucini, Pretuzii, left echoes that you can still hear if you know where to listen.
2. Real dialectology it’s a matter of micro-details
It’s easy to notice that final vowels soften into a schwa – sound (written like this: ə) on the coast, or that -nt- becomes -nd-. But real dialectology lives in the nuances that standard AI summaries miss completely, and I can tell, as I tried to use AI to find suitable, real-life examples for the webinars, failing totally. So in the end I just asked around in different villages and provinces (thank you Carlo D’Eugenio for the extensive explanation on nicknames in the area of Roseto, I will never tell the most juicy origins of some of them).
- The Spectrum of Childhood: Depending on which valley you walk into, a child isn’t just a generic word. It’s a frichì, a quatranə, a uaglionə, a citəl, a criaturə, a nennille, a mammuccə, or a zavutt.
- The Phonetic Fingerprint: In the Teramo area, you don’t just drop consonants; you hear the aspirated G sound (la halline for la gallina).
- The Geography of “Look who’s there!”: Want to call a long lost acquaintance when you meet them by accident? In Pescara they shout Auà, in Giulianova Avà quo?, in Mosciano Avà qua?, and in L’Aquila Essu quissu! Go figure all the other places.
That is a living dialect map, not just a theoretical boundary drawn on a map.
3. Grammar as social anthropology
Dialect isn’t just vocabulary; it’s a social code that reveals how a society survived, laughed, and related to one another.
Take the concept of “Lu cumblimind”: the sacred, ritualistic etiquette of Abruzzese hospitality. It’s a rigid three-step dance born from a culture of historical scarcity:
- The First “Fake” Refusal: The guest politely declines the treat.
- The “Aggressive” Insistence: The host demands they accept (“Ma che ffi, li cumblimind?”).
- The Surrender: The guest happily accepts.
When I was studying in Canada, I visited a family of friends from Ofena alongside my Dutch boyfriend. We had never met before, but I knew them from their portraits hanging in the kitchen of Rufina, my grandmother’s best friend and neighbor whose three children lived in Toronto. The very first thing they asked was what we wanted to eat or drink.
“Nothing, thanks,” I replied politely, assuming we would sit down for dinner in half an hour anyway. “Yes, please! May I have a cheese sandwich?” answered my Dutchman.
A wave of pure shame washed over me. “You can’t be doing this to me!” I thought to myself. Well, I was completely wrong: our hosts were absolutely delighted that a guest finally spoke his mind outright instead of playing out the traditional Abruzzese minuet! It made me realize just how deeply ingrained these manners were even in me, a “woman of the world”- or so I liked to think back then.
And the Dutch boyfriend? Reader, I married him.
Belonging and social lineage
Or consider questions that define you place in the universe: “D’ chi sci lu fije?/A chi si lu fij?” (Whose child are you? What’s your family nickname?) or “Li ti li terre?” (Do you own land?). These aren’t old-fashioned clichés; they are the exact linguistic keys to understanding the social history of the Abruzzese interior.
Don’t get me started on nicknames here, I did a webinar on this, and I might repeat it one of these days.
4. Alive, not extinct
I could tell you everything on the evolution of Italian between the end of WWII, and the decline, and changes in dialect, but this is not the place. Suffice to say that when I am sitting in Ofena’s bar, and hear old men chatting, I can immediately tell who has been living abroad and just came back for holidays, and those who never left the village. The latter speak a modern version of dialect.
The narrative that Abruzzese is merely a dying language spoken only by nonne shelling beans in mountain villages is plain wrong. While it faced heavy social stigma between the 1945s and 1970s, today we are witnessing a Digital Renaissance. From dubbed comedy satires to modern viral meme pages and local creators, dialect is used daily by younger generations as a proud marker of regional identity, humor, and belonging.
Come experience it first-hand this summer!
Although I live in Amsterdam, where I run my language agency, every summer I pack my bags and head straight back home to Ofena. There, I host my summer school dedicated to authentic Italian language, local culture, cuisine, and wine.
Our Italian language courses start every Monday for both residential guests and local learners, requiring a minimum of just 2 students to run!
In addition to language lessons, this August features “Fuori Programma”, an intimate summer calendar of meditative writing, poetry, books, wine, and warm gatherings hosted across private courtyards and homes in Ofena, Carrufo, and Poggio Picenze:
- August 1–2: “Scriversi”, a Meditative Writing Weekend (Casa di Barbara, Ofena).
- August 1 (9:30 PM): “Parole in Cortile”, Poetry reading with Claudio Oroni (Ofena).
- August 13 (5:00–8:00 PM): “Degustazione Affettuosa”, Truffles, local wine & conversations (Giardino di Casa Berlingeri, Carrufo).
- August 22 (6:00 PM): “Parole sull’Aia”, Author encounter with Carmelinda Gentile (Aia di Antonella, Carrufo).
- August 23 (11:30 AM): “Parole sull’Aia”, Author encounter with Carmelinda Gentile (Casa Faraone – Agriturismo Statale 17, Poggio Picenze), followed by an optional lunch (€20)
- August 26 (5:00–8:00 PM): “Degustazione Affettuosa”, Mountain wine-makers, words, and music in the historic center alleys of Ofena.
- August 29 (11:00 AM–1:00 PM): “Scriversi”, Meditative Writing Workshop (Casa di Barbara, Ofena).
If you want to know more about the real, living stories of inner Abruzzo, check out my book Statale 17, storie minime transumanti, order my new book on wine: GUIDA AFFETTUOSA AL PIACERE DEL VINO (Da ex astemia a sommelier culturale: storia di una metamorfosi per imparare a leggere il vino), or subscribe to my YouTube Channel.
For info & registrations for the summer courses: Write me at: info@madrelingua.com or Whatsapp: +31647254144