Dialect Poetry of Southern Italy (Italian Poetry in Translation Book 2)

folklore, but expressive worlds often of

considerable quality.

Having to choose some texts for a small

Twentieth -Century anthology of Latium, it

is not possible to take into account (and it

would be interesting to delve into the

linguistic spirituality of idioms such as the

one from Tolfa, almost totally feminine in

gender) experiences outside of Rome.

Rome now has over four million

inhabitants, the areas still tied to dialect

remain Trastevere and Testaccio, but a new

vernacular is being born based on the slangy

“romanesco” of the suburbs and outskirts;

this combines with the “generic” speech of

immigrants who have become citizens of the

capital and have acquired the cadence of the

Roman dialect. It was fated to happen,

because a metropolis like Rome, with the

strength of its history, lures the out-of-