Although so far, the online site
www.vocabulariofiorentino.it has about 1,000 expressions in its collection, the
Accademia della Crusca says it will release a printed dictionary in 2011
containing over 7,000 entries on the ‘contemporary Florentine’ language. The
publication of the dictionary will be part of the local and national
celebration of 150 years of Italian unity.
The Crusca started
compiling the Vocabolario del Fiorentino
Contemporaneo in 1994. Its mission has
been to document the current mix of Italian and Florentine expressions as well
as expressions and vocabulary that are purely Florentine in origin.
After registering on the site, users can learn, for
example, that in Florentine, ‘perdersi in briccichi’ means to do something
slowly, and that ‘grondino’ is a small glass of wine. The entries are entirely
in Italian.
Researchers scoured three Florence neighbourhoods, Santa Croce, San Frediano and
Rifredi, in search of contemporary Florentine language. Along the way, they
found similarities with the Florentine vernacular of the late 1800s.
Still learning Italian? Fluent in Italian and ready to
take on Florentine? Consult TF’s regular column, Florentinisms, an
in-progress dictionary of the Florentine dialect. Compiled by Francesco
Stefanelli and Alexandra Lawrence, Florentinisms already counts hundreds of
entries and gives examples in Florentine with explanations and translations in
English. See www.theflorentine.net for more.
