Savonese, like many other dialects, risks being lost over time. Fewer and fewer young people speak it and saving it has become a difficult task.
Despite the difficulties, “A Campanassa”, a historic association, continues to defend the Savonese dialect and culture. Among the great results he has achieved is the collection and publication on the association’s website of 2,000 idioms. The collection goes from sayings such as those linked to the months and very current with the weather of these days: “Neither de Mazzu, nor de Mazùn, nu leväte u peliçùn” (neither in May nor in June do not take off your fur coat), a piece of advice not to getting sick, that is, not dressing lightly in months that can still bring cold days, or common sense like “A lengua a nu gh’ha ossu, ma a pö runpì” (the tongue has no bone, but it can break), that is, with words backbiters can hurt you a lot. There is also the classic Ligurian proverb “Bungiurnu e bunn-a seĵa a tütti, cunfidensa cun nisciün” (good morning and good evening to everyone, confidence in no one).
Campanassa has therefore welcomed the appeal launched a few days ago by Giovanni Ighina, a stationer in Corso Tardy e Benech, who, after having put a sign in the window of his shop announcing that dialect is spoken in his shop, invited other shopkeepers to do the same to save the Savonese dialect.
“We can lend a hand,” said Nadia Belfiore, referent of the Amixi d’u dialettu Study Group of Campanassa, “and we can help the merchants to make the sign with the correct spelling.” In fact, the Campanassa, in addition to proverbs in Savonese, also preserves a precious grammar of Savonese.
The rules of grammar and spelling were codified, by Professor Ezio Viglione, in the “Grammatica del pure vernacolo sabazio”, a text published in 2006 by A Campanassa, after thirty years of studies and research carried out in the field by author and his collaborators. Currently, the members of the “Amixi d’u dialettu” Study Group, in homage to the founder who passed away in 2019, continue their field research, interviewing relatives, friends and acquaintances who speak the Savonese dialect fluently.
Then there is the dialect group and the poetry competition dedicated to Giuseppe Cava, known as Beppin da Ca’, a well-known poet from Savona in the Ligurian language. Professor Hermann W. Haller, professor of Italian language and literature at Queens College and director of the Department at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, included the name of Giuseppe Cava in his important essay in English on Italian dialect poetry: The Other Italy: The Literary Canon in Dialect.
