Tuscan ( ; ) is a set of Italo-Dalmatian varieties of Romance spoken in Tuscany, Corsica, and Sardinia.
Standard Italian is based on Tuscan, specifically on its Florentine dialect, and it became the language of culture throughout Italy because of the prestige of the works by Dante Alighieri, Petrarch, Giovanni Boccaccio, Niccolò Machiavelli, and Francesco Guicciardini. It would later become the official language of all the Italian states and of the Kingdom of Italy when it was formed.
Subdialects
In De vulgari eloquentia ( 1300), Dante Alighieri distinguishes four main subdialects: fiorentino (Florence), senese (Siena), lucchese (Lucca) and aretino (Arezzo).
Tuscan is a dialect complex composed of many local variants, with minor differences among them.
The main subdivisions are between Northern Tuscan dialects, the Southern Tuscan dialects, and Corsican.
The Northern Tuscan dialects are (from east to west): Fiorentino, the main dialect of Florence, Chianti and the Mugello, also spoken in Prato and along the river Arno as far as the city of Fucecchio. Pistoiese, spoken in the city of Pistoia and nearest zones (some linguists include this dialect in Fiorentino). Pesciatino or Valdinievolese, spoken in the Valdinievole zone, in the cities of Pescia and Montecatini Terme (some linguists include this dialect in Lucchese). Lucchese, spoken in Lucca and nearby hills (Lucchesia). Versiliese, spoken in the historical area of Versilia. Viareggino, spoken in Viareggio and vicinity. Pisano-Livornese, spoken in Pisa, in Livorno, and the vicinity, and along the coast from Livorno to Cecina.
The Southern Tuscan dialects are (from east to west): Aretino-Chianaiolo, spoken in Arezzo and the Valdichiana. Senese, spoken in the city and province of Siena. Grossetano, spoken in Grosseto and along the southern coast. Elbano, spoken on the island of Elba.
Corsican on the island of Corsica and the Corso-Sardinian transitional varieties spoken in northern Sardinia (Gallurese and Sassarese) are classified by scholars as a direct offshoot from medieval Tuscan, even though they now constitute a distinct linguistic group.
Speakers
Excluding the inhabitants of Province of Massa and Carrara, who speak an Emilian dialect, and people in the area of Tuscan Romagna, speaking Romagnol, around 3.5 million people speak Tuscan.
Dialectal features
Tuscan as a whole has certain defining features, with subvarieties that are distinguished by minor details.
Phonology
Tuscan gorgia
The Tuscan gorgia affects the voiceless stop consonants , , and . They are usually pronounced as fricatives in post-vocalic position when not blocked by the competing phenomenon of syntactic gemination: → → →
Weakening of G and C
A similar phonological alternation is the intervocalic weakening of the Italian "soft" g, the voiced affricate (g as in judge) and "soft" c, the voiceless affricate (ch as in church), known as attenuation, or, more commonly, as deaffrication.
Between vowels, the voiced post-alveolar affricate consonant is realized as voiced post-alveolar fricative (z of azure):
This phenomenon is very evident in daily speech (common also in Umbria and elsewhere in Central Italy): the phrase la gente, 'the people', in Standard Italian is pronounced , but in Tuscan it is .
Similarly, the voiceless post-alveolar affricate is pronounced as a voiceless post-alveolar fricative between two vowels:
The sequence la cena, 'the dinner', in Standard Italian is pronounced , but in Tuscan, it is . As a result of the weakening rule, there are a few minimal pairs distinguished only by length of the voiceless fricative (e.g. lacerò 'it/he/she ripped' vs. lascerò 'I will leave/let').
Affrication of S
A less common phonetic phenomenon is the realization of "voiceless s" (voiceless alveolar fricative ) as the voiceless alveolar affricate when preceded by , , or .
For example, il sole (the sun), pronounced in Standard Italian as , would be in theory pronounced in Tuscan. However, since assimilation of the final consonant of the article to the following consonant tends to occur in exactly such cases (see "Masculine definite articles" below) the actual pronunciation will be usually . Affrication of can more commonly be heard word-internally, as in falso (false) → . It is a common phenomenon in Central Italy but is not exclusive to that area; for example, it also occurs in Switzerland (Canton Ticino).