The Roman dialect sounds a bit “rude” and rustic. It’s definitely a fun dialect because we also like to create jokes and we have fun being a bit “too much” sometimes. The Roman dialect is pure, authentic and at the same time sly and positively conceited.
I’ve been speaking the Roman dialect since I was a small kid and it has, of course, rules but at the same time I think it’s very fun to learn and makes you feel, in a way, part of the city, so let’s start!
- CUT THE WORD
The spelling of the infinitive verbs, which in Romano are truncated, lose the last syllable -re: andà (in Italian: andare), potè (in Italian: potere), camminà (in Italian: camminare), and so on. Two perfect words that I can give you as an example to understand how these words sound are: città and caffè.
- ARTICLES
Articles become something quite different from the Italian ones:
IL becomes ER
GLI becomes LI (or L’ with the vocal as a first letter)
LA and LE stay the same
Example: il gatto, er gatto
gli uccelli, l’uccelli
gli spaghetti, li spaghetti
UN, UNO and UNA become ‘N, ‘NO and ‘NA (they lose the U, like we lose the last part of a word, we like to cut things I think)
Example: è un cane – è ‘n cane
una mela – ‘na mela
uno stadio – ‘no stadio
The modern Roman dialect (the one I speak), actually is a tiny bit different in matter of articles, an example:
La mamma – ‘a mamma
Le ragazze – ‘e ragazze
Lo starnuto – ‘o starnuto
It’s like the article is gone! This is actually a bit unclear if we speak with somebody that is not very comfortable with the Roman dialect, but of course we try to slow it down! With my family there are no articles sometimes for how fast we go!
- PREPOSITIONS
The prepositions are quite a lot in Italian (di, a, da, in, con, su, per, tra, fra) and in Romano they change too, of course.
DI in DE
DEL in DER
Example: di mamma – de mamma
del gatto – der gatto
A in AR
Example: al mare – ar mare
DA in DAR
Example: dal cane – dar cane
NEL in NER
Example: nel cassetto – ner cassetto
COL in COR
Example: col cane – cor cane
SUL in SUR
Example: sul tavolo – sur tavolo
PER eats the article like this:
Per il gatto – pe ‘r gatto
- CHANGING THE SOUNDS
This is so fun: GL and I, we actually make it sound like the letter J! [sounds like the ‘y’ in yellow] It sounds smooth in a way than the classic Italian sound.
Example: voglia – voja
noia – noja
foglia – foja
guaio – guajo
Sometimes we change I with R:
Portinaio – Portinaro
Macellaio – Macellaro
Sometimes we change I with E:
TI voglio bene – TE vojo bene
THE C
I think that the trick to make everything sound Roman in a second is the letter C. We tend to drag the letter and we make it sound like a shushing sound, the shh.
Example: ciao – sciao
- AO, DAJE and BOH: the mysterious words
In every language there are words that are difficult to translate by themselves if not placed in a context. The questions I always get from people not from Roma is always about these three words. Let me explain!
AO: pronounced as it’s written. Clear, quick way to reclaim attention, like “hey”. But also in the car when you get mad at another driver, or when you didn’t see your friends in a long time.
DAJE: pronounced “daye”. It can be used when you’re happy (“here we go”, “yay”) or when you are impatient (“come on!”). This word is quintessential Roma. Daje is a motto!
BOH: pronounced as it’s written. I could translate it as “I don’t know”, but BOH is mostly a feeling.
“Do you want to go out?” – Boh
Because we use BOH also when we are speechless.
This was the first “lesson” about the Roman dialect! I will write more about it since, I think, it’s a very fun thing to do and makes you learn even more about my city!
roman gal goes around 
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