The dialect of  Salento (salentino) was influenced  by the people who dominated this land during the centuries: Greek, Byzantines, Longobardi (German people), French, Spanish,  Albanians, Arabs.

They are, however, spoken dialects, that in Middle Ages opposed the Hellenic dialects equally widespread in the area. The “salentino” lexis was much influenced by other strong languages as Spanish and French being effected only partially by the Greek dialects above mentioned. These ways of speaking created for centuries a bilingual area of which we still have attestation in the area of Grecìa Salentina.

Main features

The “Salentino” is very similar to the calabrian dialect (Calabrese) and to Sicilian language, while it is completely different from the other dialects in Apulia (barese dialect or that of Foggia). The difference with the south apulian and farthest south apulian dialects, instead, is less stressed (tarantino dialect or other dialects spoken in the north part of the Salento peninsula).

The difference between Salentino and apulian dialect is plain especially in phonetics: the Apulian dialect tends to make voiced the latin groups as “nt”, “nc”, “mp” turning them in “nd”, “ng”, “mb, as the “s” in “z”, while the Salentino dialect keeps them unaltered. An inhabitant of Bari, for example, would say “candare” instead of “cantare” (to sing), “angora” instead of “ancòra” (still), “tembo” instead of “tempo” (time) and “penziero” instead of “pensiero” (thought).

A phonetic peculiarity, due to the “samnitic” influence, was the shift of the groups “nd” and “ll” in “nn” and "dd” (for example “quannu” instead of “quando” (when), “cavaddhu” instead of “cavallo” (horse). The transformation of the latin group “str” in “sc” (“nostra” is said “noscia” – our), typical only of the dialect of Lecce, as the presence of some inverted sounds (dd-d) that we can find also in south Calabria and in the major part of Sicily, created the suspect of a non Indo-European substratum presence. From a syntactic point of view, a distinctive feature of “Salentino” is the construction of progressive tenses using the indicative mood instead of the gerund (sta bae: “Sta andando”- he/she is going; sta scia: “stava andando”-he/she was going).

 
Local differences

From Lecce towards the south, the o, stressed or not, becomes an u (for example “ora”- hour becomes “ura”, “sole”-sun becomes “sule”), while the stressed e becomes an I (“seta”-silk becomes “sita”). In the more northern “salentino”, in Brindisi, Mesagne, Francavilla, Manduria, etc., also the e at the and of a word and, in general the not stressed e becomes i (reggere- hold becomes “résciri”, Benedetto-blessed becomes “Binidittu”). Another difference in the dialect of the two provinces is the “ll” group, that becomes “dd” near Brindisi and "dd” In Lecce. In some town of the Greek area of Grecìa Salentina, as Martano, Castrignano de’ Greci, Soleto, Zollino and in other places as Aradeo, is always used the “passato remoto”, while in the other towns, also because of the Italian influence, is more often used the “passato prossimo”. For example the sentence “ho mangiato -I’ve eaten” in the towns indicated is translated “mangiai”, to say “we’ve gone to the town centre”, the dialectal form, “simu sciuti allu centru”, in these towns becomes “scimme allu centru”. The peculiarity that makes the dialect of these towns similar to the Sicilian, comes from the Latin language, that, as in modern English uses “passato remoto”  (the past perfect) for actions done and completed in the past (even recent), and that therefore don’t have consequences  in the present.

In Gallipoli is spoken a different version of Salentino: this dialect was more influenced by the other Italian dialects because of the commercial inspiration and the fishing culture of the town. "Tutti l'ommini tu mundu nascene libberi e li stessi pe' dignitate e diritti. Tutti tenene capu e cuscenza e tocca 'sse comportene comu frati l'uni cu l' addi" It becomes: "Tutti gli uomini del mondo nascono liberi, con dignità e diritti. Tutti sono responsabili e hanno coscienza e devono comportarsi come fratelli gli uni con gli altri (Every man on the world was born free, with dignity and rights. All are responsible and have conscience and must behave as brothers one to another).

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