<<Nessuna lingua viva ha, né può avere, un vocabolario che la contenga tutta>> (No modern language has, or could have, a vocabulary capable of containing everything) wrote Leopardi in the Zibaldone. Languages are changing constantly. Vocabulary updates and evolves along with people and changes along with society.

To mark International Mother Language Day on February 21st, we took a journey through the market gardens of Italy and, to our surprise, discovered an excellent assortment of prime vegetables going hand in hand with an extremely varied vocabulary, as the examples below illustrate.

Carciofo - Artichoke (from Arabic “kharshūf”). Italian dialects from the north to the south of the country have very different names for this vegetable: ardiciocca in Liguria, caccioffulu in Calabria, cacòcciula in Sicily, articioco in Friuli-Venezia Giulia.

Patata - Potato (from Spanish “patata”, a cross between “papa” in Quechuan language and “batata” in Haitian Creole). Some dialects have names that sound similar to Italian, like patène or patàn in Abruzzo, or patana in Campania and Apulia, whereas other dialects have more original terms: tartìful in Lombardy and Piedmont, or pomm-da-tèra in Emilia-Romagna (similar to French “pomme de terre”).

Cipolla - Onion (from Latin “cepulla”). The various regions of Italy have lots of different ways to say “cipolla”. Achepudda and ziodda in Sardinia, c’podd in Apulia, çiòula and çevula in Liguria, egnon in the Aosta Valley (similar to French oignon), and scìgola in Lombardy.

Pomodoro - Tomato (from Latin “pomum aureum” that became “pomo d’amour” and “pom d’or” in the 15th century to denote its presumed aphrodisiac qualities). Besides being a particularly popular vegetable, tomato boasts lots of names across Italy - do you want to hear some? Pammador in Abruzzo, pimmadoru in Calabria, pomata in Sardinia, prommarola and pummarola in Campania, or pummitoru in Apulia.