Italian. Have you ever heard of the TV show "il Commissario Montabano"?Does Montalbano speak standard Italian?

Question

In the TV show ( first season ) , did Montalbano speak Italian or Sicilian ? If he speaks Sicilian, do you understand what Montalbano was speaking ? Do Italian generally understand the TV show because of the Siciian dialect ( except the people from Sicily ) ?

Answer 1

I totally agree with the previous answerer: in the TV show Montalbano doesn't  speak a streight Italian, but neither a streight Sicilian dialect... let's say it's a soft mix of both or, better, an Italian tainted with a strong Sicilian inflection.

Anyway, "standard Italian" doesn't exist... you can hear it only at official TV news, but real people in Italy have always strong accents, so TV show, trying to be realist and believable, use real dialogues with a real accent.

Maybe this could sound strange, but if you want to listen to a standard italian, you have to avoid Italian movies, where usually the actors try to reproduce the Italian dialects or accents, and watch american movies, which are always dubbed in a perfect Italian.

Answer 2

Hi, LM!

First of all, i'm italian, from Tuscany. I used to love the serial "il commissario Montalbano", it has been very famous here in Italy (just because the plot of the story has been taken from Camilleri's best sellers).

Well, Montalbano doesn't surely speak standard, correct italian...he has a strong sicilian accent, but after all he was decidedly intellegible!! (the tv serie was broadcasted in the whole Country, after all...). However, if you wanna know, the books where much more difficult to understand!

Instead, in the serial "I cesaroni", the protagonists speak in roman dialect...but it isn't so difficult to understand for italian people, even if they're not from Rome...it's very similar to italian, so....

Ok, then! I hope i've been clear enough!!

I'm very happy that you're so passionate of italian language(and tv!) eheh.

Ciao ciao!!

Answer 3

Well,"standard Italian" doesn't exist.

Montalbano speak a very clear Italian of Sicily.

This is funny. This strange language is based on mutual understanding. I was born in Bolzan/Bozen North Italy very close to the Austria, and sometimes I found difficult to understand some Italian movie.

Many U.S. movies are well translated in Italian.

In "I CESARIONI" actors or characters speak a very clean Italian, with just few Romans-Italian inflections.

And what about "Un Ciclone In Famiglia" ?

Well there you can hear at least 5 differents Italian variaties = Romans-Italian; Milan-Italian, Napoletan-Italian , Florece-Italian, Turin-Italian.