ziddai

Sassarese

Etymology

From Old Italian cittade, from Latin cīvitātem, accusative form of cīvitās (“citizenship; state”), from Old Latin ceivitās, from Proto-Italic *keiwitāts, derived from *keiwis (“society”), ultimately derived from Proto-Indo-European *ḱey- (“to be lying down; to settle”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /t͡sidˈdai/

Noun

ziddai f (invariable)

1. city, town
   • 1866 [1770s], Antonio Martini, chapter V, in Giovanni Spano, transl., L'ebagneliu sigundu S. Matteju‎^[1], London, translation of Il santo Vangelo di Gesù Cristo secondo Matteo (in Italian), verse 14, page 13:

     No si pò cuà una ziddai frabbiggadda sobbra d’un monti.

     One cannot hide a city built on top of a mountain.

   • c. 19^th century, anonymous author, “[untitled song]”, in Giovanni Spano, editor, Canti popolari in dialetto sassarese‎^[2], volume 1 (overall work in Italian and Sassarese), Cagliari, published 1873, song 20, page 99:

     In Lombaldia v’ è un[a] ziddai,
     Eju ti la diggu, e tu no la sai
     Comu si giama ilta ziddai?

     [In Lombardhia v’ è una ziddai,
     Éiu ti la diggu, e tu no la sai
     Comu si ciama istha ziddai?]

     In Lombardy, there's a city; I tell you [which one it is], and you don't know it. How is this city called?

   • 1989, Giovanni Maria Cherchi, “Un cuntaddu”, in La poesia di l'althri (overall work in Sassarese and Italian), Sassari: Arnoldo Mondadori Editore, page 47:

     Di la ziddài natiba i lu so’ cori
     diricaddu una mamma s’ammintaba
     ch’era verdhi e fiuridda che giardhinu.

     About the native town, and its delicate heart, a mother remembers it was as green and full of flowers like a garden.

   • 2015 May 31, Ignazio Sanna, “La paristhòria di lu santu óssu di lu barracòccu”, in Ignazio Sanna - Prosa e poesia in sassarese‎^[3]:

     Chisthu è un cuntaddu naddu umbè di tèmpu fa, candu la ziddai era ancóra paesi e si ciamàba Thathari.

     This is a tale born a very long time ago, when the city [Sassari] was still a borough, and was called Thathari.

Related terms

• zittadinu
• zittadinànzia

 

References

• Rubattu, Antoninu (2006) Dizionario universale della lingua di Sardegna, 2nd edition, Sassari: Edes