The Italian singer-songwriter
Modugno actually was one of the first Italian cantautori, singers who wrote their own songs. Some of his songs are in dialect, either of his birthplace Polignago a Mare or Neapolitan. These are particularly nice to listen to and not very difficult to decifer, once you get the hang of it. Take for instance Tu si’ ’na grande cosa’ with which Modugno won the festival of the Napoletan song:
Tu si’ ‘na cosa grande pe’ mme
‘na cosa ca me fa nnammura’
‘na cosa ca si tu guard”a mme
je me ne moro accussi’
guardanno a tte
vurria sape’ ‘na cosa da te
pecche’ quanno i’ te guardo accussi’
si pure tu te siente ‘e muri’
nun m”o ddice
e nun m”o faje capi’, ma pecche’.
e dillo ‘na vota sola
si pure tu staje tremmanno
dillo ca me vuoi bene
comm’io, comm’io,
comm’io voglio bene a tte…
tu si’ ‘na cosa grande pe’ mme
‘na cosa ca tu stessa nun saje
‘na cosa ca nun aggio avuto maje
nu bene accussi’, accussi’ grande…
si pure tu te siente ‘e muri’
nun m”o ddice
e nun m”o faje capi’, ma pecche’.
e dillo ‘na vota sola
si pure tu staje tremmanno
dillo ca me vuoi bene
comm’io, comm’io,
comm’io voglio bene a tte…
tu si’ ‘na cosa grande pe’ mme
‘na cosa ca tu stessa nun saje
‘na cosa ca nun aggio avuto maje
nu bene accussi’, accussi’ grande
accussi’ grande,
accussi’ grande
Reading it aloud, you quickly understand some of the dialect vocabularly: si’=sei, ’na=una, pe’=per, ca=che, nnammura’=innammorare, accussi’=così, etc.