Sa vedum
Ticino dialect
Said in the canton of Ticino
See you
Sa vedum
Where it comes from
The game translates Sa vedum as “à la prochaine” in French, and as “we’ll see each other” on its German and Italian cards. Vedum is the verb to see in the first person plural; the linguist Elena Maria Pandolfi, who recorded it in Ticino advertisements, notes that the dialect spots she studied keep these endings well overall. The little sa is not described by the sources consulted; in the Ticinese proverbs quoted by Lombard Wikipedia, the same word stands where Italian puts si.
According to Italian Wikipedia, the dialect of Lugano belongs to Comasco, the variety of Western Lombard spoken around Como. In the strict sense, “Ticinese dialect” is that of the north of the canton, beyond the Monte Ceneri. But Ticino also has a koine, a common language modelled on the speech of the towns and nicknamed the “railway dialect”, which lets people understand each other from Airolo to Chiasso.
Sa vedum was even heard on television. Pandolfi studied 805 TV spots aimed at viewers in Italian-speaking Switzerland between 2003 and 2004: only nineteen contained dialect. Among them, a carpet seller ended his advertisements, otherwise all in Italian, with “Sa vedum!”. For Pandolfi, this dialect does not seem to come from a real command of the language: it is a set formula that counts less for what it says than for the closeness it creates with the audience. Across the dialect spots as a whole, she recognises a koine, with a few Lugano traits.
In use
In the Ticinese koine, with forms found in the sources below:
- “Alura, sa vedum stasira!” – Well then, see you tonight!
- “Grazie, e sa vedum!” – Thanks, and see you next time!
Sources: Elena Maria Pandolfi, “L’italiano, il dialetto e le altre lingue nella pubblicità in Ticino” (Osservatorio linguistico della Svizzera italiana); Italian Wikipedia, “Dialetto ticinese” and “Lugano”; Lombard Wikipedia, “Dialett ticines”.