Pietracamela

Pietracamela (locally La Pròtë) is a town and comune in Teramo province in the Abruzzo region of eastern Italy. It is located at the feet of the Gran Sasso massif, in the natural park known as the "Gran Sasso e Monti della Laga National Park". It is one of I Borghi più belli d'Italia ("The most beautiful villages of Italy").

It is notable for the Pretarolo language, an ultra-endangered language spoken by under 28 speakers. Pertarolo is an ancient language of vague origins, with words coming from across the Adriatic Sea, of unknown and doubtful etymology. Here the language merges with the gestures and body movements, both codified according to unmistakable semiotics for the natives. Even though it is a linguistic variation referable to the central-southern Italian dialects, the Pretarolo is an immaterial cultural asset that distinguishes the community of Pietracamela, who have always been particularly attached to it. Although the complex phonetics (especially the vocalism), recall, among others, some typical traits belonging to the phonetics of the Pennese dialects (for example the transition in a closed syllable of a tonic /e/ to an /o/, as in the toponyms PĬNNA > Penne / Pònne and Betlemme / Betlòmme: «ha netë a Betlòmmë lu Santë Bambun», according to a Pretarolo religious song) and more generally traits belonging to the koine from Abruzzo, like some fractures of the closed tonic vowels in an open syllable (PULLĬCĒNUM > pulcino / pëcèunë; NĔPOTEM > nipote / nipautë etc.) or the transformation, until it dissipates, of the final atonic vowel (V > [ë]), typical of the Adriatic side of the mountain and not the Aquila side, the most characteristic elements of the Pretarolo dialect concern the lexicon, the syntax and, from the sociolinguistic point of view, the configuration of the repertoire.