Io Ciò, Tu Ciai
Sometimes a language reveals itself through its simplest words. This postcard comes from WhatYouSay by MarcheLove, a research project exploring language and local identity: not the classic postcard landscape, but a landscape of words, made of linguistic structures, oral memory and shared culture.
The graphic is dedicated to the conjugation of the verb avé (“to have”) in the Maceratese-Fermano-Camerte dialect:
Io ciò
Tu ciai
Issu/essa cià
Noiatri cemo
Voiatri cete
Essi/quilli cià
A sequence of words that feels natural and everyday to many people from the Marche, yet carries a long linguistic history made of transformations, adaptations and traditions passed down from generation to generation.
Through a simple and direct typographic composition, this postcard transforms a grammar rule into a small identity manifesto. Because dialect is not only a way of speaking: it is a way of inhabiting a territory, recognising yourself and sharing a collective memory. And perhaps everything is contained in these two words:
Noiatri cemo.
Not only “we have something”.
We have a language, a history, a community.
Product details
Illustrated postcard printed on 350 gr matte coated paper.
Size: 16.5 × 12.5 cm.
High-quality print, perfect to send, collect or use as a small decorative artwork.
