Italian Regions
Italian Regional Endonyms
Below is a list of the twenty Italian regions and the term used to refer to either a native or an inhabitant of that region (regione):
Abruzzo: abruzzese
Basilicata: lucano (less common: basilicatese)
Calabria: calabrese
Campania: campano
Emilia-Romagna: emiliano / romagnolo
Friuli-Venezia Giulia: friulano / giuliano
Lazio: laziale
Liguria: ligure
Lombardia: lombardo
Marche: marchigiano
Molise: molisano
Piemonte: piemontese
Puglia: pugliese
Sardegna: sardo
Sicilia: siciliano
Toscana: toscano
Trentino-Alto Adige: trentino / altoatesini
Umbria: umbro
Valle d'Aosta: valdostano
Veneto: veneto
Note that the above Italian endonyms are in the singular masculine form. The rules for creating plural forms are comparable to those for forming other Italian plural nouns. As an example, a siciliano is a Sicilian man, while a woman from Sicily would be referred to as a siciliana. A group of two or more Sicilian people, with at least one man in the group, would be referred to as siciliani, and a group of two or more Sicilian women are siciliane.
In perusing the list of Italian regional endonyms it's obvious that certain patterns emerge (the common suffixes –ano and –ese immediately come to mind). But what about lucano, the preferred term for Basilicatan natives? In fact, the name originates from Lucania, the ancient name used during the Roman era for the region.