[The presence in central Italy of certain North Italian features (West Romance sound-shift, elements of vocabulary), in the shape of relic forms, is examined in the light of the AIS materials, and is correlated with the boundaries of the former Papal States. This phenomenon is explained by southward borrowing through this region in the Middle Ages, later overlaid by reintroduction of ERom. features from Tuscany through the expansion of standard Italian. A revised theory of dialectal (NIt.) origin is proposed for words in standard Italian showing the WRom. sound-shift (e.g. strada, ago), considering them as having come into Tuscany through central Italy.]