Tarantino, spoken in the southeastern Italian region of Apulia, is a transitional language, most of whose speakers live in the Apulian city of Taranto. The dialect is also spoken by a few Italian immigrants in the United States, especially in California.

Apulia, also known by its Italian name Puglia, is a region of Italy, located in the southern peninsular section of the country, bordering the Adriatic Sea to the east, the Strait of Otranto and Ionian Sea to the southeast and the Gulf of Taranto to the south. The region comprises 19,345 square kilometers (7,469 sq mi), and its population is about four million people. It is bordered by the other Italian regions of Molise to the north, Campania to the west, and Basilicata to the southwest. The regional capital is Bari.