The paper aims at analysing Vladimir Shishmarev’s method applied in his research on Italian dialect spoken in Crimea. This dialect is the one imported to Crimea by Italian settlers who moved to Crimea from the city of Trani (south Italy, Apulia) in the 1860’s. Shishmarev’s conclusions unable him to conduct comparative research between similar linguistic situations in other Romance-speaking settlements, and first of all the Swiss colony of Chabo (Chabag).