Dialetti d'Italia

Luigi Speranza

Language culture and identity - The Italian case. Italy? What? Dialects and Language
Convergence. One language one nation? Some audio examples


VÍTELIÚ

The Languages of Ancient Italy:

"Víteliú" was the Oscan term for the Italian peninsula.

This name is probably connected with the word for "calf" (seen in Latin "vitulus" and Umbrian "vitlu"), and was originally applied to the Greek colonies in Italy.

Gradually, the word came to refer to the entire peninsula, and was adopted by allied Sabellian tribes to foster a sense of nationalism during the Italic revolt against Rome.

A form of the ancient word survives in the modern name "Italia".

* Etruscan

The Italic Languages

Italic dialects can be divided into three distinct groups:

--- Osco-Umbrian:

Oscan
Umbrian
Volscian,

with their related minor dialects:

Marrucinian
Paelignian
Vestinian

are minor dialects of the Oscan type.

Auruncan
Marsian
Aequian
Hernican
Sabine

* Latinian

* Picene

* Messapic

* Rhaetic

* Venetic

This table at http://www.evolpub.com/LCA/VTLfacts.html

From Latin to Italian

Latino classico ---------- Latino volgare ------------ Italiano
ROSA MATRIS -------------- ILLA ROSA DE ILLA MADRE ---- LA ROSA DELLA MADRE
DICO AMICUM SINCERUM ESSE - ILLU AMICU EST SINCERU ----L'AMICO È SINCERO SINCERO
TERRA TELUS TERRA TERRA
STELLA - SIDUS STELLA STELLA
CABALLUS work horse CABALLU CAVALLO
BUCCA, cheek BUCCA BOCCA
DOMUS / CASA hut CASA CASA
LOQUI / PARABOLARE
to speak in parables
PARABOLARE PARLARE
MANDUCARE, to stuff onself MANDUCARE MANGIARE

Hypothesis of Vulgar Latin

Our sources:


•Satyricon by Petronius

•Inscriptions and graffiti in Pompei

•Early Christian writings ( authors who wanted to be accessible to the 'masses' and wrote in a language close to what the people spoke)

•Lists of common mistakes by either tutors or grammarians

•Stelae or inscriptions carved by quasi-illiterate craftsmen stone masons

Transitions: from Vulgar Latin to dialects to national languages

1st stage:
Italian dialects, and, Italian, language.

This situation would encompass the whole of Romània (not Rumania ) the area where Vulgar Latin fragmented into a vast range of dialects which can be classified according to phonological, lexical, morphological and syntactical criteria.

Over a period of time, from these dialects, one specific dialect emerged and imposed itself over all the others and became the national language ( i.e. the 'language' of a group of people or nation).

Thus, in Italy the Florentine dialect of the 1300 became the Italian language.

In the geographical area known as Italy , the reasons for the emergence and dominance of Florentine over the many other dialects spoken in the peninsula were not political but mainly cultural .

A national language then is a dialect that for various reasons spreads across a territory. It does not necessarily mean that other dialects cease to exists but it does mean that the others are circumscribed to a sub-national role.

Concurring factors:

•expansion of a spoken language over a wider area

•the same (language) is used by the dominant social classes

•the same (language) is used by writers and scholars

•the same (language) is used by the civil servants (administrative purposes) both in the centre (capital) but also in the peripheral centres

Of necessity there follows a self awareness in the use of the language which leads to:

•a need to standardize the language (this occurs at the hands of writers, scholars, teachers and grammarians)

•an evolution and an elaboration of its vocabulary and its syntax i.e. the development of those forms necessary to acquire the functionality required by its new role (again the agents are the intelligenzia and the specialists in various fields)

In brief the differences between language and dialect are :

•greater degree of codification
•written form
•social prestige (status)
•cultural status

Note that in Italy in particular there were several dialects that enjoyed social prestige and were used by social and cultural elites:

Venetian veneziano
Neapolitan napolitano
Florentine fiorentino
Milanese
Bolognese

First Texts

Although Latin (Vulgar) was used in writing and continued to be used for centuries (Law and Church) the existence of dialects and their the gradual penetration even in written texts can be shown by giving just a few examples:

Se pareba boves, alba pratalia araba,
albo versorio teneba et negro semen seminaba parebat, arabat, tenebat, seminabat; album, versorium, nigrum
800ca AD Verona

Sao ke kelle terre, per kelle fini que ki contene, trenta anni le possette parte Sancti Benedicti
960 AD Capua

A restaiolo lis. vi. [...] Alo ispornaio sol. xxxx. [...]
Conciatura dr. i.
In canapi ii dr. [...]
Serratura di timone sol. iiii. [...] 1100ca AD
Pisa
Alegru cori, plenu
di tutta beninanza,
suvvegnavi s'eu penu
pir vostra inamuranza
alegru, cori, eu,
"-anza" 1200-1300 AD

The third example testifies to a tradition in the vulgar language by now free from Latin.

Experts identify in these texts an independence and assurance well established among shipbuilders, traders and seafarers.

This is entirely in keeping with a town ( Pisa ) which by now (1100 AD) was the largest city in Tuscany and one of the most powerful ports in the Mediterranean .

Towards the end of the Middle Ages the economic and political situation in Italy had undergone a dramatic change with the growth of city states and the failure then and in subsequent centuries for a central power to emerge and unify the Italian peninsula.

Examples of local development are many: In 13th century Sicily, (the famous court of Frederic II) a form of Sicilian ( siciliano illustre) had lost its most vernacular traits and became the language of exquisite poetry and scholarship.

We can identify traits of Latin and of Provencal - the language of courtly love i.e. troubadours.

Almost as famous were the languages of Bologna 'Dolce Stil Novo' and Napoli.

However from 1290s onward written Florentine seems to gain ascendancy over all other dialects in the Italian peninsula and Florentine will become the basis for a linguistic unification.

For the next six centuries there will be a literary Italian but no Italian nation and no 'national language'.

Much much later, towards the end of 1800 it will be possible to talk of linguistic unification and extend it to the spoken language.

Why Florentine?

The role of Florence : political, economic, cultural and literary prestige of the city in 14th, 15th and 16th century Europe.

1350s Florence had 120.000 inhabitants (the largest and richest city in Europe ).

Its money, the gold Florin, enjoyed prestige in the international markets (bankers to the French kings; cheque system)

Schooling system: sophisticated system; broader intake, (formation of diplomats and merchants - new social classes, Studio di Firenze, craft guilds).

Tre corone: three men of culture,

Dante 1265-1321
Petrarch 1304-1374
Boccaccio 1313-1375

whose names still hold exceptional reputation today.

The Divine Comedy,
The Canzoniere,
the Decameron

rapidly became models of best practice in poetry, love poetry and literary prose.

The advent of printing: 15th century Venice and printer Aldo Manuzio (need to standardize spelling, forms of words, punctuation, creation of italics) Printers tend to level out the existence of different ways of spelling words (azione, azzione, actione, aczione; pigliare, pilglare, piglare, pilliare)

The importance of these works is of some relevance to our considerations.

Not only were they important in their own times but for the influence they exercised in subsequent centuries on the 'the language' and on the Italian cultural landscape.

******************* DANTE ******************

The extant 750 manuscripts of the Divine Comedy are an indication of its diffusion and penetration at all levels, social and cultural.

Petrarch, in one of his letters (in Latin), writes that it [Divina Commedia] circulated:

"inter ydiotas in tabernis et in foro"

among the uneducated, in pubs and in the market place.

Continuity between Dante's Italian and modern Italian is due to the success of the Divine Comedy which greatly contributed to the formation of Italian as a literary language.

If the history of the Italian language begins with the predominance of Florentine over other dialects, this is due not just to the artistic value of the Commedia, but to Dante's genius.

Dante did not limit himself to the use of the Florentine, consecrated by the scholars of his time.

He broadened his vocabulary by using common terms of spoken Florentine, by including Gallicisms and words from northern and southern dialects, but also by adapting Latin words and including them in the Italian lexis for the first time.

His long exile and his wanderings from court to court around Italy made him come into contact with a multiplicity of dialects.

He was the first one to conceive of the vernacular as a national language which would unite the people of Italy.

Besides, he thought that only through the vernacular would ordinary people, with no knowledge of Latin, be able to read the Divine Comedy and understand its message.

*************************************
Quite rightly then, Dante is regarded
as the founder of the Italian language.
**************************************

(ve = vi; de= di; sete = siete; me = mi; bono = buono; coordination rather than subordination = spoken language)

The issue of what language one should use, known later as

"Questione della Lingua"

was pursued by Dante Alighieri. Dante used both Latin, in some of his scientific and philosophical treatises, in "Epistole" and "Egloghe", and vernacular, especially in literary works such as " Vita Nuova ", " Le Rime " and the " Divine Comedy ", and also in a doctrinal treatise " Il Convivio " in which he praises the "new language" (il volgare).

In his De vulgari eloquentia - written in Latin -- since the perfect forma locutionis (probably for Dante a sort of universal grammar) had disappeared with the disaster of Babel, "he took as his task" as U. Eco puts it "the creation of a volgare illustre a noble vernacular, to be chased as a 'perfumed panther', which had to display the same revelatory perfection of the lost language of Adam".

He set out to demonstrate how this noble vernacular should possess all the qualities -vocabulary and syntactical structures- which could make it as important as Latin. It should be noted that this 'volgare illustre' would consist of the best of the existing Italian dialects without identifying itself with a particular one.

If one compares Dante's language (volgare illustre) with the language used by some of his contemporaries, it is difficult not to notice a difference.

The language used by these other authors is hardly comprehensible to Italians of today lacking a literary background.

Dante's language, on the other hand, appears to be much closer to modern Italian, offering therefore fewer problems when reading it.

As we have already seen, continuity between Dante's Italian and modern Italian is due to the success of the Divine Comedy, which greatly contributed to the formation of Italian as a literary language.

Decamerone Incipit

Lacking political unity at a national level, Italy retained a linguistic unity through the 'institutionalization of its language, which, de facto, represented a stable model from the 14th century up until the beginning of the 20th century.

Such a model was loosely founded on Florentine/Tuscan, as it had been elaborated by Dante and later by Boccaccio and Petrarch.

Florentine (Tuscan) as the standard for literary production spread rapidly but we must note the continued presence of other dialects.

Their use is not confined to oral and traces of them can emerge in written Italian, even when writers make a deliberate effort to adopt Tuscan.

"Sosso traditore, março falçato, come ti tallierò lo volto ti segarò le vene della gola, che tu non pòi canpare delle mie mani che io non ti occida." (Lucca, 1300ca.)

or :

"Io so che voi non ve curate più de nonna né di nisciuno; state alli gusti de Roma e a veder le maschere e lle belle figlie e ve sete scordato della promessa che avete fata de retornare . Basta, io me credva d'avere un nepote bono ch'avesse fugita l'ochasione de veder le belle figlie de Roma e me trovo ingannata. Adesso non se pensa più alle caccie, nè alle ragnie, nemancho alla nonna che sta sola. Desidero sapere come state della sanità e della rifreddatura e avisateme quando sarà el vostro ritorno, acciò possa stare più alegramente." ( Lazio, 1627)

The Questione della Lingua, the debate about which form of the 'lingua volgare' should be employed for this purpose, was a complex one which continued, in various forms, well into the nineteenth century.

Pietro Bembo, a Venetian writer who in 1525 wrote "Prose della Volgar Lingua", proposed as the basis of the literary language -believing it inappropriate for a literary language to be too close to everyday speech - not Florentine of his time - but the prestigious literary language (Florentine) of two centuries earlier.

In other words, Bembo (and his followers), helped fix as the literary language a variety which, already in the sixteenth century, was structurally divergent from all contemporary Italian dialects, even from Florentine. Indeed, the ' Florentineness' of literary Italian in the sixteenth century should not be overstated – as has been acutely observed by Weinapple (1983).

Already in the fifteenth century a literary language was gaining ground throughout Italy whose basis was undoubtedly Florentine, but which had acquired general characteristics which could be said to be `Italian', but were not typical of Florence, and which on occasion were capable of opposing and ousting features exclusive to Florence. M. Maiden

The gulf between the literary language of Italy , and the speech of the Italians, widened during the following four centuries.

"Calculation of the proportion of the Italian people that could have been said to know Italian in the 1860s, at the time of the political unification of Italy , is fraught with difficulty. In so far as Italian was principally a written language, only the functionally literate – a minute proportion of the populace – were likely to be able to acquire a full command of the language. On the other hand, any native speaker of an Italo-Romance dialect, and particularly those who spoke Tuscan or another central Italian dialect, would have been able, given sufficient attention, to understand at least something of the Italian language, so that a degree of passive knowledge of Italian need not have been the exclusive preserve of the literate. "
M. Maiden

In 1589 the first chair of

"lettore di Toscana favella"

(language)" was set up at the University of Siena.

In 1621 the first edition of the Vocabolario della Crusca was published, which included the broadest vocabulary a European language had ever had before. This vocabulary will remain almost the same up to the 19th century when Manzoni, author of "I promesi sposi", "The betrothed" tried to move away from it.

As his model Manzoni takes Florentine, as it was spoken by the cultivated people of the time, in an attempt to overcome the gap that over the centuries had arisen between literary written Italian — which had hardly changed since the 14th century — and spoken Italian of his time.

Literary Italian had practically maintained the same structure it had in the 14th century. To literary scholars of the late 19th century, Italian seemed an abstract and scholarly language, which did not reflect the real situation of Italy (by now near to its unification) and its language. Despite the need to change, Dante's language is destined to remain an unsurpassed artistic model and an inexhaustible linguistic source, due to its realism, its extraordinary variety of forms, its richness in multilingual registers and because of its most different styles.

Manzoni has the merit of identifying the need for a national language, spoken as well as written. However, his suggestion to use the Florentine of the learned classes as a model was based on abstract ideas and strongly contested by the scholar Ascoli. But a national language does not come about through reforms proposed from above. It can only be the result of a natural development brought about by the people collectively. For centuries, from Dante to Manzoni, Italian was a language based on Latin, used more in writing than in speaking. The question then is 'How' could the gap between written and spoken Italian be surmounted?

SE = dialetti settentrionali
CM = dialetti centro-meridionali
SA = dialetti sardi
LA = ladino

SE dialetti settentrionali
SE a dialetti gallo-italici
SE b dialetti veneti
SE c dialetti istriani
CM dialetti centro-meridion.
CM a dialetti toscani
CM b dialetti mediani
CM c dialetti merid. intermedi
CM d dialetti merid. estremi
SA sardo
SA a lugudorese-campidanese
SA b sassarese- gallurese
LA ladino
LA a friulano
LA b ladino dolomitico

Linea di separazione di gruppi dialettali

Within Italy there are some some ethnic groups that speak eight different languages:

1 Linea Spezia-Rimini
Settentrionali / Centro-meridionali
Provenzale (Alpi piemontesi: Torre Pellice;
-Calabria: Guardia Piemontese) Serbo-Croato (tre comuni del Molise)

2 Limite settentrionale dialetti del Salento Franco-Provenzale (Valle d'Aosta;
- due comuni della provincia di Foggia) Catalano (Sardegna: Alghero)

3 Limite settentrionale dialetti calabresi di tipo siciliano Tedesco (Alto Adige; zone delle Alpi e Prealpi) Albanese (vari comuni del Meridione e della Sicilia)
.......... Suddivisione di dialetti centro-meridionali Sloveno (Alpi Giulie ) Greco (alcune parti della Calbria e del Salento


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Italy? What?

Dialects and Language

Convergence

One language one nation?

Some audio examples