The Italian Questione della lingua: An Interpretative Essay

Giovanni Boccaccio is quoted several times in Castiglione’s Cortegiano, but all these mentions are inserted in two specific contexts: on the one hand, the debate on literary language, developed in the letter of dedication to don Michel De Silva and in the first book; on the other hand, the definition of the joke in book II. Starting from these premises, this essay analyses the meanings of Boccaccio’s presence in the Cortegiano. It shows that Castiglione’s treatise provides two different and concurrent representations of the author of the Decameron: a positive one, connected to the ‘questione della lingua’, that offers Boccaccio as a promoter of the usage (‘uso’); a critical one, deriving from the theory of the ‘facezia’, that makes Boccaccio a challenging and challenged model.

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La questione della lingua nei periodici letterari del primo '800

The Modern Language Review ◽

10.2307/3726249 ◽

1973 ◽

Vol 68 (1) ◽

pp. 189

Author(s):

Valerio Lucchesi ◽

Stefania de Stefanis Ciccone

Keyword(s):

Questione Della Lingua

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Vulgar Latin as an emergent concept in the Italian Renaissance (1435–1601): its ancient and medieval prehistory and its emergence and development in Renaissance linguistic thought

Journal of Latin Linguistics ◽

10.1515/joll-2018-0006 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 17 (2) ◽

pp. 191-230

Author(s):

Josef Eskhult

Keyword(s):

Sixteenth Century ◽

Fifteenth Century ◽

Primary Sources ◽

Classical Antiquity ◽

Italian Renaissance ◽

Historical Investigation ◽

New Ideas ◽

Historical Origin ◽

Questione Della Lingua ◽

Selection Of

Abstract This article explores the formation of Vulgar Latin as a metalinguistic concept in the Italian Renaissance (1435–1601) considering its continued, although criticized, use as a concept and term in modern Romance and Latin linguistics (1826 until the present). The choice of this topic is justified in view of the divergent previous modern historiography and because of the lack of a coherent historical investigation. The present study is based on a broad selection of primary sources, in particular from classical antiquity and the Italian Renaissance. Firstly, this article traces and clarifies the prehistory of the concept of Vulgar Latin in ancient and medieval linguistic thought. Section 2 demonstrates that the concept of Vulgar Latin as a low social variety does not exist in pre-Renaissance linguistic thought. Secondly, this article describes and analyzes how, why and when the concept of Vulgar Latin emerged and developed in the linguistic thought of the Italian Renaissance. Section 3 surveys the historical intellectual contexts of the debates in which this concept was formed, namely questione della lingua in the Latin and Vernacular Italian Renaissances. Section 4 demonstrates how the ancient concept and term of sermo vulgaris as a diaphasic variety was revived, but also modified, in the Latin Renaissance of the fifteenth century, when the leading humanists developed new ideas on the history, nature and variability of ancient Latin. Section 5 demonstrates how a diglossic concept of Vulgar Latin was formed in the vernacular Italian Renaissance of the sixteenth century, when Italian philologists more carefully approached the topic of the historical origin and emergence of Italian. Thirdly, Section 6 presents a synthesis of the historiographical results that are attained and revises modern historiography on some important points.

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Die Rolle der norditalienischen Varietäten in der "Questione della lingua"

10.1515/9783110252668 ◽

2011 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Sandra Ellena

Keyword(s):

Questione Della Lingua

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Il riflesso della diglossia italiana nella produzione letteraria: la complessità sociolinguistica del Veneto riflessa nei testi letterari di Ruzante e Zanzotto

Annales Universitatis Paedagogicae Cracoviensis Studia de Cultura ◽

10.24917/20837275.9.3.2 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 9 (3) ◽

pp. 14-23

Author(s):

Gianna Marcato

Keyword(s):

Questione Della Lingua

Il contributo mette a fuoco la realtà linguistica italiana attraverso la produzione artistica di due autori, Angelo Beolco (1496?–1542), detto Ruzante, e Andrea Zanzotto (1921–2011), che consentono di penetrare profondamente nella “questione della lingua” di due periodi cronologicamente lontani, ma essenzialmente collegati tra loro da una costante: la diglossia che, da sempre, caratterizza quell’intarsio linguistico e culturale che è l’Italia. In definitiva, raccogliendo l’invito contenuto nel titolo del convegno, la sfida che può venire dall’approccio a questi due autori è quella di consentire una più completa conoscenza dell’italianità.Odbicie włoskiej diglosji w produkcji literackiej: złożoność socjolingwistyczna dialektuweneckiego odzwierciedlona w tekstach literackich Ruzantego i ZanzottaArtykuł pokazuje złożoność rzeczywistości językowej Włoch poprzez analizę dzieł dwóch pisarzy: Angelo Beolco (1496?–1542), zwanego „Ruzante”, oraz Andrei Zanzotto (1921–2011). Ich twórczość, pochodząca z odległych od siebie epok, łączy wspólna cecha – diglosja, która od zawsze była charakterystyczna dla pejzażu językowego Włoch. Fakt, że obydwaj autorzy ukazują w swojej twórczości złożony repertuar językowy, rzuca światło na wielowiekową dyskusję o kwestii językowej we Włoszech.

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