1902 Encyclopedia > Italy > The Italian Language - Venetian; Corsican; Dialects of Sicily and of the Neapolitan Provinces; Dialects of Umbria, the Marshes and the Province of Rome

Italy
(Part 43)




THE ITALIAN LANGUAGE

The Italian Language


C. Dialects which diverge more or less from the genuine Italian or Tuscan type, but which at the same time can be conjoined with the Tuscan as forming part of a special system of Neo-Latin dialects.

1. Venetian.—Between "Venetian" and "Venetic" several distinctions must be drawn (Arch., i. 391 sqq.). At the present day the population of the Venetian cities is "Venetian " in language, but the country districts are in various ways Venetic. The ancient language of Venice itself and of its estuary was not a little different from that of the present time ; and the Ladin vein was particularly evident (see A. 2). A more purely Italian vein —the historical explanation of which presents an attractive pro-blem—has ultimately gained the mastery and determined the "Venetian" type which has since diffused itself so vigorously.— In the Venetian, then, we do not find the most distinctive char-acteristics of the dialects of Upper Italy comprised under the denomination Gallo-Italic (see B. 1),—neither the ii nor the S, nor the velar and faucal nasals, nor the Gallic resolution of the ct, nor the frequent elision of unaccented vowels, nor the great redundancy of pronouns. On the contrary, the pure Italian diphthong of S (e.g., cnor) is heard, and the diphthong of & is in full currency (dieze, dieci, &c.). Nevertheless the Venetian approaches the type of Northern Italy, or diverges notably from that of Central Italy, by the following phonetic phenomena:—the ready elision of primary or secondary d (criio, crudo; sea, seta, &c.); the regular re-duction of the surd into the sonant guttural (e.g., cuogo, Ital. cuoco, coquus); the pure c in the resolution of cl (e.g., cave, clave ; oreca, auricula) ; the i for ^ (idvene, Ital. giovane); c for S and c (pece, Ital. pesce ; ciel, Ital. cielo). Lj preceded by any vowel, primary or secondary, except i, gives faineQa, familia. No Italian dialect is more averse than the Venetian to the doubling of consonants.—In the morphology the use of the 3d singular for the 3d plural also, and the analogical participle in esto (taiesto, Ital. taciuto, &c.; see Arch., iv. 393 sqq.) are particularly noteworthy. A curious double relic of Ladin influence is the interrogative type re-presented by the example credis-tu, credis tu,—where apart from the interrogation ti credi would be used.—The texts of the Venetian vernacular take us back to the first half of the 13th century. To the beginning of the 14th belongs the Trattato " de regimine rec-toris" of Fra Paolino, also in the Venetian dialect. For other ancient sources relating to Venice, the estuary of Venice, Verona, and Padua, see Arch., i. 448, 465, 421-22; iii. 245-47.

2. Corsican.—If the " Venetian," in spite of its peculiar " Itali-anity," has naturally special points of contact with the other dia-lects of Upper Italy (B. 1), the Corsican in like manner, particularly in its southern varieties, has special points of contact with Sardin-ian proper (B. 2). Thus for example, in boglio leche lu bunnetru (voglio lasciar la gonnella) from a song of Fiumorban Corsican there is a phonetic phenomenon (bu from gu) which reveals a connexion with Sardinian proper, as well as a morphological phenomenon which implies the same relation, since leche must be a verb of the first conjugation (lagdre in Upper Italy; see, for example, Arch., i. 546) conformed to the analogy of strong verbs as found in Sardinian in the case of ndrrere, narrare, or, for a verb of the fourth conju-gation, in Corsican vene, Sardinian binnere = venire.—In general, it is in the southern section of the island, which, geographically even, is farthest removed from Tuscany, that the most characteristic forms of speech are found. The unaccented vowels are undisturbed; but u for the Tuscan o is common to almost all the island,—an insular phenomenon par excellence which connects Corsica with Sardiniaand with Sicily, and indeed with Liguria also. So also -i for the Tuscan -e (latti, latte; li catcni, le catene), which prevails chiefly in the southern section, is also found in Southern Sardinian, and is common to Sicily. It is needless to add that this tendency to u and i manifests itself, more or less decidedly, also within the words. Corsican, too, avoids the diphthongs of & and S (ye, eri; cori,fora); but, unlike Sardinian, it treats t and it in the Italian fashion : beju, bibo ; piveru, piper; pesci ; noci, nuces.—It is one of its characteristics to reduce a to e in the formula ar + a consonant (chirne, berba, &c.), which should he compared particularly with the Emilian examples of the same phenomenon (Arch., ii. 133, 144-50). But the gerund in -endu of the first conjugation (tnrnendu, lagrimendu, he.) must on the con-trary be considered as a phenomenon of analogy, as it is especially recognized in the Sardinian dialects, to all of which it is common (see Arch., ii. 133). And the same is most probably the case with forms of the present participle likemerchente, mercante, in spite of enzi and innenzi (anzi, innanzi), in which latter forms there may probably be traced the effect of the Neo-Latin i which availed to reduce the t of the Latin ante ; alongside of them we find also anzi and nantu. —In Southern Corsican dr for 11 is conspicuous—a phenomenon which also connects Corsica with Sardinia, Sicily, and a good part of Southern Italy (see C. 2; aaAArch. ii. 135, &c). An acute observer (Falcucci) has asserted that even the phenomena of rn and nd both changing into nn are found in certain veins of Southern Corsican ; but he has given no examples. The former of these would connect Corsican with Sardinian (corru, cornu; carre, carne, &c.); the latter more especially with Sicily, &c, though it is not unknown even in Sardinia (Arch., ii. 142, 143).—As to phonetic phenomena con-nected with syntax, already noticed in B. 2, space admits the following examples only: Cors. na vella, una bella, e bella (ebbilla, et bella); lujallu, lo gallo, gran ghiallu; cf Arch., ii. 136 (135, 150). As Tommaseo has already noted, -one is for the Corsicans not less than for the French a termination of diminution: e.g., fratedronu, fratellino.—In the first person of the conditional the b is maintained (e.g., farebe, farei), as even at Rome and elsewhere. Lastly, the series of Corsican verbs of the derivative order which run alongside of the Italian series of the original order, and may be represented by the example dissipeghja, dissipa (Falcucci), is to be compared with the Sicilian series represented by cuadiari, ris-caldare, curpidri, eolpire (Arch., ii. 151).

3. Dialects of Sicily and, of the Neapolitan Provinces.—Here the territories on both sides of the Strait of Messina will first be treated together, chiefly with the view of noting their common linguistic peculiarities.—Characteristic then of these parts, as compared with Upper Italy and even with Sardinia, is, generally speaking, the tenacity of the explosive elements of the Latin bases, (cf. Arch., ii. 154, &c). Not that these consonants are constantly preserved uninjured; their degradations, and especially the Neapo-litan degradation of the surd into the sonant, are even more fre-quent than is shown by the dialect as written, but their disappear-ance is comparatively rather rare; and even the degradations, whether regard be had to the conjunctures in which they occur or to their specific quality, are very different from those of the dialects of Upper Italy. Thus, the t between vowels ordinarily remains intact in Sicilian and Neapolitan (e.g., Sicil. sita, Neap, seta, seta, where in the dialects of Upper Italy we should have seda, sea); and in the Neapolitan dialects it is reduced to d when it is preceded by n or r (e.g., viende, vento), which is precisely a collocation in which the t would be maintained intact in Upper Italy. The d, on the other hand, is not resolved by elision, but by its reduction to r (e.g., Sicil. virire, Neap, dialects vere, vedere), a phenomenon which has been frequently compared, perhaps with too little caution, with the d passing into rs (d) in the Umbrian inscriptions. The Neapo-litan reduction of nt into nd has its analogies in the reduction of nc (ilk) into ng, and of mp into mb, which is also a feature of the Neapolitan dialects, and in that of ns into nz; and here and there we even find a reduction of nf into mi (nf, wo, ni, mi), both in Sicilian and Neapolitan (e.g., at Casteltermini inSieily 'miiernu, inferno, and in the Abruzzi cumionn', 'mionn', confondere, in-fondere). Here we find ourselves in a series of phenomena to which it may seem that some special contributions were furnished by Oscan and Umbrian (nt, my, no into nd, &c. ), but for which more secure and general, and so to say " isothermal," analogies are found in modern Greek and Albanian. The Sicilian does not appear to fit in here as far as the formulae nt and mp are concerned; it rather agrees with the Neapolitan through rt passing into rd ; and it may even be said to go counter to this tendency by reducing nd to né (e.g., pénciri, pungere). Nay, even in the passing of the sonant into the surd, the Neapolitan dialects would yield special and important contributions (nor is even the Sicilian limited to the case just specified), among which we will only mention the change of d between vowels into t in the last syllable of proparoxytones (e.g., ummeto, umido). From these series of sonants changing into surds comes a peculiar feature of the southern dialects.—A pretty common characteristic is the regular progressive assimilation by which nd is reduced to nn, mi to mm, and even nv also to mm (nv, ni, mi, mm), e.g., Sicil. Hnniri, Neap, Mnnere, scendere ; Sicil. chiummu, Neap, chiumme, piombo ; Sicil. and Neap, 'mmidia, invidia. As belonging to this class of phenomena the Paheo-Italic analogy (nd into nn, n), of which the Umbrian furnishes special evidence, readily suggests itself.—Another important com-mon characteristic is the reduction of pj, ij, fj, to c (kj), g", 3 (ef. the Genoese; B. 1), whence, e.g., Sicil. chiami,, Neap, chiane, piano (piano, pljano, pjano) ; Sicil. sicca, Neap, secca, sepia ; Sicil. ragg'a, Neap, arragg'a, rabbia ; Sicil. suri (curi), Neap. Sore, fiore.—Further is to be noted the tendency to the sibi-lation of ce, ci for which Sicil. jazzu, ghiaccio, and Neap. lizete, lecito, may serve as examples (Arch., ii. 119),—a tendency more particularly betrayed in Upper Italy. —There is a common incli-nation also to elide the initial unaccented palatal vowel, and to pre-fix a, especially before r (this second tendency is found likewise in Southern Sardinian, &c. ; see Arch., ii. 138); e.g., Sicil. 'nténniri, Neap, 'ndénnere, intendere ; Sicil. arricamdri, Neap, arragamare, ricamare (see Arch., ii. 150).—In complete contrast to the ten-dency to get rid of double consonants which has been particularly noted in Venetian (C. 1), we here come to the great division of Italy where the tendency grows strong to gemination (or the doubling of consonants) ; and the Neapolitan in this respect goes farther than the Sicilian (e.g., Sicil. doppu, dopo; 'nsemmula, insieme, in-simul; Neap, dellecato, dilicato ; ummeto, umido; déiiole).—As to the phonetic phenomena connected with the syntax (see B. 2), it is sufficient to cite such Sicilian examples as nihina ronna, nesuna donna, alongside of c' é donni, e' è donne ; cincu jorna, cinque giorni, alongside of chili ghiorna, più giorni ; and the Neapolitan la vacca, la bocca, alongside of a iocca a iacea, ad buccam, &c.

We now proceed to the special consideration, first, of the Sicilian and, secondly, of the dialects of the mainland.

a. Sicilian. —The Sicilian voealism is conspicuously etymological. Though differing in colour from the Tuscan, it is not less noble, and between the two there are remarkable points of contact. The dominant variety ignores the diphthongs of è and of <5, as it has been seen that they are ignored in Sardinia (B. 2), and here also the 1 and the _& appear intact ; but the é and the a are fittingly represented by i and u ; and with equal symmetry unaccented e and o are reproduced by i and u. Examples : Uni, tiene ; nóvu, nuovo ; pilli, pelo ; jugu, giogo ; cridiri, credere ; sira, sera; vina, vena ; suli, il sole ; ura, ora. The é and 6 of position are represented by e and o (vermi, verme ; nuvéddu, novello ; morti, la morte ; cornu), and thus normally they correspond to the open e and o of the Tuscan. And if in some cases the Sicilian appears to he exceptional (stidda, stella ; vinniri, vendere ; furma, &c. ), it usually corresponds even in this with the Tuscan, where also we find the same apparent exception of the closed instead of the open vowel (stella, vendere, fgrma, ke., Arch., ii. 146).—In the evolution of the consonants it is enough to add here the change of Ij into ghj (e.g., figghiu, figlio) and of 11 into dd (e.g., gaddu, gallo).

i. Dialects of the Neapolitan Mainland. — The Calabrian (by which is to be understood more particularly the vernacular group of the two Further Calabrias) may be fairly considered as a continuation of the Sicilian type, as is seen from the following examples :—cori, cuore ; petra ; fimmina, femina ; vuci, voce ; onnri, onore; figghiti,, figlio; spadcle, spalle; frizza, treccia (here the d of the nexus nd, how-ever, is not subject to the assimilation which is common to Sicilian and Neapolitan in general : e.g., quandu, éangendu, piangendo). Even the h for 8 =fj, as in hurt (Sicil. èuri, fiore), which is character-istic in Calabrian, has its forerunners in the island (see Arch., ii. 456). Along the coast of the extreme south of Italy, when once we have passed the interruptions caused by the Basilisco type (so called from the Basilicata), the Sicilian voealism again presents itself in the Otrantine, especially in the seaboard of Capo di Leuca. In the Lecce variety of the Otrantine the voealism which has just been described as Sicilian also keeps its ground in the main (cf. Morosi, Arch., iv.): sira, sera ; leitu, olivete; pilu ; ura, ora; dulure.





Nay more, the Sicilian phenomenon of Ij into ghj (figghiu, figlio, &c.) is well marked in Terra d'Otranto and also in Terra di Bari, and even extends through the Capitanata and the Basilicata (cf. D'Ovidio, Arch., iv. 159-60). As strongly marked in the Terra d'Otranto is the insular phenomenon of 11 into dd (dr), which is also very widely distributed through the Neapolitan territories on the eastern side of the Apennines, sending outshoots even to the Abruzzo. But in Terra d'Otranto we are already in the midst of the diphthongs of e and of $, both non-positional and positional, the development or permanence of which is determined by the quality of the unaccented final vowel,—as generally happens in the dialects of the south. The diphthongal product of the 6, and hence also of the ó of position, is here ue. The following are examples from the Lecce variety of the dialect : core, pi. cueri ; metn, mieti, mete, mieto, mieti, miete (Lat. metere) ; sentu, sienti, sente ; ohi, uéli, ola, volo, voli, vola ; mordu, mnerdi, morde. Theiterecallsthe fundamen-tal reduction which belongs to the Gallic (not to speak of the Spanish) regions, and stretches through the Terra di Bari, where there are other diphthongs curiously suggestive of the Gallic : e.g., at Bitonto alongside of Iucche, luogo, suenne, sonno, we have the oi and the ai from i or e of the previous phase (vecoine, vicino), and the au from o of the previous phase (anaure, onore), besides a diphthongal dis-turbance of the d. Here also occurs the change of d into an e more or less pure (thus, at Cisternino, scunsuléte, sconsolata ; at Canosa di Puglia, arruéte, arrivata ; n-ghèpe, "in capa," that is, in capo) ; to which may be added the continual weakening or elision of the unac-cented vowels not only at the end but in the body of the word (thus, at Bitonto, vendett, spranz). A similar type meets us as we cross into Capitanata (Cerignola ; facdive, facera ; afféise, offese ; sfaziànne, soddisfazione ; n'-ghéipe, in capo ; 'nzultiite, insultata ; arragfete, arrabbiato) ; such forms being apparently the outposts of the Abruzzan, which, however, is only reached through the Molise—a district not very populous even now, and still more thinly peopled in bygone days—whose prevailing forms of speech in some measure interrupt the historical continuity of the dialects of the Adriatic versant, presenting, as it were, an irruption from the other side of the Apennines. In the head valley of the Molise, at Agnone, the legitimate precursors of the Abruzzan vernaculars reappear (fatoica, fatica ; perdoiva, perdeva ; voire, vero ; paina, pena ; segneura ; cheure; lelleriete, scellerati, where, however, the disturbance of the a is only occasional, i. e., is dependent on the i formerly heard in the end of the word; cf. maltrattata, sperava, &c). The following are pure Abruzzan examples. (1) From Bucchianico (Abruzzo Citeriore) : veive, vivo ; rraje, re ; allaure, allora ; craune, corona ; circhi, cercare ; mèle, male ; grénne, grande ; quènne ; but 'nsultate, insultata ; strade, strada (where again it is seen that the reduction of the d depends on the quality of the final unaccented vowel, and that it is not produced exclusively by i, wdiich would give rise to a further reduction : stillante, scellerati ; ampire, impari). (2) From Pratola Peligna (Abruzzo Ulteriore IL) : maje, mia ; 'naure, onore ; 'njuriéte, inguriata ; desperite, disperata (alongside of vennecd, vendi-care). It almost appears that a continuity with Emilian ought to be established across the Marches (where another irruption of greater " Italianity" has taken place : a third of more dubious origin has been indicated for Venice, C. 1); see Arch., ii. 445. A negative characteristic for Abruzzan is theabsence of c—pj and of s=fj ; and the reason seems evident. Here the pj an&fj themselves appear to be modern or of recent reduction,—the ancient formulae sometimes occurring intact (as in the Bergamase for Upper Italy), e.g., pldnje and prdnje alongside of pidnje, pragnere. To the south of the Abruzzi begins and in the Abruzzi grows prominent, that contrast in regard to the formula? alt aid (resolved in the Neapolitan and Sicilian into aut, &c, just as in the Piedmontese, &c.) by which the types aldare, altare, and calle, caldo, are reached.—For the rest, when the condition and connexions of the vowel system still retained by so large a proportion of the dialects of the eastern versant of the Neapolitan Apennines, and the difference which exists in regard to the preservation of the unaccented vowels between the Ligurian and the Gallo-Italic forms of speech on the other versant of the northern Apennines, are considered, one can-not fail to see how much justice there is in the longitudinal or Apenninian partition of the Italian dialects indicated by Dante.— But, to continue, in the Basilicata, which drains into the Gulf of Taranto, and may be said to lie within the Apennines, not only is the elision of final unaccented vowels a prevailing character-istic ; there are also frequent elisions of the unaccented vowels within the word. Thus at Matera : sintenn la femn chessa cós, sen-tendo la femina questa cosa ; disprdt, disperata ; at Saponara di Grumento : uomnn' scilrati, uomini scellerati ; mnetta, vendetta. — But even if we return to the Mediterranean versant and, leaving the Sicilian type of the Calabrias, retrace our steps till we pass into the Neapolitan pure and simple, we find that even in Naples the unaccented final vowels behave badly, the labial turning to s (iielle, bello) and even the a (bella) being greatly weakened. And here occurs a Pala?o-Italic instance which is worth mention : while Latin was accustomed to drop the u of its nominative only in presence of r (gener from *gener-u-s, vir from *vir-u-s ; cf. the Tuscan or Italian apocopated forms véner^ venere, venner=vennero, &c), Oscan and L mbrian go much further : Oscan, hurz = *hort-u-s, Lat. hortus ; Umbr. pihaz, piatus ; emps, emptus, &c. In Umbrian inscriptions we find u alternating with the a of the nom. sing. fern, and plur. neut. In complete contrast with the Sicilian vocalism is the Neapolitan e for unaccented and particularly final i of the Latin and Neo-Latin or Italian phases (e.g., viene, vieni ; if. infra), to say nothing further of the regular diphthongization, within certain limits, of accented e or o in position (apierte, aperto, fern, aperta ; muorte, morto, fem. morta, &c).—Characteristic also of the Neapolitan are certain insertions of vowels to obviate certain collocations : hence ódejo for odio, or more curiously dvotre, altro (i.e., aultro, antro, as in Upper Italy, hence dotro, av-g-tro) or cuóvete, colto (i. e., cuolto, cuóuto, cuóv-g-to). In the quasi-morphological domain it is to be noted how the Siculo-Calabrian u for the ancient 6 and Û, and the Siculo-Calabrian i for the ancient è, i, are also still found in the Neapolitan, and, in particular, that they alternate with o and e in a manner that is determined by the difference of termination. Thus cosetore, cucitore, pl. coseture (i.e., coseturi, the -i passing into e in keeping with the Neapolitan characteristic already mentioned) ; spose, sposo, pl. spuse ; noce, noce, pl. nuée ; crede, io credo ; cride (*cridi), tu credi ; crede, egli crede ; nigrç, but negra.

Passing now to a cursory mention of purely morphological phenomena, we begin with that form which is referred to the Latin pluperfect (see A. 1, P>. 2), but which here too performs the functions of the conditional. Examples from the living dialects of(l) Calabria Citeriore are faccru, farei (Castrovillari) ; tu te la eollerre, tu te l'acolleresti (Cosenza) ; l'accetterà, l'accetterebbe (Grimaldi) ; and from those of (2) the Abruzzi, vulér', vorrei (Castelli) ; dére, darei (Atessa) ; candire, canterei. For the dialects of the Abruzzi, we can check our observations by examples from the oldest chronicle of Aquila, as non habéra lassato, non avrebbe lasciato (str. 180). There are some interesting remains (more or less corrupted both in form and usage) of ancient consonantal terminations which have not yet been sufficiently studied : s' incaricaviti, s'incaricava, -abat (Basilicata, Senise); cobiti, ebbe (ib.); aviadi, aveva (Calabria, Grim-aldi) ; arrivaudi, arrivò (ib. ). The last example also gives the -an of the 3d pers. sing. peif. of the first conjugation, which still occurs in Sicily and between the horns of the Neapolitan mainland. In the Abruzzi (and in the Ascolan district) the 3d person of the plural is in process of disappearing (the -no having fallen away and the preceding vowel being obscured), and its function is assumed by the 3d person singular ; cf CI. The explanation of the Neapolitan forms soughs, io sono, essi sono, donghe, io do, stanghe, io sto, as also of the enclitic of the 2d person plural which exists, e.g., in the Sicil. avissivu, Neap, avisteve, aveste, has been correctly given more than once. It may be remarked in conclusion that this Neo-Latin region keeps company with the Roumanian in maintaining in large use the -ora derived from the ancient neuter plurals of the type tempora: Sicil. jóowra, giuochi; Calabr. nidura, Abruzz. nidçre, nidi. As for literary documents, if mere fragments and dubious instances are left out of account, Sicilian poetry goes back as far as to the first half of the 13th century, to which century also the chronicles written in Sicilian extend ; but either the copies which we possess are not contemporary or the paléographie key of the readings preserved to us is wanting. In the library of Naples, some MSS. of the 14th century contain poetical translations of which the dialect would seem to belong to the Mediterranean versant of the southern pro-vinces. The old rhymed chronicle of Aquila, which has been referred to more than once above, belongs to the 14th century.

4. Dialects of Umbria, the Marches, and the Province of Rome.— The Ascolan dialect (basin of the Tronto) still depends on the Abruzzan system ; and, speaking generally, several conspicuous southern phenomena are widely distributed through the region now under review. Thus the ll=-ld extends from the Abruzzi (Norcia : callu, caldo ; Rome : ariscalla, riscalda ; the phenomenon, however, occurs also in Corsica) ; and the assimilation of nd into nn, and of mb into mm stretches through Umbria, the Marches, and Rome, and even crosses from the Roman province into southern Tuscany (Rieti : quanno, quando ; Spoleto : eomannava, comandava ; Assisi : piagnemmo, piangendo ; Sanseverino Marches : piagnenne, 'mmece, invece (imbece) ; Fabriano : vennecasse, vendicarsi ; Osimo : monno, mondo ; Eome : fronna, fronda ; piommo, piombo ; Pitigliano (Tuscany) : quanno, piagnenno). Even the diphthongs of tho e and the o in posi-tion are largely represented. Examples are—at Norcia: tiempi, nocchi, stuortu ; Assisi and Fabriano : tiempo ; Orvieto : tiempo, tierra, le luorte, li torti, and even duonna. The change of I into r, so fre-quent throughout this region, and particularly characteristic of Rome, is a phenomenon common to the Aquilan dialect. Similar facts might be adduced in abundance. And it is to be noted that the features common to Umbro-Roman and the Neapolitan dialects must have been more numerous in the past, as this was the region where the Tuscan current met the southern, and by reason of its superior culture gradually gained the ascendency. —The phonologi-cal connexions between the Northern Umbrian, the Avetine, and the Gallo-Italic type have already been indicated (B. 2). In what relates to morphology, the -orno of the 3d pers. plur. of the perfect of the first conjugation has been pointed out as an essential peculiarity of the Umbro-Roman territory; but even this it shares with the Aquila vernaculars, which, moreover, extend it to the other par-adigms : amdrno, timdrono, &c. Further, this termination is found also in the Tuscan dialects.—In a large part of Umbria an in or t is prefixed to the sign of the dative: t-a lu, a lui ; m-al re, al re ; which must be the remains of the auxiliary prepositions int(us), a(m)pud, cf. Prov. amb, am, (cf. Arch., ii. 444-46).—By means of the series of Perugine texts this group of dialects may be traced back with confidence to the 13th century ; and to this region should also belong a " Confession," half Latin half vernacular, dating from about the 11th century, edited and annotated by Flechia (Arch., vii. 121 sqq.). The "chronicle" of Monaldeschi has been already mentioned. A collection of ancient dialectal texts of Perugia and the neighbouring districts is to be published by Monaci in the Archivio Glottoloqico.






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