10769 - Italian Dialectology (1)

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course the student will be able to set some Italian dialectical literary realities into their historical and linguistic frame; he will also be able to recognize some of the dialects of our peninsula through their peculiarities and to interpret their possible interference effects on today's spoken Italian

Course contents

Starting from neo-standard and sub-standard Italian, observing the many phonetic, grammatical and syntactical phenomena which make reception and reproduction of the Italian language so disegual depending on the different geographic and linguistic latitudes, moving blackwords, but also laterally , in all linguistic concern; passing trough the mediation  of regional italian we get in touch with the great vernaculars of our national tradition. 

 The course offers, from a linguistic point of vue, a wide rage of phonetic, grammatical and syntactical   phenomena, which characterize the main Italian dialects within the traditional boundary lines and isoglosse. Specifically, a great attention will be given to the areas of dialectal koinè, such as Venetian, Milanese, Tuscan, Roman and Sicilian. A group of lesson will be assigned to the relationship between Tuscan and Italian., namely between the tuscan area   dialect and the standard language coming from the XIVth Florentine revised an corrected in XVth century. 

Actually the linguistic maps reading shows that the relation between north and south is not only marked by discontinuity elements. The literary geography describes the expressive strenght of all the other peninsular languages, but it mostly catches its artistic relief. While the History of literature gets its steps, sometimes cumulative and sometimes too much syntetic, towards  not giving justice to the mere masterpieces of the non florentine tradition. Dialectology, also meant as a geography of test, grants to the reader a new occasion to appreciate non marginal works of our artistic patrimony.

The linguistic and literary part of the course will proceed altogether in order to show both language and literature of the great italian dialectical Koinè.

Iliade's vulgarisation; Goldoni's Comedies, Sonnets by Baffo; Porta and Belli and not last,Gadda's Pastice will grant rich reading occasions. The dialectical Muse is so powerful both in inspiring the religious and even the loving sentiments of Alfonso de Liguori's poetry, and the totalising vision of the "Mona", maternal and erotic at the same time, of Giorgio Baffo's compositions. The energy of the dialect has no fear to affirm a truth that Belli wants to be so spontaneous as the impetuousness of the "caccarella". So, many centuries after the inquiry of De Vulgari eloquentia, dialects show their presence also in the web pages in their emphatic communicative function and in the "criptolalica" one, meant to exclude from the communicative process any undesired speaking elements..

Lessons will take place from April 2 2012, Forti hall, Italianistic Departement

Time-table : Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, 17:00-19:00

 

Readings/Bibliography

C. Grassi, A.A. Sobrero, T. Telmon, Fondamenti di dialettologia italiana, Roma-Bari, Laterza, 1997 (only pages from 3 to 269, corresponding to the first four chapters).

B. Capaci, G.Simeoni, Casanova, Una biografia intellettuale e romanzesca, Napoli, Liguori, 2009

or, as an option, B.Capaci, G. Simeoni. Goldoni, Avvocato veneziano e scrittore di teatro poliglotta, Napoli, Liguori 2011

Office hours

See the website of Bruno Capaci