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

The are so many consonantal and vocal system in the Italian regions to make standard Italian reception very hard and, as a matter of facts, limited of the few experts of this language. Owing  the fact that Italian is pronounced in so many different timbres and outcomes, its interpretation non homogeneous and macroregional. Northern Italy dialects are full of consonantal sonorization and degemination, while in central Italy and in the south we can mainly find the effects of phono-syntactical doubling and of indistinct vocal, among many other.

Entering dialects is not only catching the regional variation of the Italian language, as they have a more complex structure coming from vulgar Latin; that's why they have to be considered mere languages, sister of the most lucky Florentine idiom, grown from the 14th and the 16th century as main linguistic instrument of Italian letters.     

 

 

Although the idea of dialect is near to the one of conservation and affective speaking, form an etymologic point  of view, the study acted through this course will also take into consideration the relationship between dialect and slangs, a rooted substitute, mostly reproduced among young people with  a ludic expressive function, some examples:  "sei una raspa, sei un pirla, sei un mona, sei una bagaglia, pari na cozza, sei un tamarro, sei un besugo. un gabibbo, sei fraido sei crasto"

The course is organized as a hypothetic trip to Italy of a foreign student who picks up and recognizes the non homogeneity of phonetic, morphologic, and syntactic system of the national language and then discovers and read the great dialectal literature.       

Dialects will then not appear as subordinate languages and will let their products reach the higher reception level. The theatre line from Ruzzante to Eduardo through Goldoni is only one of the examples of the high artistic level of dialects. Other proof of literary success will be given  for the dialectal sonnet, restoring into Romanesque, Venetian, Milanese, Neapolitan  the poetic procedures of the classical world, engaging the clutch with the world of satire, parody, invective and rude eroticism: in one word, the carnival.

If the literary History-sometimes too general, sometimes too siynthetic in its way-tend not to give justice to the mere traditional masterpieces, not only Florentine ones, the Italian dialectology , meant as a geography of texts, grants to the reader a new occasion to appreciate non marginal works of our artistic patrimony of a country which can dispose of the language of Dante as well as that of Goldoni and Eduardo.      

 

 

   

Lessons will take place from April 7th 2014, Forti hall, Italianistic Departement

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

 

Readings/Bibliography

 

C. Marcato, Dialetto, dialetti e italiano, Bologna, il Mulino, 2007.

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

or, as an option, B.Capaci, G. Simeoni,. Goldoni. La vita in commedia  e la commedia nella vita,  Napoli, Liguori 2012

Teaching methods

frontal lesson

Teaching tools

Didactical material given during the course. Possible intervention of authors reading dialectal poetry.

Office hours

See the website of Bruno Capaci