HUI216
Italian Civilization
Andrea Fedi
HUI216 (Spring 2008)
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1.9 National identity and the issue of language
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1.9 Standard Italian: its components
 Italy's national language is called by linguists
Standard or Neo-Standard Italian
 Standard Italian is in many ways a new and
artificial language, based on
 the literary Tuscan language of the late Middle Ages and
the Renaissance (made famous by Boccaccio, Petrarch,
Bembo): syntax and lexicon
 the dialect used by the educated middle-class in a small
area of northern Tuscany (Florence, Prato, Pistoia), at
the time of the unification of Italy (1820s-1880s): the
lexicon, some syntax, the pronunciation
 words and expressions used in other parts of Tuscany, in
other parts of Italy, and found
in the "national Tuscan" 3
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1.9 Tuscan, Florentine and Italian literature
 Mainstream literature in Italy, starting from the end
of the Middle Ages, held Tuscan in high regard
 literary Tuscan was a language very close to the
Florentine dialect, but more generic, occupying a middle
ground among various Tuscan dialects
 Often, in the past, even authors from Venice, Milan
or Naples would choose Tuscan as the language of
their literary creations, even though they spoke
Venetian, Lombard or Neapolitan at home or in
public
 Italian literature therefore had reached a certain
degree of unity long before the Italian Kingdom
was created
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1.9 Literary Tuscan and Italian culture/society
 This Italian literary language, however, could
not be easily adopted by all Italians, because
 it had been for centuries the sole domain of an
elite of intellectuals and writers
 it had become extremely rich and varied, but
also difficult to use for anybody who did not have
a university degree, or the equivalent education
 it was mostly a written language
 it was rarely spoken
 secondary schools, colleges, literary circles
 public ceremonies, formal parties, political meetings
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1.9 The state of the national language in the
early 19th century, as indicated by Manzoni
• Somebody comes over, and introduces a person
from Piedmont, or Venice, or Bologna, or Naples, or
Genoa; and, as required by good manners, we stop
speaking Milanese, and we speak Italian
• Now tell me please if the conversation will go on as
smoothly as before...; tell me if we won't instead
have to use now a generic and not a precise word,
whereas before we would have had at our disposal
the proper, specific term; we will now have to seek
the help of a circumlocution, and introduce a
description, whereas before we did not have to do
anything other than call things by their name
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1.9 The state of the national language in the
upper society of Milan (early 19th century)
• we will now have to guess, whereas before we
were sure of every word we had to use, in fact we
did not even think about it: it just came to us; now
we will be driven by desperation to use the
occasional Milanese word, justified by adding: "as
we use to say here..."
• This can be defined communication as much as we
can call 'clothing' what is full of patches, holes and
tears; again I ask you if this is the reciprocal
understanding that exists among individuals that
possess a common language
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1.10 Neolatin vernaculars in Italy
 There wasn't a proper national language in Italy...
 before Latin was introduced in all of Italy by the Roman
government, more than 2000 years ago
 after Latin ceased to be the only language of the central
government and of the local administrations (with the
collapse of the Roman empire, in 476 CE)
 Various vernaculars or dialects, very different from
each other, have developed in time from Latin and
from other Indo-European languages (Greek,
Umbrian, Ligurian, Sican, etc.), spoken locally
before and after the Romans
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1.10 Neolatin vernaculars in Italy
 Italy's dialects are not simply varieties of the
same national language, because the official
national language (standard Italian) was
established only during the 19th century
 Most dialects in Italy can be more properly
classified as separate Neolatin or Romance
languages, each with a separate phonetic
system, a different syntax and lexicon, an
original literary tradition, etc.
 The traditional use of the term dialects can be
deceiving: see the Web site Dialettando, esp. the
dictionary
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1.10 Examples of dialects in today's Italy
 Internet is a friendly, relatively inexpensive medium
for the preservation of local cultures and languages
 Many are the sites whose mission is the preservation of the
collective memories and traditions of small groups or local
communities
 Many are the sites in which an Italian dialect is used,
instead of the standard national language
 I have collected a few interesting links
 I'll be the first to admit that often I can only understand a
few words, in those sites
 however, I think that even just seeing so much diversity
with your own eyes, brings you to a higher level of
understanding of this topic HUI216
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1.10 Examples of dialects in present-day Italy
 While the following links are all working, more than
a few of the sub-links inside those pages can be
very slow or even dead
• Click here to see texts written in a dialect of Lombardy
• Click here to read poems written in the dialect of Ferrara
(still in the North)
• Click here for an introductory course of Neapolitan
dialect, in English
• A site in the dialect of Bologna, with .mp3 files of songs
in that dialect
• European Bureau for Lesser Used Languages or
EBLUL, a EU-sponsored agency created to support
linguistic diversity
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1.11 Body language in Italian society
• Different rituals
• When does yes mean yes?
• Are you screaming at me?
• Even hand gestures change from region to
region. Body language as a whole changes too
• for example, some Italians are more inclined to
touch the other person's hand, forearm or shoulder
during a conversation
• some may be more liberal than others with hugs and
kisses (kissing and hugging friends and relatives
more than once, or for a longer period of time, and
in more social occasions)
• Did former Prime Minister Andreotti kiss Riina?
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1.11 Body language: personal space
• The individual's perception of his/her personal
space can also be different
• Italians tend to feel comfortable even in tight quarters
with strangers
• when encountering somebody in the narrow aisle of a
supermarket, they will rarely use the Italian equivalent of
"excuse me" (permesso), if there is enough space to
pass without coming in contact with the other person
• if you want to learn more, I suggest that you read this
article entitled "Non-Verbal Communication across
Cultures" by Max S. Kirch (The Modern Language
Journal, Vol. 63, No. 8., Dec. 1979), available in JSTOR
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1.11 From Andrea de
Jorio's La mimica degli
antichi investigata nel
gestire napoletano
(Naples, 1832)
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1.11 Excerpts from "Gesture in Italian Speech"
by Laura Raffa
• The notion that Italians 'speak with their hands' is
only partially correct
• hand gestures complement, do not always replace the
spoken word
• Some hand movements are global gestures, others
are region-specific
• The handshake of the Anglo-Saxon world has been
introduced into Italian society for the purpose of
business negotiations and deals, and has since
extended to less formal occasions
• Yet, generally the Italians are not as formal as their
English counterparts and are accustomed to greeting
each other with two kisses HUI216
on both cheeks
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1.11 "Gesture in Italian Speech" by Laura Raffa
• The act of placing the fingers of your two hands together
and shaking your hands slightly up and down is a gesture
that shows disapproval
• It is usually used towards younger children when they have
disobeyed their elders
• Young adults, in a satiric look at their parents' and grand-parents'
generation also mimic it
• Other examples of Italian gestures do not require a lot of
discussion because of their global nature. Such is the act of
passing the middle and index finger across the thumb, with
its universal meaning of the expensive nature of a particular
article or event
• Similarly, lightly tapping the forehead with the back of the
hand symbolizes that the other person is crazy or has made
a remark that is not credible
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1.11 Italian gestures: pictures, a book
• A long series of global and Italian gestures,
explained in Italian and English,
accompanied by pictures, and organized by
theme
• http://www.ccsf.edu/Departments/Language_Lab
/gesti/00Gesti.htm
• This site was created by Giorgio Spanò, City College
of San Francisco
• See also Andrea de Jorio, Gesture in Naples
and Gesture in Classical Antiquity [1832]
(transl. Adam Kendon; Indiana UP, 2000)
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1.12 Bilingualism and diglossia (H/L: high
prestige/low prestige) in Italy
 Most Italians, until the 1960s, were bilingual
 They spoke a local/regional dialect as their primary
language at home or with their friends (L)
 They learned standard Italian at school (or through printed
materials, theater, radio, cinema, tv), and used it in public
places or in the presence of somebody from a different
region (H)
 Compulsory education and television have tamed
this special brand of bilingualism
 while most elderly are still able to speak their dialect, many
younger Italians can only understand it and use it sparingly,
often interspersing a few words from the dialect in their
conversations, conducted mostly in standard Italian
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1.12 Bilingualism in the emigrant Italian
communities: the case of Argentina
 Legend has (I have often heard this anecdote, but I
never found any serious evidence) that when
Argentineans had to choose their official national
language, they considered Italian as an option, since
Italians were (and still are) one of the largest
immigrant communities in that country
 They soon realized that Italians coming from different
regions were speaking different dialects, and
sometimes resorted to Castilian (the official language
of Spain) to communicate with each other!
 keep in mind that most immigrants from the 19th and early
20th century had received little or no schooling in their
home country
 As they say, if this anecdote is not true it is well
found!
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1.13 Foreign languages spoken in Italy
(from https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-worldfactbook/geos/it.html and
http://www.ethnologue.com/show_country.asp?name=IT)
• German dialects
• parts of the Trentino-Alto Adige region are predominantly
German speaking; small minority in Valle d'Aosta
• French dialects
• French-speaking minority in the Valle d'Aosta region
• Slovene
• Slovene-speaking minority in the Trieste-Gorizia area
(Boris Pahor)
•
•
•
•
Romani
Greek
Albanian
Catalan
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