Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 13.djvu/516

494 ITALY [LANGUAGE. the initial s followed by a consonant (iscamnu, istclla, ispada), like the prothesis of e in Spain and in France (see Arch., iii. 447 sqq.). In the order of the present discussion it is in connexion with this territory that we are for the first time led to consider those phonetic changes in words of which the cause is merely syntactical or transitory, and chiefly those passing accidents which occur to the initial consonant through the historically legitimate or the merely analogical action of the final sound that precedes it. The general explanation of such phenomena reduces itself to this that, given the intimate syntactic relation of two words, the initial consonant of the second retains or modifies its character as it Avould retain or modify it if the two words were one. The Celtic languages are especially distinguished by this peculiarity; and among the dialects of Upper Italy the Bergamasc oilers a clear example. This dialect is accus tomed to drop the v, whether primary or secondary, between vowels in the individual vocables (cad, cavare; fda, fava, &c.), but to pre serve it if it is preceded by a consonant (serva, &c.). And simi larly in syntactic combination we have, for example, de i, di vino; but ol vi, il vino. Insular, southern, and central Italy furnish a large number of such phenomena ; for Sardinia we shall simply cite a single class, which is at once obvious and easily explained, viz., that represented by sit, oc, il bove, alongside of sos bocs, i buoi (cf. Here, bibere ; erba). The article is derived from ipse instead of from ille : su sos, sa sets, again a geographical anticipa tion of Spain, which in the Catalan of the Balearic islands still pre serves the article from ipse. A special connexion with Spain exists besides in the nomine type of inflexion, which is constant among the Sardinians (Spanish nonine, &c. , whence nonibre, &c. ), nomen, no- mene, rdmine, aeramine, Icgumene, &c. (see Arch., ii. 429 sqq.}. Especially noteworthy in the conjugation of the verb is the para digm canterc, canteres, &c., timere, timeres, &c., precisely in the sense of the imperfect subjunctive (cf. A. 1 ; cf. C. 3 b). Next comes the analogical and almost corrupt diffusion of the -si of the ancient strong perfects (such a,s2)osi, rosi), by which cantesi, timcsi (cantavi, timui), dolfesi, dolui, are reached. Proof of the use and even the abuse of the strong perfects is afforded, however, by the participles and the infinitives of the category to which belong the following examples: tennidi/, tenuto; pdrfidu, parso; bdlfidu, valso; tennere, bdlere, &c. (Arch., ii. 432-33). The future, finally, shows the unagglutinated periphrasis: liapo a mandigare (ho a mangiare = manger-6); as indeed the unagglutinated forms of the future and the conditional occur in ancient vernacular texts of other Italian districts. There are documents of the Sardinian dialect going back as far as the middle of the 12th century. C. Dialects which diverge more or less from the genuine Italian or Tuscan type, but which at the same time can le conjoined ivith the Tuscan as forming part of a special system of Neo-Latin dialects. 1. Venetian. Between " Venetian " and " Venetic" several dis tinctions 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. 1 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 Ii, 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., cuor) is heard, and the diphthong of c 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 (cnlo, 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., care, clave ; oreca, auricula) ; the for g (tivcne, Ital. giovane); c for s and 6 (pfye, Ital. pesce ; (v e 7, Ital. cielo). Lj preceded by any vowel, primary or secondary, except i, gives g: famega, f am ilia. 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 cslo (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 crcdi 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 rcgimine rcc- On this point see the chapter, "La terra forma vcneta considevata in ispccie nu suoi rapport i con la sczionc cent rale della zona ladina," in Arch., i. 406-47. 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 hi lunnctrv (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 Icchc 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 ndrrcre, narrare, or, for a verb of the fourth conju gation, in Corsican re/zc, Sardinian benncrc = 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 Sardinia and with Sicily, and indeed with Liguria also. So also -i for the Tuscan -c (latti, latte; Ii cateni, 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 t and o (pc, cri; cori,fora); but, unlike Sardinian, it treats i and ft in the Italian fashion : beju, bibo ; peveru, piper; pcsci ; nod, nuces. It is one of its characteristics to reduce a to c in the formula ar + a consonant (chime, berba, &c. ), which should be compared particularly with the Emilian examples of the same phenomenon (Arch., ii. 133, 144-50). But the gerund in -cndu of the first conjugation (turncndu, lagrimcndu, &c.) must on the con trary be considered as a phenomenon of analogy, as it is especially re cognized 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 ]ikemerchente, 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 nantii . In Southern Corsican dr for U is conspicuous a phenomenon which also connects Corsica with Sardinia, Sicily, and a good part of Southern Italy (see C. 2; and Arch. 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; carrc, 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 tiie following examples only: Cors. na vella, una bella, e bella (ebbella, 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. , fratcdronu, fratellino. In the first person of the conditional the b is maintained (e.g., farebc, 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, colpire (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, iu the dialects of Upper Italy we should have scda, sea); and in the Neapolitan dialects it is reduced to d when it is preceded by n or r (e.g., viendf, 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. vlrirc, Neap, dialects rere, vedere), a phenomenon which has been frequently compared, perhaps with too little caution, with the d passing into rs (<])in the Umbrian inscriptions. The Neapo litan reduction of nt into nd has its analogies in the reduction ot nc (nk) into ng, and of mp into ml, which is also a feature of the Neapolitan dialects, and in that of ns into n*; and hero and there