Language Variation in Fifteenth- Century Milan

Evidence of Koineization in the Letters (1397–1402) of the Milanese Merchant Giovanni da Pessano

Bibliographic Data

ID16474397
AuthorsJoshua Brown (0000-0001-8874-874X, corresponding author)
Year2013
Volume68
Issue1
Pages57-77
Publication date2013-03-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueItalian Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0075-1634 • E-ISSN: 1748-6181
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1179/0075163412z.00000000033
OpenAlexW2021870411
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited2

The main tendency characterizing the evolution of the vernacular in Lombardy during the late Middle Ages is the formation of a koinè. At the same time, histories of the vernacular in Lombardy have identified texts that have maintained a strong adherence to local forms of language whilst koineization was in progress. This paper considers the northern linguistic elements in the letters (1397–1402) of the Milanese merchant Giovanni da Pessano and argues that these items are best characterized by koineization. To this end, I compare Giovanni’s letters with twenty-five ‘dialectal’ phenomena of medieval Milanese identified by Vitale (1983), and with attested phenomena of the later chancery koinè from the 1400s, to verify their presence or absence in Giovanni’s letters. I suggest that the northern elements in Giovanni’s letters are evidence for a more nuanced understanding of language variation in late medieval Milan than what is currently available in histories of the vernacular in Lombardy

Ancient history · Art · Fifteenth · Literature · Middle Ages · Variation (astronomy · Vernacular · Classics · Historical Linguistics and Language Studies · History · Linguistic Variation and Morphology · Linguistics and language evolution

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