Maiden - A linguistic history of Italian

LONGMAN LINGUISTICS LIBRARY

A LINGUISTIC HISTORY OF ITALIAN

LONGMAN LINGUISTICS LIBRARY

General editors

R. H. Robins University of London
Martin Harris University of Manchester
Geoffrey Horrocks University of Cambridge

For Series List see pp. xii and xiii

A Linguistic History
of Italian

Martin Maiden

First published 1995 by Longman Group Limited

Published 2013 by Routledge
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Copyright 1995, Taylor & Francis.

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ISBN 13: 978-0-582-05928-3 (pbk)

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Maiden, Martin, 1957
A linguistic history of Italian / Martin Maiden.
p. cm. (Longman linguistics library)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-582-05929-1. ISBN 0-582-05928-3 (pbk.)
1. Italian languageHistory. I. Title. II. Series.

Set by 8M in 10/11 pt Times

Contents

LONGMAN LINGUISTICS LIBRARY: SERIES LIST

General editors
R. H. Robins, University of London,
Martin Harris, University of Manchester
Geoffrey Horrocks, University of Cambridge

A Short History of Linguistics
Third Edition
R. H. ROBINS

Text and Context
Explorations in the Semantics and Pragmatics of Discourse
TEUN A. VAN DIJK

Introduction to Text Linguistics
ROBERT DE BEAUGRANDE AND WOLFGANG ULRICH DRESSLER

Psycholinguistics
Language, Mind, and World
DANNY D. STEINBERG

Principles of Pragmatics
GEOFFREY LEECH

Generative Grammar
GEOFFREY HORROCKS

The English Verb
Second Edition
F. R. PALMER

A History of American English
J. L. DILLARD

English Historical Syntax
Verbal Constructions
DAVID DENISON

Pidgin and Creole Languages
SUZANNE ROMAINE

A History of English Phonology
CHARLES JONES

Generative and Non-linear Phonology
JACQUES DURAND

Modality and the English Modals
Second Edition
F. R. PALMER

Semiotics and Linguistics
YISHAI TOBIN

Multilingualism in the British Isles I: The Older Mother Tongues and Europe
EDITED BY SAFDER ALLADINA AND VIV EDWARDS

Multilingualism in the British Isles II: Africa, The Middle East and Asia
EDITED BY SAFDER ALLANDINA AND VIV EDWARDS

Dialects of English
Studies in Grammatical Variation
EDITED BY PETER TRUDGILL AND J. K. CHAMBERS

Introduction to Bilingualism
CHARLOTTE HOFFMANN

Verb and Noun Number in English:
A Functional Explanation
WALLIS REID

English in Africa
JOSEF SCHMIED

Linguistic Theory
The Discourse of Fundamental Works
ROBERT DE BEAUGRANDE

General Linguistics
An Introductory Survey
Fourth Edition
R. H. ROBINS

Historical Linguistics
Problems and Perspectives
EDITED BY C. JONES

A History of Linguistics Vol. I
The Eastern Traditions of Linguistics
EDITED BY GIULIO LEPSCHY

A History of Linguistics Vol. II
Classical and Medieval Linguistics
EDITED BY GIULIO LEPSCHY

Aspect in the English Verb
Process and Result in Language
Y1SHAI TOBIN

The Meaning of Syntax
A Study of the Adjectives of English
CONNOR FERRIS

Latin American Spanish
JOHN M. LIPSKI

A Linguistic History of Italian
MARTIN MAIDEN

Modern Arabic
CLIVE HOLES

It is a curious observation that structural histories of Italian of the kind offered in this book have generally been executed by non-Italians. We find, for example, a German (Rohlfs), a Swiss (Meyer-Lbke), a Pole (Manzak), a Hungarian (Fogarasi) and a Croatian (Tekavi). Perhaps it is the case that such histories are best essayed by outsiders, who are less acutely sensitive to (but not necessarily any less aware of) the complex social and cultural milieux in which the language lives and from which the linguistic facts have to be brutally extirpated. At any rate, this book is another outsider's view of what he perceives as the major elements in the structural evolution of the Italian language, and it aims to be accessible to those who know the modern language and seek the historical rationale behind some of its more idiosyncratic features, and to those who know something of the history of other Romance languages, and would like a detailed account of the place of Italian in the wider Romance picture.

I do not anticipate that all readers will pick up this book and read it straight through from cover to cover. An internal structural history of a language such as this one does not easily lend itself, unlike external histories, to presentation in the form of a chronologically linear narrative. But this volume is more than a work of reference. It aims to present a complex array of factual data, closely interconnected and, I hope, illuminated, by cross-referencing (so that readers may easily use the book for reference purposes). Into this framework is woven a series of extended discussions of topics which are particularly problematic or controversial (such as diphthongization, or auxiliary selection). I have attempted to be as comprehensive as possible within the space available, but there remain, no doubt, lacunae, and I have not hesitated to give particularly extensive treatment to certain topics (in morphology and phonology) on which I have conducted research myself.

A large number of people have helped me in a wide variety of ways in the preparation of this book. I wish to express particular gratitude to Thomas Cravens, Joseph Cremona, Giulio Lepschy, Peter Matthews, John Charles Smith and Nigel Vincent for the stimulating and truly invaluable comments they have made on the text at various stages of its emergence. If, on some occasions, I have waywardly failed to follow their sound counsel as closely as I might have, it will be entirely on my head. I thank, also, the editors of the Longman Linguistics Library series for their advice.

Downing College
Cambridge