FOOTNOTE:

[1] On the origin of the name, see the article by H. W. Hogg, _Ency.

Bib._ col. 2290; E. Meyer, _Israeliten_, p. 536 seq.

ISSEDONES, an ancient people of Central Asia at the end of the trade

route leading north-east from Scythia (q.v.), described by Herodotus

(iv. 26). The position of their country is fixed as the Tarym basin by

the more precise indications of Ptolemy, who tells how a Syrian merchant

penetrated as far as Issedon. They had their wives in common and were

accustomed to slay the old people, eat their flesh and make cups of

their skulls. Such usages survived among Tibetan tribes and make it

likely that the Issedones were of Tibetan race. Some of the Issedones

seem to have invaded the country of the Massagetae to the west, and

similar customs are assigned to a section of these. (E. H. M.)

ISSERLEIN, ISRAEL (d. 1460), German Talmudist. His fame attracted many

students to Neustadt, and his profound learning did much to revive the

study of the original Rabbinic authorities. After the publication of the

Code of Joseph Qaro (q.v.) the decisions of Isserlein in legal matters

were added in notes to that code by Moses Isserles. His chief works were

_Terumath ha-Deshen_ (354 decisions) and _Peasqim u-kethahim_ (267

decisions) largely on points of the marriage law.

ISSERLES, MOSES BEN ISRAEL (c. 1520-1572), known as REMA, was born at

Cracow and died there in 1572. He wrote commentaries on the _Zohar_, the

"Bible of the Kabbalists," but is best known as the critic and expander

of the _Shulhan Aruch_ of Joseph Qaro (Caro)(q.v.). His chief halakhic

(legal) works were _Darke Moshe_ and _Mappah_. Qaro, a Sephardic

(Spanish) Jew, in his Code neglected Ashkenazic (German) customs. These

deficiencies Isserles supplied, and the notes of Rema are now included

in all editions of Qaro's Code.

ISSOIRE, a town of central France, capital of an arrondissement in the

department of Puy-de-Dome, on the Couze, near its junction with the

Allier, 22 m. S.S.E. of Clermont-Ferrand on the Paris-Lyon-Mediterranee

railway to Nimes. Pop. (1906) 5274. Issoire is situated in the fertile

plain of Limagne. The streets in the older part of the town are narrow

and crooked, but in the newer part there are several fine tree-shaded

promenades, while a handsome boulevard encircles the town. The church of

St Paul or St Austremoine built on the site of an older chapel raised

over the tomb of St Austremoine (Stremonius) affords an excellent

specimen of the Romanesque architecture of Auvergne. Issoire is the seat

of a sub-prefect; its public institutions include tribunals of first

instance and commerce and a communal college. Brewing, wool-carding and

the manufacture of passementerie, candles, straw hats and woollen goods

are carried on. There is trade in lentils and other agricultural

products, in fruit and in wine.

Issoire (_Iciodurum_) is said to have been founded by the Arverni, and

in Roman times rose to some reputation for its schools. In the 5th

century the Christian community established there by Stremonius in the

3rd century was overthrown by the fury of the Vandals. During the

religious wars of the Reformation, Issoire suffered very severely.

Merle, the leader of the Protestants, captured the town in 1574, and

treated the inhabitants with great cruelty. The Roman Catholics retook

it in 1577, and the ferocity of their retaliation may be inferred from

the inscription "_Ici fut Issoire_" carved on a pillar which was raised

on the site of the town. In the contest between the Leaguers and Henry

IV., Issoire sustained further sieges, and never wholly regained its

early prosperity.

ISSOUDUN, a town of central France, capital of an arrondissement in the

department of Indre, on the right bank of the Theols, 17 m. N.E. of

Chateauroux by rail. Pop. (1906) 10,566. Among the interesting buildings

are the church of St Cyr, combining various architectural styles, with a

fine porch and window, and the chapel of the Hotel Dieu of the early

16th century. Of the fortifications with which the town was formerly

surrounded, a town-gate of the 16th century and the White Tower, a lofty

cylindrical building of the reign of Philip Augustus, survive. Issoudun

is the seat of a sub-prefecture, and has tribunals of first instance and

of commerce, a chamber of arts and manufactures and a communal college.

The industries, of which the most important is leather-dressing, also

include malting and brewing and the manufacture of bristles for brushes

and parchment. Trade is in grain, live-stock, leather and wine.

Issoudun, in Latin _Exoldunum_ or _Uxellodunum_, existed in and before

Roman times. In 1195 it was stoutly and successfully defended by the

partizans of Richard Coeur-de-Lion against Philip Augustus, king of

France. It has suffered severely from fires. A very destructive one in

1651 was the result of an attack on the town in the war of Fronde; Louis

XIV. rewarded its fidelity to him during that struggle by the grant of

several privileges.

ISSYK-KUL, also called TUZ-KUL, and by the Mongols _Temurtu-nor_, a lake

of Central Asia, lying in a deep basin (5400 ft. above sea-level),

between the Kunghei Ala-tau and the Terskei Ala-tau, westward

continuations of the Tian-shan mountains, and extending from 76 deg. 10'

to 78 deg. 20' E. The length from W.S.W. to E.N.E. is 115 m. and the

breadth 38 m., the area being estimated at 2230 sq. m. The name is

Kirghiz for "warm lake," and, like the Chinese synonym She-hai, has

reference to the fact that the lake is never entirely frozen over. On

the south the Terskei Ala-tau do not come down so close to the shore as

the mountains on the north, but leave a strip 5 to 13 m. broad. The

margins of the lake are overgrown with reeds. The water is brackish.

Fish are remarkably abundant, the principal species being carp.

It was by the route beside this lake that the tribes (e.g. Yue-chi)

driven from China by the Huns found their way into the Aralo-Caspian

basin in the end of the 2nd century. The Ussuns or Uzuns settled on the

lake and built the town of Chi-gu, which still existed in the 5th

century. It is to Hsuan-tsang, the Chinese Buddhist pilgrim, that we are

indebted for the first account of Issyk-kul based on personal

observation. In the beginning of the 14th century Nestorian Christians

reached the lake and founded a monastery on the northern shore,

indicated on the Catalan map of 1374. It was not till 1856 that the

Russians made acquaintance with the district.

ISTAHBANAT, a town and district of Persia in the province of Fars. The

district, which is very fertile, extends for nearly 50 m. east and west

along the southern shore of the Bakhtegan lake and produces much grain,

cotton, good tobacco and excellent fruit, particularly pomegranates and

grapes, walnuts and figs. The town is situated in the midst of a plain

12 m. from the eastern corner of the lake and about 100 m. S.E. of

Shiraz, and has a population of about 10,000. It occupies the site of

the ancient city of Ij, the capital of the old province of Shabankareh,

which was captured and partly destroyed by Mubariz ed-din, the founder

of the Muzaffarid dynasty, in 1355. When rebuilt it became known by its

present name. Of the old period a ruined mosque and two colleges remain;

other mosques and colleges are of recent construction. At the entrance

of the town stands a noble chinar (oriental plane), measuring 45 ft. in

circumference at 2 ft. from the ground.

ISTHMUS (Gr. [Greek: isthmos], neck), a narrow neck of land connecting

two larger portions of land that are otherwise separated by the sea.

ISTRIA (Ger. _Istrien_), a margraviate and crownland of Austria, bounded

N. by the Triestine territory, Gorz and Gradisca, and Carniola, E. by

Croatia and S. and W. by the Adriatic; area 1908 sq. m. It comprises the

peninsula of the same name (area 1545 sq. m.), which stretches into the

Adriatic Sea between the Gulf of Trieste and the Gulf of Quarnero, and

the islands of Veglia, Cherso, Lussino and others. The coast line of

Istria extends for 267 m., including Trieste, and presents many good

bays and harbours. Besides the great Gulf of Trieste, the coast is

indented on the W. by the bays of Muggia, Capodistria, Pirano, Porto

Quieto and Pola, and on the E. by those of Medolino, Arsa, Fianona and

Volosca. A great portion of Istria belongs to the Karst region, and is

occupied by the so-called Istrian plateau, flanked on the north and east

by high mountains, which attain in the Monte Maggiore an altitude of

4573 ft. In the south and west the surface gradually slopes down in

undulating terraces towards the Adriatic. The Quieto in the west and the

Arsa in the east, neither navigable, are the principal streams. The

climate of Istria, although it varies with the varieties of surface, is

on the whole warm and dry. The coasts are exposed to the prevailing

winds, namely the _Sirocco_ from the south-south-east, and the _Bora_

from the north-east. Of the total area 33.21% is occupied by forests,

32.09% by pastures, 11.2% by arable land, 9.5% by vineyards, 7.21% by

meadows and 3.26% by gardens. The principal agricultural products are

wheat, maize, rye, oats and fruit, namely olives, figs and melons.

Viticulture is well developed, and the best sorts of wine are produced

near Capodistria, Muggia, Isola, Parenzo and Dignano, while well-known

red wines are made near Refosco and Terrano. The oil of Istria was

already famous in Roman times. Cattle-breeding is another great source

of revenue, and the exploitation of the forests gives beech and oak

timber (good for shipbuilding), gall-nuts, oak-bark and cork. Fishing,

the recovery of salt from the sea-water, and shipbuilding constitute the

other principal occupations of the population. Istria had in 1900 a

population of 344,173, equivalent to 180 inhabitants per square mile.

Two-thirds of the population were Slavs and the remainder Italians,

while nearly the whole of the inhabitants (99.6%) were Roman Catholics,

under the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of three bishops. The local Diet,

which meets at Parenzo, and of which the three bishops are members

_ex-officio_, is composed of 33 members, and Istria sends 5 deputies to

the Reichsrat at Vienna. For administrative purposes the province is

divided into 6 districts and an autonomous municipality, Rovigno (pop.

10,205). Other important places are Pola (45,052), Capodistria (10,711),

Pinguente (15,827), Albona (10,968), Isola (7500), Parenzo (9962),

Dignano (9684), Castua (17,988), Pirano (13,339) and Mitterburg

(16,056).

The modern Istria occupies the same position as the ancient Istria or

Histria, known to the Romans as the abode of a fierce tribe of Illyrian

pirates. It owed its name to an old belief that the Danube (Ister, in

Greek) discharged some of its water by an arm entering the Adriatic in

that region. The Istrians, protected by the difficult navigation of

their rocky coasts, were only subdued by the Romans in 177 B.C. after

two wars. Under Augustus the greater part of the peninsula was added to

Italy, and, when the seat of empire was removed to Ravenna, Istria

reaped many benefits from the proximity of the capital. After the fall

of the Western empire it was pillaged by the Longobardi and the Goths;

it was annexed to the Frankish kingdom by Pippin in 789; and about the

middle of the 10th century it fell into the hands of the dukes of

Carinthia. Fortune after that, however, led it successively through the

hands of the dukes of Meran, the duke of Bavaria and the patriarch of

Aquileia, to the republic of Venice. Under this rule it remained till

the peace of Campo Formio in 1797, when Austria acquired it, and added

it to the north-eastern part which had fallen to her share so early as

1374. By the peace of Pressburg, Austria was in 1805 compelled to cede

Istria to France, and the department of Istria was formed; but in 1813

Austria again seized it, and has retained it ever since.

See T. G. Jackson, _Dalmatia, the Quarnero and Istria_ (Oxford, 1887).

ISYLLUS, a Greek poet, whose name was rediscovered in the course of

excavations on the site of the temple of Asclepius at Epidaurus. An

inscription was found engraved on stone, consisting of 72 lines of verse

(trochaic tetrameters, hexameters, ionics), mainly in the Doric dialect.

It is preceded by two lines of prose stating that the author was

Isyllus, an Epidaurian, and that it was dedicated to Asclepius and

Apollo of Malea. It contains a few political remarks, showing general

sympathy with an aristocratic form of government; a self-congratulatory

notice of the resolution, passed at the poet's instigation, to arrange a

solemn procession in honour of the two gods; a paean (no doubt for use

in the procession), chiefly occupied with the genealogical relations of

Apollo and Asclepius; a poem of thanks for the assistance rendered to

Sparta by Asclepius against Philip, when he led an army against Sparta

to put down the monarchy. The offer of assistance was made by the god

himself to the youthful poet, who had entered the Asclepieum to pray for

recovery from illness, and communicated the good news to the Spartans.

The Philip referred to is identified with (a) Philip II. of Macedon, who

invaded Peloponnesus after the battle of Chaeronea in 338, or (b) with

Philip III., who undertook a similar campaign in 218.

Wilamowitz-Mollendorff, who characterizes Isyllus as a "poetaster

without talent and a farcical politician," has written an elaborate

treatise on him (Kiessling and Mollendorff, _Philosophische

Untersuchungen_, Heft 9, 1886), containing the text with notes, and

essays on the political condition of Peloponnesus and the cult of

Asclepius. The inscription was first edited by P. Kavvadias (1885),

and by J. F. Baunack in _Studien auf dem Gebiete der griechischen und

der arischen Sprachen_ (1886).

ITACOLUMITE, the name given to a variety of porous yellow sandstone or

quartzose schist, which occurs at Itacolumi, in the southern portion of

Minas Geraes, Brazil. This rock is of interest for two reasons; it is

believed to be the source of the diamonds which are found in great

numbers in the district, and it is the best and most widely known

example of a flexible sandstone. Itacolumite is yellow or pale-brown,

and splits readily into thin flat slabs. It is a member of a metamorphic

series, being accompanied by clay-slate, mica schist, hornblende schist

and various types of ferriferous schists. In many places itacolumite is

really a coarse grit or fine conglomerate. Other quartzites occur in the

district, and there is some doubt whether the diamantiferous sandstones

are always itacolumites and also as to the exact manner in which the

presence of diamond in these rocks is to be accounted for. Some

authorities hold that the diamond has been formed in certain quartz

veins which traverse the itacolumite. It is clear, however, that the

diamonds are found only in those streams which contain the detritus of

this rock.

On the split faces of the slabs, scales of greenish mica are visible,

but in other respects the rock seems to be remarkably pure. If a piece

which is a foot or two long and half an inch thick be supported at its

ends it will gradually bend by its own weight. If it then be turned

over it will straighten and bend in the opposite direction. Flakes a

millimetre or two thick can be bent between the fingers and are said

to give out a creaking sound. It should be noted that specimens

showing this property form only a small part of the whole mass of the

rock. Flexible rocks have also been reported and described from North

and South Carolina, Georgia, Delhi, and from the north of England

(Durham). They are mostly sandstones or quartzites, but the Durham

rock is a variety of the magnesian limestone of that district.

Some discussion has taken place regarding the cause of the

flexibility. At one time it was ascribed to the presence of thin

scales of mica which were believed to permit a certain amount of

motion between adjacent grains of quartz. More probably, however it is

due to the porous character of the rock together with the interlocking

junctions between the sand grains. The porosity allows interstitial

movement, while the hinge-like joints by which the particles are

connected hold them together in spite of the displacement. These

features are dependent to some extent on weathering, as the rocks

contain perishable constituents which are removed and leave open

cavities in their place, while at the same time additional silica may

have been deposited on the quartz grains fitting their irregular

surfaces more perfectly together. Most of the known flexible rocks are

also fine-grained; in some cases they are said to lose their

flexibility after being dried for some time, probably because of the

hardening of some interstitial substance, but many specimens kept in a

dry atmosphere for years retain this property in a high degree.

(J. S. F.)

ITAGAKI, TAISUKE, COUNT (1837- ), Japanese statesman, was born in Tosa

in 1837. He distinguished himself originally as one of the soldier

politicians who contributed so much to the overthrow of feudalism and

the restoration of the administrative power to the throne. After taking

a prominent part in subduing the resistance offered by a section of the

_shogun's_ feudatories to those changes, he received cabinet rank in the

newly organized system. But in 1873 he resigned his portfolio as a

protest against the ministry's resolve to refrain from warlike action

against Korea. This incident inspired Itagaki with an apprehension that

the country was about to pass under the yoke of a bureaucratic

government. He became thenceforth a warm advocate of constitutional

systems, though at the outset he does not seem to have contemplated

anything like a popular assembly in the English sense of the term, his

ideas being limited to the enfranchisement of the _samurai_ class.

Failing to obtain currency for his radical propaganda, he retired to his

native province, and there established a school (the _Risshi-sha_) for

teaching the principles of government by the people, thus earning for

himself the epithet of "the Rousseau of Japan." His example found

imitators. Not only did pupils flock to Tosa from many quarters,

attracted alike by the novelty of Itagaki's doctrines, by his eloquence

and by his transparent sincerity, but also similar schools sprang up

among the former vassals of other fiefs, who saw themselves excluded

from the government. In 1875 no less than seven of these schools sent

deputies to hold a convention in Osaka, and for a moment an appeal to

force seemed possible. But the statesmen in power were not less

favourable to constitutional institutions than the members of the

_Aikoku Ko-to_ (public party of patriots), as Itagaki and his followers

called themselves. A conference attended by Kido, Okubo, Inouye, Ito,

Itagaki and others entered into an agreement by which they pledged

themselves to the principle of a constitutional monarchy and a

legislative assembly. Itagaki now accepted office once more. Finding,

however, that his colleagues in the administration favoured a much more

leisurely rate of progress than he himself advocated, he once more

retired into private life (1876) and renewed his liberal propagandism.

It is in the nature of such movements to develop violent phases, and the

leaders of the _Aikoku-sha_ (patriotic association), as the agitators

now called themselves, not infrequently showed disregard for the

preservation of peace and order. Itagaki made the mistake of

memorializing the government at the moment when its very existence was

imperilled by the Satsuma rebellion (1877), and this evident disposition

to take advantage of a great public peril went far to alienate the

sympathies of the cabinet. Recourse was had to legislation in restraint

of free speech and public meeting. But repression served only to provoke

opposition. Throughout 1879 and 1880 Itagaki's followers evinced no

little skill in employing the weapons of local association, public

meetings and platform tours, and in November 1881 the first genuine

political party was formed in Japan under the name of _Jiyu-to_, with

Itagaki for declared leader. A year later the emperor announced that a

parliamentary system should be inaugurated in 1891, and Itagaki's task

might be said to have been accomplished. Thenceforth he devoted himself

to consolidating his party. In the spring of 1882, he was stabbed by a

fanatic during the reception given in the public park at Gifu. The words

he addressed to his would-be assassin were: "Itagaki may perish, but

liberty will survive." Once afterwards (1898) he held office as minister

of home affairs, and in 1900 he stepped down from the leadership of the

_Jiyu-to_ in order that the latter might form the nucleus of the

_Seiyu-kai_ organized by Count Ito. Itagaki was raised to the nobility

with the title of "count" in 1887. From the year 1900 he retired into

private life, devoting himself to the solution of socialistic problems.

His countrymen justly ascribe to him the fame of having been the first

to organize and lead a political party in Japan.

ITALIAN LANGUAGE.[1] The Italian language is the language of culture in

the whole of the present kingdom of Italy, in some parts of Switzerland

(the canton of Ticino and part of the Grisons), in some parts of the

Austrian territory (the districts of Trent and Gorz, Istria along with

Trieste, and the Dalmatian coast), and in the islands of Corsica[2] and

Malta. In the Ionian Islands, likewise, in the maritime cities of the

Levant, in Egypt, and more particularly in Tunis, this literary language

is extensively maintained through the numerous Italian colonies and the

ancient traditions of trade.

The Italian language has its native seat and living source in Middle

Italy, or more precisely Tuscany and indeed Florence. For real

linguistic unity is far from existing in Italy; in some respects the

variety is less, in others more observable than in other countries which

equally boast a political and literary unity. Thus, for example, Italy

affords no linguistic contrast so violent as that presented by Great

Britain with its English dialects alongside of the Celtic dialects of

Ireland, Scotland and Wales, or by France with the French dialects

alongside of the Celtic dialects of Brittany, not to speak of the Basque

of the Pyrenees and other heterogeneous elements. The presence of not a

few Slavs stretching into the district of Udine (Friuli), of Albanian,

Greek and Slav settlers in the southern provinces, with the Catalans of

Alghero (Sardinia, v. _Arch. glott._ ix. 261 et seq.), a few Germans at

Monte Rosa and in some corners of Venetia, and a remnant or two of other

comparatively modern immigrations is not sufficient to produce any such

strong contrast in the conditions of the national speech. But, on the

other hand, the Neo-Latin dialects which live on side by side in Italy

differ from each other much more markedly than, for example, the English

dialects or the Spanish; and it must be added that, in Upper Italy

especially, the familiar use of the dialects is tenaciously retained

even by the most cultivated classes of the population.

In the present rapid sketch of the forms of speech which occur in modern

Italy, before considering the Tuscan or Italian _par excellence_, the

language which has come to be the noble organ of modern national

culture, it will be convenient to discuss (A) dialects connected in a

greater or less degree with Neo-Latin systems that are not peculiar to

Italy;[3] (B) dialects which are detached from the true and proper

Italian system, but form no integral part of any foreign Neo-Latin

system; and (C) dialects which diverge more or less from the true

Italian and Tuscan type, but which at the same time can be conjoined

with the Tuscan as forming part of a special system of Neo-Latin

dialects.

A. _Dialects which depend in a greater or less degree on Neo-Latin

systems not peculiar to Italy._

1. _Franco-Provencal and Provencal Dialects._--(a) _Franco-Provencal_

(see Ascoli, _Arch. glott._ iii. 61-120; Suchier, in _Grundriss der

romanischen Philologie_, 2nd ed., i. 755, &c.; Nigra, _Arch. glott._

iii. 1 sqq.; Salvioni, _Rendic. istit. lomb._, s. ii. vol. xxxvii.

1043 sqq.; Cerlogne, _Dictionnaire du patois valdotain_ (Aosta, 1907).

These occupy at the present time very limited areas at the extreme

north-west of the kingdom of Italy. The system stretches from the

borders of Savoy and Valais into the upper basin of the Dora Baltea

and into the head-valleys of the Orco, of the northern Stura, and of

the Dora Riparia. As this portion is cut off by the Alps from the rest

of the system, the type is badly preserved; in the valleys of the

Stura and the Dora Riparia, indeed, it is passing away and everywhere

yielding to the Piedmontese. The most salient characteristic of the

Franco-Provencal is the phonetic phenomenon by which the Latin _a_,

whether as an accented or as an unaccented final, is reduced to a thin

vowel (_e_, _i_) when it follows a sound which is or has been palatal,

but on the contrary is kept intact when it follows a sound of another

sort. The following are examples from the Italian side of these Alps:

AOSTA: _travalji_, Fr. travailler; _zarzi_, Fr. charger; _enteruzi_,

Fr. interroger; _zevra_, Fr. chevre; _zir_, Fr. cher; _gljace_, Fr.

glace; _vazze_, Fr. vache; alongside of _sa_, Fr. sel; _man_, Fr.

main; _epousa_, Fr. epouse; _erba_, Fr. herbe. VAL. SOANA: _taljer_,

Fr. tailler; _coci-sse_, Fr. se coucher; _cin_, Fr. chien; _civra_,

Fr. chevre; _vacci_, Fr. vache; _mangi_, Fr. manche; alongside of

_alar_, Fr. aller; _porta_, Fr. porte; _amara_, Fr. amere; _neva_, Fr.

neuve. CHIAMORIO (Val di Lanzo): _la spranssi dla vendeta_, sperantia

de illa vindicta. VIU: _pansci_, pancia. USSEGLIO: _la muragli_,

muraille. A morphological characteristic is the preservation of that

paradigm which is legitimately traced back to the Latin pluperfect

indicative, although possibly it may arise from a fusion of this

pluperfect with the imperfect subjunctive (amaram, amarem, alongside

of habueram, haberem), having in Franco-Provencal as well as in

Provencal and in the continental Italian dialects in which it will be

met with further on (C. 3, b; cf. B. 2) the function of the

conditional. VAL SOANA: _portaro_, _portare_, _portaret_; _portaront_;

AOSTA: _avre_ = Prov. _agra_, haberet (see _Arch._ iii. 31 _n_). The

final _t_ in the third persons of this paradigm in the Val Soana

dialect is, or was, constant in the whole conjugation, and becomes in

its turn a particular characteristic in this section of the

Franco-Provencal. VAL SOANA: _eret_, Lat. erat; _sejt_, sit; _portet_,

_portavet_; _portont_, _portavont_; CHIAMORIO: _jeret_, erat; _ant

dit_, habent dictum; _ejssount fet_, habuissent factum; VIU: _che

s'minget_, Ital. che si mangi: GRAVERE (Val di Susa): _at pensa_, ha

pensato; _avat_, habebat; GIAGLIONE (sources of the Dora Riparia);

_maciavont_, mangiavano.--From the valleys, where, as has just been

said, the type is disappearing, a few examples of what is still

genuine Franco-Provencal may be subjoined: _Civreri_ (the name of a

mountain between the Stura and the Dora Riparia), which, according to

the regular course of evolution, presupposes a Latin _Capraria_ (cf.

_maneri_, maniera, even in the Chiamorio dialect); _carasti_

(_ciarasti_), carestia, in the Viu dialect; and _cinta_, cantare, in

that of Usseglio. From CHIAMORIO, _li tens_, i tempi, and _chejches

birbes_, alcune (qualche) birbe, are worthy of mention on account of

the final _s_. [In this connexion should also be mentioned the

Franco-Provencal colonies of Transalpine origin, Faeto and Celle, in

Apulia (_v._ Morosi, _Archivio glottologico_, xii. 33-75), the

linguistic relations of which are clearly shown by such examples as

_talij_, Ital. tagliare; _banij_, Ital. bagnare; side by side with

_canta_, Ital. cantare; _lua_, Ital. levare.]

(b) _Provencal_ (see _La Lettura_ i. 716-717, _Romanische Forschungen_

xxiii. 525-539).--Farther south, but still in the same western

extremity of Piedmont, phenomena continuous with those of the Maritime

Alps supply the means of passing from the Franco-Provencal to the

Provencal proper, precisely as the same transition takes place beyond

the Cottian Alps in Dauphine almost in the same latitude. On the

Italian side of the Cottian and the Maritime Alps the Franco-Provencal

and the Provencal are connected with each other by the continuity of

the phenomenon _c_ (a pure explosive) from the Latin _c_ before _a_.

At OULX (sources of the Dora Riparia), which seems, however, to have a

rather mixed dialect, there also occurs the important Franco-Provencal

phenomenon of the surd interdental (English _th_ in _thief_) instead

of the surd sibilant (for example _ithi_ = Fr. ici). At the same time

_agu_ = avuto, takes us to the Provencal. [If, in addition to the

Provencal characteristic of which _agu_ is an example, we consider

those characteristics also Provencal, such as the _o_ for _a_ final

unaccented, the preservation of the Latin diphthong _au_, _p_ between

vowels preserved as _b_, we shall find that they occur, together or

separately, in all the Alpine varieties of Piedmont, from the upper

valleys of the Dora Riparia and Clusone to the Colle di Tenda. Thus at

FENESTRELLE (upper valley of the Clusone): _agu_, _vengu_, Ital.

venuto; _pauc_, Lat. _paucu_, Ital. poco; _ariba_ (Lat. _ripa)_, Ital.

arrivare; _truba_, Ital. trovare; _ciabrin_, Ital. capretto; at OULX

(source of the Dora Riparia): _agu_, _vengu_; _uno gran famino e

venuo_, Ital. una gran fame e venuta; at GIAGLIONE: _auvou_, Ital. odo

(Lat. _audio_); _arriba_, _resebu_, Ital. ricevuto (Lat. _recipere_);

at ONCINO (source of the Po): _agu_, _vengu_; _ero en campagno_, Ital.

"era in campagna"; _donavo_, Ital. dava; _paure_, Lat. _pauper_, Ital.

povero; _truba_, _ciabri_; at SANPEYRE (valley of the Varaita): _agu_,

_volgu_, Ital. voluto; _pressioso_, Ital. preziosa; _fasio_, Ital.

faceva; _trobar_; at ACCEGLIO (valley of the Macra): _venghess_, Ital.

venisse; _virro_, Ital. ghiera; _chesto allegrio_, Ital. questa

allegria; _ero_, Ital. era; _troba_; at CASTELMAGNO (valley of the

Grana): _gu_, _vengu_; _rabbio_, Ital. rabbia; _trubar_; at VINADIO

(valley of the southern Stura); _agu_, _beigu_, Ital. bevuto;

_cadeno_, Ital. catena; _manggo_, Ital. manica; _canto_, Ital. canta;

_pau_, _auvi_, Ital. udito; _sabe_, Ital. sapete; _trobar_; at

VALDIERI and ROASCHIA (valley of the Gesso): _purgu_, Ital. potuto;

_pjagu_, Ital. piaciuto; _corrogu_, Ital. corso; _pau_; _arriba_,

_ciabri_; at LIMONE (Colle di Tenda): _agu_, _vengu_; _saber_, Ital.

sapere; _aruba_, _trubava_. Provencal also, though of a character

rather Transalpine (like that of Dauphine) than native, are the

dialects of the Vaudois population above Pinerolo (_v._ Morosi, _Arch.

glott._ xi. 309-416), and their colonies of Guardia in Calabria (ib.

xi. 381-393) and of Neu-Hengstett and Pinache-Serres in Wurttemberg

(ib. xi. 393-398). The Vaudois literary language, in which is written

the _Nobla Leyczon_, has, however, no direct connexion with any of the

spoken dialects; it is a literary language, and is connected with

literary Provencal, the language of the _troubadours_; see W.

Foerster, _Gottingische gelehrte Anzeigen_ (1888) Nos. 20-21.]

2. _Ladin Dialects_ (Ascoli, _Arch. glott._ i., iv. 342 sqq., vii. 406

sqq.; Gartner, _Ratoromanische Grammatik_ (Heilbronn, 1883), and in

_Grundriss der romanischen Philologie_, 2nd ed., i. 608 sqq.;

Salvioni, _Arch. glott._ xvi. 219 sqq.).--The purest of the Ladin

dialects occur on the northern versant of the Alps in the Grisons

(Switzerland), and they form the western section of the system. To

this section also belongs both politically and in the matter of

dialect the valley of Munster (Monastero); it sends its waters to the

Adige, and might indeed consequently be geographically considered

Italian, but it slopes towards the north. In the central section of

the Ladin zone there are two other valleys which likewise drain into

tributaries of the Adige, but are also turned towards the north,--the

valleys of the Gardena and Gadera, in which occurs the purest Ladin

now extant in the central section. The valleys of Munster, the Gardena

and the Gadera may thus be regarded as inter-Alpine, and the question

may be left open whether or not they should be included even

geographically in Italy. There remain, however, within what are

strictly Italian limits, the valleys of the Noce, the Avisio, the

Cordevole, and the Boite, and the upper basin of the Piave (Comelico),

in which are preserved Ladin dialects, more or less pure, belonging to

the central section of the Ladin zone or belt. To Italy belongs,

further, the whole eastern section of the zone composed of the

Friulian territories. It is by far the most populous, containing about

500,000 inhabitants. The Friulian region is bounded on the north by

the Carnic Alps, south by the Adriatic, and west by the eastern rim of

the upper basin of the Piave and the Livenza; while on the east it

stretches into the eastern versant of the basin of the Isonzo, and,

further the ancient dialect of Trieste was itself Ladin (_Arch.

glott._ x. 447 et seq.). The Ladin element is further found in greater

or less degree throughout an altogether Cis-Alpine "amphizone," which

begins at the western slopes of Monte Rosa, and is to be noticed more

particularly in the upper valley of the Ticino and the upper valley of

the Liro and of the Mera on the Lombardy versant, and in the Val

Fiorentina and central Cadore on the Venetian versant. The Ladin

element is clearly observable in the most ancient examples of the

dialects of the Venetian estuary (_Arch._ i. 448-473). The main

characteristics by which the Ladin type is determined may be

summarized as follows: (1) the guttural of the formulae _c_ + _a_ and

_g_ + _a_ passes into a palatal; (2) the _l_ of the formulae _pl_,

_cl_, &c., is preserved; (3) the _s_ of the ancient terminations is

preserved; (4) the accented _e_ in position breaks into a diphthong;

(5) the accented _o_ in position breaks into a diphthong; (6) the form

of the diphthong which comes from short accented _o_ or from the _o_

of position is _ue_ (whence _ue_, _o_); (7) long accented _e_ and

short accented _i_ break into a diphthong, the purest form of which is

sounded _ei_; (8) the accented _a_ tends, within certain limits, to

change into _e_, especially if preceded by a palatal sound; (9) the

long accented _u_ is represented by _u_. These characteristics are all

foreign to true and genuine Italian. _Carn_, carne; _spelunca_,

spelunca; _clefs_, claves; _fuormas_, formae; _infiern_, infernu;

_ordi_, hordeu; _mod_, modu; _plain_, plenu; _pail_, pilu; _quael_,

quale; _pur_, puru--may be taken as examples from the Upper Engadine

(western section of the zone). The following are examples from the

central and eastern sections on the Italian versant:--

a. _Central Section_.--BASIN OF THE NOCE: examples of the dialect of

Fondo: _cavel_, capillu; _pescador_, piscatore; _pluevia_, pluvia

(plovia); _pluma_ (dial. of Val de Rumo: _plovia_, _plumo_); _vecla_,

vetula; _cantes_, cantas. The dialects of this basin are

disappearing.--BASIN OF THE AVISIO: examples of the dialect of the Val

di Fassa: _carn_, carne; _cezer_, cadere (cad-jere); _vaca_, vacca;

_forca_, furca; _glezia_ (_gezia_), ecclesia; _oeglje_ (_oeje_),

oculi; _cans_, canes; _rames_, rami; _teila_, tela; _neif_, nive;

_coessa_, coxa. The dialects of this basin which are farther west than

Fassa are gradually being merged in the Veneto-Tridentine

dialects.--BASIN OF THE CORDEVOLE: here the district of Livinal-Lungo

(Buchenstein) is Austrian politically, and that of Rocca d' Agordo and

Laste is Italian. Examples of the dialect of Livinal-Lungo: _carie_,

Ital. caricare; _cante_, cantatus; _ogle_, oculu; _cans_, canes;

_caveis_, capilli; _vierm_, verme; _fuoc_, focu; _avei_, habere;

_nei_, nive.--BASIN OF THE BOITE: here the district of Ampezzo

(Heiden) is politically Austrian, that of Oltrechiusa Italian.

Examples of the dialect of Ampezzo are _casa_, casa; _candera_,

candela; _forces_, furcae, pl.; _sentes_, sentis. It is a decadent

form.--UPPER BASIN OF THE PIAVE: dialect of the Comelico: _cesa_,

casa; _cen_ (can), cane; _calje_, caligariu; _bos_, boves; _noevo_,

novu; _loego_, locu.

b. _Eastern Section or Friulian Region_.--Here there still exists a

flourishing "Ladinity," but at the same time it tends towards Italian,

particularly in the want both of the _e_ from _a_ and of the _u_ (and

consequently of the _o_). Examples of the Udine variety: _carr_,

carro; _caval_, caballu; _castiel_, castellu; _force_, furca; _clar_,

claru; _glac_, glacie; _plan_, planu; _colors_, colores; _lungs_,

longi, pl.; _devis_, debes; _vidiel_, vitello; _fieste_, festa;

_puess_, possum; _cuett_, coctu; _uardi_, hordeu.--The most ancient

specimens of the Friulian dialect belong to the 14th century (see

_Arch._ iv. 188 sqq.).

B. _Dialects which are detached from the true and proper Italian system,

but form no integral part of any foreign Neo-Latin system. _

1. Here first of all is the extensive system of the dialects usually

called _Gallo-Italian_, although that designation cannot be considered

sufficiently distinctive, since it would be equally applicable to the

Franco-Provencal (A. 1) and the Ladin (A. 2). The system is subdivided

into four great groups--(a) the _Ligurian_, (b) the _Piedmontese_, (c)

the _Lombard_ and (d) the _Emilian_--the name furnishing on the whole

sufficient indication of the localization and limits.--These groups,

considered more particularly in their more pronounced varieties,

differ greatly from each other; and, in regard to the Ligurian, it was

even denied that it belongs to this system at all (see _Arch._ ii. III

sqq.).--Characteristic of the Piedmontese, the Lombard and the Emilian

is the continual elision of the unaccented final vowels except _a_

(e.g. Turinese _oj_, oculu; Milanese _voc_, voce; Bolognese _vid_,

Ital. vite), but the Ligurian does not keep them company (e.g. Genoese

_oggu_, oculu; _voze_, voce). In the Piedmontese and Emilian there is

further a tendency to eliminate the protonic vowels--a tendency much

more pronounced in the second of these groups than in the first (e.g.

Pied, _dne_, danaro; _vsin_, vicino; _fnoc_, finocchio; Bolognese

_cpra_, disperato). This phenomenon involves in large measure that of

the prothesis of _a_; as, e.g. in Piedmontese and Emilian _armor_,

rumore; Emilian _alvar_, levare, &c. U for the long accented Latin _u_

and _o_ for the short accented Latin _o_ (and even within certain

limits the short Latin _o_ of position) are common to the Piedmontese,

the Ligurian, the Lombard and the northernmost section of the Emilian:

e.g., Turinese, Milanese and Piacentine _dur_, and Genoese _duu_,

duro; Turinese and Genoese _move_, Parmigiane _mover_, and Milanese

_mof_, muovere; Piedmontese _dorm_, dorme; Milanese _volta_, volta.

_Ei_ for the long accented Latin _e_ and for the short accented Latin

_i_ is common to the Piedmontese and the Ligurian, and even extends

over a large part of Emilia: e.g. Turinese and Genoese _avei_, habere,

Bolognese _aveir_; Turinese and Genoese _beive_, bibere, Bolognese

_neiv_, neve. In Emilia and part of Piedmont _ei_ occurs also in the

formulae _en_, _ent_, _emp_; e.g. Bolognese and Modenese _bein_,

_solameint_. In connexion with these examples, there is also the

Bolognese _fein_, Ital. fine, representing the series in which _e_ is

derived from an _i_ followed by _n_, a phenomenon which occurs, to a

greater or less extent throughout the Emilian dialects; in them also

is found, parallel with the _ei_ from _e_, the _ou_ from _o_:

Bolognese _udour_, Ital. odore; _famous_, Ital. famoso; _louv_, lupu.

The system shows a repugnance throughout to _ie_ for the short

accented Latin _e_ (as it occurs in Italian _piede_, &c.); in other

words, this diphthong has died out, but in various fashions;

Piedmontese and Lombard _dec_, dieci; Genoese _deze_ (in some corners

of Liguria, however, occurs _dieze_); Bolognese _dic_, old Bolognese,

_diese_. The greater part of the phenomena indicated above have

"Gallic" counterparts too evident to require to be specially pointed

out. One of the most important traces of Gallic or Celtic reaction is

the reduction of the Latin accented _a_ into _e_ (_a_, &c.), of which

phenomenon, however, no certain indications have as yet been found in

the Ligurian group. On the other hand it remains, in the case of very

many of the Piedmontese dialects, in the _e_ of the infinitives of the

first conjugation: _porte_, portare, &c.; and numerous vestiges of it

are still found in Lombardy (e.g. in Bassa Brianza: _andae_, andato;

_guardae_, guardato; _sae_, sale; see _Arch._ i. 296-298, 536). Emilia

also preserves it in very extensive use: Modenese _ander_, andare;

_ariveda_, arrivata; _pec_, pace; Faenzan _parle_, parlare and

parlato; _parleda_, parlata; _ches_, caso; &c. The phenomenon, in

company with other Gallo-Italian and more specially Emilian

characteristics extends to the valley of the Metauro, and even passes

to the opposite side of the Apennines, spreading on both banks of the

head stream of the Tiber and through the valley of the Chiane: hence

the types _artrover_, ritrovare, _porteto_, portato, &c., of the

Perugian and Aretine dialects (see _infra_ C. 3, b). In the phenomenon

of _a_ passing into _e_ (as indeed, the Gallo-Italic evolution of

other Latin vowels) special distinctions would require to be drawn

between bases in which a (not standing in position) precedes a

non-nasal consonant (e.g. _amato_), and those which have a before a

nasal: and in the latter case there would be a non-positional

subdivision (e.g. _fame_, _pane_) and a positional one (e.g. _quanto_,

_amando_, _campo_); see _Arch._ i. 293 sqq. This leads us to the

nasals, a category of sounds comprising other Gallo-Italic

characteristics. There occurs more or less widely, throughout all the

sections of the system, and in different gradations, that "velar"

nasal in the end of a syllable (_pan, man_; _canta, mont_)[4] which

may be weakened into a simple nasalizing of a vowel (_pa_, &c.) or

even grow completely inaudible (Bergamese _pa_, pane; _padru_,

padrone; _tep_, tempo; _met_, mente; _mut_, monte; _put_, ponte;

_puca_, punta, i.e. "puncta"), where Celtic and especially Irish

analogies and even the frequent use of _t_ for _nt_, &c., in ancient

Umbrian orthography occur to the mind. Then we have the faucal n by

which the Ligurian and the Piedmontese (_lana luna_, &c.) are

connected with the group which we call Franco-Provencal (A. 1).--We

pass on to the "Gallic" resolution of the nexus ct (e.g. _facto_,

fajto, fajtjo. _fait, fac_; _tecto_, tejto, tejtjo, _teit_, _tec_)

which invariably occurs in the Piedmontese, the Ligurian and the

Lombard: Pied, _fait_, Lig. _fajtu_, _faetu_, Lombard _fac_; Pied.

_teit_, Lig. _teitu_, Lom. _tec_; &c. Here it is to be observed that

besides the Celtic analogy the Umbrian also helps us (_adveitu_ =

ad-vecto; &c.). The Piedmontese and Ligurian come close to each other,

more especially by a curious resolution of the secondary hiatus (Gen.

_reize_, Piedm. _rejs_ = _*ra-ice_, Ital. radice) by the regular

dropping of the d both primary and secondary, a phenomenon common in

French (as Piedmontese and Ligurian _rie_, ridere; Piedmontese _pue_,

potare; Genoese _naeghe_ = naighe. natiche, &c.). The Lombard type, or

more correctly the type which has become the dominant one in Lombardy

(_Arch._ i. 305-306, 310-311), is more sparing in this respect; and

still more so is the Emilian. In the Piedmontese and in the Alpine

dialects of Lombardy is also found that other purely Gallic resolution

of the guttural between two vowels by which we have the types _braja_,

_mania_, over against the Ligurian _braga_, _manega_, braca, manica.

Among the phonetic phenomena peculiar to the Ligurian is a continual

reduction (as also in Lombardy and part of Piedmont) of _l_ between

vowels into _r_ and the subsequent dropping of this _r_ at the end of

words in the modern Genoese; just as happens also with the primary

_r_: thus _du_ = durur = dolore, &c. Characteristic of the Ligurian,

but not without analogies in Upper Italy even (_Arch._, ii. 157-158,

ix. 209, 255), is the resolution of _pj_, _bj_, _fj_ into _c, g, s_:

_cu_, piu, plus; _ragga_, rabbia, rabies; _su_, fiore. Finally, the

sounds _s_ and _z_ have a very wide range in Ligurian (_Arch._ ii.

158-159), but are, however, etymologically, of different origin from

the sounds _s_ and _z_ in Lombard. The reduction of _s_ into _h_

occurs in the Bergamo dialects: _hira_, sera; _groh_, grosso;

_cahtel_, castello (see also B.2).--A general phenomenon in

Gallo-Italic phonetics which also comes to have an inflexional

importance is that by which the unaccented final _i_ has an influence

on the accented vowel. This enters into a series of phenomena which

even extends into southern Italy; but in the Gallo-Italic there are

particular resolutions which agree well with the general connexions of

this system. [We may briefly recall the following forms in the plural

and 2nd person singular: old Piedmontese _drayp_ pl. of _drap_, Ital.

drappo; _man_, _meyn_, Ital. mano, -i; _long_, _loyng_, Ital. lungo,

-ghi; Genoese, _kan_, _ken_, Ital. cane, -i; _bun_, _buin_, Ital.

buono, -i; Bolognese, _far_, _fir_, Ital. ferro, -i; _peir_, _pir_,

Ital. pero, -i. _zop_, _zup_, Ital. zoppo, -i; _louv_, _luv_, Ital.

lupo, -i; _vedd_, _vi_, Ital. io vedo, tu vedi; _vojj_, _vu_, Ital. io

voglio, tu vuoi; Milanese _quest_, _quist_, Ital. questo, -i, and, in

the Alps of Lombardy, _pal_, _pel_, Ital. palo, -i; _red_, _rid_,

Ital. rete, -i; _cor_, _cor_, Ital. cuore, -i; _ors_, _urs_, Ital.

orso, -i; _law_, _lew_, Ital. io lavo, tu lavi; _met_, _mit_, Ital. io

metto, tu metti; _mow mow_, Ital. io muovo, tu muovi; _cor_, _cur_,

Ital. io corro, tu corri. [Vicentine _pomo_, _pumi_, Ital. pomo, -i;

_pero_, _pieri = *piri_, Ital. pero, -i; v. _Arch._ i. 540-541; ix.

235 et seq., xiv. 329-330].--Among morphological peculiarities the

first place may be given to the Bolognese _sipa (seppa)_, because,

thanks to Dante and others, it has acquired great literary celebrity.

It really signifies "sia" (sim, sit), and is an analogical form

fashioned on _aepa_, a legitimate continuation of the corresponding

forms of the other auxiliary (habeam, habeat), which is still heard in

_ch'me aepa purtae, ch'lu aepa purtae_, ch'io abbia portato, ch'egli

abbia portato. Next may be noted the 3rd person singular in _-p_ of

the perfect of _esse_ and of the first conjugation in the Forli

dialect (_fop_, fu; _mandep_, mando; &c.). This also must be

analogical, and due to a legitimate _ep_, ebbe (see _Arch._ ii. 401;

and compare _fobbe_, fu, in the dialect of Camerino, in the province

of Macerata, as well as the Spanish analogy of _tuve estuve_ formed

after _hube_). Characteristic of the Lombard dialect is the ending

_-i_ in the 1st person sing. pres. indic. (_mi a porti_, Ital. io

porto); and of Piedmontese, the _-ejca_, as indicating the subjunctive

imperfect (_portejca_, Ital. portassi) the origin of which is to be

sought in imperfects of the type _staesse_, _faesse_ reduced normally

to _stejc_-, _fejc_-. Lastly, in the domain of syntax, may be added

the tendency to repeat the pronoun (e.g. _ti te cantet_ of the

Milanese, which really is _tu tu cantas-tu_, equivalent merely to

"cantas"), a tendency at work in the Emilian and Lombard, but more

particularly pronounced in the Piedmontese. With this the

corresponding tendency of the Celtic languages has been more than once

and with justice compared; here it may be added that the Milanese

_nun_, apparently a single form for "noi," is really a compound or

reduplication in the manner of the _ni-ni_, its exact counterpart in

the Celtic tongues. [From Lombardy, or more precisely, from the

Lombardo-Alpine region extending from the western slopes of Monte Rosa

to the St Gotthard, are derived the Gallo-Italian dialects, now

largely, though not all to the same extent, Sicilianized, from the

Sicilian communes of Sanfratello, Piazza-Armerina, Nicosia, Aidone,

Novara and Sperlinga (v. _Arch. glott._ viii. 304-316, 406-422, xiv.

436-452; _Romania_, xxviii. 409-420; _Memorie dell' Istituto

lombardo_, xxi. 255 et seq.). The dialects of Gombitelli and Sillano

in the Tuscan Apennines are connected with Emilia (_Arch. glott._ xii.

309-354). And from Liguria come those of Carloforte in Sardinia, as

also those of Monaco, and of Mons, Escragnolles and Biot in the French

departments of Var and Alpes Maritimes (_Revue de linguistique_, xiii.

308)]. The literary records for this group go back as far as the 12th

century, if we are right in considering as Piedmontese the

Gallo-Italian Sermons published and annotated by Foerster (_Romanische

Studien_, iv. 1-92). But the documents published by A. Gaudenzi

(_Dial. di Bologna_, 168-172) are certainly Piedmontese, or more

precisely Canavese, and seem to belong to the 13th century. The Chieri

texts date from 1321 (_Miscellanea di filol. e linguistica_, 345-355),

and to the 14th century also belongs the _Grisostomo_ (_Arch. glott._

vii. 1-120), which represents the old Piedmontese dialect of Pavia

(_Bollett. della Soc. pav. di Storia Patria_, ii. 193 et seq.). The

oldest Ligurian texts, if we except the "contrasto" in two languages

of Rambaud de Vaqueiras (12th century _v._ Crescini, _Manualetto

provenzale_, 2nd ed., 287-291), belong to the first decades of the

14th century (_Arch. glott._ xiv. 22 et seq., ii. 161-312, x. 109-140,

viii. 1-97). Emilia has manuscripts going back to the first or second

half of the 13th century, the _Parlamenti_ of Guido Fava (see

Gaudenzi, _op. cit._ 127-160) and the _Regola dei servi_ published by

G. Ferraro (Leghorn, 1875). An important Emilian text, published only

in part, is the Mantuan version of the _De proprietatibus rerum_ of

Bartol. Anglico, made by Vivaldo Belcalzer in the early years of the

14th century (v. Cian. _Giorn. stor. della letteratura italiana_,

supplement, No. 5, and cf. _Rendiconti Istituto Lombardo_, series ii.

vol. xxxv. p. 957 et seq.). For Modena also there are numerous

documents, starting from 1327. For western Lombardy the most ancient

texts (13th century, second half) are the poetical compositions of

Bonvesin de la Riva and Pietro da Bescape, which have reached us only

in the 14th-century copies. For eastern Lombardy we have, preserved in

Venetian or Tuscan versions, and in MSS. of a later date, the works of

Gerardo Patecchio, who lived at Cremona in the first half of the 13th

century. Bergamasc literature is plentiful, but not before the 14th

century (_v. Studi medievali_, i. 281-292; _Giorn. stor. della lett.

ital._ xlvi. 351 et seq.).

2. _Sardinian Dialects._[5]--These are three--the Logudorese or

central, the Campidanese or southern and the Gallurese or northern.

The third certainly indicates a Sardinian basis, but is strangely

disturbed by the intrusion of other elements, among which the Southern

Corsican (Sartene) is by far the most copious. The other two are

homogeneous, and have great affinity with each other; the Logudorese

comes more particularly under consideration here.--The pure Sardinian

vocalism has this peculiarity that each accented vowel of the Latin

appears to be retained without alteration. Consequently there are no

diphthongs representing simple Latin vowels; nor does the rule hold

good which is true for so great a proportion of the Romance languages,

that the representatives of the _e_ and the _i_ on the one hand and

those of the _o_ and the _u_ on the other are normally coincident.

Hence _plenu_ (_e_); _deghe_, decem (_e_); _binu_, vino (_i_); _pilu_

(_i_); _flore_ (_o_); _roda_, rota (_o_); _duru_ (_u_); _nughe_, nuce

(_u_). The unaccented vowels keep their ground well, as has already

been seen in the case of the finals by the examples adduced.--The _s_

and _t_ of the ancient termination are preserved, though not

constantly: _tres_, _onus_, _passados annos_, _plantas_, _faghes_,

facis, _tenemus_; _mulghet_, _mulghent_.--The formulae _ce_, _ci_,

_ge_, _gi_ may be represented by _che_ (_ke_), &c.; but this

appearance of special antiquity is really illusory (see _Arch._ ii.

143-144). The nexus _cl_, &c., may be maintained in the beginning of

words (_claru_, _plus_); but if they are in the body of the word they

usually undergo resolutions which, closely related though they be to

those of Italian, sometimes bring about very singular results (e.g.

_usare_, which by the intermediate forms _uscare_, _usjare_ leads back

to _usclare_ = _ustlare_ = _ustulare_). _Nz_ is the representative of

_nj_ (_testimonzu_, &c.); and _lj_ is reduced to _z_ alone (e.g.

_mezus_, melius; Campidanese _mellus_). For _ll_ a frequent substitute

is _dd_: _massidda_, maxilla, &c. Quite characteristic is the

continual labialization of the formulae _qua_, _gua_, _cu_, _gu_, &c.;

e.g. _ebba_, equa; _sambene_, sanguine (see _Arch._ ii. 143). The

dropping of the primary d (_roere_, rodere, &c.) but not of the

secondary (_finidu_, _sanidade_, _maduru_) is frequent. Characteristic

also is the Logudorese prothesis of _i_ before the initial _s_

followed by a consonant (_iscamnu_, _istella_, _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 of

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 would 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 offers a clear example. This dialect is accustomed

to drop the _v_, whether primary or secondary, between vowels in the

individual vocables (_caa_, cavare; _faa_, fava, &c.), but to preserve

it if it is preceded by a consonant (_serva_, &c.).--And similarly 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 _su oe_, il bove, alongside of _sos boes_, i. buoi (cf.

_biere_, bibere; _erba_).--The article is derived from _ipse_ instead

of from _ille_: _su sos_, _sa sas_,--again a geographical anticipation

of Spain, which in the Catalan of the Balearic islands still preserves

the article from _ipse_.--A special connexion with Spain exists

besides in the _nomine_ type of inflexion, which is constant among the

Sardinians (Span. _nomne_, &c., whence _nombre_, &c.), _nomen_,

_nomene_, _ramine_, aeramine, _legumene_, &c. (see _Arch._ ii. 429

sqq.).--Especially noteworthy in the conjugation of the verb is the

paradigm _cantere_, _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 as _posi_, _rosi_) by

which _cantesi_, _timesi_ (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: _tennidu_, tenuto;

_parfidu_, parso; _balfidu_, valso; _tennere_, _balere_, &c. (_Arch._

ii. 432-433). The future, finally, shows the unagglutinated

periphrasis: _hapo a mandigare_ (ho a mangiare = manger-o); as indeed

the unagglutinated forms of the future and the conditional occur in

ancient vernacular texts of other Italian districts. [The Campidanese

manuscript, in Greek characters, published by Blancard and Wescher

(_Bibliotheque de l'Ecole des Chartes_, xxxv. 256-257), goes back as

far as the last years of the 11th century. Next come the Cagliari MSS.

published by Solmi (_Le Carte volgari dell' Archivio arcivescovile di

Cagliari_, Florence, 1905; cf. Guarnerio in _Studi romanzi_, fascicolo

iv. 189 et seq.), the most ancient of which in its original form dates

from 1114-1120. For Logoduro, the _Condaghe di S. Pietro di Silchi_

(SS xii.-xiii.), published by G. Bonazzi (Sassari-Cagliari, 1900; cf.

Meyer-Lubke, _Zur Kenntnis des Altlogudoresischen_, Vienna, 1902), is

of the highest importance.]

[3. _Vegliote_ (_Veglioto_).--Perhaps we may not be considered to be

departing from Ascoli's original plan if we insert here as a third

member of the group B the neo-Latin dialect which found its last

refuge in the island of Veglia (Gulf of Quarnero), where it came

definitively to an end in 1898. The Vegliote dialect is the last

remnant of a language which some long time ago extended from thence

along the Dalmatian coast, whence it gained the name of _Dalmatico_, a

language which should be carefully distinguished from the Venetian

dialect spoken to this day in the towns of the Dalmatian littoral. Its

character reminds us in many ways of Rumanian, and of that type of

Romano-Balkan dialect which is represented by the Latin elements of

Albanian, but to a certain extent also, and especially with regard to

the vowel sounds, of the south-eastern dialects of Italy, while it has

also affinities with Friuli, Istria and Venetia. These characteristics

taken altogether seem to suggest that _Dalmatico_ differs as much as

does Sardinian from the purely Italian type. It rejects the -s, it is

true, retaining instead the nominative form in the plural; but here

these facts are no longer a criterion, since in this point Italian and

Rumanian are in agreement. A tendency which we have already noted, and

shall have further cause to note hereafter, and which connects in a

striking way the Vegliote and Abruzzo-Apulian dialects, consists in

reducing the accented vowels to diphthongs: examples of this are:

spuota, Ital. spada; _buarka_, Ital. barca; _fiar_, Ital. ferro;

_nuat_, Ital. notte; _kataina_, Ital. catena; _paira_, Ital. pero;

Lat. _piru_; _jaura_, Ital. ora; _nauk_, Ital. noce; Lat. _nuce_;

_ortaika_, Ital. ortica; _joiva_, Ital. uova. Other vowel phenomena

should also be noted, for example those exemplified in _prut_, Ital.

prato; _dik_, Ital. dieci, Lat. _decem_; _luk_, Ital. luogo, Lat.

_locu_; _krask_, Ital. crescere; _cenk_, Ital. cinque, Lat. _quinque_;

_buka_, Ital. bocca, Lat. _bcca_. With regard to the consonants, we

should first notice the invariable persistence of the explosive surds

(as in Rumanian and the southern dialects) for which several of the

words just cited will serve as examples, with the addition of _kuosa_,

Ital. casa; _praiza_, Ital. presa; _struota_, Ital. strada; _rosuota_,

Ital. rugiada; _latri_, Ital. ladro; _raipa_, Ital. riva. The _c_ in

the formula _ce_, whether primary or secondary, is represented by _k_:

_kaina_, Ital. cena; _kanaisa_, Ital. cinigia; _akait_, Ital. aceto;

_plakar_, Ital. piacere; _dik_, Ital. dieci; _mukna_, Ital. macina;

_dotko_, Ital. dodici; and similarly the _g_ in the formula _ge_ is

represented by the corresponding guttural: _ghelut_, Ital. gelato;

_jongar_, Ital. giungere; _plungre_, Ital. piangere, &c. On the

contrary, the guttural of the primitive formula _cu_ becomes _c_

(_col_, Ital. culo); this phenomenon is also noteworthy as seeming to

justify the inference that the _u_ was pronounced _u_. _Pt_ is

preserved, as in Rumanian (_sapto_, Lat. _septem_), and often, again

as in Rumanian, _ct_ is also reduced to _pt_ (_guapto_, Lat. _octo_).

As to morphology, a characteristic point is the preservation of the

Lat. _cantavero_, Ital. avro cantato, in the function of a simple

future. _Cantaverum_ also occurs as a conditional. For Vegliote and

Dalmatico in general, see M. G. Bartoli's fundamental work, _Das

Dalmatische_ (2 vols., Vienna, 1906), and _Zeitschrift fur roman.

Philologie_, xxxii. 1 sqq.; Merlo, _Rivista di filologia e

d'istruzione class_, xxxv. 472 sqq. A short document written about

1280 in the Dalmatic dialect of Ragusa is to be found in _Archeografo

Triestino_, new series, vol. i. pp. 85-86.]

C. _Dialects which diverge more or less from the genuine Italian or

Tuscan type, but which at the same time can be conjoined with the Tuscan

as forming part of a special system of Neo-Latin dialects_.

1. _Venetian._--Between "Venetian" and "Venetic" several distinctions

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.[6] 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 problem--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 characteristics of the dialects of Upper Italy comprised

under the denomination Gallo-Italic (see B. 1),--neither the _u_ nor

the _o_, nor the velar[7] 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 _o_ (e.g. _cuor_) is heard, and the diphthong of _e_ is

in full currency (_diese_, 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_ (_cruo_, crudo; _sea_, seta, &c.);

the regular reduction of the surd into the sonant guttural (e.g.

_cuogo_, Ital. cuoco, coquus); the pure _c_ in the resolution of _cl_

(e.g. _cave_, clave; _oreca_, auricula); the _s_ for _g_ (_sovene_,

Ital. giovane); _c_ for _s_ and _c_ (_pece_, Ital. pesce; _ciel_,

Ital. cielo). _Lj_ preceded by any vowel, primary or secondary, except

_i_, gives _g_: _famega_, familia. No Italian dialect is more averse

than the Venetian to the doubling of consonants.--In the morphology

the use of the 3rd singular for the 3rd plural also, the analogical

participle in _esto_ (_tasesto_, Ital. taciuto, &c.; see _Arch._ iv.

393, sqq.) and _se_, Lat. _est_, are particularly noteworthy. A

curious double relic of Ladin influence is the interrogative type

represented by the example _credis-tu_, credis tu,--where apart from

the interrogation _ti credi_ would be used. For other ancient sources

relating to Venice, the estuary of Venice, Verona and Padua, see

_Arch._ i. 448, 465, 421-422; iii. 245-247. [Closely akin to Venetian,

though differing from it in about the same degree that the various

Gallo-Italian dialects differ among one another, is the indigenous

dialect of ISTRIA, now almost entirely ousted by Venetian, and found

in a few localities only (Rovigno, Dignano). The most salient

characteristics of Istrian can be recognized in the treatment of the

accented vowels, and are of a character which recalls, to a certain

extent at least, the Vegliote dialect. Thus we have in Istrian _i_ for

_e_ (_bivi_, Ital. bevi, Lat. _bibis_; _tila_, Ital. tela; _viro_,

Ital. vero and vetro, Lat. _veru_, _vitru_; _nito_, Ital. netto, Lat.

_nitidu_, &c.) and analogously _u_ for _o_ (_fiur_, Ital. fiore, Lat.

_flore_; _bus_, Ital. voce, Lat. _voce_, &c.); _ei_ and _ou_ from the

Lat. _i_ and _u_ respectively (_ameigo_, Lat. _amicu_, _feil_, Lat.

_filu_, &c.; _mour_, Lat. _muru_; _noudu_, Lat. _nudu_; _frouto_,

Ital. frutto, Lat. _fructu_, &c.); _ie_ and _uo_ from _e_ and _o_

respectively in position (_piel_, Lat. _pelle_, _mierlo_, Ital. merlo,

Lat. _merula_; _kuorno_, Lat. _cornu_; _puorta_, Lat. _porta_), a

phenomenon in which Istrian resembles not only Vegliote but also

Friulian. The resemblance with Verona, in the reduction of final

unaccented -_e_ to _o_ should also be noted (_nuoto_, Ital. notte,

&c., _bivo_, Ital. _beve_; _malamentro_, Ital. malamente, &c.), and

that with Belluno and Treviso in the treatment of -_oni_, -_ani_

(_barboi_, -_oin_, Ital. barboni), though it is peculiar to Istrian

that -_ain_ should give -_en_ (_kan_, _ken_, Ital. cane -i). With

regard to consonants, we should point out the _n_ for _gn_ (_lino_,

Ital. legno); and as to morphology, we should note certain survivals

of the inflexional type, _amita_, -_anis_ (sing. _sia_, Ital. zia, pl.

_sianne_).] The most ancient Venetian documents take us back to the

first half of the 13th century (v. E. Bertanza and V. Lazzarini, _Il

Dialetto veneziano fino alla morte di Dante Alighieri_, Venice, 1891),

and to the second half of the same century seems to belong the

Saibante MS. For Verona we have also documents of the 13th century (v.

Cipolla, in _Archivio storico italiano_, 1881 and 1882); and to the

end of the same century perhaps belongs the MS. which has preserved

for us the writings of Giacomino da Verona. See also _Archivio

glottologico_, i. 448, 465, 421-422, iii. 245-247.

2. _Corsican_[8]--If the "Venetian," in spite of its peculiar

"Italianity," has naturally special points of contact with the other

dialects of Upper Italy (B. 1), the Corsican in like manner,

particularly in its southern varieties, has special points of contact

with Sardinian proper (B. 2). 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 -_e_ (_latti_,

latte; _li cateni_, le catene), which prevails chiefly in the southern

section, is also found in Northern and 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 _e_ and _o_ (_pe_, _eri_;

_cori_, _fora_): but, unlike Sardinian, it treats _i_ and _u_ in the

Italian fashion: _beju_, bibo; _peveru_, piper; _pesci_; _noci_,

nuces.[9]--It is one of its characteristics to reduce a to e in the

formula _ar_ + a consonant (_cherne_, _berba_, &c.), which should be

compared particularly with the Piedmontese examples of the same

phenomenon (_Arch._ ii. 133, 144-150). But the gerund in _-endu_ of

the first conjugation (_turnendu_, _lagrimendu_, &c.) must on the

contrary be considered as a phenomenon of analogy, as it is especially

recognized 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 like _merchente_, 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 _nantu_. But cf. also, _grendi_, Ital. grande. In Southern

Corsican _dr_ for _ll_ 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.), also with the northern

coast of Tuscany, since examples such as _beddu_ belong also to

Carrara and Montignoso. In the Ultramontane variety occur besides, the

phenomena of _rn_ changed to r (= _rr_) and of _nd_ becoming _nn_

(_furu_, Ital. forno; _koru_, Ital. corno; _kuannu_, Ital. quando;

_vidennu_, Ital. vedendo). The former of these would connect Corsican

with Sardinian (_corru_, cornu; _carre_, carne, &c.); the latter more

especially with Sicily, &c. A particular connexion with the central

dialects is given by the change of _ld_ into _ll_ (_kallu_, Ital.

caldo).--As to phonetic phenomena connected with syntax, already

noticed in B. 2, space admits the following examples only: Cors, _na

vella_, una bella, _e bella_ (_ebbella_, et bella); _lu jallu_, lo

gallo, _gran ghiallu_; cf. _Arch._ ii. 136 (135, 150), xiv. 185. As

Tommaseo has already noted, _-one_ is for the Corsicans not less than

for the Sicilians, Calabrians and the French a termination of

diminution: e.g. _fratedronu_, fratellino.--In the first person of the

conditional the _b_ is maintained (e.g. _farebe_, 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_, riscaldare, _curpiari_, 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 Neapolitan

degradation of the surd into the sonant, are even more frequent than

is shown by the dialect as written, but their disappearance 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 in the

dialects of Upper Italy we should have _seda_, _sea_); and in the

Neapolitan dialects it is reduced to _d_ when it is preceded by _n_ or

_r_ (e.g._ viende_, 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. _viriri_, Neap. dialects _vere_, vedere), a phenomenon

which has been frequently compared, perhaps with too little caution,

with the _d_ passing into _rs_ (_d_) in the Umbrian inscriptions. The

Neapolitan reduction of _nt_ into _nd_ has its analogies in the

reduction of _nc_ (_nk_) into _ng_, and of _mp_ into _mb_, which is

also a feature of the Neapolitan dialects, and in that of _ns_ into

_nz_; and here and there we even find a reduction of _nf_ into _mb_

(_nf_, _nv_, _nb_, _mb_), both in Sicilian and Neapolitan (e.g. at

Casteltermini in Sicily _'mbiernu_, inferno, and in the Abruzzi

_cumbonn'_, _'mbonn'_, confondere, infondere). Here we find ourselves

in a series of phenomena to which it may seem that some special

contributions were furnished by Oscan and Umbrian (_nt_, _mp_, _nc_

into _nd_, &c.), but for which more secure and general, and so to say

"isothermal," analogies are found in modern Greek and Albanian. The

Sicilian does not appear to fit in here as far as the formulae _nt_

and _mp_ are concerned; and it may even be said to go counter to this

tendency by reducing _ng_ and _nz_ to _nc_, _nz_ (e.g. _punciri_,

pungere; _menzu_, Ital. mezzo; _sponza_, Ital. spugna, Ven.

_sponza_).[10] Nay, even in the passing of the sonant into the surd,

the Neapolitan dialects would yield special and important

contributions (nor is even the Sicilian limited to the case just

specified), among which we will only mention the change of _d_ between

vowels into _t_ in the last syllable of proparoxytones (e.g. _ummeto_,

Sicil. _umitu_, umido), and in the formula _dr_ (Sicil. and Neap.

_quatro_, Ital. quadro, &c.). From these series of sonants changing

into surds comes a peculiar feature of the southern dialects.--A

pretty common characteristic is the regular progressive assimilation

by which _nd_ is reduced to _nn_, _ng_ to _nn_, _mb_ to _mm_, and even

_nv_ also to _mm_ (_nv_, _nb_, _mb_, _mm_), e.g. Sicil. _sinniri_,

Neap. _sennere_, scendere; Sicil. _chiummu_, Neap. _chiumme_, piombo;

Sicil. and Neap. _'mmidia_, invidia; Sicil. _sannu_, sangue. As

belonging to this class of phenomena the Palaeo-Italic analogy (_nd_

into _nn_, _n_), of which the Umbrian furnishes special evidence,

readily suggests itself. Another important common characteristic is

the reduction of secondary _pj fj_ into _kj_ (_chianu_ -_e_, Sicil.,

Neap., &c., Ital. piano), _s_ (Sicil. _sumi_, Neap. _summe_, fiume),

of secondary _bj_ to _j_ (which may be strengthened to _ghj_) if

initial (Sicil. _jancu_, Neap. _janche_, bianco; Sicil.

_agghianchiari_, imbiancare), to _l_ if between vowels (Neap.

_neglia_, nebbia, Sicil. _nigliu_, nibbio); of primary _pj_ and _bj_

into _c_ (Sicil. _sicca_, Neap. _secca_, seppia) or _g_ respectively

(Sicil. _ragga_, Neap. _arragga_, rabbia), for which phenomena see

also Genoese (B. 1). Further is to be noted the tendency to the

sibilation of _cj_, for which Sicil. _jazzu_, ghiaccio, may serve as

an example (_Arch._ ii. 149),--a tendency more particularly betrayed

in Upper Italy, but Abruzzan departs from it (cf. Abr. _jacce_,

ghiaccio, _vracce_, braccio, &c.). There is a common inclination also

to elide the initial unaccented palatal vowel, and to prefix _a_,

especially before _r_ (this second tendency is found likewise in

Southern Sardinian, &c.; see _Arch._ ii. 138); e.g. Sicil.

_'ntenniri_, Neap. _'ndennere_, intendere; Sicil. _arriccamari_, Neap.

_arragamare_, ricamare (see _Arch._ ii. 150). Throughout the whole

district, and the adjacent territories in Central Italy, a tendency

also prevails towards resolving certain combinations of consonants by

the insertion of a vowel; thus combinations in which occur _r_ or _l_,

_w_ or _j_ (Sicil. _kiruci_, Ital. croce, _filagutu_, Ital. flauto,

_salivari_, salvare, _variva_, Ital. barba; Abr. _calechene_, Ital.

ganghero, _Salevestre_, Silvestro, _feulemenande_, fulminante,

_jereve_, Ital. erba, &c.; Avellinese _garamegna_, gramigna; Neap.

_avotro_ = _*awtro_, Ital. altro, _cevoza_ = _*cewza_, Ital. gelso,

_ajeta_ side by side with _ajta_, Ital. eta, _odejo_ = _odjo_, Ital.

odio, &c.; Abr. _'nniveje_, indiva, _nebbeje_, nebbia, &c.);

_cattajeve_ = _cattajve_, cattivo, _gouele_ = _*gowle_, gola, &c. &c.,

are examples from Molfetta, where is also normal the resolution of

_sk_ by _sek_ (_mesekere_, maschera, _sekatele_, scatola, &c.); cf.

_seddegno_, sdegno, in some dialects of the province of Avellino. In

complete contrast to the tendency to get rid of double consonants

which has been particularly noted in Venetian (C. 1), we here come to

the great division of Italy where the tendency grows strong to

gemination (or the doubling of consonants), especially in

proparoxytones; and the Neapolitan in this respect goes farther than

the Sicilian (e.g. Sicil. _soggiru_, suocero, _cinniri_, cenere,

_doppu_, dopo; _'nsemmula_, insieme, in-simul; Neap. _dellecato_,

dilicato; _ummeto_, umido; _debbole_).--As to the phonetic phenomena

connected with the syntax (see B. 2), it is sufficient to cite such

Sicilian examples as _nisuna ronna_, nesuna donna, alongside of _c' e

donni_, c' e donne; _cincu jorna_, cinque giorni, alongside of _chiu

ghiorna_, piu giorni; and the Neapolitan _la vocca_, la bocca,

alongside of _a bocca_, ad buccam, &c.

We now proceed to the special consideration, first, of the Sicilian

and, secondly, of the dialects of the mainland.

(a) _Sicilian._--The Sicilian vocalism is conspicuously etymological.

Though differing in colour from the Tuscan, it is not less noble, and

between the two there are remarkable points of contact. The dominant

variety, represented in the literary dialect, ignores the diphthongs

of _e_ and of _o_, as it has been seen that they are ignored in

Sardinia (B. 2), and here also the _i_ and the _u_ appear intact; but

the _e_ and the _o_ are fittingly represented by _i_ and _u_; and with

equal symmetry unaccented _e_ and _o_ are reproduced by _i_ and _u_.

Examples: _teni_, tiene; _novu_, nuovo; _pilu_, pelo; _minnitta_,

Ital. vendetta; _jugu_, giogo; _agustu_, Ital. agosto; _cridiri_,

credere; _vinniri_, Ital. vendere; _sira_, sera; _vina_, vena; _suli_,

Ital. sole; _ura_, ora; _furma_, Ital. forma. In the evolution of the

consonants it is enough to add here the change of _lj_ into _ghj_

(e.g. _figghiu_, Ital. figlio) and of _ll_ into _dd_ (e.g. _gaddu_,

Ital. gallo). As to morphology, we will confine ourselves to pointing

out the masculine plurals of neuter form (_li pastura_, _li

marinara_). For the Sicilian dialect we have a few fragments going

back to the 13th century, but the documents are scanty until we come

to the 14th century.

(b) _Dialects of the Neapolitan Mainland._--The Calabrian (by which is

to be understood more particularly the vernacular group of the two

Further Calabrias) may be fairly considered as a continuation of the

Sicilian type, as is seen from the following examples:--_cori_,

cuore; _petra_; _fimmina_, femina; _vuce_, voce; _unure_, onore;

_figghiu_, figlio; _spadde_, spalle; _trizza_, treccia. Both Sicilian

and Calabrian is the reducing of _rl_ to _rr_ (Sicil. _parrari_, Cal.

_parrare_, parlare, &c.). The final vowel -_e_ is reduced to -_i_, but

is preserved in the more southern part, as is seen from the above

examples. Even the _h_ for _s_ = _fj_, as in _huri_ (Sicil. _suri_,

fiore), which is characteristic in Calabrian, has its forerunners in

the island (see _Arch._ ii. 456). And, in the same way, though the

dominant varieties of Calabria seem to cling to the _mb_ (it sometimes

happens that _mm_ takes the form of _mb_: _imbiscare_ = Sicil.

'_mmiscari_ 'immischiare', &c.) and _nd_, as opposed to the _mm_,

_nn_, of the whole of Southern Italy and Sicily, we must remember,

firstly, that certain other varieties have, e.g. _granne_, Ital.

grande, and _chiummu_, Ital. piombo; and secondly, that even in Sicily

(at Milazzo, Barcelona, and as far as Messina) districts are to be

found in which _nd_ is used. Along the coast of the extreme south of

Italy, when once we have passed the interruptions caused by the

Basilisco type (so called from the Basilicata), the Sicilian vocalism

again presents itself in the Otrantine, especially in the seaboard of

Capo di Leuca. In the Lecce variety of the Otrantine the vocalism

which has just been described as Sicilian also keeps its ground in the

main (cf. Morosi, _Arch._ iv.): _sira_, sera; _leitu_, oliveto;

_pilu_; _ura_, ora; _dulure_. Nay more, the Sicilian phenomenon of

_lj_ into _ghj_ (_figghiu_, figlio, &c.) is well marked in Terra d'

Otranto and also in Terra di Bari, and even extends through the

Capitanata and the Basilicata (cf. D' Ovidio, _Arch._ iv. 159-160). As

strongly marked in the Terra d'Otranto is the insular phenomenon of

_ll_ into _dd_ (_dr_), which is also very widely distributed through

the Neapolitan territories on the eastern side of the Apennines,

sending outshoots even to the Abruzzo. But in Terra d'Otranto we are

already in the midst of the diphthongs of _e_ and of _o_, both

non-positional and positional, the development or permanence of which

is determined by the quality of the unaccented final vowel,--as

generally happens in the dialects of the south. The diphthongs of _e_

and _o_, determined by final -_i_ and -_u_, are also characteristic of

central and northern Calabria (_viecchiu_ -_i_, vecchio -a, _vecchia_

-_e_, vecchia -e; _buonu_ -_i_, _bona_ -_e_, &c. &c.). Thus there

comes to be a treatment of the vowels, peculiar to the two peninsulas

of Calabria and Salent. The diphthongal product of the _o_ is here

_ue_. The following are examples from the Lecce variety of the

dialect: _core_, pl. _cueri_; _metu_, _mieti_, _mete_, mieto, mieti,

miete (Lat. metere); _sentu_, _sienti_, _sente_; _olu_, _ueli_, _ola_,

volo, voli, vola; _mordu_, _muerdi_, _morde_. The _ue_ recalls the

fundamental reduction which belongs to the Gallic (not to speak of the

Spanish) regions, and stretches through the north of the Terra di

Bari, where there are other diphthongs curiously suggestive of the

Gallic: e.g. at Bitonto alongside of _lueche_, luogo, _suenne_, sonno,

we have the _oi_ and the _ai_ from _i_ or _e_ of the previous phase

(_vecoine_, vicino), and the _au_ from _o_ of the previous phase

(_anaure_, onore), besides a diphthongal disturbance of the _a_. Here

also occurs the change of _a_ into an _e_ more or less pure (thus, at

Cisternino, _scunsulete_, sconsolata; at Canosa di Puglia, _arruete_,

arrivata; _n-ghepe_, "in capa," that is, in capo); to which may be

added the continual weakening or elision of the unaccented vowels not

only at the end but in the body of the word (thus, at Bitonto,

_vendett_, _spranz_). A similar type meets us as we cross into

Capitanata (Cerignola: _graite_ and _grei_-, creta (but also _peite_,

piede, &c.), _coute_, coda (but also _foure_, fuori, &c.); _voine_,

vino, and similarly _poile_, pelo (Neap. _pilo_), &c.; _fueke_, fuoco;

_caretate_, carita, _parla_, parlare, &c.); such forms being

apparently the outposts of the Abruzzan, which, however, is only

reached through the Molise--a district not very populous even now, and

still more thinly peopled in bygone days--whose prevailing forms of

speech in some measure interrupt the historical continuity of the

dialects of the Adriatic versant, presenting, as it were, an irruption

from the other side of the Apennines. In the head valley of the

Molise, at Agnone, the legitimate precursors of the Abruzzan

vernaculars reappear (_feafa_, fava, _stufeate_ and -_uote_, stufo,

annojato, _fea_, fare; _chiezza_, piazza, _chiegne_, piangere,

_cuene_, cane; _puole_, palo, _pruote_, prato, _cuone_, cane; _veire_

and _vaire_, vero, _moile_, melo, and similarly voive and veive, vivo;

_deune_, dono, _deuva_, doga; _minaure_, minore; _cuerpe_, corpo, but

_cuolle_). The following are pure Abruzzan examples. (1) From

Bucchianico (Abruzzo Citeriore): _veive_, vivo; _rraje_, re;

_allaure_, allora; _craune_, corona; _cirche_, cercare; _mele_, male;

_grenne_, grande; _quenne_; but _'nsultate_, insultata; _strade_,

strada (where again it is seen that the reduction of the _a_ depends

on the quality of the final unaccented vowel, and that it is not

produced exclusively by _i_, which would give rise to a further

reduction: _scillarite_, scellerati; _ampire_, impari). (2) From

Pratola Peligna (Abruzzo Ulteriore II.); _maje_, mia; _'naure_, onore;

_'njuriete_, inguriata; _desperete_, disperata ( alongside of

_venneca_, vendicare). It almost appears that a continuity with

Emilian[11] ought to be established across the Marches (where another

irruption of greater "Italianity" has taken place; a third of more

dubious origin has been indicated for Venice, C. 1); see _Arch._ ii.,

445. A negative characteristic for Abruzzan is the absence of the

change in the third syllable of the combinations _pl_, _bl_, _fl_

(into _kj_, _j-_, _s_) and the reason seems evident. Here the _pj_,

_bj_ and _fj_ themselves appear to be modern or of recent

reduction--the ancient formulae sometimes occurring intact (as in the

Bergamasc for Upper Italy), e.g. _planje_ and _pranje_ alongside of

_pianje_, piagnere, _branghe_ alongside of _bianghe_, bianco (Fr.

_blanc_), _flume_ and _frume_ alongside _fiume_, fiume. To the south

of the Abruzzi begins and in the Abruzzi grows prominent that contrast

in regard to the formulae _alt ald_ (resolved in the Neapolitan and

Sicilian into _aut_, &c., just as in the Piedmontese, &c.), by which

the types _aldare_, altare, and _calle_, caldo, are reached.[12] For

the rest, when the condition and connexions of the vowel system still

retained by so large a proportion of the dialects of the eastern

versant of the Neapolitan Apennines, and the difference which exists

in regard to the preservation of the unaccented vowels between the

Ligurian and the Gallo-Italic forms of speech on the other versant of

the northern Apennines, are considered, one cannot fail to see how

much justice there is in the longitudinal or Apenninian partition of

the Italian dialects indicated by Dante.--But, to continue, in the

Basilicata, which drains into the Gulf of Taranto, and may be said to

lie within the Apennines, not only is the elision of final unaccented

vowels a prevailing characteristic; there are also frequent elisions

of the unaccented vowels within the word. Thus at Matera: _sintenn la

femn chessa cos_, sentendo la femina questa cosa; _disprat_,

disperata; at Saponara di Grumento: _uomnn' scilrati_, uomini

scellerati; _mnetta_, vendetta.--But even if we return to the

Mediterranean versant and, leaving the Sicilian type of the Calabrias,

retrace our steps till we pass into the Neapolitan pure and simple, we

find that even in Naples the unaccented final vowels behave badly, the

labial turning to _e_ (_bielle_, bello) and even the _a_ (_bella_)

being greatly weakened. And here occurs a Palaeo-Italic instance which

is worth mention: while Latin was accustomed to drop the u of its

nominative only in presence of _r_ (_gener_ from *gener-u-s, _vir_

from *vir-u-s; cf. the Tuscan or Italian apocopated forms _vener_ =

venere, _venner_ = vennero, &c.), Oscan and Umbrian go much farther:

Oscan, hurz = *hort-u-s, Lat. hortus; Umbr. _pihaz_, piatus; _emps_,

emptus, &c. In Umbrian inscriptions we find _u_ alternating with the

_a_ of the nom. sing. fem. and plur. neut. In complete contrast with

the Sicilian vocalism is the Neapolitan _e_ for unaccented and

particularly final _i_ of the Latin and Neo-Latin or Italian phases

(e.g. _viene_, vieni; cf. _infra_), to say nothing further of the

regular diphthongization, within certain limits, of accented _e_ or

_o_ in position (_apierte_, aperto, fem. _aperta_; _muorte_, morto,

fem. _morta_, &c.).--In the quasi-morphological domain it is to be

noted how the Siculo-Calabrian _u_ for the ancient _o_ and _u_, and

the Siculo-Calabrian _i_ for the ancient _e_, _i_, are also still

found in the Neapolitan, and, in particular, that they alternate with

_o_ and _e_ in a manner that is determined by the difference of

termination. Thus _cosetore_, cucitore, pl. _coseture_ (i.e.

_coseturi_, the _-i_ passing into _e_ in keeping with the Neapolitan

characteristic already mentioned); _russe_, Ital. rosso, _-i_; _rossa_

_-e_, Ital. rossa -e; _noce_, _noce_, pl. _nuce_; _crede_, io credo;

_cride_ (*cridi), tu credi; _crede_, egli crede; _nigre_, but _negra_.

Passing now to a cursory mention of purely morphological phenomena, we

begin with that form which is referred to the Latin pluperfect (see A.

1, B. 2), but which here too performs the functions of the

conditional. Examples from the living dialects of (1) Calabria

Citeriore are _faceru_, farei (Castrovillari); _tu te la collerre_, tu

te l'acolleresti (Cosenza); _l'accettera_, l'accetterebbe (Grimaldi);

and from those of (2) the Abruzzi, _vuler'_, vorrei (Castelli);

_dere_, darei (Atessa); _candere_, canterei. For the dialects of the

Abruzzi, we can check our observations by examples from the oldest

chronicle of Aquila, as _non habera lassato_, non avrebbe lasciato

(str. 180) (cf. _negara_, Ital. negherei, in old MS. of the Marches).

There are some interesting remains (more or less corrupted both in

form and usage) of ancient consonantal terminations which have not yet

been sufficiently studied: _s' incaricaviti_, s' incaricava, -abat

(Basilicata, Senise); ebbiti, ebbe (ib.); _aviadi_, aveva (Calabria,

Grimaldi); _arrivaudi_, arrivo (ib.). The last example also gives the

_-au_ of the 3rd pers. sing. perf. of the first conjugation, which

still occurs in Sicily and between the horns of the Neapolitan

mainland. In the Abruzzi (and in the Ascolan district) the 3rd person

of the plural is in process of disappearing (the _-no_ having fallen

away and the preceding vowel being obscured), and its function is

assumed by the 3rd person singular; cf. C. 1.[13] The explanation of

the Neapolitan forms _songhe_, io sono, essi sono, _donghe_, io do,

stonghe, io sto, as also of the enclitic of the 2nd person plural

which exists, e.g. in the Sicil. _avissivu_, Neap. _avisteve_, aveste,

has been correctly given more than once. It may be remarked in

conclusion that this Neo-Latin region keeps company with the Rumanian

in maintaining in large use the -ora derived from the ancient neuter

plurals of the type _tempora_; Sicil. _jocura_, giuochi; Calabr.

_nidura_, Abruzz. _nidere_, nidi, Neap. _ortola_ (= -_ra_), orti,

Capitanata _acure_, aghi, Apulian _aceddere_ (Tarantine _aceddiri_),

uccelli, &c. It is in this region, and more particularly in Capua,

that we can trace the first appearance of what can definitely be

called Italian, as shown in a Latin legal document of the year 960

(_sao co kelle terre per kelle fini qui ki contene trenta anni le

possette parte Sancti Benedicti_, Ital. "so che quelle terre per quei

confini che qui contiene trent 'anni le possedette la parte di S.

Benedetto"), and belongs more precisely to Capua. The so-called _Carta

Rossanese_ (Calabria), written in a mixture of Latin and vulgar

tongue, belongs to the first decades of the 12th century; while a

document of Fondi (Campania) in the vulgar tongue goes back to the

last decades of the same century. Neapolitan documents do not become

abundant till the 14th century. The same is true of the Abruzzi and of

Apulia; in the case of the latter the date should perhaps be put even

later.

4. _Dialects of Umbria, the Marches and the Province of Rome._--The

phenomena characteristic of the Gallo-Italian dialects can be traced

in the northern Marches in the dialects not only of the provinces of

Pesaro and Urbino (_Arch. glott._ ii. 444), where we note also the

constant dropping of the final vowels, strong elisions of accented and

unaccented vowels, the suffix -_ariu_ becoming -_er_, &c., but also as

far as Ancona and beyond. As in Ancona, the double consonants are

reduced to single ones; there are strong elisions (_breta_, Ital.

berretta; _blin_, Ital. bellino; _figurte_, Ital. "figurati";

_vermne_, Ital. verme, "vermine," &c.); the -_k_- becomes _g_; the

_s_, _s_. At Jesi -_t_- and -_k_- become _d_ and _g_, and the _g_ is

also found at Fabriano, though here it is modified in the Southern

fashion (_spia_ = _spiga_, Ital. spica). Examples are also found of

the dropping of -_d_- primary between vowels: Pesaran _raica_, Ital.

radica; Fabr. _peo_; Ital. piede, which are noteworthy in that they

indicate an isolated Gallo-Italian phenomenon, which is further

traceable in Umbria (_peacchia_ = ped-, Ital. orma; _raica_ and

_raice_, Ital. radice; _trubio_, Ital. torbido; _fracio_, Ital.

fracido; at Rieti also the dropping of the -_d_- is normal: _veo_,

Ital. vedo; _fiatu_, Ital. fidato, &c.; and here too is found the

dropping of initial _d_ for syntactical reasons: _ente_, Ital. dente,

from _lu [d]ente)_. According to some scholars of the Marches, the _e_

for _a_ also extends as far as Ancona; and it is certainly continued

from the north, though it is precisely in the territory of the Marches

that Gallo-Italian and Abruzzan come into contact. The southern part

of the Marches (the basin of the Tronto), after all, is Abruzzan in

character. But the Abruzzan or Southern phenomena in general are

widely diffused throughout the whole of the region comprising the

Marches, Umbria, Latium and Aquila (for the territory of Aquila,

belonging as it does both geographically and politically to the

Abruzzi, is also attached linguistically to this group), which with

regard to certain phenomena includes also that part of Tuscany lying

to the south of the southern Ombrone. Further, the Tuscan dialect

strictly so called sends into the Marches a few of its

characteristics, and thus at Arcevia we have the pronunciation of

-_c_- between vowels as _s_ (_formesce_, Ital. forbici),[14] and

Ancona has no changes of tonic vowels determined by the final vowel.

Again, Umbria and the Sabine territory, and some parts of the Roman

territory, are connected with Tuscany by the phenomenon of -_ajo_ for

-_ariu_ (_molinajo_, Ital. mugnaio, &c.). But, to come to the Abruzzan

Southern phenomena, we should note that the Abruzzan _ll_ for _ld_

extends into the central region (Norcia: _callu_, caldo; Rome:

_ariscalla_, riscalda; the phenomenon, however, occurs also in

Corsica); and the assimilation of _nd_ into _nn_, and of _mb_ into

_mm_ stretches through Umbria, the Marches and Rome, and even crosses

from the Roman province into southern Tuscany (Rieti: _quanno_,

quando; Spoleto: _comannava_, comandava; Assisi: _piagnenno_,

piangendo; Sanseverino Marches: _piagnenne_, '_mmece_, invece

(imbece); Fabriano: _vennecasse_, vendicarsi; Osimo: _monno_, mondo;

Rome: _fronna_, fronda; _piommo_, piombo; Pitigliano (Tuscany):

_quanno_, _piagnenno_). It is curious to note, side by side with this

phenomenon, in the same districts, that of _nd_ for _nn_, which we

still find and which was more common in the past (_affando_, affanno,

&c., see _Zeitschrift fur roman. Philol._ xxii. 510). Even the

diphthongs of the _e_ and the _o_ in position are largely represented.

Examples are--at Norcia, _tiempi_, _uocchi_, _stuortu_; Assisi and

Fabriano: _tiempo_; Orvieto: _tiempo_, _tierra_, _le tuorte_, li

torti, and even _duonna_. The change of preconsonantal _l_ into _r_,

so frequent throughout this region, and particularly characteristic of

Rome, is a phenomenon common to the Aquilan dialect. Similar facts

might be adduced in abundance. And it is to be noted that the features

common to Umbro-Roman and the Neapolitan dialects must have been more

numerous in the past, as this was the region where the Tuscan current

met the southern, and by reason of its superior culture gradually

gained the ascendancy.[15] Typical for the whole district (except the

Marches) is the reduction to _t_ (and later to _j_) of _ll_ and of _l_

initial, when followed by _i_ or _u_ (Velletri, _tuna_, _tuce_; Sora,

_juna_, Ital. luna, _jima_, Ital. lima; melica. Ital. mollica, _bete_,

Ital. belli, bello, in vulgar Latin _bellu_; but _bella_, bella, &c.).

The phonological connexions between the Northern Umbrian, the Aretine,

and the Gallo-Italic type have already been indicated (B. 2). In what

relates to morphology, the -_orno_ of the 3rd pers. plur. of the

perfect of the first conjugation has been pointed out as an essential

peculiarity of the Umbro-Roman territory; but even this it shares with

the Aquila vernaculars, which, moreover, extend it to the other

conjugations (_amorno_, _timorono_, &c.), exactly like the -_o_ of the

3rd person singular. Further, this termination is found also in the

Tuscan dialects.

Throughout almost the whole district should be noted the distinction

between the masculine and neuter substantive, expressed by means of

the article, the distinction being that the neuter substantive has an

abstract and indeterminate signification; e.g. at S. Ginesio, in the

Marches, _lu pesce_, but _lo pesce_, of fish in general, as food, &c.;

at Sora _te wetre_, the sheet of glass, but _le wetre_, glass, the

material, original substance.[16] As to the inflection of verbs, there

is in the ancient texts of the region a notable prevalence of perfect

form in the formation of the imperfect conjunctive; _tolzesse_, Ital.

togliesse; _sostenesse_, Ital. sostenesse; _conubbessero_, Ital.

conoscessero, &c. In the northern Marches, we should note the

preposition sa, Ital. con (_sa lia_, Ital. con lei), going back to a

type similar to that of the Ital. "con-esso."

In a large part of Umbria an _m_ or _t_ is prefixed to the sign of the

dative: _t-a lu_, a lui; _m-al re_, al re;[17] which must be the

remains of the auxiliary prepositions _int(us)_, _a(m)pud_, cf. Prov.

_amb_, _am_ (cf. _Arch._ ii. 444-446). By means of the series of

Perugine texts this group of dialects may be traced back with

confidence to the 13th century; and to this region should also belong

a "Confession," half Latin half vernacular, dating from about the 11th

century, edited and annotated by Flechia (_Arch._ vii. 121 sqq.). The

"chronicle" of Monaldeschi has been already mentioned. The MSS. of the

Marches go back to the beginning of the 13th century and perhaps still

further back. For Roman (see Monaci, _Rendic. dell' Accad. dei

Lincei_, xvi. 103 sqq.) there is a short inscription of the 11th

century. To the 13th century belongs the _Liber historiarum Romanorum_

(Monaci, _Archivio della Societa rom. di storia patria_, xii.; and

also, _Rendic. dei Lincei_, i. 94 sqq.), and to the first half of the

same century the _Formole volgari_ of Raineri da Perugia (Monaci, ib.,

xiv. 268 sqq.). There are more abundant texts for all parts of this

district in the 14th century, to which also belongs the _Cronica

Aquilana_ of Buccio di Ranallo, republished by De Bartholomaeis (Rome,

1907).