The origins of the Italian language

M – Good morning, and welcome back. I’m Marcello from VitorItaly, Italy with Italians. We are an Italian Tour Operator specialised in tours to Italy, and this is the second appointment with CURIOUS ABOUT ITALY, in this podcast you’ll find out everything you need to know about Italy, narrated by those who live in Italy. Here with me is Patrizia, what are we talking about today, Patrizia?
P – Ciao Marcello, yes. Last time we talked about the origin of the name Italia. Today, another very basic question: Where does the Italian language come from?
M – The Italian language was born from a mix of cultures and languages linked to the many populations that, let’s say, marched into Italy. Some only passed, others settled permanently and mixed with the pre-existing populations.
In the popular imagination, we all have Latin features, dark eyes and hair, and olive skin. Our emigrants spread across the globe, and contributed to this image. But that’s just a stereotype. Normans, French, Spanish, Austrians, Greeks and Arabs, all of them have enriched our genetic heritage, making us highly different from each other. For example, you can find many Sicilians with blond hair and blue eyes in Sicily.
And this richness of characteristics can also be found in our language. Well, standard Italian (the one with dictionary pronunciation, just to be clear) sounds differently pronounced by a Venetian, a Tuscan or an Apulian. (LA CASSA, LA HASA, LA CHESA). And then, there are the local dialects. Dialects are the popular idioms spoken in different territories and are very different from each other. If a Calabrian spoke a strict dialect with a me, I am from Brescia and I answered him in his dialect, we would not understand each other. In his dialect, a Calabrian will use some words deriving from Spanish, as the region was dominated by Spaniards for a long time, whereas I use some words from German but also from Venetian, as my city was under Venice rule for more than 3 centuries.
The advent of television in the 1950’s was a revolution on a linguistic level; it contributed to the spread of “Standard” Italian. And at first, it must have sounded bizarre to many of them, especially those who lived in more rural areas. Infact, in some internal areas of the South, people would speak only dialect, so Italian, though similar, was difficult to understand. At the same time compulsory public education help spread the use of standard Italian.
But if you are lucky enough to cross Italy from north to south, even if you don’t understand the words but only listen to how they “sound”, you will realize how “the music changes”.
P – And before this “revolution”, what language was spoken? Where do all these differences come from?
M – Until the conquest by the Romans, Greek was spoken mainly in the south, then the Romans imposed Latin, which became the Empire’s language and, therefore, of Italy. With the invasions of the so-called “barbarians”, the Germanic peoples who were previously settled north of the Rhine River in Germany, the pre-existing Latin mixed with the idioms of these populations. And so these three great strains have slowly intertwined and evolved first into VULGAR ITALIAN (from VOLGO, PEOPLE, literally the language spoken by the people). Dante Alighieri used it to write his DIVINE COMEDY, and by doing so he gave it the dignity of a literary language. It was a madness for the time, and his contemporaries were scandalized, how can it be that the language of a work dealing with so high matters is the language of the common people and not of the so called “wisemen”???
P – So, in the Italian language, there are traces of the languages from which it derived
M – Sure! Think of the most common personal names in Italy. Even today in Italy, people bear names of Greek origin such as Alessandro, Filippo, and Elena; our names, for example, are Latin: Marcello, Patrizia; Federico is a name of German origin, Matilda of Celtic origin. And so it is with commonly used words. Just think of a word of common use such as formaggio (cheese): in northern Italy and then throughout Italy, the French origin “fromage” prevailed, coming from the Greek phormos (form), so we say “FORMAGGIO”. But the Latins called it “caseus”, and people in central and southern Italy also say “CACIO”. The Latin form caesus has prevailed in many European languages: the Germans call it Käse, the Spanish queso, the English cheese.
P – Since we are talking about language and names, where do the names of streets and squares in Italy come from?
M – Finding your way around Italy without a map or navigator can be complicated; we don’t use numbers, or east and west to indicate the streets. The shape of cities is tangled, and streets and avenues do not always have linear paths. Generally, the toponymy derives from people, places and dates of historical and cultural importance. Musicians, painters, poets: so you’ll find Via Giuseppe Verdi, Via Leonardo Da Vinci, Piazzale Michelangelo. Then, names of cities and places: Via Roma and Piazza Venezia, but also Via Monte Bianco. Dates of crucial battles, Via XX Settembre, referring to the date of the conquest of Rome by the Kingdom of Italy. Then there are the crafts, the references to the sacred or to nature: Via della Lavandare, Piazza del Gesù, Vicolo delle Cicale, Via dell’Angelo or Vicolo delle Stelle. But in all Italian cities, you will always find a street, a square, a bridge bearing a name: GARIBALDI.
P – Always?
M – Always!
P – Why?
M- Because Garibaldi is a fundamental figure in the history of Italy. He was a sailor, a politician and a poet, a great leader and a crowd-puller; we recognise him as the founder of unified Italy, thanks in part to his famous “expedition of the thousand”. We all know that Garibaldi led the so-called “thousand”, a thousand volunteers with a red shirt, to the conquest of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, that is, that part of the Italian territory south of Rome that was an independent kingdom, and then he delivered it into the hands of the King of Piedmont, and from the union of the two Kingdoms and the many statelets of the time, the Kingdom of Italy was born. He is our national hero; we still celebrate him, and you can find him in every city, and he will almost always be on horseback, very appropriate for such a leader. Evn in our city, Brescia, Piazza Garibaldi is one of the most important ones.
P – Are there also particular ways to name the streets in the different Italian regions?
M – Yes, in Venice, there are the Calli, from the vulgar path/passage, we find this term in Dante’s Comedy, and they often have the names of trades: Calle del Forner (Baker Street), Calle dei Fabbri (Blacksmith Street). In Liguria, the region of Genoa and Cinque Terre, we have the Caruggi (alleys), in Florence the Canti (corners).
P – Ok Marcello, time is over, what do you recommend we visit today?
M – Since we have talked about Dante Alighieri, the Supreme Poet and Father of the Italian language, I suggest you visit his tomb, which, contrary to what some might think, is not in Florence but in Ravenna, the beautiful city in Emilia-Romagna where Dante spent part of his exile and died. By the way, in more recent times, the Florentines demanded Dante’s return to his homeland, but from Ravenna, they received a resounding no: “You have driven him away; now we keep him!” And, to tell you the truth, only the Florentines want him moved, Italians are happy on where he is now!
P – Well, I would say that for today, it is enough. Thank you, Marcello, for your story and thanks also to you for listening.
M – Thank you also from me, and we look forward to seeing you in Ravenna.