UZIJA107 Historical Development of Italian

Faculty of Arts
Spring 2009
Extent and Intensity
1/1/0. 5 credit(s). Type of Completion: zk (examination).
Teacher(s)
PhDr. Jan Pavlík (lecturer)
Guaranteed by
doc. PhDr. Petr Dytrt, Ph.D.
Department of Romance Languages and Literatures – Faculty of Arts
Contact Person: Dagmar Holoubková
Timetable
Fri 8:20–9:55 C31
Prerequisites (in Czech)
UZROMA101 Introduction to Vulgar Latin
Zkouška z ROMIIA101.
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is only offered to the students of the study fields the course is directly associated with.
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
Course objectives
The development of Italian leads to a remarkable diversity borne out by the existence of the variety of Italian dialects; this diversity is enhanced by the specific historical and cultural conditions in Italy during the Middle Ages and is far from disappearing in the present times. Nevertheless, specific attention is paid to the Florentine variety of the Tuscan dialect, whereas other dialects are treated only occasionally. The literary Italian, the origins of which date back to the 14th century, is the result of the work of the three great authors (Dante, Petrarca, Boccaccio) who had a decisive influence on the development of Italian by the stress they were putting on the archaic concept of the norm. This concept prevailed in Italy for centuries and it represented a major obstacle to the linguistic unification of the country, because it was, to a great extent, artificial. The discrepancy between the written norm and the variety of the spoken language – manifest at all levels, except the literary use is one the specific features of Italian in comparison with the other Romance languages and it starts to weaken only since the second half of the 20th century. At the end of the course, the student should have a thorough idea of the phonetic, morphological, syntactical and lexical development of Italian, as well as of the main cultural and historical context that contributed to such development.
Syllabus
  • The main topics of the course are as follows: the linguistic situation in the Italian peninsula after 476 A.D.; from Vulgar Latin to Italian; the development of the Italian language from its birth in the 9th-10th centuries to the early 16th century; main periods of the development of Italian; phonetic, morphological, syntactic and semantic changes; previous stages of development compared to modern usage; major efforts in establishing norms in Italian; analysis of relevant texts from L'Indovinello veronese to Bembo (seminar). Special attention will be paid not only to the correct linguistic interpretation of the text, but also to a deeper understanding of the diacronical method of describing a language and its development.
Literature
  • OSTRÁ, Růžena. Přehled vývoje románských jazyků II - Italština. Rumunština. Praha, 1990, 154 pp. info
  • ROHLFS, Gerhard. Grammatica storica della lingua italiana e dei suoi dialetti. Torino, 1969. info
  • TEKAVČIC, Pavao. Grammatica storica della lingua italiana. Zagreb, 1965. info
  • MIGLIORINI, Bruno. Storia della lingua italiana. Firenze, 1960. info
  • TAGLIAVINI, Carlo. Le origini delle lingue neolatine. Bologna, 1969. info
  • GRANDGENT, Charles H. From Latin to Italian. Cambridge, 1927. info
Assessment methods
Written examination including an analysis of an original text.
Language of instruction
Italian
Follow-Up Courses
Further Comments
Study Materials
The course is taught annually.
The course is also listed under the following terms Spring 2006, Spring 2007, Spring 2008.
  • Enrolment Statistics (recent)
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