The Spanish Quarter of Naples
-
Emma Milano
Abstract
This study focuses on the dynamics of linguistic conservation and innovation in the historic center of Naples, the Spanish Quarter. In the Spanish Quarter – historically marked by social marginalization and a notable use of dialect – the constant socio-environmental conditions have favored the preservation of habits of life and language. Constructed in the Sixteenth century to house Spanish soldiers, the Spanish Quarter has always been characterized for its layout – a grid of narrow streets that elicits its original intended defensibility and impenetrability. This aspect has greatly influenced the history of a colorful and “notorious” neighborhood, and may have played a role in contributing to the persistence of today’s cultural and language uses. An analysis of two linguistic phenomena in a corpus of speech produced by a sample of artisans shows that although Italian has gained a relevant space, it lives alongside a strongly diatopically and diastratically marked dialect, which serves as a territorial identification marker.
Abstract
This study focuses on the dynamics of linguistic conservation and innovation in the historic center of Naples, the Spanish Quarter. In the Spanish Quarter – historically marked by social marginalization and a notable use of dialect – the constant socio-environmental conditions have favored the preservation of habits of life and language. Constructed in the Sixteenth century to house Spanish soldiers, the Spanish Quarter has always been characterized for its layout – a grid of narrow streets that elicits its original intended defensibility and impenetrability. This aspect has greatly influenced the history of a colorful and “notorious” neighborhood, and may have played a role in contributing to the persistence of today’s cultural and language uses. An analysis of two linguistic phenomena in a corpus of speech produced by a sample of artisans shows that although Italian has gained a relevant space, it lives alongside a strongly diatopically and diastratically marked dialect, which serves as a territorial identification marker.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Languages as a construction 1
-
I. Rules to linguistic delimitation
- El idioma, construcción social e ideológica de la lengua / Language, social and ideological construction of the tongue 9
- Tra imperi e leggerezza: l’italiano lingua illustre? / Among empires and lightness: Italian, illustrious language? 23
- The Spanish Quarter of Naples 39
- Le lingue, ponti o frontiere? Appunti sulla Sicilia linguistica / Languages, bridges or borders? Notes on linguistics Sicily 57
- La construcció de la norma cancelleresca catalana / The construction of standard chancellery Catalan 83
- Codification and prescription in linguistic standardisation 99
- The importance of prescriptivism in the development of “schemes for respelling” in 18th century pronouncing dictionaries 131
- Els discursos sobre la llengua literària en la Renaixença valenciana / Discourses on literary language in the Valencian Renaissance 145
- Anàlisi del discurs de la Gramàtica catalana (1933), de Pompeu Fabra / Discourse analysis of Pompeu Fabra's Catalan Grammar (1933) 163
-
II. The myths and the authenticity of languages
- Le mythe de la langue mère / The myth of the mother tongue 181
- Language myths and the historiography of French 199
- Modern Greek 215
- Nommer l’ennemi: la “question de la langue” en Grèce et les termes désignant les variétés linguistiques / Naming the enemy: the “language issue” in Greece and the terms denoting linguistic varieties 229
- The role of narrative in shaping the semantic structure of certain expressions that belong to terminology as to one of the most important lexical groups 243
- Mitos de decadencia lingüística en la historia del neerlandés. Una exploración sociolingüística de la lengua en Flandes en los siglos xviii y xix / Myths of language decadence in Dutch history. A sociolinguistic exploration of language in Flanders in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries 265
- L’humanista Bernardí Gómez Miedes (1515-1589) i la percepció de la llengua catalana / The humanist Bernardí Gómez Miedes (1515-1589) and the perception of Catalan language 283
- De llengües, mites i emocions al xix català: el mite de la llengua del cor? / Language, myths and emotions in nineteenth-century Catalan: The myth of the language of the heart? 297
-
III. Language emotions
- Factors emocionals en la formació de teories lingüístiques: el cas romànic / Emotional factors in the formation of linguistic theories: The Romanic case 321
- “El valencià no se pedrà mai”: la manipulació mediàtica de les emocions col·lectives en l’anticatalanisme valencià durant la transició (1976-1982) / “El valencià no se pedrà mai”: Media manipulation of collective emotions in Valencian Anti-Catalanism during the Transition (1976-1982) 337
- La representació nord-catalana de la llengua: entre refús del patuès i llengua de segona / The representation of Northern Catalan language: Between patois rejection and second-class language 353
- Amor, emoció i artifici de la llengua catalana a la Catalunya del Nord avui / Love, emotion and artifice of Catalan language in Northern Catalonia today 363
- El parlant multilingüe davant la llengua, el parlant monolingüe davant les llengües: a propòsit de dues autobiografies lingüístiques / The multilingual speaker facing language, the monolingual speaker facing languages: Two linguistic autobiographies 393
- Index 413
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Languages as a construction 1
-
I. Rules to linguistic delimitation
- El idioma, construcción social e ideológica de la lengua / Language, social and ideological construction of the tongue 9
- Tra imperi e leggerezza: l’italiano lingua illustre? / Among empires and lightness: Italian, illustrious language? 23
- The Spanish Quarter of Naples 39
- Le lingue, ponti o frontiere? Appunti sulla Sicilia linguistica / Languages, bridges or borders? Notes on linguistics Sicily 57
- La construcció de la norma cancelleresca catalana / The construction of standard chancellery Catalan 83
- Codification and prescription in linguistic standardisation 99
- The importance of prescriptivism in the development of “schemes for respelling” in 18th century pronouncing dictionaries 131
- Els discursos sobre la llengua literària en la Renaixença valenciana / Discourses on literary language in the Valencian Renaissance 145
- Anàlisi del discurs de la Gramàtica catalana (1933), de Pompeu Fabra / Discourse analysis of Pompeu Fabra's Catalan Grammar (1933) 163
-
II. The myths and the authenticity of languages
- Le mythe de la langue mère / The myth of the mother tongue 181
- Language myths and the historiography of French 199
- Modern Greek 215
- Nommer l’ennemi: la “question de la langue” en Grèce et les termes désignant les variétés linguistiques / Naming the enemy: the “language issue” in Greece and the terms denoting linguistic varieties 229
- The role of narrative in shaping the semantic structure of certain expressions that belong to terminology as to one of the most important lexical groups 243
- Mitos de decadencia lingüística en la historia del neerlandés. Una exploración sociolingüística de la lengua en Flandes en los siglos xviii y xix / Myths of language decadence in Dutch history. A sociolinguistic exploration of language in Flanders in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries 265
- L’humanista Bernardí Gómez Miedes (1515-1589) i la percepció de la llengua catalana / The humanist Bernardí Gómez Miedes (1515-1589) and the perception of Catalan language 283
- De llengües, mites i emocions al xix català: el mite de la llengua del cor? / Language, myths and emotions in nineteenth-century Catalan: The myth of the language of the heart? 297
-
III. Language emotions
- Factors emocionals en la formació de teories lingüístiques: el cas romànic / Emotional factors in the formation of linguistic theories: The Romanic case 321
- “El valencià no se pedrà mai”: la manipulació mediàtica de les emocions col·lectives en l’anticatalanisme valencià durant la transició (1976-1982) / “El valencià no se pedrà mai”: Media manipulation of collective emotions in Valencian Anti-Catalanism during the Transition (1976-1982) 337
- La representació nord-catalana de la llengua: entre refús del patuès i llengua de segona / The representation of Northern Catalan language: Between patois rejection and second-class language 353
- Amor, emoció i artifici de la llengua catalana a la Catalunya del Nord avui / Love, emotion and artifice of Catalan language in Northern Catalonia today 363
- El parlant multilingüe davant la llengua, el parlant monolingüe davant les llengües: a propòsit de dues autobiografies lingüístiques / The multilingual speaker facing language, the monolingual speaker facing languages: Two linguistic autobiographies 393
- Index 413
