Book
Ahead of Publication
From Attitudes to Usage
The Dynamics of Linguistic Prestige in Early Modern Italy
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Eleonora Serra
Language:
English
Published/Copyright:
2026
About this book
Sixteenth-century Italy saw the codification and promotion of a literary variety based on archaic Florentine. Exploring the reception of this variety across different social groups and contexts beyond the literary sphere, this book critically examines the ubiquitous, yet somewhat controversial notion of linguistic prestige. It brings together investigation of metalinguistic sources, used to reconstruct language attitudes, and the analysis of a corpus of everyday letters spanning over eighty years – the correspondence of the Buonarroti family – which serves to track the influence of the emerging literary variety at the level of informal writings and across different social classes.
Author / Editor information
Eleonora Serra, Ghent University, Belgium.
Topics
Publishing information
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook
planned publication:
December 2, 2025
eBook ISBN:
9783111242811
Hardcover
planned publication:
December 2, 2025
Hardcover ISBN:
9783111242521
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
Main content:
250
Illustrations:
12
Tables:
74
eBook ISBN:
9783111242811
Hardcover ISBN:
9783111242521
Keywords for this book
Prestige; Change from Above; Standardisation; New Speaker; Historical Sociolinguistics; Renaissance Italy
Audience(s) for this book
Researchers, Students
Safety & product resources
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Manufacturer information:
Walter de Gruyter GmbH
Genthiner Straße 13
10785 Berlin
productsafety@degruyterbrill.com
