Volume 139, Issue 1

The D’Ovidio-Schuchardt correspondence (1875–1921) contains a wealth of information and evidence that goes far beyond the anecdotal dimension, shedding light not only on the scientific dialogue between the two scholars but also on trends and crucial issues in European linguistics between the 19th and 20th centuries. Starting with the cues offered by this epistolary source and through the examination of published writings (with a special focus on a relevant essay by D’Ovidio on the relics of ancient Italic dialects in Romance idioms), the present paper reconstructs the position of the two linguists on the so-called ethnic reactions. The analysis reveals the role played by Schuchardt in D’Ovidio’s gradual detachment from the theses of his former mentor, i. e. G. I. Ascoli: a sign, among the many, of the turning point that was taking shape, even in Italian Romanistics, from the one-dimensional linearity of the historical-comparative paradigm to a new conception of linguistic dynamics, more attentive to the influences and crossings of cultural currents.

It is well known that the Spanish third person plural of -er and -ir verbs has two different preterite endings: primary -ieron , and the variant -eron , which appears after stem-final -j , e.g., dijeron , trajeron , tradujeron , etc., and that -eron arose from -ieron through absorption of the semiconsonant [j] into the Old Spanish stem-final palatal -x [ʃ], e.g., dixieron > dixeron . What is not so well known is that OSp. dixiemos , dixiestes , like dixieron > dixeron , likewise reduced to dixemos , dixestes , but unlike dixeron , did not survive. It is also to date unknown that the reduction of -ieron > -eron occurred in other grammatical categories, e.g., OSp. cogieron > cogeron , before reverting to -ieron . The present study will show when -eron first arose and became the predominant variant of the two after -x , the extent to which it arose in other grammatical categories, and will explain why vertical vocalic symmetry between OSp. dixiemos , dixiestes , dixieron , later dixemos , dixestes , dixeron , was ulimately broken, and how the loss of dixiemos/dixemos , dixiestes/dixestes on the one hand, and the triumph of dixeron on the other, are completely interconnected, ironically tied to the same historical linguistic phenomenon, and actually two sides of the same coin.

This study attributes the enigmatic diphthong - ie - in Old Spanish dieron ‘they gave’ to a second (and later) phase in the development of this form from Latin dĕdērŭnt ‘they gave’. The earlier phase, I propose, involved regular sound change, namely, lenition and vocalic fusion. Thus, dĕdērŭnt > *de [ð] erunt > * de[Ø] eron > *deeron > *deron . I argue that one of the most (if not the single most) productive types of levelling in the history of the Spanish preterite endings, horizontal paradigmatic levelling, was at the root of the second (and final) phase of the development referred to above. The long-upheld belief that extra paradigmatic levelling and subsequent loss of internal - dē - (i.e., haplology) were the causes of the diphthong - ie - in Old Spanish dieron (i.e., Classical Latin dĕ dḗ rŭnt > Late/Vulgar Latin * dĕ́- dē -rŭnt > Old Spanish dieron ) is challenged by the attestation of three non-haplological forms related to Latin dĕdērŭnt : deestes ‘you gave’ (< dĕdĭstĭs ), deistis ‘you gave’ (< dĕdĭstĭs ), and deerit ‘should s/he give’ (< dĕdĕrĭt ). As these forms, which surface in the extant records of the Spanish and Portuguese High Middle Ages, retained the vowel of the second syllable, they could not have derived from haplology. Rather, given their internal vowel-to-vowel contact, i.e., - e Ø e - and - e Ø i- , respectively, they must have appeared due to lenition, i.e., loss of internal - d -: dĕ d ĭstĭs > de Ø estes , dĕ d ĭstĭs > de Ø istis , dĕ d ĕrĭt > de Ø erit . In contrast to the traditional view, then, this study proposes that, once regular sound change produced *deron in Old Spanish, stressed - ie - in d ie ron must have modeled itself after the diphthong of this form’s third-person singular counterpart, Old Spanish d io . In sum, the ultimate cause of the enigmatic diphthong - ie - in Old Spanish dieron is horizontal levelling in the direction third person singular (Old Spanish d io ) → third person plural (Old Spanish * deron > d ie ron ), all within the paradigm of the preterite of dar ‘to give’.

During the second half of the eighteenth century, the consolidation of the periodical press and the circulation of the Enlightenment ideas in Spain led to the creation of a new type of informative discourse that began to deal specifically with economic matters. The Spanish financial press combines at least two types of textual traditions. If, on the one hand, the economic issues evoke the memoirs published by arbitristas and proyectistas in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, their textual organization follows the model of the eighteenth-century periodical press. These diaries constitute a channel for the development of linguistic elaboration processes that took place in the sphere of communicative distance during the formation of early modern Spanish. We have selected two newspapers on this subject, the Semanario Económico and the Correo Mercantil de España y sus Indias , to provide new data about the morphosyntax of Spanish throughout the second half of the eighteenth century. The phenomena analyzed are: §2 the distribution of subjunctive and conditional verbal forms; §3 the pronominal enclysis; §4 the use of the passive and constructions with se ; §5 the syntactic structure en + gerund and §6 the relative clauses.

The objective of this paper is to determine the existing differences in the number and typology of conversational interruptions that have been found in two legislative debates from 1902 and 2020. To this end, a theoretical proposal will be used which assumes that the type of interruption is linked to the sociocultural context of the time (reflected, for example, in the historical press) and that the intent of the interruption is inseparable from that context. Under this theoretical perspective, two parliamentary debates are analysed which discuss the Decreto de Romanones (1902) and the Ley Celaá (2020), two educational legislative texts. Our findings show that there are more cases of interruptions in the 1902 debate than in the 2020 debate. However, the interruptions tend to be less disruptive and are usually addressed by the interlocutor (compared to the 2020 texts). Therefore, we understand that there is a greater “dialoguing” character in the 1902 debates, because “the other” is listened to.

This work offers an in-depth description of the main morphosyntactic (and lexical) features found in present Guatemalan Spanish, a lesser-known Central American variety. Text corpora and sociolinguistic surveys help us to provide an updated grammatical overview, which takes into account most categories: nouns and adjectives, pronouns, verbs, adverbs, prepositions and locutions, and it is illustrated with examples taken both from formal and informal settings. By comparing these features with previous grammatical descriptions, this study helps in identifying some common American features —such as the use of hasta and una mi amiga — as well as some specific patterns —such as the prominence of several suffixes and pronouns— in present-day Guatemalan Spanish, some of which remain to be incorporated in the Academy grammar.

This article explores Francis of Assisi’s relationship with France, starting with his name, and concluding that the importance of courtly culture for his personal development is generally overestimated in scholarship. In some hagiographic sources, it is indeed said that Francis used to praise God in French, but the contexts make it clear that this ability is instilled by the Holy Spirit and is therefore a glossolalic (‘divinely inspired speech’) phenomenon. Other references to French culture appear only in hagiographic legends, never in the writings of Francis, and are mainly attributable to the cultural climate of the period in which these later works were written.

Our perception of the vernacular works of Bonvesin da la Riva is still largely shaped by the editions of Gianfranco Contini (1941 and 1960). A reassessment of Bonvesin in terms of language and literary history can only start from a reflection on the textual basis of his works. The high quality of the Berlin manuscript (ca. 1300), which contains about half of Bonvesin’s oeuvre, is undisputed. However, the “retranslation” of the texts contained exclusively in later manuscripts which converts them into the form of the codex optimus , as still practised by Gökçen (2001), seems unacceptable today. Rather, the aim should be to identify different linguistic, stylistic and textual tendencies of the individual works by making recourse to the entire textual tradition. In this context, the assumption of an absolutely regular metrical form of the alexandrine, which has been advocated since Salvioni and Contini, is becoming increasingly questionable. It is suggested that Bonvesin’s poetry should be considered in the light of the tradition of anisosyllabism, which was well attested in the 13th century. The hypothesis of a “dialectal authenticity” of Bonvesin’s language is also problematic. Rather, an edition must preserve the constitutive polymorphism of the medieval scripta . Overall, the aim must be to recognise the distinctive personality of the medieval poet in the heterogeneity and variability of the surviving texts, beyond anachronistic expectations of a “classic”.

The ophthalmic treatise Practica oculorum by Benvenuto Grassus has always attracted considerable attention, as it is shown by the numerous studies on the text and by the various editions that have appeared until recent times. The present paper aims to advance some reflections on the editorial history of the treatise and on its Romance translations. Specifically, a comparison of the four Latin incunabula and the four Romance versions of the text will highlight its role in both professional and non-professional environments during the 14th and 15th centuries.

According to the current state of research, the traditional etymology (i.e. lasanum ‘chamber potʼ) of It. lasagna ‘type of pastaʼ is obsolete. The actual basis is Ar. lawzīnaǧ ‘almond confectionʼ, which satisfies all etymological requirements. Furthermore, the hypothesis of an etymological connection between It. lasagna and Fr. losange cannot be confirmed. By reason of the early productivity of the family of Fr. losange , the late and marginal appearance of the culinary meaning, and the fact that the entire textual tradition of losange does not present any affinity to the oriental world, it is evident that an Arabic origin must be ruled out. Instead, the traditional derivation from pre-Rom. * lausa ‘flat stoneʼ, ‘roofing or paving stoneʼ is to be revalidated.