The course explores the development of Italian, from a literary language to a common language. It highlights dynamics of preservation and innovation.
The course proposes to offer a broad historic overview of the structure of Italian and to provide knowledge of the principal lines of development of the Italian language from its origins to today, focusing on the pressures both to conserve and to innovate, and the tensions within our language. What several writers and intellectuals had dreamed of, that one day Italian could really become the common language of Italians and not simply a literary or bureaucratic language is today a reality.
A language that had lived for centuries more on paper than in people’s mouths, an elite language modelled on Latin, remained unaltered from the Middle Ages until the mid-nineteenth century, has been unified and today it has become the language of the whole nation.
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