Dear Steven,
You are right to insist that the understanding of "volgare italico" and of
its Latin equivalents in the 13th/14th centuries are not necessarily the
same as our own understanding of "italian", and you are of course no less
right that the plurality and diversity of vernaculars spoken in 'Italy' was
widely felt and recognized. Our discussion has raised my interest and I
hope that, instead of always only shooting from the hip, I will get a
chance to look a bit deeper into the history of terms referring to, or
occasionally summing up, these vernaculars. A recent publication which I
have not yet seen but which seems related is Johannes Kramer, _Die
Sprachbezeichnungen Latinus und Romanus im Lateinischen und Romanischen_,
Berlin: Erich Schmidt Verlag, 1998 (released in July), 173 pp., who seems
to analyse names for Latin and Vernaculars in all Romance languages. Thank
you for this enlightening exchange, which I hope will not have bored too
much those of our fellow listmembers who missed the pointedly religious
aspects of our debate!
Yours,
Otfried
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Otfried Lieberknecht, Schoeneberger Str. 11, D-12163 Berlin
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