AUFSÄTZE

KLAUS HUNNIUS
Sprachgeschichte und Sprachvariation. Zur Imperfektverwendung in der Protasis des französischen Bedingungssatzes

Cross linguistic studies have shown that the «invasion» of the past tense into the conditional clause is not unusual, but nevertheless seems to be «puzzling». The subjunctive is supposed to be more appropriate because of its «strong association with irrealis» than a tense of the indicative (Givón 1994). This paper describes the striking combination of the French imperfect with the conjunction si ‘if’ and discusses general aspects of the relationship between tense and mood. In accordance with Barbara Dancygier’s concept of «predictive conditionals», it is argued that the two clauses of conditional sentences are not «combined at random» but are related elements of an integrated construction in which the interplay of the verb forms is of eminent importance in order to assure the connection between the two parts of the construction. By choosing a diachronic perspective it is possible to compare the imperfect with its rival non-standard variant (i.e. the conditional tense) and to consider the specific characteristics of the two competitive forms. Some final conclusions concern the conditions of language change and the impact of social factors.

JÖRG TIMMERMANN
¿Cataluña – una etimología céltica? Indicios toponímicos de inmigración gálica (belga) en la Península Ibérica

The central concern of the present contribution is to give further evidence for the Celtic-based etymology of Catalonia/Cataluña. Our starting point is the remarkable formal proximity between the latter name and the name of a tribe of Belgic Gaul, i.e. the Catalauni. Obviously, the Catalauni are not the only tribe to leave their trace in the toponymy of what is now North-Eastern Spain: other findings of place-names of Celtic origin seem to confirm the hypothesis that parts of different Belgic tribes invaded the North-Eastern corner of the Iberian Peninsula in order to settle there. In this article we’ll situate this putative migration in a plausible historical context. It will be argued that it is nothing more than the second branch of a historically well-known migration, i.e. the movement of several tribes from Belgic Gaul to Britain, as attested by Julius Caesar.

TANIA AVILÉS, DARÍO ROJAS
Rasgos fónicos y morfológicos en cartas de hispanohablantes emigrados a la pampa salitrera chilena (1883–1937)

In this study we analyze phonic and morphological features present in 40 letters written in Spanish. These letters date between 1883 and 1937 and their authors were workers of the Chilean nitrate fields, a mining enclave in northern Chile. The features present in these letters reveal the vernacular speech of these workers. This is characterized by a number of meridionalisms (weakening and neutralization of consonants) and the presence of archaisms and other non-standard features, probably indicative of a process of inter-dialectal leveling linked to the immigration of people mainly from central and southern Chile. Furthermore, we call attention to the abundance of hypercorrections, which we interpret as the effect of a phonetically conservative normative linguistic model, of peninsular imprint.

MARIA JOSÉ CARVALHO
Para a história do infinitivo flexionado português: uma abordagem semântico-pragmática

The two most commonly adopted basic positions on the origin of the Portuguese inflected infinitive are based on the work of José Maria Rodrigues (1914) and Theodoro Henrique Maurer (1968). The former, advocating a morpho-phonological («evolutionary») type of approach, held that the inflected infinitive is a direct descendant of the Latin imperfect subjunctive, both in form and in certain functions, presuming that this «subjunctive» remained in use until the 15th or 16th centuries. Maurer, however, supporting a «creationist» theory, claimed that this verbal mode expanded from the impersonal infinitive, which became inflected. Here we shall try to present empirical foundations for the theory which seems more realistic, according to data from medieval texts. We are convinced, in fact, that given the plausibility of both theories, the question cannot be resolved by morpho-phonological means, since the hypothesis of an inflected infinitive by analogical addition of personal suffixes leads to exactly the same result as the hypothesis of development from the imperfect subjunctive. Therefore, only a detailed analysis of the semantics and pragmatics of this verbal mode as seen in medieval Portuguese documents can lead to new and more valid results, since they can clarify whether, in use, the inflected infinitive is closer to the imperfect subjunctive or to the uninflected infinitive. As we shall see, a careful inventory of the occurrences of the forms of the inflected infinitive allows us to conclude that they are normally found in all characteristic structures of the uninflected (therefore, Romance) form, and are only seen exceptionally, and in later documents, in imperfect subjunctive constructions.

SANTIAGO GUTIÉRREZ GARCÍA
El multilingüismo en la lírica trovadoresca gallegoportuguesa, entre la barbarolexis y la clerecía

The tradition of classical rhetoric coined the term barbarolexis for the use of hybrid language and considered it a grammatical defect that should be avoided. The literature of the high Middle Ages inherited this perception, but paved the way for the consideration of multilingualism as a stylistic feature and for the production of bilingual Latin-Romance texts. Troubadour lyrics used multilingualism as a means of raising the artistic profile of poetry, a practice begun by Occitanian troubadours, who used multilingualism to indicate which Romance languages were worthy of attaining the status of literary languages. And in their wake, the Galician Portuguese incorporated fragments of Occitanian, French or Latin into their songs (cantigas), as a means of reasserting the artistic and aristocratic nature of their poetry. The growing favour enjoyed by multilingualism in the literature of the time should be linked to the development of the social class of the clergy, who had the monopoly of Latin and the written word, but who were also capable of expressing themselves in several languages and of placing this linguistic competence at the service of the incipient royal chancelleries. The rise of the clerical spirit therefore prompted a change in the negative perception of multilingualism, which until then had been associated with the myth of the Tower of Babel.

CRISTINA SCARPINO
Notizie intorno all’ Etica d’Aristotele tradotta in volgare da Nicola Anglico

This paper presents the results of a survey of the literature referring to the unpublished vernacular translation of the Nicomachean Ethics carried out by Nicola Anglico. Brought to scholars’ attention by Concetto Marchesi in 1904, but quite neglected by later literature, this work is of particular interest for the manuscript tradition, both for the language used in the codices, and especially for some historical and cultural traits connected to the author. The first part of this paper provides an overview of the existing references to the text and its manuscripts, with attention to the linguistic veneer of some passages; the second one focuses on the identification of the author and the historical and geographical localisation of the original and of its source, which would be the Angevin court of Naples.

ALESSANDRO PARENTI
Per l’etimo dello stròvele iacoponico

This article proposes a new etymology for stròvele and variants, an adjective which first appears in Iacopone da Todi and is still in use in Umbria and Eastern Tuscany with the meanings ‘cantankerous’ and ‘strange’. After reviewing previous unsatisfactory etymologies, the author shows that the word is used as a personal name at least a century before Iacopone, in an area which belonged to the ancient Duchy of Spoleto. This suggests that it might be a loanword from the Langobardic language.

MISZELLEN

FABIO BARBERINI
Comte Karle, ye·us vuelh far entenden (BdT 189,1)

This paper will offer a new critical edition, with a new examination of the manuscript tradition, of Granet’s Comte Karle, ye·us vuelh far entenden (BdT 189,1), a political sirventes composed in 1257 and dedicated to Charles of Anjou. The main problem is due to the anomaly represented by the forth stanza, which has two lines more and a different rhyme scheme. In 1929, Amos Parducci proposed to consider this stanza like an interpolation, but it’s more likely that the fourth stanza is the fusion of three incomplete stanzas made in the archetype of two manuscripts that preserve the text.

BESPRECHUNGEN

Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch. Etymologie der deutschen Sprache, 5., neu bearbeitete Auflage, herausgegeben von der Dudenredaktion (WOLFGANG SCHWEICKARD)

Robert le Clerc d’Arras: Li Loenge Nostre Dame, édition critique par Annette Brasseur (LAURA RAMELLO)

Tony Hunt, Writing the Future. Prognostic Texts of Medieval England (THERESA SCHMITT)

Philipp Burdy, Die mittels -aison und Varianten gebildeten Nomina des Französischen. Eine Studie zur diachronen Wortbildung (JENS LÜDTKE)

Bernard Mulo Farenkia, Speech acts and politeness in French as a pluricentric language. Illustrations from Cameroon and Canada (FRANK JABLONKA)

Marie-Christine Hazaël-Massieux, Les créoles à base lexicale française. (PETER STEIN)

Sandra Herling / Carolin Patzelt (edd.), Weltsprache Spanisch. Variation, Soziolinguistik und geographische Verbreitung des Spanischen. Handbuch für das Studium der Hispanistik (STEFAN RUHSTALLER)

Hans Schemann / Maria Luiza Schemann-Dias / Luisa Amorim-Braun / Teresa Hundertmark-Santos Martins / Maria João Romero Dias Duque-Gitt / Helena Costa, Idiomatik Deutsch-Portugiesisch, 2., durchgesehene Auflage; sowie Hans Schemann / Idalete Dias, Idiomatik Portugiesisch – Deutsch, 2., durchgesehene Auflage (LUTZ HOEPNER / TINKA REICHMANN)

Simon Gaunt, Marco Polo’s Le Devisement Du Monde. Narrative Voice, Language and Diversity (FABRIZIO CIGNI)

Biagio Mele, Fonetica e fonologia del dialetto di San Giovanni in Fiore (FERNANDO SÁNCHEZ MIRET)

Anna Martellotti, Linguistica e cucina (SERGIO LUBELLO)

Harro Stammerjohann, La lingua degli angeli. Italianismo, italianismi e giudizi sulla lingua italiana (GERHARD ERNST)

Ulrich Farrenkopf, Die Entwicklung des Korsischen zur modernen Kultursprache. Eine Fallstudie zu Sprachausbau und Sprachpolitik (HANS GOEBL)

Maria Giuseppina Cossu, Unità e variabilità fonetiche delle parlate sarde meridionali (EDUARDO BLASCO FERRER)