Roman Empire

Italy is a "natural" geographical region. This means it has natural boundaries that define its territory. It is surrounded on three sides by the Mediterranean Sea and on the North it is separated from continental Europe by the highest mountain chain of Europe, the Alps.

Inside its borders, however, Italy is hardly a unified entity. The Apennine mountain chain, Italy's "backbone," makes internal communications very difficult.

The fertile, plain portion of the territory is primarily located in the North and in narrow strips along the coasts. The majority of the territory consists of mountains and hills, with limited possibility for agricultural production.

The North is very humid, with abundant rainfall and a very large supply of groundwater. The Central and Southern regions, and the major islands, to the contrary are very dry all year round, with severe consequences for agricultural production.

All these factors had and, to a degree still have, crucial consequences for the political and linguistic history of the country.
 

500 BCE
Apex Greek Civilization
Birth of Rome

0 CE 
 APEX of ROMAN EMPIRE
Christianity

500 CE
THE DARK AGES

1000 CE
KNIGHTS, DRAGONS, CASTLES, FAIRYTALES,
KING ARTHUR etc.

1500 CE
RENASSAINCE
Michelangelo, Leonardo

1850 - 1920
Unification of Italy
Italian national language

1880-1920 CE
Great emigration from Southern Italy

In antiquity Italy had a small population, made up mostly of independent tribes that spoke a variety of different languages. In comparison to other civilizations of the Mediterranean basin, such as the Egyptians and the Phoenicians, these populations were backward, rather isolated, with limited exchanges and trade practices with the rest of the known world.

Latin, the language of the future rulers of the empire, was just one of the many languages spoken in the peninsula. Along the coasts of Sicily and Calabria, the Greeks had established "colonies" and founded cities where their language dominated. All the other languages were "autochthonous," i.e. indigenous of the areas where they were spoken.

Etruscan is an interesting case in that it cannot be shown to belong to any of the language families known to linguists. Recent discoveries using DNA seem to prove that the Etruscan were of Turkik origin, probably originating from the Caucasus area or even east of the Caspian Sea.  It makes sense to assume that the language also originates from that area, but thus far there is no evidence of derivation from known stocks.

0 CE 
ROMAN EMPIRE

500 CE
ROMAN EMPIRE SPLITS
Collapse West. Roman Empire
Dark Ages (High Middle Ages)
Barbarian Rule

1000 CE
Beginning of recovery
Low Middle Ages

1300 CE
FLORENCE cultural capital
TUSCAN language
DANTE
PETRARCH
BOCCACCIO

1400-1500 CE
RENASSAINCE
Italy split into small states
Foreign rule

Fall of the EAST. Roman Empire

1850 - 1920
Unification of Italy
Italian national language

1880-1920 CE
Great emigration from Southern Italy

753 BCE, "Birth of Rome"

According to the legend, the city of Rome was founded on April 21, 753 BCE (Before the Common Era.)

In the legend, that bears many similarities with the story of Moses, the twins Romulus and Remus were saved by a she-wolf who nursed them during infancy.  (Click here for more)

700 BCE

The first major URBAN civilization to appear were the Etruscans, centered in the area of modern Tuscany. They reached maximum power around 700 BCE. At approximately the same time, the Greeks began to occupy and colonize Sicily and Southern Italy, bringing their social organization and scientific knowledge to the country. The ancient names of Italy, in Greek language, were ENOTRIA (Land of Wine) and ESPERIA (The Land where the Sun Sets.)

ETRUSCAN KINGDOM

500 BCE

The Latins, the people who eventually became the rulers of the Roman Empire, were a small tribe of a few thousand people that occupied the land near the delta of the Tiber River. Rome was their capital.

ITALY BEFORE THE ROMAN EMPIRE

500 BEFORE THE COMMON ERA (B.C.E.)

0 CE 
ROMAN EMPIRE

500 CE
ROMAN EMPIRE SPLITS
Collapse West. Roman Empire
Dark Ages (High Middle Ages)
Barbarian Rule

1000 CE
Beginning of recovery
Low Middle Ages

1300 CE
FLORENCE cultural capital
TUSCAN language
DANTE
PETRARCH
BOCCACCIO

1400-1500 CE
RENASSAINCE
Italy split into small states
Foreign rule

Fall of the EAST. Roman Empire

1850 - 1920
Unification of Italy
Italian national language

1880-1920 CE
Great emigration from Southern Italy

YEAR 0 OF THE COMMON ERA

THE APOGEE OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE

Starting from the city of Rome, the Latins expanded their territorial control over Europe, Northern Africa and the Middle East. In 500 years they were the dominant force in the Mediterranean basin.

Here is a map of the empire at the time of its maximum expansion. Approximately 25% of the population of the world at that time was ruled by Rome.

Latin became the lingua franca of the Roman Empire. It was the official language of the administration, of the law, commerce and the military, and, most significantly, of the arts, literature, philosophy.

We can easily compare Latin to contemporary English in terms of its diffusion and its influence. With language also come CULTURE, not simply in terms of art, but, more significantly, in terms of SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS: legal system, bureaucracy, state administration, political organization, financing of public works and infrastructure, military organization and hierarchy and so forth.

All these aspects of life were determined by Rome's example and, when they were adopted by the new provinces, it was easier to absorb them using the original language than translate everything in the local languages.

We can draw again a similarity between English and technology and their penetration in the world. Infotech speaks English and it makes sense for any culture that is absorbing it, to do so along with the language that conceived it and developed it. Efforts by countries, such as Canada, for instance, to find the French equivalent for every English neologism are destined to crash and eventually fade.

TO SUMMARIZE: Latin was the official language of the ROMAN Empire, spoken everywhere from Britannia to Armenia.

With the fall of the Roman Empire, Latin remained as the ELEGANT, INTELLECTUAL, BUT ALSO FUNCTIONAL LINGUA FRANCA spoken yby the elites.  IT WAS ALSO THE ONLY WRITTEN LANGUAGE USED IN THE ENTIRE former Empire.

Common people, in the meantime, developed local dialects that diverged progressively from Latin and were influenced by previous local languages.

In Italy, the linguistic drift continued until the unification, which was partially accomplished in 1861 and completed in 1870.

But, as everybody knows, the Romans who initially were so virtuous and thrifty, slowly began to get lazy and indulgent: the stayed up too late, wasted industrial amounts of time online, ate lots of junk food, were 420 friendly,  went out clubbing, overslept, didn't do their homework and missed quizzes.

According to some sources, a realistic representation of a decadent Roman party can be found in the film Caligula.
Possibly available on youtube.
(Disclaimer: This is not an endorsement nor a recommendation.)

The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire  476 C.E.

Watch a youtube video here.

First, the Empire was split into two parts in 395 C.E with separate EMPERORS and separate CAPITALS.

• Western, with Rome as capital

• Eastern, with capital Costantinople (presently, Istanbul.)

The commonly agreed-upon date of the fall of the last Roman Emperor of the WEST (the burgundy-colored part,) Romulus Augustus, was 476 C.E.

0 CE 
ROMAN EMPIRE

500 CE
ROMAN EMPIRE SPLITS
Collapse West. Roman Empire
Dark Ages (High Middle Ages)
Barbarian Rule

1000 CE
Beginning of recovery
Low Middle Ages

1300 CE
FLORENCE cultural capital
TUSCAN language
DANTE
PETRARCH
BOCCACCIO

1400-1500 CE
RENASSAINCE
Italy split into small states
Foreign rule

Fall of the EAST. Roman Empire

1850 - 1920
Unification of Italy
Italian national language

1880-1920 CE
Great emigration from Southern Italy

You can skip this cell.

THE WESTERN ROMAN EMPIRE WAS THE FIRST ONE TO FALL.

WHEN WE TALK ABOUT THE FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE WE NORMALLY REFER TO THE WESTERN EMPIRE.

SKIP APPROXIMATELY 1,000 YEARS

IT IS NOW 1453 C.E.

 The EASTERN Roman Empire (ochra-colored in the picture above) lasted 1000 years longer, and was finally defeated by the Ottomans (Turks) in 1453 C.E

Miniature showing the conquest of Constantinople by the Ottomans.

500 - 1000 C.E.

Forget about Caligula,  if you really want to freak out you should check out the works of
Hieronymus Bosch (1450 -1516)

THE FALL OF THE WESTERN ROMAN EMPIRE ENTER MARKS THE  BEGINNING OF THE DARK AGES (approximately from 500 C.E. until 1200 C.E)

0 CE 
ROMAN EMPIRE

500 CE
ROMAN EMPIRE SPLITS
Collapse West. Roman Empire
Dark Ages (High Middle Ages)
Barbarian Rule

1000 CE
Beginning of recovery
Low Middle Ages

1300 CE
FLORENCE cultural capital
TUSCAN language
DANTE
PETRARCH
BOCCACCIO

1400-1500 CE
RENASSAINCE
Italy split into small states
Foreign rule

Fall of the EAST. Roman Empire

1850 - 1920
Unification of Italy
Italian national language

1880-1920 CE
Great emigration from Southern Italy

ALL THROUGHOUT THIS LONG PERIOD, LATIN REMAINED THE DE-FACTO UNIVERSAL AND OFFICIAL LANGUAGE OF THE WESTERN WORLD.

THE MAIN REASON FOR ITS ENDURANCE RESTS WITH THE FACT THAT IT WAS THE LANGUAGE OF THE CATHOLIC ROMAN CHURCH.

The collapse of central government in the West, lead to the fragmentation of the Empire into a galaxy of small, independent territories ruled by local lords, constantly at war with each other.

Italy, in particular, because of its geography, splintered into an infinity of local municipalities.

WITH THE FALL OF THE WESTERN ROMAN EMPIRE (476 C.E.) ITALY was split into a myriad of little entities, in a constant state of semi-war with each other, contributing to a climate of instability, insecurity and danger.

IT TOOK 1,400 YEARS FOR ITALY TO BE UNIFIED AGAIN (from 476 to 1860).

This should give you an idea of the fragmentation of Italy around the year 1000 C.E.

What happened to LATIN?
 

The consequences of the collapse of the Empire were dramatic.

In a matter of decades Rome went from a population of about 500,000 to 30,000 (in 600 CE.) Sheep and goats were grazing in what used to be the Imperial Forum (see video.)

This was the beginning of the so called Dark Ages.

Latin continued to be the official language of the state, diplomacy and commerce.

It was spoken by the ruling classes and, most important for its survival, it was kept alive by the Roman Church.

The phenomenon of local accents is determined by two major factors.

Consider that the uneducated, illiterate masses were AT LEAST 99% of the population. If they spoke Latin at all, they spoke it with heavy local accents, infiltrated with local terminology derived from local dialects.

1) The linguistic SUBSTRATUM (under layer.)

It's a very easy phenomenon to understand.  Any language, when it is spoken by "foreigners" is pronounced differently, with a different and characteristic accent. Why are the accent of Germans and Russians different when they speak English? Obviously because there is a PHONETIC INTERFERENCE from their respective native languages.

If we look at countries where English is one of the official languages, but not the only one, we see the same phenomenon on a grand scale. Take India and South Africa, for instance. English is one of the official languages, and its pronunciation is characteristically different in the two countries.

2) Linguistic IDENTITY and DIFFERENTIATION.

Because of the substratum phenomenon, even when the original LOCAL language disappears, people tend to preserve an accent (phonetic differences) in the acquired language. 

For example, English is everyday language of Scotland, Ireland and Wales. It was imported centuries ago and it grew on a substratum of different local languages. As a result, the English pronunciation is characteristically different in each region. Over the centuries these differences become ingrained in the local pronunciation to the point where the origin of its speakers can be identified instantly.

When the Roman Empire fell it was dismembered into regions without a strong central authority. Most towns sought to defend themselves erecting walls and fortifications.

 
Monteriggioni, near Siena

Danger was present everywhere in the lawless countryside, and this led to additional isolation. Each town was ruled independently, first by a council of the most powerful families, then, eventually by an autocratic ruler, often an aristocrat. This was the phenomenon of the so called City-States. In these circumstances, over the centuries, local languages developed, with individual characteristics. 

These languages became very distinct to the point of being mutually incomprehensible.

Some of these local languages stayed closer to Latin while some evolved into almost completely separate idioms.

THE MIDDLE AGES IN ITALY FROM A LINGUISTIC PERSPECTIVE
 

More Middle Ages fun, this time from Peter Brueghel (also to be checked out)

During the Middle Ages, from 600 to 1200 CE, Italy was divided into hundreds of local, semi independent city-states and town-states, each with its own rulers, institutions, currency, laws etc. Local wars were constant, with territories being snatched back and forth between rival cities. Alliances were fast made and broken. As soon as a city became too powerful in the eyes of the neighbors, these would create an alliance to fight and contain the ambitions of the rival, with consequent wars, invasions, destructions etc. Then, it was the turn of another city-state to become too powerful, and so forth, ad infinitum.

THE TURNING POINT IN THE HISTORY OF ITALIAN LANGUAGE
IS THE 13th CENTURY (1200 CE.)

Eventually, around the 13th century the situation began to stabilize. The largest cities became REGIONAL powers that dominated large portions of nearby territories. In the NORTH the major powers were TURIN (Savoia), MILAN, VENICE and GENOA. In Central Italy, FLORENCE, SIENA and ROME. In the SOUTH NAPLES and in SICILY, PALERMO.

ROME was the capital of the PAPAL STATE (in Italian, more effectively, STATO DELLA CHIESA, the Church's state).

Smaller entities existed, but they were usually allied with one of the main powers or were ruled by members of the same aristocratic family.

The state that eventually unified Italy under its rule in 1870 was the Duchy of Savoia, whose capital was TURIN.

With all those dialects, WHERE DOES THE REAL ITALIAN LANGUAGE COME FROM?

Again, the critical moment was the 13th century.

After several centuries of misery, decadence and chaos, the economic situation began to improve. Thanks to its position in the Mediterranean, Italy slowly returned to period of prosperity. Italian merchants were travelling allover Europe and, as in the case of Marco Polo, all the way to China.

The richest cities in Europe at the time were Siena and Florence where a virtually identical dialect was spoken. The same dialect, with minor variations was spoken in the entire TUSCAN region, and therefore became known as TUSCAN. 

SIENA

FLORENCE

The intellectual and artistic influence of these cities on the rest of Italy and Europe could be compared to that of today's New York.

The literary and academic language was still Latin, all over Europe. Yet, Tuscan poets and writers started experimenting writing in their own language. Tuscan was rather close to Latin and could be easily comprehended in other regions by educated people who knew Latin. Because of the economic importance of Florence, business people started learning it and it thus began to penetrate the rest of Italy.

While initially Siena was the richer and more powerful city, eventually Florence emerged as the dominant power and became the point of reference for the educated classes all over Italy. Tuscan became very fashionable to the point where even pedantic and conservative academics -- i.e. college professors -- began to recognize that the language was as expressive and powerful as Latin.

The literati living in other parts of Italy started writing in Tuscan as well, to imitate the example of the most important artists of the time. Florentine people, who to this day are fanatically nationalistic, refused to call their language simply "Tuscan" and insisted that it be called FLORENTINE. Eventually they succeeded and to this day Italians refer to FLORENTINE  as the "pure," idealized language of Italy (a language that nobody speaks, not even the Florentines themselves.)

As Florentine spread, it became de facto the language of the entire peninsula, at least for the literary pursuits, and progressively for personal communication (letters), and even the law.

Again, a comparison with English: because of the importance of the U.S. as the center of the most advanced technological research, scientists all over the world communicate in English, write their researches in English and keep up with the progresses of their profession through English language publications.

International law, whenever it is applied, uses English. International tribunals, for trade or violation of copyright etc. are in English. So are international contracts and so forth.

A MAJOR DIFFERENCE is that, because of the presence of the local languages, Florentine-Italian remained almost exclusively a WRITTEN LANGUAGE, A LITERARY LANGUAGE (except in Tuscany, where everybody spoke it too.)

DANTE ALIGHIERI, author of the "DIVINA COMMEDIA"

The major literary figures that contribute to the success of Florentine/Tuscan in the rest of Italy are still considered the greatest writers of Italian literature. They all were born in the 13th century.

DANTE ALIGHIERI. One of the greatest works of literary imagination of all times, and one of the highest achievements of the human spirit, the Divine Comedy narrates in allegorical form the journey of Dante himself through Hell, Purgatory and Paradise. It is a compendium of theological, philosophical, psychological knowledge and the summary of the entire cultural Judeo-Christian tradition accumulated until his time.

Dante Alighieri, Firenze (1265-1321)

FRANCESCO PETRARCA (in English: Petrarch), the inventor of the sonnet, whose idealized, lyrical love poems reverberated throughout European literature for half a millennium.

Francesco Petrarca, Arezzo (1304 -1374)

GIOVANNI BOCCACCIO, author of the "DECAMERON", a collection of one hundred short stories in prose, describing the everyday life of common people in tragic, comical, ordinary, realistic situations involving love, sex, money, friendship, betrayal, and all sort of very human, very recognizable emotions.
 

Giovanni Boccaccio, Firenze (1313-1375)

From the 13th century onward there was no question what the "Italian" language really was.

Writers drew inspiration from Dante, Petrarca, Boccaccio and other Florentine authors and contributed further to the establishment of Florentine as the noble, literary language of Italy. As economic conditions improved and more and more people learned to read and write, they learned to write Florentine.

The uneducated classes continued to speak the local dialects. At the time of the unification in 1870, approximately 50% of the population was illiterate, while another 30%-40% only had one or two year of education. For all practical purposes, Italian was used only in official circumstances or by people who traveled. Yet, all literary works were in Italian.

UNIFICATION OF ITALY 1848 - 1915

The first major push toward the adoption of the Italian language as the official language of Italy was the political unification of the country under one ruler, the Duke of Savoy who eventually became the King of Italy.

THE SECOND MAJOR PUSH  was World War 1 (1914-1918). The war was fought on the North-Eastern Front  against Austria.

Italian soldiers were conscripted from every corner of the peninsula and were forced to communicate using Italian, for practical reasons.

RADIO

OCTOBER 6, 1924

First national radio broadcast in Italy

First "talkie" The Jazz Singer (1927)

Radio for the first time gave Italians all over the peninsula a chance to HEAR the pronunciation of the standard Italian language.

Until 1970, practically EVERY ITALIAN was functionally bi-lingual.

Everybody understood and spoke the local language (dialect) and Italian language. It was common to find people who spoke two or three different dialects, in addition to Italian, as in the case of people whose parents had moved from a different region. At home children heard and spoke the native dialect of their parents, on the playground they spoke the local dialects with friends, and finally they used Italian in school.

Since 1970, dialects have lost greatly, most of all in the cities. Today it is calculated that approximately 50% of Italian are bilingual and use at least one dialect actively, while the rest use exclusively Italian on a regular basis.

What does "DIALECT" mean for an Italian?

When Italians speak a 'dialect' they actually speak a distinct, separate language with its own phonetic inventory (special, unique sounds), words, grammar and syntax.

A DIALECT is a REGIONAL language, different from Italian by varying degrees.

Usually, two dialects from different geographical regions, are mutually incomprehensible.

However, like English speakers can tell if a someone speaks German or French, the speaker of an Italian dialect can identify the origin of a different dialect.

INSIDE one specific geographical area, the local dialect is understood by all. However, each town has its special, unique "flavor". It is relatively easy for a speaker of that dialect from town A to guess where another speaker is from, within that region.

DIALECTS are exclusively ORAL LANGUAGES. Sure, some people write poems or songs in various dialects, but those are very limited phenomena, restricted to few examples.

--- 0 ---

In America, the word "dialect" refers to a set of phonetic differences, i.e. the English language is pronounced with different phonemes.

When they speak Italian, Italians also show these LOCAL DIFFERENCES:  it is easy for any Italian to guess where another Italian is from based on the way s/he pronounces Italian. We call any regional pronunciation of Italia "ACCENT."

Over the centuries, geographical distances contributed to mutual incomprehension.

Thus, as we would expect, the language of Milan (LOMBARDO) in the North and of Palermo (SICILIANO) in the South became quite different.

However, distance is not the only parameter. Often, due to geographical barriers like mountain ranges, tradition, attachment to one's land, suspicion toward neighbors and similar cultural phenomena, even in areas that are relatively close, or even very close, people speak mutually incomprehensible languages.

If you look at the areas PIEMONTE and LIGURIA where respectively PIEMONTESE and LIGURE are spoken, they appear to be contiguous.

However, a mountain range makes communications difficult. The two areas were never unified under a common ruler - for over a millennium. As a consequence people developed mutually incomprehensible languages. Even today, when they speak these languages (dialects) they cannot understand each other.

Sometimes the lack of comprehension is only a one-way street, whereby the speakers of dialect A can understand partially those of dialect B, but not the other way around. Generally, the closer a local language is to Latin roots, the easier it is for speakers of other dialects to comprehend it.

Example: let's take the dialects of Milan and Bergamo. Bergamo's dialect, particularly the version spoken in the mountain valleys, is notorious all over Italy for being impenetrable. Milan and Bergamo are only 40 miles apart, yet speakers of Milanese cannot understand Bergamasco. To the contrary, Bergamasco speakers have a somewhat better comprehension of Milanese, although not a complete one and, in any case, they cannot speak it.

Obviously, they both speak Italian, each with a different and very recognizable local 'accent.'