Pépite

Chapter · Italy · Language

A country without its language

A thousand ways of speaking, and two centuries to elect one

Around 1304 an exile looks for the language of Italy and counts more than a thousand ways of speaking without finding one that will do for all. Two centuries later one is chosen: that of two authors dead for a hundred and fifty years.

Context first

A lesson to read before the others, to set the scene.

  • The place
  • The era
  • The people
A country without its languageAround 1304 a poet looks for the language of Italy, counts more than a thousand ways of speaking, and finds none that will do for everyone. Two centuries later one is chosen, and it was already a hundred and fifty years old.9 min

The lessons in this chapter

  1. 1Fourteen dialects at leastA poet compares the dialects of Italy step by step, finds fourteen, then more than a thousand varieties, and discards them all including his own. The count exists to prove the answer lies elsewhere.9 min
  2. 2A panther nobody seesHaving discarded every dialect, he describes what he wants as a panther fragrant everywhere and found nowhere: common to every part of the country, and peculiar to none of them.9 min
  3. 3Writing for the deadIn 1525 a dialogue proposes to settle written Italian on two Tuscans dead for a hundred and fifty years. A character objects that this means writing for the dead more than for the living, and loses.9 min

How these lessons are written

Each lesson starts from first-hand sources: Wikisource, Gallica, Persée, archives, museums and institutes. A fact without a source does not get written, and every lesson lists its own as direct links.

The rhythm

A lesson is five minutes of cards and four questions. Those questions then come back the next day, then at 3, 7, 21 and 60 days, and that return is what makes it stick. One a day is enough, and you can do several in a row.

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