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From dialects to a unified language

Dante in a blue robe, writing at his desk, from an illuminated manuscriptDante at his desk, Ms. 67, Biblioteca del Seminario, Padua

Tuesday, March 18 2025 – We are excited to invite you to a lecture by linguist Cinzia Russi on “From Dialects to a Unified Language: Italy’s Complex Identity.”

The Dante Alighieri Society has long been planning an event centered on Italian dialects. It’s a theme that frequently arises, particularly among our Italian American friends who remember their grandparents speaking with accents and using words not found in standard Italian dictionaries.

Dr. Cinzia Russi, who is originally from Abruzzo, will offer a comprehensive analysis of Italy’s diverse dialects, drawing comparisons with English dialects as well. The lecture will explore the historical development of Italian dialects, including: the origins of Italo-Romance vernaculars (volgari) and their earliest attestations, the language landscape during the Middle Ages, the ‘questione della lingua’ from the 16th century to Italy’s political unification, the establishment of Standard Italian. Dr. Russi will also discuss the status of dialects in present-day Italy, highlighting their vitality and presence in literature and music.

The lecture will be held at Carolina Society Hall, 72 Meeting St, Charleston, SC, at 6:00 PM, followed by a reception featuring Italian wines.

Cinzia Russi is a Professor of Romance and Italian Linguistics and Director of the Graduate Portfolio Program in Romance Linguistics at The University of Texas at Austin. Her primary research interests include historical (socio)linguistics with a focus on (morpho)syntax, grammaticalization, and pragmaticalization processes, as well as the language of contemporary Italian crime fiction. Her publications include Iconicity and Analogy in Language Change: The Development of Double Object Clitic Clusters from Medieval Florentine to Modern Italian (2015, co-authored with Janice Aski, Mouton de Gruyter), Current Trends in Historical Sociolinguistics (2016, editor, Walter de Gruyter Open Access), Sicilian Elements in Andrea Camilleri’s Narrative Language: A Linguistic Analysis (2021, Farleigh Dickinson University Press/Rowman & Littlefield), and The Routledge Introduction to Italian Linguistics (2023, Taylor & Francis).

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Townspeople dancing hand in hand in a street of Siena, one playing a tambourineAmbrogio Lorenzetti, Effects of Good Government in the City, c. 1338, Palazzo Pubblico, Siena
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