Active Users:236 Time:21/05/2024 10:16:28 AM
You make it sound as though Medieval Italian is radically different from Modern Italian. Tom Send a noteboard - 26/12/2012 01:15:24 AM
There are a few minor differences, but they're the sort of things that any Italian edition would have footnoted for native readers. However, I would say that the difference between Medieval Italian and Modern Italian is a bit less than the difference between Shakespearean English and Modern English. A far greater gap exists between Medieval German or French and their modern equivalents, and even the English of Chaucer is probably farther from the modern idiom than the Italian of Dante.

And frankly, I don't understand why someone would read something like Gerusalemme Liberata or Orlando Furioso in translation if that same person plans on reading anything in Italian at all - all poetry loses an incredible amount in translation. For example, the beginning of Tasso's epic starts as follows:

Canto l'arme pietose e 'l capitano
che 'l gran Sepolcro liberò di Cristo.
Molto egli oprò co 'l senno e con la mano,
molto soffrì nel glorioso acquisto;
e in van l'Inferno vi s'oppose, e in vano
s'armò d'Asia e di Libia il popol misto.
Il Ciel gli diè favore, e sotto a i santi
Segni ridusse i suoi compagni erranti.


So what is hard about that? I am looking at the eight lines and see almost exclusively modern Italian words. A few final vowels have dropped, as is typical in Italian poetry (popolo > popol, vano > van) and operare contracted a bit for the same reason, as did a couple of places where a full definite article would normally be found. All of those characteristics could appear in any modern Italian poetry, however.

In fact, there is only one irregularity: diè, which in Modern Italian would be diedero. This is a major contraction, but once again, it's pretty easy to determine from the context if you know your conjugations.

At the level of syntax Tasso has thrown in some Latinization, saying Sepolcro liberò di Cristo instead of Sepolcro di Cristo liberò, though that's probably to keep the rhyme scheme as much as for any other reason.
Political correctness is the pettiest form of casuistry.

ἡ δὲ κἀκ τριῶν τρυπημάτων ἐργαζομένη ἐνεκάλει τῇ φύσει, δυσφορουμένη, ὅτι δὴ μὴ καὶ τοὺς τιτθοὺς αὐτῇ εὐρύτερον ἢ νῦν εἰσι τρυπώη, ὅπως καὶ ἄλλην ἐνταῦθα μίξιν ἐπιτεχνᾶσθαι δυνατὴ εἴη. – Procopius

Ummaka qinnassa nīk!

*MySmiley*
Reply to message
Trying to decide which of these is the best shared-world writer... - 23/12/2012 02:23:35 AM 966 Views
I have heard of the Bertrand fella, and the Twelve Paladins but I haven't read any of his works - 23/12/2012 02:58:41 AM 714 Views
Ha! - 23/12/2012 03:04:37 AM 849 Views
I do intend to read Orlando Furioso (and Gerusalemme Liberata) at some point. - 23/12/2012 08:30:03 AM 739 Views
What does Gerusalemme Liberata have to do with it? - 23/12/2012 02:49:41 PM 685 Views
Eh, they're both famous Italian epics? - 25/12/2012 07:06:37 PM 773 Views
You make it sound as though Medieval Italian is radically different from Modern Italian. - 26/12/2012 01:15:24 AM 797 Views
From the aesthetic point of view I think that Ariosto is recognized as the best. - 23/12/2012 02:54:43 PM 802 Views
I agree (all but the Bar-Sur-Aube I've read in the original language, with translations to help) - 23/12/2012 05:16:04 PM 797 Views
Since it's a short book I might just buy a paperback and hope Dumbarton Oaks issues a hardcover. - 23/12/2012 07:29:52 PM 689 Views
It'll be a few months at least before I tackle Mommsen in any language - 23/12/2012 07:44:42 PM 670 Views
I took a chance and ordered Orlando Furioso a week ago from amazon.it - 24/12/2012 02:14:02 AM 972 Views
Hopefully it'll be what you want - 24/12/2012 04:19:32 AM 863 Views
Sadly, ABEbooks hasn't been very helpful in this instance. - 26/12/2012 01:24:26 AM 1011 Views
Yeah, the lack of photos is a hindrance at times - 26/12/2012 04:34:40 AM 792 Views
Io sono trasportato di gioia - 28/12/2012 12:32:21 AM 697 Views
And I just ordered their Tasso. - 28/12/2012 01:09:08 AM 654 Views
Very strange indeed - 28/12/2012 04:46:26 AM 815 Views
Montanelli was not a fan - 28/12/2012 05:40:14 AM 859 Views
True - 29/12/2012 02:41:02 AM 1130 Views
Excellent! - 28/12/2012 04:45:42 AM 797 Views
I agree about the Old French and Catalan - it makes sense when you think about it. - 25/12/2012 07:18:35 PM 719 Views
It's even simpler than that. - 26/12/2012 01:48:02 AM 689 Views
Having finished re-reading the Pulci, I think that one might interest you as well - 25/12/2012 08:59:38 AM 717 Views
Once I read what I have, perhaps - 26/12/2012 01:32:27 AM 747 Views
Saw the title of this and immediately thought: Tite Kubo. haha *NM* - 03/01/2013 10:27:22 PM 889 Views
Well, I will freely admit my near-total ignorance of manga *NM* - 03/01/2013 11:50:43 PM 308 Views
Larry, you're so awesome. </Cartman> *NM* - 13/01/2013 01:15:21 AM 467 Views

Reply to Message