italy culture

8/3/2019 Italy Culture

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CARIBBEAN MARITIME INSTITUTE

B.Sc - Security Administration and Management

Assignment:

Elements of culture

Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Course

Course Code: Sociology

Presented To:

Olajumoke Orimoloye M.Sc

Presented By:

Andrew Campbell ID #: 2010/100681719

Date: June 20, 2011



Introduction

The history of the Italian language is quite complex but the modern standard of the language was

largely shaped by relatively recent events. The earliest surviving texts which can definitely be

called Italian (as opposed to its predecessor Vulgar Latin) are legal formulae from the region of

Benevento dating from 960-963.

During the 14th century the Tuscan dialect began to predominate, because of the central position

of Tuscany in Italy, and because of the aggressive commerce of its most important city, Florence.

In fact, Florentine culture produced the three literary artists who best summarized Italian thought

and feeling of the late Middle Ages and early Renaissance: Petrarca, Boccaccio and, specially,

Dante Alighieri. Dante was the one who mixed southern Italian languages, especially Sicilian,

with his native Tuscan ("supposed" to be derived from Etruscan and Oscan) in his epic poems

known collectively as the Commedia, to which Giovanni Boccaccio later affixed the title

Divina. The "question of the language", an attempt to establish linguistic norms and codify the

language, engrossed writers of all persuasions. Grammarians during the 15th and the 16th

centuries attempted to confer upon the pronunciation, syntax, and vocabulary of 14th-century

Tuscan the status of a central and classical Italian speech. Eventually this classicism, which

might have made Italian another dead language, was widened to include the organic changes

inevitable in a living tongue. In the dictionaries and publications of the Accademia della Crusca,

founded in 1583, which was accepted by Italians as authoritative in Italian linguistic matters,

compromises between classical purism and living Tuscan usage were successfully effected. The

most important literary event of the 16th century did not actually take place in Florence. In 1525

the Venetian Pietro Bembo (1470-1547) set out his proposals (Prose della volgar lingua - 1525)

for a standardized language and style: Petrarca and Boccaccio were his models and thus became



the modern classics. Therefore, the language of Italian literature is modeled on that spoken in

Florence in the 15th century.

In fact, the first edition of an official Italian vocabulary, published in 1612 by the Accademia

della Crusca, was built on the basis of the following Florentine works: “Divina Commedia” by

Dante, “Decameron” by Bocaccio and “Canzionere” by Petrarca. Today, Toscano is still

considered the "cleanest" of all Italian dialects as it is the most similar to the original or classical

Latin. However, It was not until the 19th century that the language spoken by educated Tuscans

spread to become the language of a new nation. The unification of Italy in 1861 had a profound

impact not only on the political scene but also resulted in a significant social, economical, and

cultural transformation. With mandatory schooling, the literacy rate increased, and many

speakers abandoned their native dialect in favor of the national language.

italy culture

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