On language unity and disunity

Abstract

A millenary ethnic and cultural history of Italic settlements, Latin hegemonic contact, followed by isolation and external punctuations prior to unification in 1861 under one territorial and legal state created a diverse metalinguistic complex in the Italian peninsula, albeit reflected in extraordinarily rich expression in the arts and sciences as recognized in global society today. In the historicist approach, the role and effects of unity under one state over the last 150 years is recognized in contrast with the prior highly fractured situation as ‘many little states’ under varied (and lingering foreign) influence, including new linguistic (French) and ideological hegemony. The theme of this article deals specifically with the ontology of Italian ‘linguistic identity’ from a human perspective, that personal and group identification that brings us together or divides us in post-modern society toward the quest for linguistic rights as human rights. Owing to the unifying effect (largely achieved) of the Italian language in public schools since unification, the questione della lingua may rise again as an issue. The question is critically revisited in the historical background of Manzoni, the Italian umanesimo and Dante’s De vulgari eloquentia.