Joseph M. Brincat
University of Malta, Italian, Faculty Member
- Joseph M. Brincat (signs Giuseppe when writing in Italian) is Full Professor at the University of Malta where he teac... moreJoseph M. Brincat (signs Giuseppe when writing in Italian) is Full Professor at the University of Malta where he teaches Italian Linguistics. He holds degrees from the universities of Malta, London and Florence, has read papers in conferences held in Italy, Germany, Switzerland, Britain, the USA, France, Spain and Lithuania, and has delivered courses and seminars in various universities. His main publications are Giovan Matteo di Meglio, Rime, Olschki, Firenze 1977, La linguistica prestrutturale, Zanichelli, Bologna 1986, Maltese and other languages, Midsea Books, Malta 2011. He has edited the proceedings of six conferences organized in Malta and abroad, and is on the editorial board of various foreign journals. He is an elected member of the Accademia della Crusca (Florence), of the Centro Studi Filologici e Linguistici Siciliani (Palermo), the Centro Internazionale sul Plurilinguismo (Udine), and has been honoured with the title of Commendatore dell’Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana for scientific merits. He is currently collaborating on three large-scale research projects: the Osservatorio degli Italianismi nel Mondo (Accademia della Crusca), the Atlante Linguistico del Mediterraneo (Palermo) and the Archivio Testuale del Siciliano Antico (Catania).edit
This paper describes the languages spoken and written in Malta before the Muslim conquest that happened in 870 and the Arabic-speaking settlement of 1048 that replaced the Byzantine community. The language spoken by the neolithic Temple... more
This paper describes the languages spoken and written in Malta before the Muslim conquest that happened in 870 and the Arabic-speaking settlement of 1048 that replaced the Byzantine community.
The language spoken by the neolithic Temple builders is not known because they left no writing, but it could have been a "Mediterranean" variety (Gimbutas, Mallory) or an Indo-European dialect (Renfrew).
The earliest surviving inscriptions were in Phoenician, and later ones are in Greek and Latin, but these only attest the high language. There is no evidence of what the islanders spoke up to 870. The fact that there is no Phoenician, Latin or Greek substrate in present-day Maltese proves that the Muslim takeover and introduction of the Magrebin variety, that was also spoken in large parts of Sicily, was sudden and total because when there is a period of bilingualism a good number of words of the previously spoken language always survive in the new one.
The language spoken by the neolithic Temple builders is not known because they left no writing, but it could have been a "Mediterranean" variety (Gimbutas, Mallory) or an Indo-European dialect (Renfrew).
The earliest surviving inscriptions were in Phoenician, and later ones are in Greek and Latin, but these only attest the high language. There is no evidence of what the islanders spoke up to 870. The fact that there is no Phoenician, Latin or Greek substrate in present-day Maltese proves that the Muslim takeover and introduction of the Magrebin variety, that was also spoken in large parts of Sicily, was sudden and total because when there is a period of bilingualism a good number of words of the previously spoken language always survive in the new one.
Research Interests:
The paper shows how the heavy lexical Latinization of the basically Arabic dialect that was introduced in Malta around the year 1000 was brought about mostly thanks to a very strong process of immigration of Romance speakers from the 13th... more
The paper shows how the heavy lexical Latinization of the basically Arabic dialect that was introduced in Malta around the year 1000 was brought about mostly thanks to a very strong process of immigration of Romance speakers from the 13th to the 19th century. This raised population numbers from 10,000 in 1241 to 100,000 in 1800, and was mainly concentrated in the area around Grand Harbour, which came to comprise one third of all the inhabitants in 1921.
Research Interests:
In the first years of the 13th century Malta hosted a Provencal troubadour who put the island on the cultural map of Europe almost as soon as Neo-Latin literature began to flourish. However the poems Peire Vidal composed here in 1204-5... more
In the first years of the 13th century Malta hosted a Provencal troubadour who put the island on the cultural map of Europe almost as soon as Neo-Latin literature began to flourish. However the poems Peire Vidal composed here in 1204-5 have never been published locally. In this article Brincat presents them in their historic and literary perspective reproducing the text according to the recent critical edition of D. S. Avalle which supersedes the text and the interpretation of the previous editions. Since Avalle does not provide the poems with a literal translation, Brincat has brought up to date De Bartholomaeis' version by integrating it with Avalle's conclusions. The notes explain the historical details (political and amorous) but the reader is constantly reminded that the genre's style transcends documentary evidence. Moreover Vidal's vein is particularly tricky as he tends to exaggerate and boast in order to obtain the desired violently satiric effect. The lingu...
Research Interests:
The fact that Maltese has adopted over 20,000 Sicilian and Italian words, including 41% of its vocabulary at the Threshold Level, shows that this is not a case of borrowing at the higher social levels. To explain this unusual phenomenon... more
The fact that Maltese has adopted over 20,000 Sicilian and Italian words, including 41% of its vocabulary at the Threshold Level, shows that this is not a case of borrowing at the higher social levels. To explain this unusual phenomenon the extraordinary growth in the island's population and its rapid development under the Knights of St John and the British government are taken into account. Whereas works written in Italian from the 16th to the 20th century are abundant, and their quality is not inferior to those written in Italy, little is known about the efforts made by illiterate persons to speak the high language. The paper presents a few symptomatic comments and samples from the past, and from the present.
Research Interests:
Negli ultimi decenni dell'Ottocento e nei prum del Novecento, mentre in Italia si pubblicavano i romanzi di Capuana, Fogazzaro, Verga, De Marchi, Deledda, Svevo e Pirandello, a Malta la scena letteraria, gia bilingue ma dal contenuto... more
Negli ultimi decenni dell'Ottocento e nei prum del Novecento, mentre in Italia si pubblicavano i romanzi di Capuana, Fogazzaro, Verga, De Marchi, Deledda, Svevo e Pirandello, a Malta la scena letteraria, gia bilingue ma dal contenuto omogeneo, era dominata dal romanzo storico. Malgrado le limitazioni fisiche (la popolazione era di 149.782 nel1881 e di 241.621 nel1931) e il fatto che l'istruzione non era ancora obbligatoria (ma nel 1901 il 15% sapeva leggere in italiano), l'ambiente culturale era ben vivo, tanto che puo sorprendere constatare una notevole attivita editoriale. Abbondavano le versioni in lingua maltese di opere italiane: qualche capolavoro come I promessi sposi del Manzoni (1912) e Le mie prigioni del Pellico (1914), alcune opere popolari di C. Cantil (Margherita Pusterla 1908), D. Caprile, G.G. Franco, L. Borrano, e F. Mastriani, e soprattutto di C. Invernizio (Dora, bint l-assassin 1902, L'orfana del ghetto 1902, Beusa infami 1903, Suicidiu s.d.), e p...
Research Interests:
Negli ultimi decenni dell'Ottocento e nei primi del Novecento, mentre in Italia si pubblicavano i romanzi di Capuana, Fogazzaro, Verga, De Marchi, Deledda, Svevo e Pirandello, a Malta la scena letteraria, già bilingue ma dal contenuto... more
Negli ultimi decenni dell'Ottocento e nei primi del Novecento, mentre in Italia si pubblicavano i romanzi di Capuana, Fogazzaro, Verga, De Marchi, Deledda, Svevo e Pirandello, a Malta la scena letteraria, già bilingue ma dal contenuto omogeneo, era dominata dal romanzo storico. Malgrado le limitazioni fisiche (la popolazione era di 149.782 nel1881 e di 241.621 nel1931) e il fatto che l'istruzione non era ancora obbligatoria (ma nel 1901 il 15% sapeva leggere in italiano), l'ambiente culturale era ben vivo, tanto che può sorprendere constatare una notevole attività editoriale. Abbondavano le versioni in lingua maltese di opere italiane: qualche capolavoro come I promessi sposi del Manzoni (1912) e Le mie prigioni del Pellico (1914), alcune opere popolari di C. Cantù (Margherita Pusterla 1908), D. Caprile, G.G. Franco, L. Borrano, e F. Mastriani, e soprattutto di C. Invernizio (Dora, bint l-assassin 1902, L'orfana del ghetto 1902, Beusa infami 1903, Suicidiu s.d.), e poi una schiera di lavori minori, spesso senza riferimento all'autore e al titolo originali, tanto era libera la traduzione. Accanto a queste versioni uscivano regolarmente romanzi storici e popolari firmati da autori maltesi, sia in italiano sia in maltese.
Research Interests:
In the first years of the 13th century Malta hosted a Provencal troubadour who put the island on the cultural map of Europe almost as soon as Neo-Latin literature began to flourish. However the poems Peire Vidal composed here in 1204-5... more
In the first years of the 13th century Malta hosted a Provencal troubadour who put the island on the cultural map of Europe almost as soon as Neo-Latin literature began to flourish. However the poems Peire Vidal composed here in 1204-5 have never been published locally. In this article Brincat presents them in their historic and literary perspective reproducing the text according to the recent critical edition of D. S. Avalle which supersedes the text and the interpretation of the previous editions. Since Avalle does not provide the poems with a literal translation, Brincat has brought up to date De Bartholomaeis' version by integrating it with Avalle's conclusions. The notes explain the historical details (political and amorous) but the reader is constantly reminded that the genre's style transcends documentary evidence. Moreover Vidal's vein is particularly tricky as he tends to exaggerate and boast in order to obtain the desired violently satiric effect. The linguistic notes aim at rendering the original text comprehensible to the reader who knows Italian
Research Interests:
In Malta purism has always been a literary phenomenon from the fifteenth to the first half of the twentieth century, but it had also been promoted for political reasons in the nineteenth century. The paper shows how literary purism... more
In Malta purism has always been a literary phenomenon from the fifteenth to the first half of the twentieth century, but it had also been promoted for political reasons in the nineteenth century. The paper shows how literary purism contrasts with the stratification of the Maltese lexicon as recorded in Joseph Aquilina's Maltese-English Dictionary which shows a preponderance of Sicilian and Italian words, and considers the effects of the dominance of English in today's bilingual situation.
Research Interests:
Whereas credit is given to Emanuele Filiberto di Savoia for introducing the use of Italian in the Piedmont state's administration in 1560-61, this paper shows that the Knights of St. John adopted the use of Italian (volgare di Toscana)... more
Whereas credit is given to Emanuele Filiberto di Savoia for introducing the use of Italian in the Piedmont state's administration in 1560-61, this paper shows that the Knights of St. John adopted the use of Italian (volgare di Toscana) next to Latin, its traditional official language, as soon as they set foot on Malta in 1530, and that the Order had used Italian sporadically also previously in Rhodes.
Research Interests:
A review of Joseph M. Brincat's Maltese and other languages. A Linguistic history of Malta (Midsea Books, Malta 2011) by Andrzej Zaborski.
Research Interests:
A transcription and an explanation of an inscription in stone on the doorway of a sixteenth century building in Malta and a reconstruction of an intriguing word in an Order by Napoleon (1798).
Research Interests:
A study on a collection of poems by Mario Azzopardi.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
In the proceedings of the second meeting "Malta - Sicilia. Contiguità e continuità linguistica e culturale, Malta, 4 - 6 April 1986, published as a special number of Journal of Maltese Studies, the paper examines the etymology of the... more
In the proceedings of the second meeting "Malta - Sicilia. Contiguità e continuità linguistica e culturale, Malta, 4 - 6 April 1986, published as a special number of Journal of Maltese Studies, the paper examines the etymology of the Maltese word "id-dundjan" (the turkey).
Research Interests:
Persons who have never visited Malta usually fail to realize that Maltese 'works' as a normal language. This is because most islands in the Mediterraneap ,speak a dialect or a local variety of the language spoken in the nearest... more
Persons who have never visited Malta usually fail to realize that Maltese 'works' as a normal language. This is because most islands in the Mediterraneap ,speak a dialect or a local variety of the language spoken in the nearest large natio~ state: in Majorca and Minorca they speak Spanish, in Corsica some speak the patois but 111ost speak only French, their official language, in Pantelleria they speak Sicilian an4, wrtte Italian, in Jerba they speak Arabic, in Crete Greek and in Cyprus Greek 01: 'f{irkish. 1 /The 400,000 inhabitants of Malta and Gozo, living in an area of just 316 sq km, nowadays use Maltese, English and Italian regularly, and their exposure to these three languages unavoidably determines a degree of intermingling. Because of its situation at the centre of the Mediterranean, Malta is not only exposed to the four winds and to stro1-i,g"'$a currents, it is also swept by the prevailing cultural trends, today as in the past{ The use of three languag...
Research Interests:
The fact that Maltese has adopted over 20,000 Sicilian and Italian words, including 41% of its vocabulary at the Threshold Level, shows that this is not a case of borrowing at the higher social levels. To explain this unusual phenomenon... more
The fact that Maltese has adopted over 20,000 Sicilian and Italian words, including 41% of its vocabulary at the Threshold Level, shows that this is not a case of borrowing at the higher social levels. To explain this unusual phenomenon the extraordinary growth in the island’s population and its rapid development under the Knights of St John and the British government are taken into account. Whereas works written in Italian from the 16th to the 20th century are abundant, and their quality is not inferior to those written in Italy, little is known about the efforts made by illiterate persons to speak the high language. The paper presents a few symptomatic comments and samples from the past, and from the present.
Riassunto: Fin dalla preistoria il Mediterraneo è stato uno spazio di migranti. Le varie tribù indoeuropee dominarono e assorbirono le popolazioni indigene ‘mediterranee’ nel secondo millennio o addirittura nel sesto millennio a.C. Gli... more
Riassunto: Fin dalla preistoria il Mediterraneo è stato uno spazio di migranti. Le varie tribù indoeuropee dominarono e assorbirono le popolazioni indigene ‘mediterranee’ nel secondo millennio o addirittura nel sesto millennio a.C. Gli albori della letteratura ci raccontano l’invasione greca di Troia e i viaggi di Ulisse, mentre Virgilio illustra la fondazione di Roma da parte dell’esule troiano, Enea. La pax romana portò il latino tutt’intorno al mare nostrum, e dopo il crollo di Roma lottarono per il dominio dell’area il greco bizantino, l’arabo, e varie lingue romanze. Dopo il Mille l’italiano, ‘lingua senza stato’, dominava i commerci marittimi, con le parlate di Venezia, di Genova, e più tardi del toscano. Malta era sempre al centro del mare e delle vicende storiche, e divenne uno stato autonomo plurilingue quando Carlo V la cedette in feudo ai Cavalieri di San Giovanni. Dal 1813, con la colonizzazione britannica, Malta è diventata trilingue, l’unico stato europeo, con Gibilter...
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
The paper compares words of Arabic origin that survived in the Sicilian dialect of Pantelleria, as registered by Giovanni Tropea in his Lessico del dialetto di Pantelleria (Palermo, 1988), with similar ones that are nowadays still part of... more
The paper compares words of Arabic origin that survived in the Sicilian dialect of Pantelleria, as registered by Giovanni Tropea in his Lessico del dialetto di Pantelleria (Palermo, 1988), with similar ones that are nowadays still part of standard Maltese.
The two islands' position between Sicily and North Africa shared the same language up to circa 1700, but Pantelleria adopted the dialect of Trapani but conserved a large amount of Arabic terms as a substrate, at least until the mid-twentieth century. On the other hand Malta has been politically separated from Sicily since 1530 and kept speaking the Maghrebi dialect, which was standardized from the eighteenth to the twentieth century, and became official language, with English, in 1934 and an official language of the EU on the island's accession in 2004.
Therefore the paper compares the Sicilian dialect that has the strongest Arabic substrate with the Arabic-based language whose lexicon has adopted thousands of Sicilian and Italian terms.
The two islands' position between Sicily and North Africa shared the same language up to circa 1700, but Pantelleria adopted the dialect of Trapani but conserved a large amount of Arabic terms as a substrate, at least until the mid-twentieth century. On the other hand Malta has been politically separated from Sicily since 1530 and kept speaking the Maghrebi dialect, which was standardized from the eighteenth to the twentieth century, and became official language, with English, in 1934 and an official language of the EU on the island's accession in 2004.
Therefore the paper compares the Sicilian dialect that has the strongest Arabic substrate with the Arabic-based language whose lexicon has adopted thousands of Sicilian and Italian terms.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
... cioè di circolazione più ampia e di maggior prestigio (seppur localmente ristrette alla minoranza colta): l'arabo, il latino ... di una solida reputazione internazionale, senza trascurare i sentimenti nazionalistici dei parlanti... more
... cioè di circolazione più ampia e di maggior prestigio (seppur localmente ristrette alla minoranza colta): l'arabo, il latino ... di una solida reputazione internazionale, senza trascurare i sentimenti nazionalistici dei parlanti e la strumentalizzazione politica del fenomeno lingua.
... Italian (Malta. Una storia linguistica by JM Brincat (Le Mani, Genova, 2004)). An English edition is due out in 2005. Maltese-English ... Malta today, see Malta. A Linguistic Landscape by Lydia Sciriha and Mario Vassallo (Malta,... more
... Italian (Malta. Una storia linguistica by JM Brincat (Le Mani, Genova, 2004)). An English edition is due out in 2005. Maltese-English ... Malta today, see Malta. A Linguistic Landscape by Lydia Sciriha and Mario Vassallo (Malta, 2001). ...
A short history of linguistics written in Italian as an introduction to the development of linguistic thought and practice over the centuries, from the invention of the alphabet to Historical Linguistics and Dialectology, with a brief... more
A short history of linguistics written in Italian as an introduction to the development of linguistic thought and practice over the centuries, from the invention of the alphabet to Historical Linguistics and Dialectology, with a brief reference to Structuralism as an endpoint.
Research Interests:
Italian was the official language in Malta up to 1936, and it therefore can not be defined simply as a foreign language. The Tuscan variety was introduced by the Order of St. John, better known as the Knights of Malta, in 1530, and... more
Italian was the official language in Malta up to 1936, and it therefore can not be defined simply as a foreign language. The Tuscan variety was introduced by the Order of St. John, better known as the Knights of Malta, in 1530, and coincided with the spread of Tuscan in the various regions of Italy following its codification by Pietro Bembo. Before the Knights Malta belonged to Sicily under its various administrators: Normans, Swabians, Anjevins, Aragonese and Castillians and therefore its high language, together with Latin, was Chancery Sicilian. When the British took over in 1814, they attempted to enforce anglicization, but the islanders resisted, stressing that their high language was even more prestigious than English. Stronger efforts for anglicization were made in the 1880s but Italian remained the language of the Maltese courts, of the Catholic Diocese and of instruction in the schools. English and Italian were both official languages up to 1934 when Maltese was raised to of...
Research Interests:
Malta’s position at the centre of the Mediterranean attracted various conquerors and settlers, but in its present form Maltese has its origins in the Arabic dialect introduced by the Muslim conquest around the year 1000. Lexical... more
Malta’s position at the centre of the Mediterranean attracted various conquerors and settlers, but in its present form Maltese has its origins in the Arabic dialect introduced by the Muslim conquest around the year 1000. Lexical Latinisation started early under Norman rule and kept increasing steadily up to the twentieth century thanks to contact with Chancery and spoken Sicilian up to the sixteenth century, and then with Italian which was introduced by the Knights of Malta. This article traces the historical developments and their influence on the Maltese language, providing statistics concerning the composition of the lexicon and the various methods by which it can be analysed. A look at the present situation explains how Maltese and English bilingualism in the schools and in society is affecting the spoken variety which is often marked by code-switching.
Maltese lexicography began with 9 words in Megiser's Thesaurus Polyglottus (1603) and 121 words in the same author's 1606 monograph Propugnaculum Europae. Skippon followed in 1664 with 386 words. A few Knights of St John drew up longer... more
Maltese lexicography began with 9 words in Megiser's Thesaurus Polyglottus (1603) and 121 words in the same author's 1606 monograph Propugnaculum Europae. Skippon followed in 1664 with 386 words. A few Knights of St John drew up longer glossaries, like the the one conserved at the Biblioteca Vallicelliana in Rome, possibly by Thezan, a Provençal knight, with 3,925 words. Dictionaries with fuller definitions were compiled in the 18th century, by De Soldanis (1755-59, unpublished; 12,000 entries) and Vassalli, whose Lexicon (Rome 1796) contained 18,000 entries.
Research Interests:
The number plates system consisting of three letters and three numbers allows creative combinations to represent the owner's name or surname, the car's make and model or year, pets, sports, and pastimes, as well as whimsical expressions.... more
The number plates system consisting of three letters and three numbers allows creative combinations to represent the owner's name or surname, the car's make and model or year, pets, sports, and pastimes, as well as whimsical expressions. This is done by using numbers as letters they more or less resemble.
Research Interests:
Despite short visits by Coleridge, Byron, Disraeli and Walter Scott, the Romantic movement was introduced in British Malta by minor Italian writers who found refuge there from Bourbon persecution during the Risorgimento. Some of them... more
Despite short visits by Coleridge, Byron, Disraeli and Walter Scott, the Romantic movement was introduced in British Malta by minor Italian writers who found refuge there from Bourbon persecution during the Risorgimento. Some of them wrote historical novels with Maltese heroes in a local environment and spread Romantic and nationalistic ideals among the educated Maltese. Translations from Italian and original novels soon followed.
Research Interests:
In 2007 Oliver Friggieri published in one volume all the Italian poems written by Dun Karm Psaila, which were previously scattered in various newspapers and rare periodicals. This provided a long-awaited opportunity to study the local... more
In 2007 Oliver Friggieri published in one volume all the Italian poems written by Dun Karm Psaila, which were previously scattered in various newspapers and rare periodicals. This provided a long-awaited opportunity to study the local variety of Italian belonging to the literary genre, starting with the most prestigious Maltese poet. Thanks to the concordance I compared this lexicon with that of his Maltese poems. Another step ws a comparison between Dun Karm's lexical chooices and those of another highly-rated Maltese poet, Ruzar Briffa. In this paper I present and compare the results obtained by three students, Catherine Aquilina, Olivia De Brincat and Christian Sciberraa who wrote dissertations under my guidance.
Research Interests:
Giovan Francesco Buonamico (1639-1680), a Maltese traveller and writer, copied two anonymous playful sonnets in his manuscript, which were later published, again without referring to the author, by the Neapolitan Michele Somma in his... more
Giovan Francesco Buonamico (1639-1680), a Maltese traveller and writer, copied two anonymous playful sonnets in his manuscript, which were later published, again without referring to the author, by the Neapolitan Michele Somma in his highly popular "Cento racconti" in 1808. Brincat discovers that the author was the Florentine painter Santi Rinaldi who was active in the second half of the 17th century. A number of his poems are found in a manuscript at the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale of Florence.
Research Interests:
The Knights Hospitallers of the Order of St. John settled in Malta in 1530 and, although the majority of its members were French and Spanish, the Order adopted Italian as its second official language beside Latin. The paper explains why... more
The Knights Hospitallers of the Order of St. John settled in Malta in 1530 and, although the majority of its members were French and Spanish, the Order adopted Italian as its second official language beside Latin. The paper explains why this happened and sketches the peculiar features of the Italian language as used by the members of this politically autonomous State, at a time when the Florentine volgare had just begun spreading in Italy itself.
Research Interests:
Edizione critica della canzone "Donne leggiadre, cui d'Amor la spera" che è stata pubblicata quattro volte con l'attribuzione ad Antonio degli Alberti. Sulla base della sua inclusione fra le rime di Antonio di Meglio nel prestigioso... more
Edizione critica della canzone "Donne leggiadre, cui d'Amor la spera" che è stata pubblicata quattro volte con l'attribuzione ad Antonio degli Alberti. Sulla base della sua inclusione fra le rime di Antonio di Meglio nel prestigioso codice Vat. Lat. 3212, si conclude che sia la lezione sia l'attribuzione di questo codice sono più affidabili.
Research Interests:
Pietro Caxaro's Cantilena is the oldest surviving poem written in the Maltese language. Brincat applies the rules of textual criticism (Lachmann's method) and proves that the manuscript version is actually a discarded draft and that the... more
Pietro Caxaro's Cantilena is the oldest surviving poem written in the Maltese language. Brincat applies the rules of textual criticism (Lachmann's method) and proves that the manuscript version is actually a discarded draft and that the twenty lines should be sixteen, because the second quatrain is a modified version of the previous one. He also points out that "vintura", the only Romance word in the puristically Semitic poem, was inevitable to maintain the structure of rhyming couplets (with "sura"), and could have been a "senhal" for a lady named Vintura, in which case it may be dated to around 1473.
Research Interests:
Nel Risorgimento Malta ospitò un migliaio di esuli, alcuni dei quali erano personaggi di spicco: non solo politici come Ruggero Settimo, Francesco Crispi e Nicola Fabrizi, ma anche letterati come Gabriele Rossetti, Michele Amari,... more
Nel Risorgimento Malta ospitò un migliaio di esuli, alcuni dei quali erano personaggi di spicco: non solo politici come Ruggero Settimo, Francesco Crispi e Nicola Fabrizi, ma anche letterati come Gabriele Rossetti, Michele Amari, Francesco de Sanctis e Luigi Settembrini. Rossetti, Crispi e Settembrini ricordarono questa esperienza nelle loro opere in versi o in prosa, mentre alcune figure minori lasciarono un'impronta fortissima sulla nascente letteratura in lingua maltese. D'altro canto Luigi Pirandello parla spesso di Malta nei suoi racconti, anche se non vi si recò mai, rielaborando la figura del nonno Giovanni Ricci Gramitto che vi morì nel 1850.
Research Interests:
In seguito ai moti risorgimentali un migliaio di esuli italiani si rifugiarono nell'isola di Malta. Tra questi fu Giovanni Ricci Gramitto che arrivò nel 1848, seguito dopo qualche mese dalla famiglia. Di salute delicata vi morì nel 1850,... more
In seguito ai moti risorgimentali un migliaio di esuli italiani si rifugiarono nell'isola di Malta. Tra questi fu Giovanni Ricci Gramitto che arrivò nel 1848, seguito dopo qualche mese dalla famiglia. Di salute delicata vi morì nel 1850, e la famiglia tornò in Sicilia. La figlia Caterina aveva tredici anni ma quell'esperienza l'aveva impressionata tanto che, dopo aver sposato Stefano Pirandello, la raccontò spesso ai figli. Luigi ne rimase affascinato, e rielaborò la figura del nonno e quel viaggio in mare in quattro delle sue opere.
Research Interests:
A collection of papers on naming warships (galleys at the Battle of Lepanto, battleships of World Wars I and II), warplanes (RAF and Fleet Air Arm), on the names of 18th century Mediteranean corsairs and the nicknames of 17th and 18th... more
A collection of papers on naming warships (galleys at the Battle of Lepanto, battleships of World Wars I and II), warplanes (RAF and Fleet Air Arm), on the names of 18th century Mediteranean corsairs and the nicknames of 17th and 18th century Piedmontese soldiers, and of the bars where sailors and soldiers passed their free time in Valletta up to the 1960s. The opening paper shows how battlefields can lend their names to other lexical and semantic fields, and another one points out how the names of Italian colonies were given to babies in pre-war Italy.
Research Interests:
Malta became part of the reign of Aragon in1283, and then it passed to Castille in 1516 thanks to the unification of both reigns by Charles V. As a result Spanish surnames abound in Maltese legal documents of the fifteenth and sixteenth... more
Malta became part of the reign of Aragon in1283, and then it passed to Castille in 1516 thanks to the unification of both reigns by Charles V. As a result Spanish surnames abound in Maltese legal documents of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The influx of Spanish citizens continued under the Knights of Malta, who had two Langues, one of Aragon, Navarra and Catalunya, and the other of Castille, Léon and Portugal. Constant social relations with Sicily, including intermarriage, brought other Spanish surnames common there. Over a hundred are still present today, borne by a total of 2,345 Maltese citizens.
Research Interests:
Alcune considerazioni sulla manifestazione dell'anglicismo in due realtà storicamente diverse: a Malta, dove l'inglese è lingua ufficiale dal 1813 (a fianco dell'italiano fino al 1936, e a fianco del maltese dal 1934) e in Italia, dove è... more
Alcune considerazioni sulla manifestazione dell'anglicismo in due realtà storicamente diverse: a Malta, dove l'inglese è lingua ufficiale dal 1813 (a fianco dell'italiano fino al 1936, e a fianco del maltese dal 1934) e in Italia, dove è lingua straniera che ha fatto rapidi progressi negli ultimi decenni.
Research Interests:
When the Knights of St. John settled in Malta in 1530 they changed the language of administration from Chancery Sicilian to the Florentine variety which was becoming Italian. Malta became culturally Italian but when the British took over... more
When the Knights of St. John settled in Malta in 1530 they changed the language of administration from Chancery Sicilian to the Florentine variety which was becoming Italian. Malta became culturally Italian but when the British took over in 1813 they resolved to anglicize the population. However they met with strong resistance, and the tussle for cultural supremacy raged on for more than a hundred years. The imperialists on one side and the nationalists on the other fought it out not only in the political, administrative and legal fields but also in the schools until Italian was phased out on the eve of the Second World War.
Research Interests:
Domenico Magri published his encyclopaedic dictionary of religious terms in 1644 but he kept working on it raising the original 909 entries to1,379 in the second edition and to 3,291 in the third one. This work was highly successful,... more
Domenico Magri published his encyclopaedic dictionary of religious terms in 1644 but he kept working on it raising the original 909 entries to1,379 in the second edition and to 3,291 in the third one. This work was highly successful, appearing in nine editions up to 1751. His brother Carlo wrote the Latin version, the Hierolexicon, bringing up the number of entries to over 8,000, which as successful, enjoying ten editions or reprints from 1677 onwards.
Research Interests:
Alcune considerazioni sui neologismi che diventano presto desueti nella lingua italiana in un confronto tra il Dizionario di parole nuove di Manlio Cortelazzo e Ugo Cardinale (1984-1987) e il dizionario della lingua italiana di Francesco... more
Alcune considerazioni sui neologismi che diventano presto desueti nella lingua italiana in un confronto tra il Dizionario di parole nuove di Manlio Cortelazzo e Ugo Cardinale (1984-1987) e il dizionario della lingua italiana di Francesco Sabatini e Vittorio Coletti e il Grande Dizionario della Lingua Italiana di Tullio De Mauro, soprattutto per quanto riguarda gli anglicismi.
Research Interests:
The paper examines the trends in giving first names in the island of Gozo, based on the electoral registers of 1948, 1965, 1985 and 2005. Although in post-war Malta people were strongly encouraged to give English names, it is evident that... more
The paper examines the trends in giving first names in the island of Gozo, based on the electoral registers of 1948, 1965, 1985 and 2005. Although in post-war Malta people were strongly encouraged to give English names, it is evident that giving Italian names (that was the obvious choice from 1200 to the 1930s) did not die out, and one also sees a good number of names in Maltese. The names inspired by devotion to the traditional saints, often passed on by the habit of naming babies after grandparents or uncles and aunts, was and still is prevalent, although nowadays exotic names have become fashionable (as seen in the statistics for 2006).
Research Interests:
In Malta and Gozo British rule (1800-1964) left a very visible influence in the habit of giving names to ordinary homes, besides the official street door number. Research in the smaller island of Gozo reveals the motives behind the choice... more
In Malta and Gozo British rule (1800-1964) left a very visible influence in the habit of giving names to ordinary homes, besides the official street door number. Research in the smaller island of Gozo reveals the motives behind the choice of the name. Owners personalize their home in many ways: by putting their names or surnames or both, by more informal appellatives, by showing their devotion to saints or displaying their hobbies. Moreover, in Gozo as in Malta, they also show their language preferences: most of the names are in Maltese, in English, and in Italian, but other languages, even exotic ones, are present too. What strikes the passerby in Gozo is the abundance of nostalgic names given by returned migrants recalling places in Australia, Canada, the UK and the USA.
Research Interests:
This paper examines the influence of devotion towards saints honoured in the various parishes of Malta and Gozo on name-giving. Despite the current fashion of naming babies after film stars and pop singers, and the practice of conjuring... more
This paper examines the influence of devotion towards saints honoured in the various parishes of Malta and Gozo on name-giving. Despite the current fashion of naming babies after film stars and pop singers, and the practice of conjuring up compound first names with the first syllables of two different names (now thankfully out of date), traditional saints' names are still very much alive. Research into parochial and electoral registers and inquisitive walks around the streets of Maltese and Gozitan towns and villages show a marked preference for giving babies, homes and shops the names of the locality's patron saints.
Research Interests:
Handbooks on the history of the English language do not give much space to the Italian words that have been adopted throughout the centuries. This paper gives a look at the Sunday Times to describe in what domains and in what manner... more
Handbooks on the history of the English language do not give much space to the Italian words that have been adopted throughout the centuries. This paper gives a look at the Sunday Times to describe in what domains and in what manner Italian words are used in today's English, as reflected in the journalistic variety.
Research Interests:
Notice of publication of the second edition, with Contents
Research Interests:
A critical edition of the poems of Giovan Matteo di Meglio written in Florence in the mid-fifteenth century.