Scelte slavofile nella Grammatica della lingua illirica (1808) di Francesco Maria Appendini

Abstract

Francesco Maria Appendini, an Italian scholar from Dubrovnik, who admired Illyrian language by calling it the most perfect, is remembered as a charismatic Piarist and author of two important books: Notizie istorico-critiche sulle antichità, storia e letteratura de’ Ragusei (1803) and Grammatica della lingua illirica (1808). His work was preceded by other grammarians: Kašić, Della Bella, Tadijanović, Reljković, Lanosović, Jurin, and Voltić. Appendini chose Kašić and Della Bella as his main models. In his Grammatica (360 pages long), Appendini understands the term Illiryan language as a multiplicity of dialectal achievements (Ragusean, Bosnian, Dalmatian, Istrian, and Kajkavian), but he mostly describes the Dubrovnik (Ragusean) dialect, especially providing examples of applying grammatical rules. The most important feature of the Dubrovnik dialect is the large number of Italianisms, but Appendini, even though Italian himself, does not adopt them, but instead finds Slavic lexical versions. The paper presents examples of this phenomenon, together with explanations about the possibilities of another choice, that is the Italianism that could have been used instead of the chosen Slavism.

10.4424/lam122023-11