Multilingualism and language contact in 15th century Naples: evidence from an unedited treatise on farriery

Abstract

This article highlights the situation of multilingualism in the Kingdom of Naples in the second half of the 15th century on the basis of the linguistic analysis of an unpublished treatise on farriery (the Libro de menescalchia de Pier Andrea D'Aragona). The analysis carried out at orthographic, phonetic/phonological, morphosyntactic and lexical level allows us to identify the impact of the linguistic contact between the Ibero-Roman languages, the local variety (Neapolitan) and Tuscan, shaping what can be defined as the “Language of the Kingdom”.