A Plurilingual Family in the Sixteenth Century: Language Use and Linguistic Consciousness in the Salis Family Correspondence, 1580-1610
The family correspondence of the Salis family in eastern Switzerland reveals complex patterns of language usage. Letters by family members during the late sixteenth century used their native Romansh as well as Latin, German, Italian, and French. Sons used Latin to write their father, whereas he felt...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Sixteenth Century Journal Publishers, Inc.
1995
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| In: |
The sixteenth century journal
Year: 1995, Volume: 26, Issue: 3, Pages: 577-593 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Parallel Edition: | Non-electronic
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| Summary: | The family correspondence of the Salis family in eastern Switzerland reveals complex patterns of language usage. Letters by family members during the late sixteenth century used their native Romansh as well as Latin, German, Italian, and French. Sons used Latin to write their father, whereas he felt free to write them in other languages as well, and admonished his sons for speaking Romansh. Women did not know Latin, but struggled to write in German or Italian rather than use Romansh. In addition to the constraints of intelligibility and social context revealed by their language choices, the letters reveal family members' heightened linguistic consciousness. Salis writers deployed arguments about the status of languages in their own discussions, and they showed a keen awareness of the importance of both language and dialect for social advancement. |
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| ISSN: | 2326-0726 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: The sixteenth century journal
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.2307/2543140 |