True and putative Hellenisms in Southern Italy: Gerhard Rohlfs vs. Clemente Merlo

Michele Loporcaro

University of Zurich

As in general in Italian dialectology, the contribution of Gerhard Rohlfs (1892–1986) is absolutely central to the study of language contact between Italo-Romance and Greek. Alongside many studies (e.g. Rohlfs 1932; 1972) and a reference grammar of Greek enclaves (Rohlfs 1977), he provided (southern) Italian dialect lexicography with an essential tool, viz. his LGII (and its predecessor, the EWUG), a work which figures prominently in any discussion of Hellenisms. This will be exemplified reviewing some of the materials discussed in this reference work. Thus, for instance, kjatru, one the words for ‘ice’ in southern Italo-Romance (Sicilian, etc.: see AIS 2. 381–382), was first explained – after a series of unfruitful attempts by both serious scholars and amateurs, including Abbatescianni’s (1896: §26) ὕδωρ — with Latin clatri ‘grating, lock’ by Merlo (1909: 241–243), who tried in turn to interpret the latter as a Latin formation, based on clavis ‘key’. However, considering this word as a Hellenism (though ultimately from the same IE root) has several advantages: the form which entered Classical Latin, and lives on in e.g. Sicilian kjatru, must have been Doric Gk. κλᾷθρον (< *κλᾶ(ϝ)ιθρον, DELL 125, EDG 711), while Ionic-Attic κλῇθρον/κλεῖθρον accounts for the co-existence in Southern Italy of variants with stressed i (e.g. Salentino kjitru), which would remain otherwise unexplained. Indeed, one finds such southern Italian outcomes under κλεῖθρον in LGII 244.

Like all scientific work, though, Rohlfs’ LGII must be examined critically. In particular, it has been argued that the author not infrequently “proposed unacceptable Greek etymologies” (Alessio 1980: 5) for example for Calabrian words that G. Alessio has more persuasively interpreted as medieval Gallicisms, which entered both Romance and Greek dialects of southern Italy in parallel. The tendency to overestimate the Greek lexical share also creeps elsewhere in Rohlfs’ work, not only to the detriment of Gallicisms but also of the indigenous lexical stock of Latin origin. This will be shown analyzing the names of the ‘blackberry’ in the south-eastern corner of the Peninsula between Salento, Puglia and eastern Lucania, as exemplified by Barese lúmərə. For this, Rohlfs (1923) proposed a Greek etymon (later reproduced in EWUG 5 and LGII 9) which I will critically evaluate against the background of previous proposals by Salvioni (1909; 1911) and Merlo (1919). These ultimately trace back lúmərə and its many variants (as diverse as e.g. Salentino krúmmula, númaru, rúmula etc.) to Latin morum ‘blackberry’, an explanation rejected by Rohlfs (1923) appealing to a geolinguistic argument which is refuted in Loporcaro (2019).

References

Abbatescianni, G. 1896. Fonologia del dialetto barese. Bari: Avellino & C.

AIS: Jaberg, K. & J. Jud. 1928–1940 Sprach- und Sachatlas Italiens und der Südschweiz. 8 vols. Zofingen: Ringier[digital version ed. by G. G. Tisato, at http://www3.pd.istc.cnr.it/navigais/; digital searchable version ed. by M. Loporcaro et al. at https://www.ais-reloaded.uzh.ch/].

Alessio, G. 1980. Normandismi e francesismi antichi nei dialetti romanzi e romaici dell'Italia meridionale. Bollettino del Centro di Studi Filologici e Linguistici Siciliani 14: 5–36.

EWUG: Rohlfs, G. 1930. Etymologisches Wörterbuch der unteritalienischen Gräzität. Halle a. S.: Niemeyer.

DELL: Ernout, A. & A. Meillet. 1959. Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue latine. 3e éd. Paris: Klincksieck

EDG: Beekes, R. 2010. Etymological dictionary of Greek [with the assistance of Lucien van Beek]. Leiden: Brill.

LGII: Rohlfs, G. 1964. Lexicon Graecanicum Italiae Inferioris. Etymologisches Wörterbuch der unteritalienischen Gräzität, 2. erweiterte und völlig neubearbeitete Auflage. Tübingen: Niemeyer.

Loporcaro, M. 2019. Come nasce un grecismo: il tipo apulo-salentino e lucano orientale ˹lúm(m)ura/‑u˺, ˹rúm(m)ula/-u˺ ‘mora di rovo’. L’Italia dialettale 80: 677–698.

Merlo, C. 1909. Note italiane centro-meridionali. Revue de dialectologie romane 1: 240–262.

Merlo, C. 1919. Fonologia del dialetto di Sora (Caserta). Annali delle Università Toscane 38 (N. S. IV.5): 121–282 [repr. Pisa: Tip. Mariotti 1920].

Rohlfs, G. 1923. Graecoromanisches. Zeitschrift für romanische Philologie 43: 700–707.

Rohlfs, G. 1933. Scavi linguistici nella Magna Grecia. Halle; Rome: Max Niemeyer; Collezione Meridionale Ed.

Rohlfs, G. 1972. Nuovi scavi linguistici nella antica Magna Grecia. Palermo: Istituto siciliano di studi bizantini e neoellenici.

Rohlfs, G. 1977. Grammatica storica dei dialetti italogreci (Calabria, Salento). Nuova ed. interamente rielaborata ed aggiornata. Munich: Beck.

Salvioni, C. 1909. Appunti diversi sui dialetti meridionali. Studj Romanzi 6: 5–67 [repr. in Salvioni (2008: 4. 381–443)].

Salvioni, C. 1911. Osservazioni varie sui dialetti meridionali di terraferma (Serie IV). Rendiconti dell’Istituto Lombardo di scienze e lettere 44: 933–946 [repr. in Salvioni (2008: 4. 499–512)].

Salvioni, C. 2008. Scritti linguistici, ed. by M. Loporcaro, L. Pescia, R. Broggini & P. Vecchio. 5 vols. Bellinzona: Edizioni dello Stato del Cantone Ticino.