Lombardic is aTrümmersprache (literally, 'rubble-language'), that is, a language preserved only in fragmentary form: there are no texts in Lombardic, only individual words and personal names cited inLatinlaw codes, histories andcharters. As a result, there are many aspects of the language about which nothing is known.[2][3]
Some scholars have proposed that the modernCimbrian andMòcheno languages are descended from Lombardic, but this is rejected by a majority of scholars.[4]
Lombardic is classified as part of theUpper German group ofWest Germanic languages, descended fromElbe Germanic, and most closely related to its geographical neighboursAlemannic andBavarian. This is consistent with the accounts of classical historians, and indeed with the archaeological evidence of Langobardic settlement along the riverElbe.[5]
In view of the lack of Lombardic texts and the narrow scope of the attested Lombardic vocabulary — almost entirely nouns in the nominative case and proper names — the classification rests entirely onphonology. Here the clear evidence of theSecond Sound Shift shows that the language must beHigh German, rather thanNorth Sea Germanic orEast Germanic, as some earlier scholars proposed.[6]
The main evidence for Lombardic comes from contemporary documents written in Latin, where (a) individual Lombardic terms are cited and (b) people with Lombardic names are mentioned. There are also a small number of inscriptions, a handful of which use theRunic alphabet. Additional information about the vocabulary of Lombardic comes from later-attestedloan words intoItalian and its dialects, as well as a large number of Italianplace names of Lombardic origin (seebelow).
The documentary sources fall into three categories:[7]
Establishing sound values for Lombardic is problematic for two reasons. Where words are attested in contemporary Lombardic documents, scribes trained in Latin could not be expected to record accurately, or even consistently, the sounds of Lombardic. In the case of loanwords, these are often attested much later, by which time their form will have been affected not only by the adaptation to the phonology of the variousGallo-Italic languages but also by subsequent sound changes in the development ofItalian.[8][9]
The vowel system of Lombardic is very conservative and largely preserves theProto-Germanic system.[10] The three main vowel developments characteristic of other Upper German dialects are lacking in Lombardic.
There is no evidence of thePrimary Umlaut of /a/, which is prevalent inOld High German (OHG), e.g. Lombardiccamphio = OHGchemphio ("champion").[11]
Thediphthongs /ai/ and /au/ are preserved, whereas in other Old High German dialects they become /ei/ and /ou/ or aremonophthongized to /e:/ and /o:/ in certain phonetic contexts. Examples: Lgb.schuldhais = OHGscultheizo ("mayor");[12] Lgb.rairaub = OHGrêroup ("body snatching");[13] Lgb.launegild = OHGlôngelt ("payment").[14]
The mid long vowels /e:/ and /o:/, which are diphthongized in OHG to /ea~ia/ and /uo/ respectively, remain unchanged in Lombardic. Examples: Lgb.mêta = OHGmiata ("price");[15] Lgb.plôvum = OHGphluog ("plough").[16]
Lombardic participated in and indeed shows some of the earliest evidence for theHigh German consonant shift. TheHistoria Langobardorum ofPaulus Diaconus mentions a dukeZaban of 574, showing/t/ shifted to/ts/. The termstolesazo (ablative)[17] (the second element is cognate with Englishseat) in theEdictum Rothari shows the same shift. Many names in the Lombard royal families show shifted consonants, particularly/b/ >/p/ in the following name components:
Thissound change left two different sets of nouns in theItalian language:palco (< Lombardicpalk, "beam") vs.balcone (< Lombardicbalk, "wood platform");panca (< Lombardicpanka) vs.banca (Lombardicbanka, "bench").[18]
It is not possible to say with certainty when the Lombardic language died out and there are divergent views on the issue.[19] It seems certain that it was in decline even before the end of the Lombardic kingdom in 774, though it may have survived longer in Northern areas, with their denser Lombardic settlement.[20][21] In any case, the Lombard host which had invaded Italy was not monolingual: in addition to a sizeable body ofSaxons, there were also "Gepids,Bulgars,Sarmatians,Pannonians,Suevi,Noricans and so on" (Historia Langobardorum, II, 26).[22]
In the areas of Italy settled by the Lombards, "there followed a rapid mixing of Roman and barbarian, especially among the population settled on the land."[23] The Lombard conversion fromArianism toRoman Catholicism in the 7th century would have removed a major barrier to the integration of the two populations.[24][25] By the 8th century speakers of Lombardic were bilingual, adopting the localGallo-Italic language.[2]
Even as use of the language declined, Lombardic personal names remained popular, though they gradually lost their connection to the source language, adopting Latin endings. The 8th century also saw the development of hybrid names with both Lombardic and Latin elements (e.g.Alipertulus = LgbAlipert + Lat.-ulus).[26] By this time occurrence of both Lombardic and Latin names within a single family "is so widespread that such cases make up the majority throughout Lombard Italy".[27]
Explicit evidence of the death of Lombardic comes in the late 10th century: theSalerno Chronicle mentions the "German language which the Lombards previously spoke" (lingua todesca, quod olim Langobardi loquebantur, cap. 38). But some knowledge of Lombardic remained: the Salerno chronicler nonetheless knows that the Lombardic termstoleseyz includes an element which means "sitting" (sedendo).[28] As late as 1003, a charter uses the Lombardic termscarnafol ("filthy fellow") as an insult.[29]
At least 280 Italian words have been identified as Lombardicloans, though there is wide local variation and some are found only in areas settled by the Lombards.[30] One problem in detecting Lombardic loans is that they are not always readily distinguishable fromGothic, the language of the previous Germanic rulers of Italy. In many cases, it is only evidence of the Second Sound Shift, which did not affect Gothic, that guarantees a Lombardic source for a loanword.[31] However, the Sound Shift is equally present in Alemannic and Bavarian, which are also potential sources of loans into Northern Italian varieties at this period.[32]
The main areas of the Lombardic vocabulary surviving in Italian are: warfare and weapons, the law, government and society, housebuilding and the household, objects and activities from daily life. Of these, however, Lombardic government and legal terms were to a great extent superseded by theGallo-Roman vocabulary of theFrankish conquest.[33][7] The predominance of loans relating to daily life "would appear to be a sign that the Longobards fitted in and integrated with the locals at a grass-roots level."[34]
When the Lombards settled in Italy they had no previous acquaintance with Latin, with the result that the earliest Lombard settlements received Lombardic names.[38] There are a number of distinct types of name.
EachLombard duke was the lord of a group of military clans, who were settled in the area he ruled. The Lombardic term for such a clan wasfara, and it has given its name (or the variantfarra) to a number of Italian settlements, including:[38]
Many settlements took their names from Lombardic personal names. For example the Lombardic nameGairo ("spear") is the source of: Noci Garrioni (Cremona), Garin (Turin), Garini (Cuneo andAlessandria), Carengo (Novara), Ghiringhello (Verona), Gairilo (Brescia), Ghirla, (Verona), Garlasco (Pavia), Garleri (Porto Maurizio), and Garlazzolo (Pavia).[39] Gamillscheg counts over 700 of these.[40]
In many cases a Lombard personal name was appended to the Latin word for a natural feature.[41] Thus Latincollis ("hill") appears coupled with, for example, lgb.Alibert in Colle-Alberti (Florence,Pisa), lgb.Gunzo in Collegonzi (Florence), andRaginwald in Collerinaldo (Aquila).[42]
Finally, there are over 30 Lombardic common nouns which have formed the basis for Italian place names, including:[43]
A number of Lombardic personal names survive in modern Italy (for example,Aldo), but where they have it is mostly in the form of a surname:Ansaldo,Grimaldi,Garibaldi,Landolfi,Pandolfi,Siccardi are all of Lombardic origin.[44]
There are a number of Latin texts that include Lombardic names, and Lombardic legal texts contain terms taken from the legal vocabulary of the vernacular, including:
There is debate as to whether the inscription on the fifth-centurySzabadbattyánbelt buckle[54] is Lombardic orGothic, and the reading is uncertain.[48][55][56] The futhark on the Breza half-column is regarded as either Lombardic orAlemannic.[57]
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