Dante Alighieri is best known for his contributions to the literary world, more specifically the monumental epic poem La Divina Commedia (The Divine Comedy). Written circa 1308-1321, it is an allegory of human destiny in the form of a pilgrim's journey through Inferno (Hell), Purgatorio (Purgatory), and Paradiso (Paradise). As his guide through the first two stages of his passage, Dante selects Virgil, the greatest of Roman poets, who wrote in Latin during the peak of the Roman Empire. Despite this choice, however, Dante wrote La Divina Commedia in the Florentine version of Vulgar Latin. He wanted to be able to present his work to his contemporaries and felt compelled to defend the legitimacy of Florentine as a culturally elevated language. This choice did not go unnoticed by scholars and was one of the frequently debated topics in the centuries which followed the first appearance of La Divina Commedia.
During his lifetime, however, Dante was steadfast in his linguistic views and even went as far as presenting these views in another lesser-known work called De Vulgari Eloquentia ("Concerning Vernacular Eloquence"), which was the first theoretical discussion of the Italian literary language. Intended to consist of four parts, Dante abandoned the enterprise after only the second. In the first part, Dante tackles the relationship between the vulgar dialect, which he refers to as the "mother tongue," and Latin, which he terms "the secondary language which the Romans called grammar." Vulgar, according to Dante, was more noble than Latin and therefore a better choice for literature because it was more natural and expressive; Latin, on the other hand, should be utilized for scholarly essays and technical works.
As Dante put it: "Harum quoque duarum nobilior est vulgaris: tum quia prima fuit humano generi usitata; tum quia totus orbis ipsa perfruitur, licet in diversas prolationes et vocabula sit divisa; tum quia naturalis est nobis, cum illa potius artificialis existat." ("Of these two kinds of languages, the more noble is the vernacular: first, because it was the language originally used by the human race; second, because the whole world employs it, though with different pronunciations and using different words; and third because it is natural to us, while the other is, in contrast, artificial.") Paradoxically, Dante composed this defense of his native language in Latin, probably so that it would be taken seriously among his peers!
It is not surprising, then, that Italian is sometimes nicknamed "la langue de dante" or "Dante's Language" in French.
About the Author: Britten Milliman is a native of Rockland County, New York, whose interest in foreign languages began at age three, when her cousin introduced her to Spanish. Her interest in linguistics and languages from around the globe runs deep but Italian and the people who speak it hold a special place in her heart.
