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Rh entered into an agreement by which they pledged themselves to the principle of a constitutional monarchy and a legislative assembly. Itagaki now accepted office once more. Finding, however, that his colleagues in the administration favoured a much more leisurely rate of progress than he himself advocated, he once more retired into private life (1876) and renewed his liberal propagandism. It is in the nature of such movements to develop violent phases, and the leaders of the Aikoku-sha (patriotic association), as the agitators now called themselves, not infrequently showed disregard for the preservation of peace and order. Itagaki made the mistake of memorializing the government at the moment when its very existence was imperilled by the Satsuma rebellion (1877), and this evident disposition to take advantage of a great public peril went far to alienate the sympathies of the cabinet. Recourse was had to legislation in restraint of free speech and public meeting. But repression served only to provoke opposition. Throughout 1879 and 1880 Itagaki’s followers evinced no little skill in employing the weapons of local association, public meetings and platform tours, and in November 1881 the first genuine political party was formed in Japan under the name of Jiyū-tō, with Itagaki for declared leader. A year later the emperor announced that a parliamentary system should be inaugurated in 1891, and Itagaki’s task might be said to have been accomplished. Thenceforth he devoted himself to consolidating his party. In the spring of 1882, he was stabbed by a fanatic during the reception given in the public park at Gifu. The words he addressed to his would-be assassin were: “Itagaki may perish, but liberty will survive.” Once afterwards (1898) he held office as minister of home affairs, and in 1900 he stepped down from the leadership of the Jiyū-tō in order that the latter might form the nucleus of the Seiyū-kai organized by Count Ito. Itagaki was raised to the nobility with the title of “count” in 1887. From the year 1900 he retired into private life, devoting himself to the solution of socialistic problems. His countrymen justly ascribe to him the fame of having been the first to organize and lead a political party in Japan.

ITALIAN LANGUAGE. The Italian language is the language of culture in the whole of the present kingdom of Italy, in some parts of Switzerland (the canton of Ticino and part of the Grisons), in some parts of the Austrian territory (the districts of Trent and Görz, Istria along with Trieste, and the Dalmatian coast), and in the islands of Corsica and Malta. In the Ionian Islands, likewise, in the maritime cities of the Levant, in Egypt, and more particularly in Tunis, this literary language is extensively maintained through the numerous Italian colonies and the ancient traditions of trade.

The Italian language has its native seat and living source in Middle Italy, or more precisely Tuscany and indeed Florence. For real linguistic unity is far from existing in Italy; in some respects the variety is less, in others more observable than in other countries which equally boast a political and literary unity. Thus, for example, Italy affords no linguistic contrast so violent as that presented by Great Britain with its English dialects alongside of the Celtic dialects of Ireland, Scotland and Wales, or by France with the French dialects alongside of the Celtic dialects of Brittany, not to speak of the Basque of the Pyrenees and other heterogeneous elements. The presence of not a few Slavs stretching into the district of Udine (Friuli), of Albanian, Greek and Slav settlers in the southern provinces, with the Catalans of Alghero (Sardinia, v. Arch. glott. ix. 261 et seq.), a few Germans at Monte Rosa and in some corners of Venetia, and a remnant or two of other comparatively modern immigrations is not sufficient to produce any such strong contrast in the conditions of the national speech. But, on the other hand, the Neo-Latin dialects which live on side by side in Italy differ from each other much more markedly than, for example, the English dialects or the Spanish; and it must be added that, in Upper Italy especially, the familiar use of the dialects is tenaciously retained even by the most cultivated classes of the population.

In the present rapid sketch of the forms of speech which occur in modern Italy, before considering the Tuscan or Italian par excellence, the language which has come to be the noble organ of modern national culture, it will be convenient to discuss (A) dialects connected in a greater or less degree with Neo-Latin systems that are not peculiar to Italy; (B) dialects which are detached from the true and proper Italian system, but form no integral part of any foreign Neo-Latin system; and (C) dialects which diverge more or less from the true Italian and Tuscan type, but which at the same time can be conjoined with the Tuscan as forming part of a special system of Neo-Latin dialects.

A. Dialects which depend in a greater or less degree on Neo-Latin systems not peculiar to Italy.

1. Franco-Provençal and Provençal Dialects.—(a) Franco-Provençal (see Ascoli, Arch. glott. iii. 61-120; Suchier, in Grundriss der romanischen Philologie, 2nd ed., i. 755, &c.; Nigra, Arch. glott. iii. 1 sqq.; Salvioni, Rendic. istit. lomb., s. ii. vol. xxxvii. 1043 sqq.; Cerlogne, Dictionnaire du patois valdôtain (Aosta, 1907). These occupy at the present time very limited areas at the extreme north-west of the kingdom of Italy. The system stretches from the borders of Savoy and Valais into the upper basin of the Dora Baltea and into the head-valleys of the Orco, of the northern Stura, and of the Dora Riparia. As this portion is cut off by the Alps from the rest of the system, the type is badly preserved; in the valleys of the Stura and the Dora Riparia, indeed, it is passing away and everywhere yielding to the Piedmontese. The most salient characteristic of the Franco-Provençal is the phonetic phenomenon by which the Latin a, whether as an accented or as an unaccented final, is reduced to a thin vowel (ḛ, i) when it follows a sound which is or has been palatal, but on the contrary is kept intact when it follows a sound of another sort. The following are examples from the Italian side of these Alps: interroger; zḛvra, Fr. chèvre; zir, Fr. cher; gljáçḛ, Fr. glace; vázze, Fr. vache; alongside of sa, Fr. sel; maṅ, Fr. main; epóusa, Fr. épouse; erba, Fr. herbe. : taljér, Fr. tailler; coćí-sse, Fr. se coucher; ćiṅ, Fr. chien; ćívra, Fr. chèvre; vaćći, Fr. vache; mánģi, Fr. manche; alongside of alár, Fr. aller; porta, Fr. porté; amára, Fr. amère; néva, Fr. neuve. (Val di Lanzo): la spranssi dla vendeta, sperantia de illa vindicta. : pansci, pancia. : la müragli, muraille. A morphological characteristic is the preservation of that paradigm which is legitimately traced back to the Latin pluperfect indicative, although possibly it may arise from a fusion of this pluperfect with the imperfect subjunctive (amaram, amarem, alongside of habueram, haberem), having in Franco-Provençal as well as in Provençal and in the continental Italian dialects in which it will be met with further on (C. 3, b; cf. B. 2) the function of the conditional. : portáro, portáre, portáret; portáront; : ávre = Prov. agra, haberet (see Arch. iii. 31 n). The final t in the third persons of this paradigm in the Val Soana dialect is, or was, constant in the whole conjugation, and becomes in its turn a particular characteristic in this section of the Franco-Provençal. : éret, Lat. erat; sejt, sit; pórtet, portávet; portǫnt, portávǫnt; : jéret, erat; ant dit, habent dictum; èjssount fêt, habuissent factum; at pensá, ha pensato; avát, habebat; (sources of the Dora Riparia); maciávont, mangiavano.—From the valleys, where, as has just been said, the type is disappearing, a few examples of what is still genuine Franco-Provençal may be subjoined: Ćivreri (the name of a mountain between the Stura and the Dora Riparia), which, according to the regular course of evolution, presupposes a Latin Capraria (cf. maneri, maniera, even in the Chiamorio dialect); ćarastí (ciarastì), carestia, in the Viu dialect; and ćintá, cantare, in that of Usseglio. From, li téns, i tempi, and chejches birbes, alcune (qualche) birbe, are worthy of mention on account of the
 * travaljí, Fr. travailler; zarźí, Fr. charger; enteruźí, Fr.
 * che s’mínget, Ital. che si mangi: (Val di Susa):