Italian Words in the Language of Petar Ii Petrovic Njegos

Abstract

This paper analyzes the presence of words derived from the Italian language and its dialects in the written heritage of Petar II Petrovic Njegos. The analyzed corpus includes his literary works, letters and his “Biljeznica”. Taking into account the statements of various experts that Italian words represent an integral part of people's speech in Montenegro of Njegos’s time, and the fact that the bishop had the opportunity to be in many ways directly acquainted with the language, it seems reasonable to presume that some elements of the Italian lexicon must be present in his written heritage. The collected material was compared to the Italian vocabulary registered in the colloquial speech of Kotor, Budva and Pastrovici to determine the extent to which Italian words from Njegos’s written heritage coincide with those that entered the vernacular, regardless of the fact that those locations are not a part of his homeland. In this way, we tried to establish the extent to which the presence of Italian words in Njegos’s language is determined by the fact that he knew Italian, as several authors who have dealt with this issue have already proven. DOI: 10.5901/jesr.2014.v4n4p41