Verba mihi desunt. Elementi di "attrito linguistico" nella costruzione ovidiana della persona exulis

Abstract

In Tr. 3.14.46, Ovid laments his decrease in Latin knowledge, concluding that he almost unlearned his mother tongue (uerba mihi desunt dedidicique loqui) and in Tr. 5.7b.55-64 he confesses the decline of his language skills caused by disuse. Moreover, he states that he has learned to speak in Getic to the point of having composed a Geticum libellum (Pont. 4.13.17-23). So, in Ovidian exilic poetry we can observe the elegiac representation of 'language attrition', consisting in a gradual decline or loss of language proficiency, in conjunction with long-lasting contact with foreign languages. But the linguistic adeptness emerging in Ibis and generally in the exilic corpus shows no sign of attrition. We can argue that Ovid uses this frame in order to re-elaborate a literary portray of the persona exulis and to intensify the danger of the loss of Latinity in Tomis, and maybe in the cultural life of Augustan Rome.