THE INDEFINITE USAGE OF UOMO (MAN) IN EARLY ITALO-ROMANCE

GRAMMATICALIZATION AND AREALITY

1


ANNA GIACALONE RAMAT, ANDREA SANS

Dipartimento di Linguistica Teorica e Applicata
Universit di Pavia


Riassunto

Luso indefinito di elementi lessicali che significano uomo (il tipo man sagt, on dit < homo dicit) si configura, in vir-
t della sua diffusione nelle lingue dEuropa, come un tratto finora misconosciuto dello Standard Average Europe-
an (Giacalone Ramat e Sans 2007). Tale uso, sconosciuto alle variet italo-romanze contemporanee (eccezion fatta
per labruzzese e per alcune variet lombarde orientali), era invece diffuso negli antichi volgari italiani, che ne presen-
tano attestazioni non occasionali. In considerazione di ci, la scomparsa di questi usi nella storia delle variet italo-
romanze pu considerarsi come la vera e propria perdita di un tratto dello Standard Average European e costituisce
pertanto un fenomeno interessante dal punto di vista areale.
In questo lavoro affrontiamo il problema degli usi indefiniti di uomo in italo-romanzo e della loro scomparsa in una
duplice prospettiva: da un lato prendiamo in esame la distribuzione geografica di questi usi negli antichi volgari,
dallaltro teniamo in considerazione il loro grado di grammaticalizzazione in ciascuna variet. Quanto a questultimo
aspetto, il processo di grammaticalizzazione di uomo come elemento indefinito pu essere descritto come uno sviluppo
in tre stadi (uomo come generico di specie > uomo come elemento indefinito non-referenziale > uomo come elemento
indefinito referenziale): solo nellultimo di questi stadi lelemento lessicale che significa uomo pu acquisire alcune
propriet sintattiche proprie dei pronomi. Un ulteriore stadio di sviluppo costituito dalla reinterpretazione di uomo
come equivalente di una prima persona plurale (sviluppo gi presente in antico lombardo e rimasto vitale nel bergama-
sco moderno).
I dati dellindagine, tratti dal database testuale dellOpera del Vocabolario Italiano (OVI), mostrano che nelle va-
riet italo-romanze antiche uomo era in generale solo scarsamente grammaticalizzato. Non mancano tuttavia due ecce-
zioni a questa generalizzazione: da una parte, i volgari settentrionali presentano casi in cui uomo utilizzato come e-
lemento indefinito referenziale o come equivalente di una prima persona plurale; dallaltra, in testi che sono volgariz-
zazioni o adattamenti di testi antico-francesi, compaiono numerosi casi in cui uomo pi grammaticalizzato che in testi
coevi non dipendenti dal modello francese. Entrambi questi fatti sembrano confermare lipotesi, peraltro non nuova,
che il modello per lo sviluppo di questi usi in italo-romanzo sia da ricercarsi nellantico francese, variet che godeva di
grande prestigio nellItalia (settentrionale e centrale soprattutto) del basso medioevo, per ragioni sia culturali che eco-
nomiche, e per lampia mole di traffici di beni e di spostamenti di persone lungo le direttrici che mettevano in comuni-
cazione la Francia con la penisola italiana. Il progressivo declino e la finale scomparsa di questi usi coincide con
laffievolirsi dellinflusso francese sui volgari italiani.
Le vicende degli usi indefiniti di uomo in italo-romanzo mostrano pertanto la necessit di ripensare ai modelli in-
terpretativi e descrittivi correnti della diffusione dei tratti linguistici in Europa: la formazione dello Standard Average
European non un processo unitario sempre progressivo, ma il risultato di una serie di processi di diffusione che han-
no avuto luogo in epoche diverse e i cui risultati non sono sempre sopravvissuti al venir meno dei fattori che hanno
contribuito alla loro diffusione.



1. INTRODUCTION

It is very common for nouns meaning man to be used as indefinite elements across languages
(Lehmann 1995: 50ff.; Haspelmath 1997: 182-183; Heine and Kuteva 2002: 208; Giacalone Ramat
and Sans 2007). These nouns either combine with simple indefinite pronouns to form complex in-
definite expressions (e.g. Latin nemo < ne + *hemo; Old English nig man, sum man, cf. Rau-
molin-Brunberg and Kahlas-Tarkka 1997: 71ff.) or are used without modifiers to render meanings

1
This paper is the result of joint work by the two authors. However, Anna Giacalone Ramat is responsible for Sections
1, 3, and 5, and Andrea Sans is responsible for Sections 2 and 4. We also profited greatly from discussions with (and
comments from) Giuliano Bernini (Bergamo), Davide Ricca (Turin), Tullio Telmon (Turin), and Alberto Zamboni (Pa-
dua).
like (some/any)one, and the like (German man, French on < homo, etc.). The latter usage, in par-
ticular, is widespread across Europe: it shows up consistently in the so-called Charlemagne area
(in the sense of van der Auwera 1998: 823ff.), and tends to diffuse eastwards to West and South
Slavonic languages, whereas East Slavonic languages do not exhibit clear instances of it. This
skewing enables us to consider this usage as a truly areal feature of the Standard Average European
(SAE) area (Giacalone Ramat and Sans 2007).
Investigations into the indefinite usages of nouns meaning man have a distinguished history in
Romance linguistics (Nyrop 1925: 368ff.; Barrett Brown 1931, 1936; Reichenkron 1933: 66-67;
Schlpfer 1933; Rohlfs 1949: 273-274; Kontzi 1951: 100ff.; Jensen 1986: 163-165; 1990: 237-238;
Welton-Lair 1999; Salvi, n.d.; DAlessandro and Alexiadou 2006, among others). The present study
differs significantly from previous works in that we attempt to integrate the history of these usages
in early Italo-Romance varieties into an areal-typological framework. Although uomo, man, is no
longer in use as an indefinite element in modern Italo-Romance (the only exceptions being some
Lombard varieties and Modern Abruzzese, see Section 4.4), in ancient vernaculars it was used more
than occasionally as a generic/indefinite subject whose meaning roughly corresponded to
one/anyone. This fact raises the question as to why this usage developed and eventually disap-
peared. Drawing on the results of a far-ranging areal survey of indefinite man
2
in Europe (Giacalone
Ramat and Sans 2007), in this paper we argue that the history of indefinite uomo in Italo-Romance
is better accounted for if the areal mechanisms involved in the formation of the SAE are taken into
consideration. At the same time, what we may learn from the study of an area in which these usages
have not survived is important and should play a role in framing an adequate approach to the pat-
terns of diffusion which gave rise to the SAE: the current modelling of areal diffusion in Europe can
benefit considerably from the careful investigation of individual case histories which can cast light
on the multilayered historical scenarios lying behind the formation of the SAE.
In what follows, we begin by considering the typical contexts of usage of man as an indefinite
element and sketch a possible path of grammaticalization of man from a fully-fledged noun to a
pronoun (Section 2). Section 3 is devoted to the Late Latin ancestors of these usages, while in Sec-
tion 4 the situation in early Italo-Romance varieties is surveyed. We do not merely aim to sketch a
geographical picture of the distribution of these usages in early Italian vernaculars: the diffusion of
the indefinite usages of uomo is examined both in areal terms and with respect to their degree of
grammaticalization. As grammaticalization is highly contagious in situations of language contact
(Heine and Kuteva 2005), looking at the degree of grammaticalization of uomo in different areas
would amount to identifying the possible patterns of diffusion of these usages. An interesting case
study is discussed in Section 4.3: many grammaticalized occurrences of uomo as an indefinite ele-
ment concentrate significantly in texts of French origin (being translations or, rather, reworkings of
French originals: Il Milione by Marco Polo, the story of Tristan, etc.). This fact, along with the areal
skewing of these usages in Italy, brings us to the hypothesis of a French influence on the emergence
and development of indefinite uomo in Italo-Romance. This hypothesis, which is by no means new
or original (see, e.g., Meyer-Lbke 1890-99: III, 108; Kontzi 1951: 101, quoting Schlpfer 1933:
64), will be reviewed in the light of the dynamics of diffusion/contact that brought the SAE area
into existence. In Section 4.4 we deal with the eventual disappearance of indefinite uomo in many
Italo-Romance varieties, and we come at last to the modern Italo-Romance outcomes of indefinite
uomo (Modern Abruzzese and Modern Bergamasco). Finally, in Section 5 we present some general
remarks about how the emergence and retraction of indefinite uomo in Italo-Romance can be mod-
elled within the areal-typological framework adopted in this paper.




2
For the sake of clarity, in the general discussion in Sections 1 and 2 man (italicized) will be used to refer to the nomi-
nal element meaning man used as an indefinite element. Uomo (italicized) will be used when referring to any form
(uom, omo, om, etc., see 4.1) meaning man used as an indefinite element in early Italo-Romance vernaculars.
2. INDEFINITE MAN: CONTEXTS OF USE AND GRAMMATICALIZATION

The grammaticalization of man as an indefinite element is a gradual, three-stage process (Giaca-
lone Ramat and Sans 2007: 98ff.). In this section, we will identify three typical contexts of use of
indefinite man, which differ in the referentiality/definiteness properties of the referent of man.
These three stages of development may correlate with a change in the behavioural properties of
man, although there is no necessary one-to-one correspondence between the behavioural and the
semantic/pragmatic sides of this grammaticalization process. Most examples in this section are
drawn from early Italo-Romance vernaculars because we wanted to illustrate the grammaticaliza-
tion path using exclusively Italian material: the reader should not infer from these examples any
generalization about the degree of grammaticalization of indefinite uomo in these vernaculars (see
also note 4 below).
Species-generic generalizations such as (1) and (2) are the discourse environment triggering the
reanalysis of man as an indefinite element (Stage 0). In such cases, two interpretations are possible:
one in which man is interpreted as corresponding to the human race or mankind (often opposed to
God, or other species), and the other in which man can be paraphrased as one, anyone.

OLD LOMBARD

(1) De o dixe sancto Paulo in soa predicana / Ke lomo debia vive con grande temperana
(Pietro da Bescap, Sermone, 38; 1274)
Therefore Saint Paul says in his sermon that man / one should live with great moderation

OLD TUSCAN (PISA)

(2) co(n) ci sia cosa che Dio sia inn o(n)gna luogo, inn ogna luogo pu luomo servire Dio. (A-
nonimo, Trattati di Albertano da Brescia volgarizzati, IV, 23; 1288)
since God is everywhere, man / one can serve God everywhere

The availability of multiple analyses of these clauses favours a reanalysis of man as an indefinite
element. Examples (3) and (4) are particularly instructive as to the initial stage of grammaticaliza-
tion of man. In both these examples, man can only mean one, i.e. it is used as an equivalent of a
non-referential, indefinite human subject ( one/anyone; Stage I), its interpretation as a species-
generic being definitely excluded in these cases.
3


OLD ABRUZZESE (LAQUILA)

(3) Sacciate cha fo in Aquila una granne caresta; / Vinti solli la coppa dello grano vala, / Et
lomo non trovavane quanto ne vola (Buccio di Ranallo, Cronaca Aquilana rimata, 72;
1362)
I want you to know that in Aquila there was a severe famine. A cup of grain cost 20 soldi,
and one could not find as much as one wanted



3
Following Givns (1984) hierarchy of referentiality/definiteness, we consider man as a non-referential (or non-
specific) indefinite element if the speaker does not have a specific entity in his/her mind, and at the same time s/he does
not want the hearer to infer that such a specific entity exists, as in, e.g., potrebbe gi luomo opporre contra me e dicere
che, one could in fact argue against me (i.e. against what I said) and say that... (Dante, Vita Nuova, 12, 17). Man is
referential (or specific) indefinite if it refers to a specific entity which has not been mentioned before or which cannot
be identified more precisely (e.g. on a tu le President, someone murdered the President / the President has been mur-
dered).
OLD SICILIAN (SIRACUSA)

(4) Poy lu Conti fichi fari duy castelli, et potia andari lomu di lunu a laltru, ca illu chi avia
fattu fari una via clausa di sipalli et grossi petri, ch lomu chi andava covertamenti (Simone
da Lentini, La conquesta di Sichilia fatta per li Normandi translatata per frati Simuni da Len-
tini, 19; 1358)
Then the Count had two castles built, and it was possible to go (lit.: the man could go) from
one to the other, because he had a road built enclosed by palisades and big stones, so that one
could go covertly

In these examples, uomo, to some extent, refers implicitly to a contextually bound sub-group of
humanity (people experiencing a severe famine in (3); people living in the two castles in (4)) and
not to all humanity. This usage correlates significantly with non-referential and non-assertive con-
texts (a negated context in (3); a potential context in (4)). The reason for this correlation has chiefly
to do with the origin of this usage from species-generic generalizations. Species-generic generaliza-
tions are usually associated with linguistic features (such as the use of a given tense or aspect)
which trigger an atemporal interpretation, and are inherently non-assertive/non-referential. When
man starts being grammaticalized, it first spreads to other non-referential contexts. Lack of asser-
tiveness/referentiality may be triggered by other operators such as negators, temporal and hypo-
thetical subordinators such as if, when, etc., and thus appears to be the major feature shared by the
two different usages of man as a species-generic in generalizations about the human race (Stage 0)
and as a non-referential indefinite element (Stage I).
In many European languages, the grammaticalization process of man stops at this stage. How-
ever, man can also be used as a referential indefinite element, i.e. as referring to a real-world spe-
cific human subject that the speaker does not want to specify (Stage IIa). This usage is exemplified
by the following passages:
4
in both (5) and (6), the action takes place in the past and is bound to a
specific spatio-temporal setting, and thus there must have been one or more specific agents.

OLD VENETAN

(5) E molte altre parole y disse, tante quella non savea che dir n responder. Puo ello domand
le soe arme, et lomo lile port. E quando ello fo armado, elo vene per meo la chorte, et
prende lo so schudo e la soa lana, e s se parte de l dentro tuto solo, quello non volsse aver
alguna conpania (Tristano veneto, 132; 1400)
And he said many other words to her, so many that she did not know what to answer. Then,
he asked for his weapons, and someone brought them to him. And when he was armed, he
went across the court and picked up his shield and his spear, and then he left the court all
alone, because he did not want to be accompanied by anybody

OLD TUSCAN

(6) Siri cavaliere, onde venite voi? Fuste voi ala magione del re Art? Sapete voi novelle di
quello ostello? Certo disse lo cavaliere, anco non sono due giorni che io me ne part da
quello ostello. Ma per la fede che io do a Dio, unqua mai non vidi quello albergo s discon-
fortato, s come elli era a quello punto che io mi part. Lo re piangeva s perduta mente, come
selli vedesse dinanzi da s morto tutto lo mondo; che in quello giorno medesimo gli erano

4
Examples (5)-(8) are drawn from Italian versions of French texts (Le divisament dou monde, Le Roman de Tristan).
Although these are undeniably Italian texts, they appear to be influenced by French at many levels, as will be discussed
at length in Section 4.3. The reader should not infer from these examples that uomo was fully grammaticalized as an in-
definite element in Old Venetan and Old Tuscan (see Section 4.2 for a careful picture of the usages of indefinite uomo
in these two vernaculars).
venute novelle che Palamides era morto, e lo re Bandemagus morto e Erdes filio [di] Lancil-
lotto morto, e tanti de compagni de la Tavola ritonda morti, chera una meraviglia a udire.
Lo re Art di questa novella che luomo li avea contata tutto di fresco, era dura mente tutto
disconfortato, s che io non credo chelli si conforti per uno grande tempo (Tristano Riccar-
diano, pp. 403-404; 1300)
Sir, where are You coming from? Have You been to King Arthurs castle? Have You heard
news about that castle? Indeed, answered the knight, I left that castle less than two days
ago. But, by God, I have never seen that place as disheartened as it was when I left. The King
was crying as desperately as if he had seen the whole world dead in front of him. On that very
same day, he had heard that Palamedes was dead, and that King Bandemagus was dead, and
that Erdes, son of Lancelot, as well as many companions of the Round Table, were dead,
which was truly astonishing to hear of. The King was so greatly discouraged at the news that
he had just been told (lit.: that the man had just told him), that I believe that he will not find
consolation for a long time

The semantic/pragmatic development leading from man as a species-generic to a referential in-
definite element may be accompanied by a change in the behavioural properties of man. In Stage
IIa, man is likely to assume the following behavioural properties typical of a pronoun:

it can be anaphorically referred to by man, as in (7). This example should be contrasted with
the fully nominal anaphoric pattern uomo egli (he) in (8), an example drawn from the
same text:

OLD TUSCAN

(7) Quando luomo si parte di questa provincia, luomo va .x. giornate tra greco ellevante (Il
Milione, versione toscana del trecento, 60, 1; 1310)
When one leaves this province, one rides ten days between north-east and east
(8) E quando luomo si parte dErguil e vassi per levante VIIJ giornate, egli truova una provin-
cia chiamata Egrigaia (Il Milione, versione toscana del trecento, 72, 1)
Setting off from Erguiul, you ride eastward for eight days, and then come (lit.: when the
man leaves he finds) to a province called Egrigaia

it may be used without an article, as in (9) below

OLD UMBRIAN (CITT DI CASTELLO)

(9) De lalifante grande maravelia / molte fade udito agio contare, / k a la potentia sua non re-
similia / altra fera komo possa pensare (Anonimo, Bestiario moralizzato, p. 744, 1300)
About the elephant I heard a lot of wonderful stories many times, (namely) that no other wild
animal that one can imagine equals its strength

it does not take modifiers such as adjectives, genitives, or relative clauses. It might be useful
to contrast the behaviour of man in a language in which it is clearly a full pronoun (Modern
German) with a variety (Old Tuscan) in which man, though used as an indefinite element, had
not acquired the behavioural properties of pronouns and thus may take modifiers such as ad-
jectives (as in (13)) and relative clauses (as in (12)):

GERMAN

(10) *Wenn man, der die Packung aufgerissen hat, nicht bezahlt, wird er ...
Lit.: if someone who has opened the package does not pay, he is
(11) *Man Student
5

*one student

OLD TUSCAN

(12) ondio lasciai la cima / cadere, e stetti come luom che teme (Dante, Inferno, 13, 44-45;
1321)
whereon I let fall the tip, and stood like one who is afraid (transl. Ch. S. Singleton)
(13) Attienti ben, ch per cotali scale, / disse l maestro, ansando comuom lasso, / conviensi
dipartir da tanto male (Dante, Inferno, 34, 82-84)
Cling fast, said the master, panting like a man forspent, for by such stairs as these we
must depart from so much evil (transl. Ch. S. Singleton)

it does not appear as indefinite element in non-subject positions. Again, contrast the behav-
iour of German man in (14) with example (15):
6


GERMAN

(14) *Ich habe man getroffen
I met someone

OLD TUSCAN (SIENA)

(15) Allora cominci a confortare sua gente, e disse: Signori, io assai provato che parola non
d virt ad uomo (Fatti di Cesare, Sal. L. 1, cap. 25; around 1300)
Then he started comforting his people, and said: Sirs, I have experienced on many occasions
that words do not give virtue to man (i.e. do not make a man virtuous)

A further development of indefinite man involves its usage as an equivalent of a 1
st
person plural
form (as in French: au premier coup de canon qui nous a rveills 2 hs du matin on sest dress,
at the first gun shot, which woke us up at 2 oclock in the morning, we got dressed, from Graf-
strm 1969: 272-273). This usage (Stage IIb) does not, strictly speaking, belong to this grammati-
calization path. Rather, it appears to be a different phenomenon involving the reinterpretation of an
impersonal clause as a personal one (i.e., man is reanalyzed as referring to a group of individuals in

5
Man in German is a weak pronoun according to the classification proposed by Cardinaletti and Starke (1999). With
respect to the possibility of taking modifiers, its behaviour contrasts with that of strong pronouns such as ihr, wir, einer,
etc.: *man Student, but ihr Idioten, wir Studenten, etc. The fact that both non-pronouns (i.e. full noun phrases) such as
uomo in many early Italian vernaculars and strong pronouns such as German wir, ihr, etc. behave similarly with respect
to the possibility of being modified is only apparently contradictory, as strong pronouns are usually considered to be
closer to lexical nouns than weak pronouns and clitics (Egerland 2003). A discussion of the properties of man (and on)
as weak pronouns is beyond the purposes of this paper, but see Giacalone Ramat and Sans (2007: 112ff.)
6
In formal terms, this peculiarity of pronouns derived from man (German man, French on, etc.) has been explained (e.g.
by Egerland 2003: 92ff.) as having to do with the loss of lexical features of these pronouns: the more void of lexical fea-
tures (number, gender, etc.) a pronominal element is, the less likely it is that it will appear as an internal argument of a
predicate. In less formal terms, pronouns in object positions are possible only if they maintain some informational con-
tent allowing the identifiability of their intended referent (even in very general terms). French on and German man are
definitely excluded from the object position because they do not have such informational content: they are underspeci-
fied with respect to number (being inherently ambiguous between plural and singular), person (allowing both inclusive
and exclusive readings), and gender (applying also to feminine referents), they cannot be linked anaphorically to previ-
ous linguistic material, and their referent cannot be directly referred back to (i.e., they are discursively inert elements).
For a detailed discussion of this peculiarity the reader is referred to Giacalone Ramat and Sans (2007: 112ff.).
which the speaker is included).
7
Such a reinterpretation is facilitated by some degree of semantic
similarity between first person plural forms and impersonal clauses with generic subjects: both
forms usually refer to groups of people varying in size and composition, and both may ultimately
refer to the whole human race (see, for a less cursory discussion, Coveney 2000; Giacalone Ramat
and Sans 2007: 104-106). The usage of uomo plus a 3
rd
person singular form as an equivalent of a
1
st
person plural form is found in Northern Italo-Romance, and will be discussed in Sections 4.2.1,
and 4.4.
Table 1 summarizes the semantic/pragmatic and behavioural features of the grammaticalization
path for man from a species-generic to a referential indefinite:

Stage 0: man = species-generic Stage I: man = non-referential indefinite Stage IIa: man = referential indefinite
[ (Stage IIb: man 1
st
person plural)]

Contexts
of use

generalizations
gnomic sentences

non-assertive contexts (irrealis, non-
factual, negated, habitual, potential, and
deontic contexts)

assertive contexts (factual contexts; spe-
cific-time reference)


Behavioural features


increase in pronominality -------------------------------------------->

noun <---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------> pronoun

Table 1. The grammaticalization path of man as an indefinite element.

In Table 1, the first row shows the grammaticalization path of man as an indefinite element. The
second row shows the contexts of use typically associated with the three stages of this path, while
the third row depicts the change in the behavioural properties of man when used as an indefinite
element. Our former cross-linguistic investigation (Giacalone Ramat and Sans 2007), though lim-
ited to European languages, has shown that the increase in pronominality of man starts between
Stage I and Stage IIa. In other words, although man acquires fully pronominal properties only when
it is used as a referential indefinite element, in Stage I it may have already acquired some properties
that set it off from other nouns. In ancient Italian vernaculars, the lack of a definite article with
uomo is precisely one of these properties: according to Salvi (n.d.: 49), in early Italo-Romance va-
rieties a species-generic interpretation of uomo is impossible if uomo lacks the article, and thus, in
the following example, only a non-referential indefinite interpretation of uomo is available:

OLD ROMANESCO

(16) E dice che soa grannezza fu nulla cosa in comparazione de Romani. Questo dicenno responne
ad una questione la quale omo li potria fare (Anonimo Romano, Cronica, cap. 1, p. 5; 1400)
And he says that its greatness was nothing in comparison with that of the Romans. Saying so,
he answers a question that one might ask of him

Somewhat surreptitiously, the few examples cited above have been chosen so as to show how far
from homogeneous was the degree of grammaticalization of uomo in early Italo-Romance varieties,
from both a semantic/pragmatic and a behavioural point of view. In Section 4.2, we will provide an
outline of the geographical distribution of the indefinite usage of uomo in ancient Italo-Romance
varieties. While there is little doubt that Italo-Romance vernaculars developed quite early an indefi-
nite usage of uomo, the evaluation of its degree of grammaticalization has never attracted a great
deal of attention. Before addressing this issue, however, we want to turn our attention to the Late
Latin ancestors of these usages, which will be the topic of Section 3.

7
Moreover, this development is not limited to this construction, but appears to be a well-documented possibility for
other impersonal/passive constructions as well (e.g., the reflexive passive in Modern Tuscan, and, to a lesser extent, in
Standard Italian: (noi) si va a Firenze, we go to Florence).
3. INDEFINITE UOMO: LATE LATIN ANCESTORS

Occasionally, the simple fact of recognizing that an indefinite usage of uomo existed in ancient
Italian vernaculars as well as in other Romance varieties has been used (e.g. by Welton-Lair 1999:
4-9) to argue in favor of a Latin origin (and against a Germanic, more precisely Frankish, origin) of
on in French:

that an indefinite reflex of homo is shared by most of the Romance languages suggests strongly that it originated
in the pre-Romance period of Latin and survived in the individual Romance languages as they branched off from
Latin in the medieval period (Welton-Lair 1999: 4)

It is not our intention to deny that Latin ancestors of these usages did exist, and that they might have
survived into some modern varieties. The Latin data, however, are too scanty to settle the question
of whether the origin of these usages in early Romance vernaculars is to be traced back to Late
Latin. More importantly, even if the hypothesis of a Latin origin of these constructions in early
Italo-Romance is feasible for French, our data are suggestive of a more recent irradiation process in
Italy originating from Old French. In this section, we present the main facts about Late Latin indefi-
nite homo. The discussion is very cursory, and perhaps does not do justice to the complexity of lin-
guistic facts. The reader is referred to Giacalone Ramat and Sans (to appear) for a more compre-
hensive account of the Latin situation, based on the Library of Latin Texts corpus.
The development of the indefinite usages of homo in Latin starts in Late Antiquity, and the earli-
est clear instances occur in the Bible (see (17)-(20)), where homo appears to be used more fre-
quently than its Greek counterpart a[nqrwpo" in indefinite contexts (see example (20) below, where
homo corresponds to the Greek indefinite pronoun ti" in (19)).

(17) fratres et si praeoccupatus fuerit homo in aliquo delicto vos qui spiritales estis huiusmodi ins-
truite in spiritu lenitatis considerans te ipsum ne et tu tempteris (Galatians 6,1)
My brothers, if someone is caught in any kind of wrongdoing, those of you who are spiritual
should set him right. And keep an eye on yourself so that you will not be tempted, too
(18) Sic nos existimet homo ut ministros Christi (Corinthians I, 4, 1)
One should look on us as Christs servants
(19) kai; ejlavlhsen kuvrio" pro;" Mwush'n ejnwvpio" ejnwpivw/, wJ" ei[ ti" lalhvsei pro;" to;n
eJautou' fivlon (Exodus, 33, 11)
(20) Loquebatur autem Dominus ad Moysen facie ad faciem, sicut solet loqui homo ad amicum
suum
Thus the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, as one speaks to his friend

The perpetuation of these usages into later periods has been probably fostered by the authority at-
tached to the language of holy texts. The citation of passages from the holy texts was indeed a fre-
quent rhetorical device exploited by writers of sermones and homiliae: in these texts, besides cita-
tions of the holy texts, we also find original, first-hand instances of indefinite homo in non-
assertive/non-specific contexts, as in (22). Other remarkable examples of indefinite homo appear in
the so-called itineraria ad loca sancta, and in Gregory of Tours Historia Francorum. All these ex-
amples show that the original lexical value of homo had weakened to such an extent that it came to
be used as a near equivalent of (some)one:

(21) Et quoniam pro monazontes, qui pedibus uadent, necesse est lenius iri: ac sic peruenitur in
ierusolima ea hora, qua incipit homo hominem posse cognoscere, id est prope luce, ante
tamen quam lux fiat (Itiner. Eg. 25, 6; 2
nd
half of the 4
th
century AD)
And since, for the sake of the monks who go on foot, it is necessary to walk slowly, the arri-
val in Jerusalem thus takes place at the hour when one begins to be able to recognize others,
that is, close upon but a little before daybreak
(22) Sicut enim, quando pustulam incurrit homo, desiderat ut cito spondolum faciat, et optat ut
sine aliqua mora ipsa mala pustula aliquam particulam tollat de corpore, et cum ipsa disce-
dat, ne venenum ipsius totum corpus occupet, et animam petat (Caesarius Arelatensis, Ser-
mones, 181, 6, 6; 1
st
half of the 6
th
century AD)
In the same way, when one has a carbuncle, one wants it to form a scar soon, and hopes that
it rapidly detaches a small part of the body and falls thereby, so that its poison does not ex-
pand to the whole body and does not reach the soul
(23) Erat enim seris fortissimis clavisque firmissimis obseratum, verumtamen non erat ita leviga-
tum, ut inter tabulas aspicere homo non possit (Greg. Turon., Hist. Fr. 4, 12; 2
nd
half of the
6
th
century AD)
It was locked by means of very strong chains and very resistant nails, but it was not so pol-
ished that one could not see between the planks
(24) Audivimus enim eo anno in Narbonensem urbem inguinarium morbum graviter desevire, ita
ut nullum esset spatium, cum homo correptus fuisset ab eo (Greg. Turon., Hist. Fr. 6, 14)
We heard that at Narbonne in that year the bubonic plague was very fatal, so that when one
was struck by it one had no time to live

Less common, but also occurring, are examples of indefinite homo in less popular registers, and
in more cultivated authors such as Isidore of Seville, or Cassiodore, pour qui le choix des mots, et
notamment le rejet des termes vulgaires, habituels, trangers, barbares, tait lobjet dune attention
constante, de manire satisfaire au respect du convenable, du decorum, essentiel la recherche de
cette latinit durement prserve depuis la Rpublique (Banniard 1992: 176-177):

(25) et licet praestentur uilia, ad auctores suos magna sunt commoditate reditura: datur enim ple-
rumque, quod maiori utilitate recipitur, et frequenter homo lucra sua complectitur, cum ne-
cessario pro temporis qualitate largitur (Cassiodorus, Uariarum libri duodecim, 1, 28, 11 ;
538 AD)
and even though they are paid at a low rate at the beginning, those who do this are going to
obtain a great and adequate reward: indeed, donations are mostly made in order to obtain
greater advantages, and often one obtains a proper gain when one makes a donation induced
by necessity, proportionally to the conditions of the period
(26) Haruspices nuncupati, quasi horarum inspectores: dies enim et horas in agendis negotiis op-
eribusque custodiunt, et quid per singula tempora obseruare debeat homo, intendunt (Isi-
dorus Hispalensis, Etym., 8, 9, 17 ; before 636 AD)
The haruspices are thus named as if they were observers of the hours: indeed, they are
concerned with the hours and the days appropriate for carrying out tasks, and pay attention to
what one should do at every moment

It must also be remarked that we found no cases in which homo has the value of a referential in-
definite element. Thus, homo was only weakly grammaticalized as an indefinite element, although
the textual types in which these examples occur (as well as its occasional occurrence in more liter-
ary registers) allow us to conclude that this usage was a tendency already long in existence when
the first Romance varieties began to appear in written records.
The hypothesis of a Latin origin of these usages in (at least part of) the Romance domain is thus
a concrete possibility. Equally plausible is the hypothesis that the development of these usages in
Germanic languages was (at least partially) helped or accelerated by contact with Latin-speaking
communities. Denying these hypotheses would amount to downplaying the role of Latin as a lan-
guage of communication in the process of formation of the SAE. This is, by the way, common prac-
tice in the current literature on Standard Average European. Haspelmath (2001: 1507), for instance,
gives little importance to Latin as a possible source of the features of the SAE:

most SAE features were absent in Latin and developed only in the Romance languages. There are only two fea-
tures for which Latin influence is a likely factor: negation and relative pronouns. In the case of these two features,
the standard languages sometimes show deviation from the vernacular dialects, so at least the written standard lan-
guages may have been influenced by Latin, the European written language par excellence for many centuries

It should be remarked, however, that many SAE traits are indeed found in Late Latin (recall, be-
sides negation and relative clause formation strategies, the development of an analytic perfect
formed by habeo + past participle, and the development of passive periphrases involving auxiliaries
such as esse, to be, and fieri, to become). This fact, along with the presence of indefinite usages
of homo, suggests that the role of Latin in the formation of the SAE, be it a passive or an active one,
might not be as marginal as is currently believed.
Be that as it may, as far as Italo-Romance is concerned, the possibility of a Latin origin for in-
definite uomo should be weighed against other alternative possibilities. It is to this task that we now
turn.


4. INDEFINITE UOMO IN EARLY ITALO-ROMANCE VARIETIES

The areal-typological approach adopted in this paper requires that we address two types of prob-
lems. On the one hand, we must sketch the geographical distribution of indefinite uomo in early
Italo-Romance varieties. On the other hand, we must determine the degree of grammaticalization of
uomo in each variety. These two problems are two sides of the same coin. One of the main effects
of intensive, long-lasting language contact is the emergence of new usage patterns in the languages
in contact (often in only one of them, which will be called replica language, following Heine and
Kuteva 2005: 3): grammaticalization patterns, especially incipient and emerging ones, are often de-
pendent on a model language in which a similar pattern is more firmly established. What an incipi-
ent grammaticalization process can tell us about areality is the direction of diffusion from a model
language to one or more replica languages. The data surveyed in this section are hardly accidental,
and, at least in part, point towards a process of diffusion of the indefinite usage of uomo which has
its irradiation point in Old French. But lets discuss this in detail.

4.1. The corpus

The corpus used in the present study is the Opera del Vocabolario Italiano (OVI) textual data-
base, a large-scale corpus of early Italian containing 1849 vernacular texts (21.2 million words,
479,000 unique forms), the majority of which are dated prior to 1375, the year of Giovanni Boccac-
cios death. This corpus aims to collect both literary and non-literary texts in a single repository: be-
sides early masters of Italian literature like Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio, lesser-known and ob-
scure texts by poets, merchants, and medieval chroniclers, as well as non-literary texts such as
Statuti (statutes) and Registri (official records) are well-represented in the database.
8
Texts are cate-
gorized according to various parameters. The most important for our purposes are Generic area
and Specific area (roughly corresponding to a regional and a sub-regional classification of each
text). The search string included the whole array of variants of uomo: uomo, homo, uom, omo,
hom(m), omm(o), ommu, omu, huom(o), on, om, uon(o), um, am.





8
The examples used throughout this paper are quoted following the citation system adopted by the OVI Textual Data-
base: along with the number of the textual unit containing the passage (Chapter, Canto, Stanza, Appendix, etc.), refer-
ence is made to the page where the passage appears in the original printed source(s) of the text (the complete list of
printed sources is available on the web site of the OVI Database: http://ovisun198.ovi.cnr.it/italnet/OVI).
4.2. Indefinite uomo: Grammaticalization and areality

4.2.1. Northern Italian varieties

We start this section by examining the use of uomo as an indefinite element in two areas that are,
for different reasons, quite peripheral to the cultural centres which played a prominent role in the
formation of a literary koin in Northern Italy, namely Piedmont and Liguria.
That Old Piedmontese is linguistically close to Old French, forming a natural continuum stretch-
ing over both sides of the Alps, has been widely held among scholars of Romance dialectology for a
long time, and cannot be seriously questioned. A major consequence of this closeness is that the
Sermoni Subalpini, the most important document in Old Piedmontese, have been considered alter-
nately as either French texts copied in a Piedmontese area or Piedmontese texts heavily influenced
by the prestigious French scripta (see, for a recent assessment, Tressel 2004). A closer look at the
morphophonetic features of this text shows that French features are a minor component with respect
to Piedmontese traits (Stella 1994a: 79ff.). The following passages, drawn from this text, exemplify
the usage of uomo as a non-referential indefinite element. Note also that in none of these examples
does uomo appear with the article:

OLD PIEDMONTESE

(27) li degrai, per unt hom i montava, covr de purpura, qui est real vestiment, e si se teig del sanc
dun peisun que hom apela conca marina (Sermoni subalpini 5, p. 232; 1300)
he covered with purple, which is a royal vestment, the steps thanks to which one went up
there, and so they (i.e. the steps) took the colour of the blood of a fish which is called (lit.:
man calls) conca marina
(28) Ke devem entendre per lo munt de mirra, qui est una especia munt amara, e si napareilla
hom li corp deil homes morz, que il no possen marcer? (Sermoni subalpini 8, p. 240)
What should we understand by mount of myrrh, which is a very bitter spice, and one treats
the corpses of dead men with it so that they do not putrefy?
(29) Eles se troven a Damiata en terra de Sarrazins en unes caves munt preunde, si que hom no po
veer lo funt (Sermoni subalpini 10, p. 253)
They are found in Damietta, in the land of the Saracens, in caves so deep that one cannot see
their bottom
(30) Quam lo nostre Seignor [saproism] de Ierusalem, si ven a un casal que hom apela Betpha-
ge in mont Olivet (Sermoni subalpini 22, p. 280)
When our Lord approached Jerusalem, he came to a farmhouse that is called (lit.: one calls)
Bethphage, on the Mount of Olives

Even more interesting are the following examples, from Old Ligurian. In both (32) and (33), the
verb is in the past tense. An interpretation of uomo as a nonreferential indefinite element is thus ex-
cluded: if the action took place in the past, there must have been one or more specific agents. In
these passages, uomo can be interpreted either as a referential indefinite human entity, or, perhaps
more convincingly given the context (see, e.g., Nicolas 1994: cxciv), as corresponding to an un-
specified group of referents including the speaker (per le cosse como viste because of the
things that we saw). This possibility will be discussed soon in connection with some Old Lombard
examples.

OLD LIGURIAN

(31) Monto bel ese in tar logo, / donde omo v far tar feste e zogo, / vegando gram deversitae /
de terre, vile e citae (Anonimo Genovese (ed. Cocito), 38, p. 238; 1311)
It is great to be in a place where one sees people partying and playing, experiencing a great
diversity of lands, towns and cities
(32) E li maistri encontenente / respose pareisemente: / S certe raxon n mostrae / che le mente
n mutae / e, per le cosse che omo viste / n convertui a Jeso Criste (Anonimo Genovese
(ed. Cocito), 12, p. 140)
And the masters soon answered overtly: The reasons that he showed us are so good that he
changed our minds, and converted us to Christianity because of the things that we saw
(33) denanti tute le gente / dixem pur avertaamente: / E noi semo p cristianai, / per De morir
apareiai, / servor de Jeso Criste, / per le cosse como viste (Anonimo Genovese (ed. Coci-
to), 12, p. 147)
In front of all people, they said frankly: We are now converted to Christianity, ready to die
for God, servants of Jesus Christ, because of the things that we saw

A process of koinization appears to characterize the early history of Lombard vernaculars
(Grignani 1990: 38ff.; Stella 1994b: 154): local, idiosyncratic linguistic traits are progressively
abandoned in favour of traits found in the whole area comprised between Eastern Piedmont and Ve-
rona. This fact allows us to consider Old Lombard as a single, though internally complex, dialectal
area including sub-areas which nowadays appear to share significant traits with Emilian varieties
(Pavia, Cremona). The following passages exemplify the vitality of indefinite uomo in the Cre-
monese, Mantuan, Milanese, and Pavese varieties respectively:

OLD LOMBARD (CREMONA)

(34) Mato soperbio quelo qe blasma ognaltrui dito / e vol com lod lo so, o sa tort o dreto
(Patecchio, Splanamento de li Proverbii de Salamone, p. 567; 1230)
Who blames whatever others say and wants one to praise what he says, be it right or wrong,
is crazy and arrogant
(35) lo mat senegna e guaita comel podes scoltar, / mai lo savi fai sena, com no l possa bla-
smar (Patecchio, Splanamento de li Proverbii de Salamone, p. 569)
the fool man strives to find out how he can eavesdrop, while the wise man does not, so that
no one can blame him
(36) q[u]e no vos chon faa a ti, ad altri no lo far (Uguccione da Lodi, Libro, p. 610; 1210)
What you dont want one to do to you, dont do to others
(37) E [en] linferno un albro maior, / q [m]aior de negun chomo vedhes ancor (Uguccione
da Lodi, Libro, p. 600)
And in hell there is a big tree, bigger than any other that one can see

OLD LOMBARD (MANTUA)

(38) chel plu viaz lo sen del vedir cha quel de loldir, e perz nu vezom inanz la clareza com
olda l son (Belcalzer (ed. Ghinassi), Volgarizzamento del De proprietatibus rerum di Bar-
tolomeo Anglico, p. 168; 1309)
because the sense of sight is faster than that of hearing, and thats why we see the light before
hearing the sound

OLD LOMBARD (MILAN)

(39) Deo imprimamente, s com rex posente, orden uno bellentissi[m]o paraxio ke nuy apelemo
lo regniamo de celo; poy orden una prexone com apel inferno (Elucidario, L. 1, quaestio
23, p. 94; 1310)
Firstly, God, as a powerful king, created a very pleasant place that we call the kingdom of
heaven; then, he created a prison that was called hell (lit.: that man called hell)

OLD LOMBARD (PAVIA)

(40) Hii savij determinan diffinissan e dixan che deleto si usar al so piaser che lomo dexira
(Parafr. pav. del Neminem laedi, cap. 8, p. 38; 1342)
The wise men determine, define and say that delight is to use what one wishes for ones en-
joyment

Other passages are more difficult to be assigned to a specific Lombard variety. In (41) we find an
interesting, and rare, example of indefinite uomo in a private, non-literary text (a letter from
Modena jail written by a Lombard prisoner in the second half of the 14
th
century).

OLD LOMBARD

(41) Et om ve prega che, se vo port monetha, che vo gard cumo ve la dug, che vo la port plu
aschosa che vo podeti (Lettera dal carcere di Modena, p. 235; 1375)
If you bring money, we ask you to pay attention to how you carry it: you must carry it as
concealed as you can
(42) ben rason qeo faza / un sirvents lonbardo, / q del proenzalesco / no macresco: / e fra
cosa nova, / qom non trova sirvents lombardesco. / Qua far pur cosusaa, / bem qom faza
bonovra, / la mainera par povra (Poi qe neve ni glaza / Sirventese lombardesco, p. 503;
1300)
There is a reason why I am composing a Lombard sirventese: it is because I do not pride my-
self on Provenal. And this would be something of a novelty, because one does not find a
Lombard sirventese. And when one does something ordinary, even if one does it well, ones
skill appears poor

Two other, perhaps more profound, manifestations of the vitality of indefinite uomo in Old
Lombard should be mentioned:

(i) the first case is the grammaticalization of indefinite uomo as an equivalent of the 1
st
person
plural form of the verb, already attested in the earliest vernacular documents. In (38) above,
we find a significant alternation between a 1
st
person plural form of the verb vedere, to see
(vezom), and an indefinite instance of uomo which can be roughly paraphrased as a 1
st
person
plural (om olda = oldom, we hear). In the following passages from Bonvesin, the 1
st
person
plural interpretation of indefinite uomo is beyond doubt, given the context (compare the alter-
nation with a 1
st
person plural form in (43) and the plural agreement with the adjective in
(44)-(46)). A similar interpretation of indefinite uomo seems to be plausible for Old Ligurian
examples (32) and (33) above, as well as for (41). Other similar examples are from 14
th
and
15
th
century Bergamasco ((47)-(50)):

OLD LOMBARD (MILAN)

(43) Tu sai ben, glorosa, kum s de vil natura, / Ke nu sem fragel cossa (Bonvesin, Volgari, De
peccatore cum Virgine, p. 52; 1280)
You know well, o glorious Virgin, that we are of a vile nature (lit.: that man is of vile na-
ture), that we are a fragile thing
(44) Adonca, bon companio, guarda no m tr a dexnor, / Fa penitentia mego a lox del Salvator, /
Az kum sa digni daver s grand dolzor, / Daver solaz e festa, richeza e grand honor
(Bonvesin, Volgari, De anima cum corpore, p. 58)
So, good companion, take care lest you bring me into disgrace repent with me to the glory
of the Savior, and we will be worthy of that great sweetness, of solace and festival, wealth and
great honour (transl. R. Stefanini and P. Diehl)
(45) Attend al me conseio: vivem in castit / E acatem bon stao in leternal cit, / Az kum venia
entrambi in grand prosperit (Bonvesin, Volgari, De anima cum corpore, p. 63)
Heed my advice. Let us live continently, and obtain a good resting-place in the Eternal City
thus we will both enter into great prosperity (transl. R. Stefanini and P. Diehl)
(46) Vezando Iesum Criste ke mostrar li signi, / Le plaghe kel sostenne per f kum foss benigni
(Bonvesin, Volgari, De die iudicii, p. 196)
Seeing Jesus Christ who will show his signs, the wounds that he suffered to make us happy

OLD LOMBARD (BERGAMO)

(47) Se tu no-l fe yustisia / Denanz a Cesar tam acusa (Passione, 73-74; 14
th
century; Lorck
1893: 79)
If you dont do him justice, well accuse you before Caesar
(48) quan am stemava (Contesa di confini; 15
th
century; Lorck 1893: 94)
when we estimated
(49) Al e vera che noy de Anes am te che el fondo de quella peza de tera sie nostro (Contesa di
confini; 15
th
century; Lorck 1893: 95)
it is true that we from Anes hold that that piece of land belongs to us
(50) Cal ne conservi e si ne guard / Cham sia desfis da-l fog ternal (Salve Maria, 15-16; 14
th

century; Lorck 1893: 75)
May He preserve and protect us, so that we are safe from the eternal fire

(ii) The second case in point is the 1
st
person plural ending -um/-om, already attested in Old
Lombard vernaculars (e.g. vez-om, we see, in example (38) from Belcalzer, see Ghinassi
1965: 120-121) and perpetuated in Modern Lombard varieties. Some scholars (e.g. Spiess
1965: 112ff.; Lurati 1973) maintain that this ending derives from the loss of autonomy of
postverbal uomo resulting in its affixation to a 3
rd
person singular form (cnt-um <
*cnt(a)om(o) < cantat homo).
9


The use of uomo plus a 3
rd
person verbal form as an equivalent of a 1
st
person plural form and the
ending -um still coexist in Modern Lombard varieties. The discussion of these phenomena in mod-
ern Lombard varieties will be resumed in Section 4.4.
A few occurrences of indefinite uomo are attested in Old Bolognese, a variety heavily influenced
by nearby Tuscan varieties:

9
In modern varieties, this ending may be either stressed (cantm) or unstressed (cntum). The contemporary distribu-
tion of stressed vs. unstressed -um will be discussed in Section 4.4. Suffice it to say here that unstressed -um appears in
an area centring on Milan, and is gaining ground and progressively ousting its competitors in the surrounding area
as part of a general process of koinisation (Loporcaro 2006: 138-139). Lack of space prevents us from engaging in a
discussion about the origin of the ending -um in Lombard, which has long been a controversial issue in Romance lin-
guistics. Some remarks, however, are in order. Firstly, a number of alternative proposals have been put forward to ex-
plain the origin of -um (Meyer-Lbke 1890-99: II, 168; Keller 1937: 171; Rohlfs 1949: 295-296, among others; the
reader is referred to Zrner 1996, and Loporcaro 2006: 138 for a comprehensive survey of these proposals). Secondly, it
is disputed whether cntum and cantm might have a common origin in spite of their different accentual patterns. Even
those who agree that cntum derives from cant(a) + om(o) only reluctantly admit a similar explanation for cantm: a
major exception is Lurati (1973), who also explains the Piedmontese 1
st
person plural ending -ma as deriving from the
affixation of uomo (preserving autonomous stress) to a third person singular verbal form. See also notes 16 and 17.
OLD BOLOGNESE

(51) non credere tuto quelo chi se dixe, no mantignire li custumi chom reprende in altrue (Gio-
vanni da Vignano, cap. 44, p. 283; 1310)
Dont believe whatever is said, dont keep the habits for which one blames the others
(52) E dov savere che in quello tempo Bologna era apelada orto romano per tute le part del
mundo, perch ella era piena e abondevele de tutti quilli beni che lomo possesse adomanda-
re (Vita di S. Petronio, cap. 3, p. 18; 1287-1330)
And I want you to know that at that time Bologna was everywhere called orto romano (Ro-
man garden), because it was full of all those goods that one could ask for

The linguistic situation of Veneto is slightly more complicated. As is well-known, a peculiar lit-
erary production known as letteratura franco-veneta developed in Veneto and enjoyed wide cur-
rency well beyond its geographical boundaries (Pellegrini 1977; Segre 1963: 51ff.; 1982; 1995).
The language of this literary production combines local and foreign features at virtually all levels of
linguistic analysis (from phonology to the lexicon). This variety, as Pellegrini (1977: 128) wisely
warns us, is far from being a unitary phenomenon, and happens to be influenced by French in vari-
ous degrees:

non esiste, come si sa, ununica lingua franco-italiana o franco-veneta, ed il grado e il modo di italianizzazione (o
di venetizzazione) molto vario, dovuto a ragioni spesso differenti e deve essere studiato caso per caso (Pellegrini
1977: 128).

Along with this mixed variety (which will be discussed in more detail in 4.3), there are many texts
whose original Venetan character is beyond doubt (Tomasoni 1994). The following passages exem-
plify the indefinite usage of uomo in these texts. Note, in (55), an occurrence of uomo that can be
interpreted as an equivalent of a 1
st
person plural form:

OLD VENETAN (VENICE)

(53) [A l] [emp]erer de Grecia, com dis Bambacoradi, / [la] [empera]trice feceli molti mali
mercadi (Proverbia que dicuntur, p. 532; 1200)
Against the emperor of Greece, who is called Bambacoradi, the empress committed many
evil deeds
(54) Le stele de lo celo ni la rena de mare / n le flor de li arbori no poravom contare (Proverbia
que dicuntur, p. 538)
One could not count the stars in the sky, nor the sand in the sea, nor the flowers on the trees
(55) Che nuy ve cognosemo aperto; / E se llon no ve avesse cognos, / Per niente non seresemo
part / De Roma per andar erchando / Lo mondo intorno vironando (Fr. Grioni, Santo
Stady, p. 96; 1321)
Because we know you very well. And if we had not known you, we would not have left
Rome at all to go exploring the world
(56) Item la chana fistolla vuol esser le cane intriege e grosse e greve e quelle non sona quando
lomo le schorlla (Zibaldone da Canal, p. 76; 1310-1330)
Chana fistolla stands for whole, big and heavy reeds that do not produce sound when one
shakes them

4.2.2. Central and Southern Italian varieties

The use of uomo as an indefinite element in Old Tuscan is well-documented. Salvi (n.d.: 48ff.)
provides a comprehensive treatment of this use, and describes carefully its degree of grammaticali-
zation. We limit ourselves to providing a few, interesting examples from non-literary texts:
OLD TUSCAN (PISA)

(57) et quinde scrivere tucte li nome et sopranome di quelli che si scapulano, con lecteri grosse,
acci che homo cognosca quelli che sono scapulati (Stat. pis., L. 1, cap. 49, p. 67; 1327)
and then write down all the names and surnames of those who fled, in big letters, so that eve-
ryone knows who fled

OLD TUSCAN (SIENA)

(58) Diciamvi che poscia che ci ebe parola che la muneta si dovea rachonciare, s l faciemo; ma
ora nol faciamo, percioe che crede luomo che sarae anzi la ciandeloro chella abia muta-
mento (Lett. sen., p. 71; 1305)
10

We tell you that we will do that, as there were rumours that the currency was about to be re-
valued: now, however, we are not going to do that, because it is believed that (lit.: the man
believes that) this change will take place before Candlemas
(59) Crede luomo pure che pacie sarae: e Dio ch singniore ve la lasi esare, che sia a ono[re]
[de] re[a]me (Lett. sen., p. 72)
It is also believed (lit.: the man also believes) that there will be peace: and may God the al-
mighty let there be peace, which will honour the kingdom
(60) e crede luomo che, fatta la pacie, noi avaremo la buona muneta inmantenente (Lett. sen., p.
72)
And it is believed that, as soon as there is peace, were going to have a good currency

Dialectologists use the term Italia mediana to group together all Central Italian varieties except
Tuscan (Umbrian, Marchigiano, Abruzzese, and Laziale; see Vignuzzi 1994). Although there is an
increasing tendency in at least some of these varieties (e.g. northern Umbrian) to adopt Tuscan fea-
tures at all levels, these varieties share a number of isoglosses that set them off from both Tuscan
and other Italo-Romance varieties. In absolute terms, examples of indefinite uomo from this area are
scanty. Nevertheless this use existed: the following passages (as well as examples (3) and (9) in
Section 2) are among the most significant examples of indefinite uomo in this area (note the lack of
an article in examples (61) and (62) below).

OLD UMBRIAN (TODI)

(61) Ora pensate quantamor ne tenne, / ke sse degn vistir le nostre penne! / et ancor trova tal ke
lo revenne, / e ss desdegna somo lo reprenne / de quello errore (Jacopone, Laud. Urbinate,
9, p. 515; 1300)
Now consider how much he loved us. So much so that he accepted to become a man! And he
still finds someone who sells him, and shows disdain if one blames him for that error

OLD UMBRIAN (GUBBIO)

(62) avvisaro (perocch il Re molto si dilettava leggiere i Ramanzi) quale libro pi gli dilettava di
leggiere, e quello avvelenarono in quella parte ove luomo sovente fiate pone il dito per vol-
giere la carta (Bosone da Gubbio, Avv. Cic., L. 2, cap. 19, p. 265; 1333)
they asked which book he liked to read best (because the King enjoyed novels very much),
and put poison on that part of it where one often puts ones finger in order to turn the page

10
Interestingly, the letter from which these passages are taken was sent by two Sienese merchants living in Paris, Guc-
cio and Francesco de Sansedoni, to their relatives in Siena.
(63) E voi dovete sapere che la maggiore riverenza che si faccia intra gli uomini del mondo si
quella che luomo fa al Soldano per li nostri mercatanti che vi sono capitati (Bosone da Gub-
bio, Avv. Cic., L. 3, osservazioni, p. 464)
And you must know that the greatest respect that is shown in the world is that which one
shows (that we show) for the Sultan through our merchants who arrived there

OLD ABRUZZESE

(64) Dici hom ka Cristu s piliatu / Sina raione et sina peccatu, / Et non so, trista, l sia mena-
tu. / Oim, lu core quantu ne adoliatu! (Poes. an. abruzz., p. 120; 1300)
They say that Christ was taken without any reason and any sin. And I, sadly, dont know
where they are bringing him. Alas, how sorrowful is my heart!

Among Central Italian varieties, instances of the indefinite usage of uomo are remarkably fre-
quent in Old Romanesco. In most of these instances uomo appears to be, at least partially, gram-
maticalized.

OLD ROMANESCO

(65) Venivano trottanno luno dereto a laitro como fussino miedici. Moita iente loro trasse a ve-
dere. Granne maraviglia se fao omo de cos nova devisanza (Anonimo Rom., Cronica, cap. 8,
p. 40; 1400)
they trotted along one after the other as if they were physicians. Many people rushed to see
them. People wonder a lot about such a new habit
(66) Quanno li ambasciatori fuoro entrati in Verona, tutta Verona curre a vederli. Cos li guarda-
va omo fitto como fussino lopi (Anonimo Rom., Cronica, cap. 8, p. 40)
When the ambassadors entered Verona, the whole town hastens to see them. So, people fixed
their gaze on them as if they were wolves
(67) Lavate che bbero le mano, non se despogliaro loro larghi tabarretti, anche con essi se mise-
ro a tavola. Granne era lo ridere che omo faceva de essi (Anonimo Rom., Cronica, cap. 8, p.
41)
After washing their hands, they did not take their loose overcoats off, and seated at the dining
table leaving them on. Great was the fun that everyone made of them
(68) Intorno alloste fecero fossati e steccata, torri de lename spessi. Anche carvoniaro e stecco-
niaro la strada la quale vao da Pisa a Lucca; dura miglia dieci. E questo fecero perch libe-
ramente omo isse a loste con fodero e con arnese, senza impedimento (Anonimo Rom., Cro-
nica, cap. 12, p. 92)
Around the enemies they dug a ditch and raised fences and high wooden towers. They also
fortified and fenced the road from Pisa to Lucca, which is 10 miles long. They did so so that
one could march freely against the enemies with ones sheaths and weapons, without any ob-
stacles

In southern varieties uomo appears sporadically as an indefinite element, and does not appear to
have come a long way on the grammaticalization path. The Old Sicilian texts included in the corpus
provide only a handful of examples. One of them is example (4) above. The following passages, in
which uomo is used as a nonreferential indefinite element, are two further illustrations:

OLD SICILIAN

(69) Appressu kistu locu ubi kistu previte fo sucterratu, s nchera una mandra de pecure, e
quandu lomu volia andare alla porta de la ecclesia, ascuntrava kistu locu ubi era la mandra
de le pecure (Giovanni Campulu, Libru de lu dialagu de sanctu Gregoriu, L. 3, cap. 22, p.
106; 1302/37)
Near the place where this priest was buried there was a flock of sheep, and when one wanted
to approach the door of the church, one ended up in this place where the flock of sheep was
(70) Et quandu lomu argumenta: - Lu cristianu non avi peccatu originali; comu lu transfundi in
lu so natu? - rispundu: Lu original peccatu dichi dui cosi (Sposiz. Pass. s. Matteo, Prologo,
cap. 8, p. a32; 1373)
And when one argues The Christian has no original sin. How does he pass it, then, to his
child?, I answer The original sin tells two things

The scantiness of examples of indefinite uomo in southern varieties may be at least partially due
to the type and amount of documents included in the OVI corpus. In any case, while some vernacu-
lars are dramatically under-represented in the corpus (e.g. Old Calabrese and Old Pugliese), other
vernaculars, though massively represented, do not exhibit clear instances of indefinite uomo (e.g.
Old Neapolitan).

4.3. Texts of French origin: A case study

It should be sufficiently clear from the survey conducted in the preceding sections that northern
Italy was the area in which the grammaticalization of uomo as an indefinite element was more ad-
vanced. In northern varieties, uomo had been in use as a non-referential indefinite element since the
earliest vernacular documents. In most cases, it appeared without an article. Moreover, by Bonve-
sins times, the construction uomo canta had already been reinterpreted as an equivalent of a 1
st
per-
son plural form (noi cantiamo) in Lombard, and perhaps also in other northern vernaculars (recall
examples (32)-(33) from Old Ligurian, and example (55) from Old Venetan).
That the emergence and development of these usages may have been fostered by similar devel-
opments in Old French is suggested by geographical contiguity in the first place. Geographical con-
tinuity per se, however, does not provide sufficient evidence in favour of a French origin of the in-
definite usages of uomo in early Italo-Romance vernaculars, and is not enough to rule out the hy-
pothesis of parallel developments in accordance with general paths of development of indefinite
pronouns. Other factors must be invoked to substantiate this hypothesis, of both a historical and a
linguistic nature. The problem that remains to be examined at this point is the following: do we
have any other kind of evidence that a contact-induced grammatical replication took place in early
Italo-Romance? It is to this problem that this section is devoted.
Let us start by providing some very cursory historical notes about the size of cultural, economic,
and linguistic exchanges between France and Italy in the Late Middle Ages. That French enjoyed
wide currency as both a spoken language and a written language in (at least part of) Northern and
Central Italy is demonstrated by a number of facts: merchants from Northern and Central Italy had
often a good mastery of French, as shown by the amount of French loans in their commercial
documents (Stussi 1982: 69-72; Castellani 1987: 9; Morgana 1994: 671-673). Pilgrims too had a
prominent role in the spread of French, and the path of diffusion of many French lexical items fol-
lows the great pilgrim roads such as the Via Francigena (see, e.g., Zamboni 1990: 615-616). As for
the literary spread of French and Provenal in Italy, we have already mentioned the close relation-
ship between Old Piedmontese and Old French when discussing some passages from the Sermoni
Subalpini. Old Ligurian, too, was heavily influenced by Transalpine varieties: besides a genuine
Old Ligurian literary production exemplified by the passages from the anonymous poet known as
Anonimo Genovese (see examples (31)-(33) above), the earliest vernacular documents in Liguria are
Provenal texts composed by Ligurian troubadours:
11


11
The process of Tuscanization of Ligurian, however, started as early as the beginnings of the 14
th
century and was par-
alleled by the regression of Provenal literary production in Liguria (Coletti, in Beniscelli et al. 1992: 47ff.).
Genova uno dei massimi centri del trobadorismo italiano: scrivono in provenzale genovesi come Percivalle Do-
ria, Lanfranco Cigala, Bonifacio Calvo, che sono tra i pi importanti trovatori italiani. E, intorno a loro, molti usano
la lingua di Provenza per componimenti letterari, liriche damore, tenzoni, poesie politiche una conoscenza della
lingua e della letteratura [provenzale] si poteva acquisire anche attraverso i frequenti, fitti scambi commerciali,
viaggi e contatti che legavano Genova alla Francia meridionale (Coletti, in Beniscelli et al. 1992: 46).

A similar coexistence of local vernaculars and foreign, Transalpine varieties appears to characterize
the literary production of Lombardy in the 13
th
century (recall, for instance, the Provenal works by
the Mantuan poet Sordello). Finally, we have already mentioned the peculiar, mixed variety known
as franco-veneto, which was both the language used by Italian and French travelling story-tellers
who publicly performed episodes of the Arthurian legend across northern Italy, and the written lan-
guage of many translations and adaptations of French literary works.
Turning to facts of a more linguistic nature, we are aware that the grammaticalization of nouns
meaning man into an indefinite element is cross-linguistically common. The presence of the same
pathway of grammaticalization in Old French and early northern Italian vernaculars thus may be
due exclusively to a typologically common strategy, and does not provide compelling evidence for
a French origin of indefinite uomo in early Italo-Romance. One fact, however, must be mentioned:
the Old French use of on/en as an indefinite element was characterized by a trait which is said to be
crucial to the transmission of a grammaticalization pattern from a model to a replica language,
namely interpretability. Though being grammaticalized as a pronoun very early, on in Old French
retained a number of nominal features: it was often preceded by the definite article (cf. examples
(71)-(72)), it was sometimes anaphorically referred to by il in coordinate structures (as in (72)), and
could be followed by relative clauses, as in (73):

(71) len le quist, si nel pot en trover (Saint Eustace 12, 11; from Jensen 1990: 237)
they looked for him, but they could not find him
(72) Il disoit que lon devoit son cors vestir et armer en telle maniere que li preudome de cest sie-
cle ne dessent que il fest trop (Joinville 25; from Nyrop 1925: 370)
He used to say that one should dress and arm oneself in such a way that sober men of the
world might not say that one did it immoderately
(73) hum qui la vait, repairier ne sen puet (Roland 293; from Nyrop 1925: 370)
nobody who goes there can come back

Given the evidence discussed so far, it is not unreasonable to assume that in northern Italo-
Romance vernaculars the emergence of indefinite usages of uomo has been propelled, if not in-
duced, by contact with French, in which similar usages were more firmly established. There is one
fact, however, which is still in need of an explanation: geographical continuity is not able to explain
why uomo is used as an indefinite element in other areas which were not in a direct contact with
France (e.g. Tuscany and, more generally, central Italy). In these areas, we must hypothesize that
the influence of French was due to the great popularity of French literary works, and that the usage
of uomo has always remained, to a certain extent, a foreign element, limited to the literary lan-
guage.
12

That this is indeed the case is corroborated by the relative unpopularity of indefinite uomo out-
side the literary register (see Section 4.4 for a discussion), and by the examples surveyed in this sec-
tion. These examples are drawn from texts of French origin, i.e. from adaptations of Old French
originals composed in different areas of Italy during the 13
th
and 14
th
centuries. These texts do not

12
The frequency of indefinite uomo in Old Romanesco might be regarded as a further confirmation of the pattern of dif-
fusion from northern to central Italy: in a by now classical article, Hall jr. (1943) shows the existence of a stream of
borrowing from north to south through the Papal States (Hall jr. 1943: 135), confined to the regions on either side of the
two main roads of the Papal States (Via Flaminia and Via Salaria), while Tuscany, as well as other marginal and iso-
lated areas within the Papal States remained entirely free from the encroachment of N.[orthern]-It.[alian] phenom-
ena (Hall jr. 1943: 137).
belong, strictly speaking, to the so-called letteratura franco-veneta (see Section 4.2.1), being rather
translations and adaptations of French originals.
13
While there is little doubt that the particular va-
rieties used in these adaptations should be considered as Italian vernaculars, it is also true that all
these varieties show strict adherence to the language of the original sources, che le compilazioni
italiane traducono spesso parola per parola senza lasciare spazio a interventi originali (Casa-
pullo 1999: 136).
Interestingly enough, in these texts uomo appears to be more grammaticalized than in contempo-
rary texts from the same areas. Take, for instance, the following Tuscan examples, from a version of
the anonymous French works Li faits des Romains and Historie ancienne jusqu Csar.
14
From a
semantic/pragmatic point of view, uomo appears as subject of verbs in the past tense, as in (76) and
(77). The past tense triggers an interpretation of uomo as a referential indefinite element (i.e., Stage
IIa on the grammaticalization path discussed in Section 2). Moreover, uomo appears to have taken
on some of the behavioural properties of pronouns discussed in Section 2. Passages (74) and (75),
where uomo is anaphorically referred to by uomo, are two cases in point.

OLD TUSCAN

(74) alcuna legge dice che uomo non uccida cittadino dannato, anzi lo nvii luomo in esilio (Fatti
di Cesare, Sal. L. 1, cap. 20, p. 25; XIII century)
some law says that one should not kill a condemned citizen; rather, one should exile him
(75) Ma tanto ardimento quanto luomo e di buona natura, tanto ne porta uomo in battallia
(Fatti di Cesare, Sal. L. 1, cap. 25, p. 33)
One carries with oneself into battle as much courage as one has by nature
(76) Quella coorta sostenne un lungo assalto di quattro legioni di Pompeio, tanto che furo tutti
presi da la gente di Pompeio. Unde luomo trov ne la piazza, appresso lo stormo, dardi e
saette dugento venti mila (Fatti di Cesare, [Svet.] L. 7, cap. 52, p. 281)
That cohort underwent a long-lasting assault by four of Pompeius legions, and in the end
they were all taken prisoner by Pompeius soldiers. As a result, 220,000 darts and arrows
were found in the square after the battle
(77) Aperto fu lo testamento di Cesare, e truov luomo che elli faceva Augusto, che allora aveva
nome Gaio Ottavio, erede di due partite di ci che elli aveva (Fatti di Cesare, [Svet.] L. 7,
cap. 65, p. 299)
Caesars will was opened, and it was found that he had appointed Augustus, whose name at
that time was Gaius Octavius, heir of two parts of what he had

A development along the same lines appears to characterize uomo in the Venetan versions of the
Roman de Tristan (Tristano Veneto, Tristano Corsiniano): uomo appears with a verb in the past
tense in (78), and is anaphorically referred to by uomo in (79) and (80).

OLD VENETAN

(78) Ed el responde: Madona, lon mapella per nome Dinadan. Ai Dinadan ci dixe la raina
lon m fato entender che vuj am per amore (Tristano Cors., p. 35; XIV century)
And he answers: Lady, my name is Dinadan (lit.: the man calls me Dinadan). Ah, Di-
nadan said the queen, someone gave me to understand that you love for loves sake

13
The translation of foreign works was common practice in various areas of Italy, although Veneto and, to a lesser ex-
tent, western Tuscany (Scolari 1988: 85ff.; Casapullo 1999: 133ff.) played the most prominent role in this process of
diffusion of French literature.
14
In Tuscany, at least seven different versions of these French works are found. These are usually grouped together un-
der the collective label Fatti di Cesare (DAgostino 1995: 584)
(79) et ora porave lomo oldir vosie et cridhe che homo non oldirave a Dio tonando! (Trista-
no Veneto, cap. 544, p. 507; XIV century)
And now one could hear so many voices and screams that one could not hear God, if he
thundered
(80) e ben saveva che meser Tristan aveva s gran animo et tanto sufriva stragnamentre che, po-
ych questo vigniva aterar-se da so ynimigo et quando lomo credheva quello fose travaia-
dho oltra mesura, adoncha lo vedheva lomo provar s fieramentre che tuti quelli che lo re-
guardava era smaridi stragnamentre (Tristano Veneto, cap. 486, p. 449)
and he knew well that Tristan was so fearless and had such extraordinary endurance that,
when he had been knocked down by one of his enemies and one could believe him to be in
great difficulty, at that point one could see him fighting so intrepidly that all those who were
watching him were extraordinarily amazed

If we want to understand in more detail to what extent Italian translations and adaptations depend
on their French sources, we can examine a couple of different versions of Il Milione, a text contain-
ing an account of Marco Polos travels to the Far East. The Italian versions of this text, though be-
ing quite different from one another, all depend to various degrees on the French version composed
by Rustichello of Pisa and commonly known as Le divisament dou monde.
15
Plenty of cases in
which uomo is referred to by uomo are attested in these versions. Interestingly, however, in virtually
all these cases the anaphoric pattern luomo luomo corresponds to a French pattern involving
the anaphoric chain len len. The reverse is not always true: the Italian translators were possibly
aware of the foreign flavour of this anaphoric pattern, and sometimes adapted the French se-
quence len len using the fully Italian pattern luomo elli/el/.

(81) Il hi a trois jornee que len ne treuve river se pou non; et celle que len trouve est sause et
verde come herbe de pre (Le divisament dou monde, XXXVIII, 2)
(82) Luomo va .iij. giornate che luono non truova acqua, se non verde come erba, salsa e amara
(Il Milione, versione toscana del Trecento, 37, 2)
(83) Lomo va ben tre zornade chel non trova aqua, n fiume n riazuol, se non molto puocha; e
quella che se trova salsa e verde chome una erba (Il Milione, redazione veneta; ms. CM 211
della Biblioteca Civica di Padova, 25, 2)
(84) Lomo va bene tre ornate che non trova aqua n flume n rio se no molto poca; e quella a-
qua che lomo atrova salsa e verde como erba (Il Milione, versione emiliana; frammento;
ms. 3999 della Biblioteca Casanatense di Roma, 2, 2)
The first three days you meet with no water, or next to none. And what little you do meet
with is bitter green stuff, so salty that no one can drink it (transl. H. Yule)
(85) Et quant len a chevauchs cest troint jornee dou deert que je vos ai dit, adonc treuve len
une cit que est apells Saciou (Le divisament dou monde, LVIII, 1)
(86) A luscita de<l> diserto si truova una citt ch nome Sachion (Il Milione, versione toscana
del Trecento, 57, 1)

15
Tantalizingly complex is the textual tradition of this book (see Barbieri 1996, 2001; Andreose 2002 for a comprehen-
sive, up-to-date status quaestionis). In the Prologue, it is stated that Marco Polo, while in prison in Genoa, wishing to
occupy himself, told the story of his travels to Rustichello of Pisa, who was in the same prison. Rustichello, author of
two romances, both concerned with Arthurian legends (Guiron le Courtois, and Meliadus de Leonnoys), composed the
text using a type of French full of Italian features at all levels. It is usually stated that the original manuscript has not
survived. Extant manuscripts can be divided into two major groups. The first group (A) includes the manuscript of the
French version known as Le divisament dou monde (F), which is almost unanimously considered as being closest to the
original manuscript. Group A also includes three families of manuscripts, derived from three different French manu-
scripts (F
1
, F
2
, F
3
) close to but different from F. The first Tuscan version (TA) depends on F
2
, while the Venetan ver-
sions (VA) discussed in this paper derive from F
3
. The second group of manuscripts (B) includes a Latin version (Z),
and two different Venetan adaptations (V and VB).
(87) Quando lomo pasato quelle XXX zornate de dexerto, el trova una zit che nome Sachion
(Il Milione, redazione veneta; ms. CM 211 della Biblioteca Civica di Padova, 44, 1)
(88) E quando lomo cavalcate quele XXX ornate delo dexerto, ello trova una cit che e nome
Sachion (Il Milione, versione emiliana; frammento; ms. 3999 della Biblioteca Casanatense di
Roma, 20, 1)
After you have travelled thirty days through the Desert, as I have described, you come to a
city called Sachiu (transl. H. Yule)
(89) Et quant len se part de Badascian, len ala doue jornee entre levant et [g]rec sor por un
flum qui est do frere au seignor de Badasciam, la ou il a chaustiaus et habitasion ase (Le di-
visament dou monde, L, 1)
(90) E quando luomo si parte da Baudascian, s si va .xij. giornate tra levante e crego su per uno
fiume, che del fratello del segnore di Baudascian, ov castella e abitazioni assai (Il Milio-
ne, versione toscana del Trecento, 49, 1)
(91) Quando lomo se parte de Balaxia, el va do zornate dentro levante e griego sora uno fiume
ch del fradello del signior de Balastia: l chastelle e abitazion asai (Il Milione, redazione
veneta; ms. CM 211 della Biblioteca Civica di Padova, 36, 1)
(92) E quando lomo se parte de Balasia, lomo vae doe ornate dentro levante e greco sovra uno
flume ch del fradello del signore de Balasia, l o castelle e habitacioni asai (Il Milione,
versione emiliana; frammento; ms. 3999 della Biblioteca Casanatense di Roma, 13, 1)
In leaving Badashan you ride twelve days between east and north-east, ascending a river that
runs through land belonging to a brother of the Prince of Badashan, and containing a good
many towns and villages and scattered habitations (transl. H. Yule)

4.4. The decay of indefinite uomo in Italo-Romance: A case of retraction

In many Italo-Romance varieties, the life-cycle of indefinite uomo comes to an end at the dawn
of the 16
th
century (Barrett Brown 1936: 38-39, who quotes some sporadic examples with an ar-
chaic flavour from the 17
th
century). Moreover, in some varieties, instances of indefinite uomo in
the period considered in this paper (from the earliest vernacular documents to approximately 1400)
are comparatively infrequent with respect to other impersonalizing constructions such as the reflex-
ive passive/impersonal. This construction, exemplified in (93)-(95), is the outcome of a widespread
grammaticalization process whereby reflexive constructions, i.e. constructions involving some sort
of co-referentiality between the subject and the (in)direct object of a verb, give rise to anticausative
and eventually passive/impersonal interpretations:

(93) Si evitata una tragedia
REFL is avoided:F.SG a tragedy[F.SG]
A tragedy has been avoided
(94) Qui si leggono molti libri
Many books are read here
(95) Si mangia bene qui
One/we/they eat(s) well here

If we take Giovanni Villanis Cronica (1348) as a sample text, we find 731 instances of the reflex-
ive passive/impersonal, but only three bona fide examples of indefinite uomo. Even in a text heavily
influenced by French such as Il Milione (Tuscan version), reflexive passives outnumber instances of
indefinite uomo by two to one (257 reflexive passives vs. 124 instances of indefinite uomo). By
contrast, in other varieties the use of indefinite uomo appears to be more successful. This is espe-
cially true for Old Piedmontese and Old Lombard: in the Sermoni Subalpini there is only one case
of se used with a passive meaning (example (96) below), while indefinite uomo occurs 11 times. In
Bonvesin, occurrences of indefinite uomo almost equal instances of reflexive passive/impersonal
constructions (55 and 52 respectively):

(96) Ci coiteren cum il avean iac en la ca de la meretrix, e lo ben que ela lor avea fait, e cum ela
los avea gar, e cum il li avean iur per lor lei que, quant la cit se prendrea, que il la devean
defendre de tota lost, e lei e tota la soa lignaa e tote le soe chose (Sermoni Subalpini 9, 57)
They recounted how they had stayed in the house of the prostitute, and the help that she had
given them, and how she had protected them, and how they had sworn by their law that, when
the town was being taken, they would defend her from the entire army, both her and all her
family and all her possessions (transl. M. Parry)

These facts, along with the rarity of indefinite uomo in less literary textual types such as letters and
private documents, suggest that indefinite uomo has always remained a marginal usage pattern in
many Italo-Romance varieties. If we take frequency to be crucial to the final success of a new usage
pattern in a replica language (as do, for instance, Heine and Kuteva 2005: 47ff.), we must conclude
that there is no proliferation of the new usage pattern in these varieties.
16

The history of indefinite uomo can thus be described as an instance of what Haspelmath (2004:
33ff.) calls retraction. Retraction occurs when a lexical element which has (even partially) gram-
maticalized becomes obsolete and makes its way back to the original lexical value or to a less
grammaticalized stage. Different factors can be invoked to explain why retraction occurs. One of
them is the occurrence of processes of polarization between concurrent structures in a functional
domain: such a process can be invoked to explain the history of the Italian reflexive passive, which
showed a greater degree of grammaticalization in Old Italian than in Modern Italian (Sans to ap-
pear). The range of uses of this construction appears to have contracted noticeably in the history of
Italian as a result of polarization with another passive construction of a different origin, namely the
periphrastic passive. Other factors are possibly at play in the disappearance of indefinite uomo in
Italian varieties: tentatively, we propose that the effacement of this use has been hastened by the
natural exhaustion of the French influence on Italo-Romance literary varieties.
The disappearance of indefinite uomo, however, is paralleled by two phenomena which show the
vitality of this usage in at least two areas.
On the one hand, Modern Lombard varieties appear to have maintained both (i) a 1
st
person plu-
ral form with the ending -um (unstressed), possibly derived from the affixation of homo to a 3
rd
per-
son verbal form,
17
and (ii) a construction of the form (noi) uomo canta, we sing.
18
The latter con-

16
Even in some northern varieties, however, indefinite uomo tends to fall into disuse. In Piedmontese, for instance, no
examples of indefinite uomo are found after the 16
th
century, while other ways of expressing the indefinite subject
(namely, reflexive passives and impersonals) increasingly take over (Parry 1998: 96-97). It has been suggested, how-
ever, that indefinite uomo has not disappeared without trace: Lurati (1973, but see Telmon 1988: 473-474 for a survey
of this and alternative hypotheses) hypothesizes that the 1
st
person plural ending in Piedmontese cantma results from
the affixation of uomo to a third person singular verbal form (< cantat homo). This hypothesis is highly controversial
and poses problems both phonetically and morphologically (Davide Ricca, p.c.): -ma is a stressed ending, and it ap-
pears to be highly implausible that a tonic [u] might derive from the originally open-mid round vowel of homo (still ar-
ticulated as an open-mid vowel in Piedmontese, cf. m, mu, man, husband). As far as morphology is concerned, if we
postulate that -ma derives from the affixation of homo to a third person singular form, we should expect a form such as
*finisuma in verbs of the type finisco/finiamo, I finish/we finish, which are characterized by the extension of the ver-
bal theme by means of -is(c)- only in the singular: the attested form, however, is always finima [fi'njuma].
17
The hypothesis of an affixation of homo to a third person verbal form appears to be more tenable for unstressed than
for stressed um (see note 9). Moreover, both the peculiar root accent and the affixation of subject clitics find parallels
in Lombard and other northern varieties (cf. Piedmontese kant-ve, you
[PL]
sing, Alpine Lombard knta-f, you
[PL]
sing;
cf. Zrner 1996: 33).
18
The AIS (Jaberg and Jud 1928-1940: Plate 660, ci leviamo, we stand up) records the unstressed ending -om/-um in
the following places: Arcumeggia, Bagolino, Bienate (Magnago), Breno (Canton Ticino), Brescia, Campo, Colico, Co-
mo, Curcio (Colico), Germasino, Ligornetto (Canton Ticino), Mello, Milano, Monza, Osco, Pescarolo, Poschiavo, Pro-
sito (Lodrino), Rivolta dAdda, Roncone, Toscolano, Vergeletto, among others. Stressed -um is recorded at the periph-
ery of the area of unstressed -um (i.e., in Eastern Lombardy, Veneto, and Emilia): Carpaneto, Limone, Mortaso,
struction is still very well alive in contemporary Bergamasco. In the 19
th
century, Lorck (1893: 55n)
recorded the following 1
st
person plural forms in Bergamasco: imperfect mamaa besides amem,
we loved, perfect mam, besides amesem, we loved, and future temirem and am temir, we
will fear. The following examples, from a relatively recent dialectological inquiry, show the use of
uomo + 3
rd
person verbal form as an equivalent of a 1
st
person plural form in Modern Bergamasco.

BERGAMASCO

(97) Ma hbianct lter d la htnsa d la m horla (Val Seriana Inferiore, Nembro, from Agaz-
zi 1987a: 160)
Some days ago we whitewashed my sisters room
(98) ma trebolt, ma hofrt e ma patt (Val Seriana Inferiore, Pradalunga, from Agazzi 1987a:
165)
we grieved, we suffered, we felt pain
(99) Mind-a a laor al Grehpi a i hich e mda, bisogn-a cha m parti d ca, perch pta, am
vli guadagn ergta de dga de mai a hti hcc (Val Seriana Inferiore, Pradalunga, from
Agazzi 1987a: 165)
We used to work at Crespi, and at half past five we had to leave home because, dammit, we
wanted to earn something in order to provide for these children
(100) Quando a l ghra ol m Tun chal cop-a ol sun, a m comens-a coi codegh (Val Seriana
Inferiore, Pradalunga, from Agazzi 1987a: 166)
When my Tonino was still alive and slaughtered the pig himself, we used to start with the
cotechini
(101) iss, almeno, mihta ma h lsio (Val Seriana Inferiore, Albino, from Agazzi 1987a: 168)
this way, at least, we dont idle our time away
(102) Segrazi da pch gn ads, an fa segrazi (Val Gandino, Leffe, from Bernini 1987: 283)
As for insurance, weve taken out insurance for only a few years
(103) Nter a m s na fam, a m s abastns n tnci (Val Seriana Superiore, Castione della
Presolana, from Agazzi 1987b: 297)
We are a family, we are quite a lot of people

On the other hand, Modern Abruzzese has an indefinite pronoun, nome, derived from an indefi-
nite article + uomo.
19
No historical information about the emergence of this pronoun is available: in
Old Abruzzese only the form with the definite article and the form without the article are attested.
Even in relatively recent times (cf. Rohlfs 1949: 274), there appears to be a certain degree of varia-
tion, and the three forms luomo, un uomo, and uomo are equally attested. It is possible that nome is
the result of a rather recent fixation of one of these alternative structures, possibly not related (or
only loosely so) to the usage of uomo as an indefinite element in Old Abruzzese.
20

These two phenomena are to be evaluated differently. Although the pragmatic development from
an impersonal to a personal clause and the evolution of uomo into a 1
st
person plural ending are
rather peculiar developments and do not strictly speaking belong to the grammaticalization path
sketched in Section 2, there are obvious continuities between the Modern Lombard situation and the

Piacenza, Tiarno di Sotto. The ending -n is also attested in Veneto and Friuli, but is increasingly being replaced by the
more recent type -mo/-n (Pellegrini 1977: 135-136). The construction (noi) uomo si leva, we stand up appears to be
restricted to the eastern part of Lombardy, and to Canton Ticino (where, however, the ending -om / -um is increasingly
ousting this construction, see Petrini 1988: 216): Albosaggia, Bergamo, Borno, Branzi, Coltura (Stampa), Gromo, Gro-
sio, Lumezzane-SantApollonio, Martinengo, SantOmobono, Soglio, Sonico, Sonogno, Stabello.
19
The reader is referred to DAlessandro and Alexiadou (2006) for a survey of the syntactic properties of nome in Mod-
ern Abruzzese. From their investigation, it turns out that nome is syntactically a weak pronoun in the words of Cardi-
naletti and Starke (1999).
20
The AIS (see, e.g., Plate 1032, quando si ha sete, when one is thirsty) records only a few sporadic cases of indefi-
nite uomo in Fara San Martino (Abruzzo) and San Giovanni Rotondo (northern Puglia).
indefinite uses of uomo in Old Lombard (cf. examples (38) and (43)-(50) above): this corroborates
the picture that has emerged from the previous section, namely that Northern Italy is the area in
which the indefinite uses of uomo were more firmly established ab antiquo. In Abruzzese, on the
other hand, we can tentatively assume that nome is a relatively recent, and possibly autonomous, in-
novation, its chronology falling outside the temporal boundaries considered in this study.


5. SUMMARY AND PROSPECTS

Summing up the discussion in Section 4, we may conclude that Old French is a plausible candi-
date as a model language for the emergence of indefinite uomo in early Italo-Romance. In the ab-
sence of direct evidence, at least the following facts conspire towards this conclusion:

(i) in northern Italy, the area in which French enjoyed the widest currency, instances of indefinite
uomo are both more frequent in absolute terms and more grammaticalized;
(ii) Italian adaptations and translations of French texts (such as, e.g., the Tuscan and Venetan ver-
sions of Il Milione and Tristano discussed in Section 4.3) are full of cases in which uomo dis-
plays some properties of Stage IIa of the grammaticalization path defined in Section 2 (occur-
rence with the past tense, behavioural properties typical of pronouns, etc., see Section 4.3).
Significantly, in contemporary texts coming from the same areas uomo was not grammatical-
ized to the same extent as in these texts;
(iii) the foreign flavour of these usages is indirectly suggested by their relatively early obsoles-
cence, coincident with the decline of the French influence on Italian vernaculars.
21


The role of French as a model language is perfectly plausible given its prestige as both a literary
variety and a vehicular language in the Late Middle Ages. French influence alone, however, cannot
be invoked to explain the success and the eventual perpetuation of the construct uomo + 3
rd
person
singular as an equivalent of a 1
st
person plural form in Lombard. This construct appears as early as
the 13
th
century in Old Lombard and is attested sporadically also in other areas of northern Italy, but
does not correspond to a similar usage pattern in French, where the reinterpretation of on as an
equivalent of a 1
st
person plural pronoun is a somewhat later phenomenon (it does not seem that
[+definite] on was general in the Paris area before the 19
th
century, Coveney 2000: 450). The au-
tochthony of the Old Lombard usage, however, is not an obstacle to the general hypothesis put for-
ward in this paper: the reinterpretation of an impersonal clause as a personal one is a quite straight-
forward development, from both a semantic and a pragmatic point of view. As such, it is found oc-
casionally also in Old French, where it is admittedly relatively unusual (Welton-Lair 1999: 107ff.):

OLD FRENCH

(104) Que faites vos, franc chevalier? / Li cers tarde a escorchier / [Ja i porrons tant demorer / que
il niert mais cuiz al disner.] / Chascuns i fiere o sespee! / Nos i ferons bien fort pevree / a la
viande doit lan traire / car de cele a chascuns a faire (An., Eneas, 3667, 1155-60, from Wel-
ton-Lair 1999: 109-110)
What are you doing, noble knights? The deer is waiting to be flayed! We can delay here so
long that it will never be cooked for dinner. Let every man lay on with his sword and we will

21
As Morgana (1994: 671) puts it, when speaking of French loans (gallicismi) in Italian, noto che almeno fino ai
primi decenni del Trecento la partita del dare e dellavere registra fortemente in attivo la Francia, e che questo il risul-
tato dei sempre pi frequenti contatti instauratisi gi a partire dallet carolingia. Poi il bilancio dei prestiti tende a pa-
reggiarsi, fino a segnare una netta inversione in epoca rinascimentale, quando lespansione della cultura letteraria e arti-
stica italiana promuove lafflusso di italianismi nel francese.
make here a good, strong pepper-sauce! We must draw near to the meat for everyone needs
that (transl. L. K. Welton-Lair)

As for Latin, we have not provided (and perhaps cannot provide) a conclusive answer to the
question posed in Section 3, namely whether the hypothesis of a Late Latin origin of indefinite
uomo in Romance (and, more specifically, in Italo-Romance) is tenable. As for Italo-Romance, the
data discussed in this paper point towards a later process of replication of a French usage pattern,
with little or no connection with the Late Latin developments discussed in Section 3. As for French,
the more than sporadic presence of indefinite homo in Late Latin is a fact that may call into question
the current, mainstream hypothesis on the origin of indefinite on/en, which is generally ascribed to a
Germanic (Frankish) influence (Giacalone Ramat and Sans, to appear). More generally, the fact
that many SAE features occur in Late Latin must be still accounted for by the current literature on
the SAE (but see Stolz 2006 for a recent reappraisal). More often than not, we are not able to tell
whether these features were brought about by contact between Latin and other languages or were
autonomous developments. We must admit, however, that the importance of Late Latin as a major
language of communication in Central Europe at the transition between antiquity and the Middle
Ages (Haspelmath 2001: 1507) had not shrank the way it is usually believed (Banniard 1992). The
role of Latin was probably both passive and active: Late Latin might have been replicating patterns
of the spoken varieties with which it was in contact and, at the same time, it was a model language
for innovations and processes of standardization in spoken vernaculars, thus fully participating in
the dynamics of convergence that led to the formation of the European linguistic area.
From the point of view of areal typology, our study provides some evidence in favour of a multi-
layered model of diffusion of linguistic traits in Europe: the current distribution of SAE features is
the product of a variety of processes that happened in different periods, with possibly different lan-
guages acting as model languages each time. Not all phenomena can be attributed to the time of the
Great Migrations or to any one major historical event of the distant past (Stolz 2006: 293). More
importantly, some features spread at a higher speed than others, and some were more likely than
others to be copied in language contact. In still other cases, the potential of diffusion of linguistic
traits never extended beyond a certain period and a certain region. The history of indefinite uomo in
Italo-Romance is just a case in point.

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