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medieval worlds • no. 23 • 2025
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Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften Austrian Academy of Sciences Press
A-1011 Wien, Dr. Ignaz Seipel-Platz 2
Tel. +43-1-515 81/DW 3420, Fax +43-1-515 81/DW 3400 https://verlag.oeaw.ac.at, e-mail: verlag@oeaw.ac.at |
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DATUM, UNTERSCHRIFT / DATE, SIGNATURE
BANK AUSTRIA CREDITANSTALT, WIEN (IBAN AT04 1100 0006 2280 0100, BIC BKAUATWW), DEUTSCHE BANK MÜNCHEN (IBAN DE16 7007 0024 0238 8270 00, BIC DEUTDEDBMUC)
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medieval worlds • no. 23 • 2025, pp. 14-40, 2025/11/27
This article examines the multilingual dynamics of fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Dalmatia, with a focus on the city of Spalato (modern Split). It argues that the region’s linguistic landscape was defined not by strict language hierarchies or rigid ethnic divisions but by a pragmatic and adaptive multilingualism. Latin and Italian dominated the spheres of formal administration, law, and commerce, functioning as the official languages of record. However, Slavic – spoken by the majority population – remained the principal medium of everyday communication and played a persistent, though often informal, role in public and administrative life. While Slavic was seldom used in official written documents, Latin and Italian records reflect Slavic input through references to translations, lexical borrowings, and direct quotations. Venetian authorities pragmatically accommodated the linguistic realities of their subjects by relying on translators, accepting bilingual communication, and tolerating unofficial scribes proficient in Slavic.
The article first discusses the social distribution of language skills and multilingual spaces within the city, before giving an overview of the use of Slavic as an administrative language in the communication between town and hinterland. Slavic lexical borrowings and the incorporation of direct quotations into Latin and Italian texts are addressed next. The focus then switches to the flexible use of both Slavic and Romance personal names as well as the challenges involved in recording Slavic place names. All this points to a society in which language use was driven by functionality rather than ethnicity. This »Slavo-Romance symbiosis « challenges binary models of identity and instead suggests a deeply integrated urban culture. Attempts to classify Dalmatian populations strictly by linguistic or onomastic markers are shown to be inadequate in capturing the region’s social complexity.
Keywords: Spalato/Split, Venice, multilingualism, urban history, administration, onomastics, Slavic, Croatian, Italian, Latin