Phonetics in 16th-Century Italy: Giorgio Bartoli and John David Rhys

Herbert J. Izzo
University of Calgary
Summary

This paper, which contends that Renaissance linguistics has remained undervalued despite the progress of current linguistic historiography, examines and compares the works of two 16th-century writers on Italian pronunciation, Giorgio Bartoli (1534–83) and John David Rhys (1534–1609). Both show an unexpected sophistication in their articulatory descriptions and in their strict distinction between phonology and orthography as well as considerable knowledge of and an objective attitude toward other European languages and dialects. One of them, moreover, sets up a system of consonant classification which foreshadows modern feature analysis.

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