Confessore e monache: rappresentazione linguistica del rapporto uomo-donna in un manoscritto anonimo del Settecento

N-43-Suss is an anonymous Ambrosian manuscript in the style of spiritual dialogues and Lombard “bosinata”. The manuscript is a fictional dialogue between a confessor and the nuns of a monastery. The dialogue is composed in two different languages: the nuns speak in the dialect of Milan and the confessor speaks in Italian. Linguistic alternation is not a mimetic recreation of real dialogue: it’s rather to be connected to an educational purpose. The difference in education between the confessor and nuns, therefore, becomes a difference in values because the language symbolize the value of the information contained in the speech. It is interesting to note that this significant linguistic diversity, finally becomes complementarity. The deeper linguistic analysis in fact shows a crucial stage in the formation of a common italian language. Dialects of Milan and Florence are overlapping and they complement each other, allowing the formation of a new cross code. This manuscript attests a strategy of mediocrity, producing various outcomes, but also contributing to the formation of a single language.