932 ronnie ferguson
More broadly, the linguistic traces left by the contact and interaction of
cultures are an invaluable tool for historians. Our understanding of how
the lagoons of Venice were populated and of the demographic dynamics
that led to the formation and growth of Venice itself in the later medi-
eval period, as outlined below in Section 4, are being enriched by such
language archaeology. Our knowledge of the formation of europe’s old-
est mercantile aristocracy is indissociable from a study of its linguistic
manifestation in Venice’s precocious and distinctive anthroponymy.15 the
lasting genetic imprint of “colonial” Venetian on trieste, Friuli, istria, Dal-
matia, and the Levant—and on the Veneto mainland itself—is unique
among the Romance languages.16 the long-term impact of Venetian
vocabulary on greek, albanian, Balkan Slavic, and turkish—as well as
its remodeling of the scriptae of Ragusa and Cyprus—are also an invalu-
able record of the modalities and timescale of the penetration of Vene-
tian culture from 1400 to 1797, as well as before and after this period.17
Venice’s position as the great medieval and Renaissance mediator, and as
conveyor of goods, fashions and artistic styles, between the islamic and
Christian worlds is reflected in a corpus of key word exchanges in both
directions. these are a vital historical resource for our understanding of
Venice’s roles and influence. Venetian civilization also generated home-
grown terms that acquired an international circulation. Both influences
can be illustrated by considering a selection of words, with earliest dates
and provenance, which Venetian bequeathed to english in the period
1400–1797: eng. artichoke [1531] ←Ven. artichioco “artichoke” from arabic
al haršūf “artichoke.” eng. arsenal [1506] ←Ven. arsenạl (eV arsenà) from
arabic dār as-sinā‘a “house of work/skills, factory.” eng. ballot n. and vb
[1549] ←Ven. balota “ball used in Venetian government elections; ballot.”
15 gianfranco Folena, “gli antichi nomi di persona e la storia civile di Venezia,” in
gianfranco Folena, Culture e lingue nel Veneto medievale (Padua, 1990), pp. 175–210.
16 On the concept of colonial Venetian, see Manlio Cortelazzo, “il veneziano coloniale:
documentazione e interpretazione,” in Fabiana Fusco, Vincenzo Orioles, and alice Par-
meggiani eds., Processi di convergenza e differenziazione nelle lingue dell’Europa medievale
e moderna (udine, 2000), pp. 317–26. the fundamental study of Venetian in the Levant is
gianfranco Folena, “introduzione al veneziano de là da mar,” in Folena, Culture e lingue nel
Veneto medievale, pp. 227–68. For case studies on the spread from Venice of home-grown
or borrowed words, see Ronnie Ferguson: “Veneto sélega (aiS 488) e sisíla (aiS 499), due
etimi greci connessi?” L’Italia Dialettale 59 (1996–98), 299–311; “L’etimologia dell’adriatico
cocàl(e)/crocàl(e), ‘gabbiano,’” Ce Fastu? 78 (2002), 7–22; and “Per la storia di brufolo,”
Lingua Nostra 65.3–4 (2004), 93–101.
17 Federico Vicario, “note sulla diffusione del lessico veneziano nella penisola bal-
canica,” in Fusco, Orioles, and Parmeggiani, Processi di convergenza e differenziazione,
pp. 375–84.