Le glosse greco-romanze del manoscritto Oxon. Bodl. Rawl. G.4: prime osservazioni

The aim of this paper is to attempt to identify the area of origin of a group of southern Italo-Romance glosses in Greek characters that are attested in the codex Oxoniensis Rawl. G.4. This manuscript from southern Calabria, which was later included in the library of the S. Salvatore monastery in Messina, has been discussed by Mariafrancesca Sgandurra in the preceding article. In view of their palaeographical features, these Italo-Romance allographic glosses should probably be attributed to the 16th century, as Sgandurra has pointed out. As far as their spelling is concerned, the use of <τζ> to represent /ts/, /ʧ/ and /ʤ/ seems to point to a localization in southern Calabria or north-eastern Sicily. In fact, such a digraph is far more widespread in that area, despite its also being attested in documents coming from Salento. Moreover, it is generally not used in Salentine texts in order to express the sound /ʤ/. As for the language, a decisive element in favour of a location in the area between southern Calabria and Sicily is represented by esti, the 3rd person singular form of the present indicative of «to be», which is attested in Old and Modern Sicilian, as well as in southern Calabria, but not in Old and Modern Salentine.