Nine Religions, Sixteen Tongues. Languages, Cultures, Identities at Leghorn in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries

Leghorn is a very meaningful case of multilingualism and multiculturalism in Tuscany and in Italy. Before the unification of Italy, nine religions were allowed or tolerated in this city, and the most important non-Italian and/or non-Catholic communities were considered as 'Nations' with churches, cemeteries and institutions of their own (e. g. Nazione Inglese, Nazione Olandese-Alemanna, Nazione Ebraica). About sixteen languages were ritually and/or commonly spoken. The Italian and Catholic majority used Italian with Latin for worship, the Leghorn dialect and a sort of thieves' cant; the Jews used Hebrew, Portuguese, Spanish and a Judeo-Italian variety called bagitto. Greek, Arabic, Armenian, Syrian, Russian, English, German and Dutch were present as well. This paper deals in particular with several words, used by (or attributed to) Leghorn boatmen and porters (the so-called Veneziani) and Jews, which strongly express identity or are connected with the confrontation between the two communities.