Note su Koinè

This paper aims to outline the history of koinè, both as a concept and as a term. As far as the Italian language is concerned, the concept of koinè first occurs in the Renaissance as lingua com(m)une (a loan translation from Greek κοινη διαλεκτος ’common language‘), while the term koinè apparently is not attested before the 19th century, with a meaning still attached to the original sense of ’Alexandrian Greek‘. Only in the second half of the 20th century the term koinè develops a new set of meanings more strictly connected to the Italian milieu.