Cenni intorno alla scripta friulana medievale e notizia dell’Inventarium Bitini

In the case of Friuli, too, documents of practical use represent the source of greatest interest for the study of the ancient vernacular language. Their production increased between the second half of the 14th and the first half of the 15th century. It reflects specific sociolinguistic circumstances that saw opposition between Friulian and Latin being progressively replaced by opposition between Friulian and Tuscan-Venetian. This situation is reflected in the documents of the period. They oscillate between the interference of more or less influential alternative models and a more conscious and socially widespread practice of writing in Friulian, choosing it as the linguistic code in administrative and accounting documents. An example is the fruçon “fragment” which even on a preliminary level shows various elements of interest, not least of all the fact that it exhibits an intermediate language, semi-Latin or semi-vulgar. This can be attributed to the work of mediation of a sophisticated intermediary – the notary editor – who arranged the gramatica in order to make it comprehensible even to those less educated.