CHAPTER 9

THE GARGANO

The Gargano has the aspect of a region with its own physical characteristics. This physical character mirrors also in the dialects, that show some common feature that distinguishes them from the other middle-south parlances. Gargano’s history dates back to the Byzantine dominations.

In terms of language, the Gargano area is anything but uniform. The southern part with the cities of Manfredonia, Monte Sant’Angelo and Vieste underlines some characteristics of the Foggia dialect. The northern part from Lesina up to Peschici, with the most southern points in San Marco in

Lamis, Rignano and San Giovanni Rotondo, are more inclined toward the “Subappenino dauno”.

Opened to South, the Gargano keeps some phonetic characteristics recognizable in the shaken and mixed vocalic sounds. The strongest point is Peschici which is a hinge between the promontory’s southern and northern part. Rohlfs7 supposes the existence of ancient Slavic colonies on the

Gargano coasts because of the survival of a certain number of hypothetical Slavic words and takes account of the failed adaptation of LL in dd in Peschici that with other towns in the “Subappennino dauno” outline a conformity of the same conditions.

For the vocalism, it’s important to take account of the failed palatalization of the tonic a in all the positions in Peschici, Vico, Cagnano, San Marco in Lamis, Poggio Imperiale and Lesina, against the palatal d in all the other province’s parlances. In a diachronic evaluation, we must outline that the Gargano, in its geographical eccentricity represents an area less exposed than the rest of the region and so more conservative. Of this area, Peschici represents the extreme point and in its parlance are still kept some ancient conditions of a linguistic fractured situation, still detectable in few outcrops. The major rift occurs in the median part around the longitudinal axis between Apulia

7 Gerhard Rohlfs (Berlin, July 14, 1892 – Tübingen, September 12, 1986) was a German linguist. He was described as an “archaeologist of words”. and Molise: Abruzzi people who followed the itineraries of the transhumance imposed on this territory different factors.

The most significant phonetic feature is represented by the preservation of LL in all the

Capitanata’s area. In this same frame can be placed and explained also the preservation of the free tonic a in almost every city of the northern part of the Gargano and of the Apennine arch.

The conclusion is simple, but not expected. People and parlances in the northern Gargano weren’t born by an Apulian elements dispersion and neither by an Abruzzi diaspora; they all are a projection of Apennines people and parlances.

9.1 VIESTE

Vieste is a remote beginnings centre; some researchers identify it with Apenestae8. The primitive settlement, as in the case of other Gargano’s protohistoric sites, rose up on a tight peninsula accessible only by a side defended surely by a moat and a high wall 9. The small town is today settled on the Gargano’s head. In the youngest source we pinpoint a sure knowledge of the parlance but hither and yon there are various errors as the language is attacked by new cultural tendencies. Its characterization is fostered by the contacts with Monte Sant’Angelo, Mattinata,

Manfredonia that are more similar to Bari civilization than to Foggia.

In the North, there are the cities of Vico, Peschici and Rodi (that manifest more features similar to Molise than to Apulia) that pressure, and this lets think that the flagging elements are unfortunately those of Apulian origin.

9.2 SAN MARCO IN LAMIS

After Vieste, the coast is very rugged and exposed to winds, with few docks. Through the aerial photographs, we see tracks of another road that from Teanum Apulum headed towards Orient,

8 On the different hypothesis about the Apenestae’s location: M. POTITO – G. VARIO, Vieste antica, 1970. 9 This kind of built-up area dates back to the Bronze Agw and it’s endured in Protohistoric age. V. RUSSI, I castellieri del Gargano, Atti della IV Espos. Archeol. su il Campignano e l’età del Bronzo nel Gargano, Vico G., 1979. reaching to a built-up area at the feet of San Giovanni in Piano’s hills. This itinerary, still used in the Middle Age with the name of Via Francesca, merged close to Santa Maria di Stignano’s shrine.

San Marco is imprisoned in the gorge of its mountains. When we enter the city, we have the impression to plunge in the scariest cave of the whole promontory. This condition establishes a privileged position for the communion and the language preservation.

There aren’t some distinct activities, and neither out-and-out classes. There’s a language belonging to everybody that must be gathered in the place where everybody join, that is the centre of the town.

Phonetically, the most frequent oscillations of the sources concern the pronunciation of the vowel a in tonic and atonic position. The final a, typical of the Italian feminines and of the third singular person of the verbs, in the 17 words examined occurs 9 times in the youngest source, 8 times in the middle-aged source and 12 times in the old source. The protonic a in 6 words examined is pronounced once as lightly palatal in the youngest source, twice in the middle-aged and none in the old. We can understand that some phonetic upheavals occurred in the recent times and can be attributed to the action of the neighbouring towns that influenced the original parlance even if the inhabitants of San Marco are so jealous of their linguistic heritage. It is a unitary language for what concerns the classes, but considerably detached for the ages. The presence of the dd from LL induces to think to that linguistic communion that there was between Apulia, Lucania (partially),

Calabria, Sicily and Sardinia.

9.3 SAN GIOVANNI ROTONDO and MATTINATA

A pre-Roman settlement, probably endured up to the Roman Empire, is attested in San

Giovanni Rotondo’s site. Later, or in the dark ages, the inhabitants of the area sought refuge in the upper fortified hamlet of Bizzanum10 and went back in the XI century in a hamlet which took the name of the near Benedictine shrine. The road, then, skirted Sant’Egidio’s lake, where they found

10 V. RUSSI, Contributo agli studi di topografia antica e medievale del Gargano meridionale, Memorie storiche di S. Giovanni Rotondo, Foggia, 1894. some Roman Age evidences and proceeded toward the coast reaching the plane of Mattinata, a name recalling the ancient Matinum, a city that has never been pinpointed11.

9.4 SIPONTO

Continuing toward Siponto, we find some evidences that can be attributed to little farms of

Hellenic and Roman age. The ancient Siponto12 had a trapezoidal shape. We know precious little about its inner structure, because a lot of buildings were demolished in order to use all the materials for the building of the new city, Manfredonia (XIII century).

Founder of Sipontum (= cuttlefish’s city) was the mythic Diomede or the first inhabitants of the Daunia area who sailing brought there, in the safest point of the Gulf, the reminder of the

Trojan War. This represented a new gust of civilization and culture, as shown by the famous “Stele daune”: more than 2000 pieces that constitute a priceless archaeological treasure kept in the

National Museum inside Manfredonia’s Castle.

Siponto, in the second half of the V century was assaulted by the Heruli and the

Ostrogoths; in the following century it was involved in the Greek-Gothic War and remained under the Byzantine control, suffering the Slavic raids. Then it passed to the Longobards from

Benevento’s dukedom and for this reason was sacked by Constantius II 13. Also famines and epidemics added to the continuous wars, so that not only the city economics but the same administrative structure resulted gravely compromised.

Siponto, city of oldest origin, during the Longobard domination, became the main Adriatic harbour. Its decline started after the Norman conquest and was accentuated during the XII century both for economical reason and for the harbour’s progressive cover-up.

11 The current city is of recent origin (XVIII century) but the local historians tend to link it with the mythic Matinum (C. ANGELILLIS, Mattinata nel monte del Gargano, Foggia 1948), that in the ancient sources (ORAZIO, Carm. 1, 28. LUCANO, Phars. IX, 182) appears more as a name of locality than as a city. 12 L. PASCALE, Storia profana e sacra dell’antica Siponto e della metropolia di Manfredonia, Napoli, 1877. 13 F. CARABELLESE, L’Apulia e il suo Comune nell’alto medio Evo, Bari, 1905. The earth-quake in 1223 sounded the death knell for the centre already in ruins, but destined to revive in the new city of Manfredonia. Manfred the King ascertain the city’s collapse in

1263 and granting pre-emption and exemptions, decrees the transfer of the inhabitants into the new

Siponto.

9.5 MANFREDONIA

On the edge of the Apulian Tavoliere, at the bottom of the homonym Gulf, lying on the shore, Manfredonia hails with the uneven profile of its ancient houses and new palaces. Divided by a long central road, parallel to the coastline, Manfredonia’s city consists of two classes of inhabitants who live of different activities and habits: farmers and fishermen.

Manfredonia preserves the charm pencilled by Manfred. Here the new and the old, the past, the present and also the future are mixed; hence, the Capitanata’s plane, the Gargano and the sea complement each other in a long sequence of civilization and events (more than 10000 years).

Manfred planned it on the city plan of the ancient Siponto, but it didn’t respond to the demands of Apulian economical expansion. With the castle, the town wall and the towers, the buildings, the roads and the harbour, Manfredonia would have become, according to Fra’ Salimbene da Parma, one of the most beautiful cities in the world, if the Prince would have lived more.

But, after killing Manfredi, the Angevins reduced his project to the minimum dimensions.

Manfredonia and Siponto’s histories are a long sequence of violences: Goths, Byzantines,

Longobards, Saracens, Normans, Angevins, Hungarians, Durazzeschi, Aragons, Spanish, French.

The dawn of August 16, 1620 represented for Manfredonia the beginning of a bloody agony. Turkish people, disembarked by 56 galleys, sacked and burnt churches, residences, buildings, archives and took away every asset. In the XIX century, Manfredonia had still 5000 inhabitants.

A peculiar atmosphere weaved of ancient memories, circulates in the roads, in the squares and by the sea.. places where the life knows serenity and bitterness, sorrows and regrets. Ethnically and linguistically, farmers and fishermen are the very keepers of Manfredonia’s historic heritage: it is basically Apulian, with Oriental origins, scared by the Hellenic civilization.

Linguistically, the city results divided: the language is manifested on different levels and the inhabitants must be clustered in generations.

It’s sufficient to face four sources, that are four different generations: on one side there’s the young source that generally uses ll from LL (mullé = soak) and gi from DJ (iògge = today) as in

Foggia, or transforms the tonic A of open syllable in palatal (tucché = touch) as in Monte

Sant’Angelo. On the other side, there are the other older sources that keep faithfully the origins’ consonances; dd from LL, sc from GJ (desciuno = fasting) and a tonic A not yet palatal as in the youngster. The informers of the youngest generation has forgot or transformed a lot of words, even if these words are still intact in the language of the older sources.

This means that times are collapsing also for Manfredonia’s language.

9.6 MONTE SANT’ANGELO

When directing to Monte Sant’Angelo, it’s necessary to stop in Manfredonia, in the district of Monticchio and to scale toward the mule tracks. The whole mountain is swept by these sacred roads, with rock chapels, frescos, and graffiti. Longobards, Greeks, Normans, Crusaders and innumerable pilgrims passed through these picturesque itineraries.

It is an Apulian centre as the Appuli settled in Monte Sant’Angelo, keeping the original candour thanks to the peculiar position of the town, almost isolated.

A language would never be vital without an implementation, a ferment and a history. And also this language, even if preservative, shows undeniable signs of crumbling and changing. The tonic vowel e sometimes sounds as an open e and sometimes is unvaried. The tonic vowel a seems sometimes unvaried and sometimes inclined to an open e (the word “stella” is pronounced “stalla” and vice versa). The tonic diphthongs sometimes seem ii and úu, and sometimes íe and úo. This means that there are some errors and the language is in a ferment phase.

The palatal tendency is running over Manfredonia and Monte Sant’Angelo parlances and the differences are really crisp, even if in Manfredonia there are major resistances because of literary and urban tendencies or migratory movements.