Il condizionale nei volgari italiani settentrionali

Abstract

In this paper, our aim is to show the different ways of language evolution through examples of conditional mode morphology in various Romance languages: unsuccessful solutions that remain isolated and die out, local ones that will not expand far off the centre of the innovation, and ‘mainstream' ones that, for one reason or other, affect a large number of related languages or dialects. The article focuses on medieval Northern Italian dialects, mainly 14th century Lombard where the three ways coexisted.