La Parabola del Figliol Prodigo in saurano
Analisi e comparazione dei testi ottocenteschi
Abstract
This article analyses three nineteenth-century versions of the Parable of the Prodigal Son in Saurian, a southern Bavarian variety spoken in the linguistic enclave of Sauris/Zahre in Carnia, Friuli. These texts allow us to verify whether structural features of contemporary Saurian – often attributed to interference from Romance languages – are recent innovations or pre-existing properties. The analysis shows that the language of the texts already exhibits the characteristics of present-day Saurian. This suggests that the role of language contact in the emergence of features potentially due to such contact has been limited.
open access | peer reviewed
Submitted: Feb. 7, 2025 | Accepted: Sept. 5, 2025 | Published Feb. 10, 2026 | Language: it
Keywords Parable of the Prodigal Son • German language islands • Language contact • German dialectology • Saurian
Copyright © 2026 Francesco Costantini. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
Permalink http://doi.org/10.30687/978-88-6969-995-5/005