La lingua dei manoscritti valdesi medievali e i dialetti occitani alpini

The language of the mediaeval Waldensian manuscripts is an Occitan variety that can be traced back to the Alpine region as a whole, although it re- mains an isolated case in the context of the documentation found so far. Over the course of time, the characteristics of the scripta have been compared by var- ious scholars with the contemporary oral varieties of the present-day Waldensian Valleys, the area where the manuscripts were found, reaching some very different conclusions. In the present contribution, after having framed some of the pro- blematic aspects of the comparison between the medieval literary variety and the present-day dialects, we propose to reconsider decisive aspects in the light of the analysis conducted, by way of example, starting from the paradigm of possessive adjectives.