Nomi di animali nei gerghi storici italiani: qualche appunto

This paper picks out and describes some features of zoonyms in the historical cants of Italy. A sample of about one thousand words, taken from published and unpublished sources, is analysed, with respect to both its composition and the strategies used by cant speakers. The processes of lexical creation are then tackled, involving either the formal alteration of words or the reinterpretation of linguistic items from both ‘host’ languages (such as Italian and the dialects of Italy) and foreign languages (such as German and Romani).