UGO PELLIS ANCHETATOR–FOTOGRAF: O INCURSIUNE ÎN DOCUMENTAȚIA ICONOGRAFICĂ A ANCHETELOR ISTROROMÂNE DIN ATLASUL LINGVISTIC ITALIAN

This paper analyses the ethnolinguistic and photographic documentation produced by Ugo Pellis, the first field investigator of the Atlante Linguistico Italiano (ALI). Building on the Wörter und Sachen principles developed by Jaberg and Jud, ALI combined dialectal data collection with ethnographic inquiry in order to establish systematic correlations between words and their material referents. Particular focus is given to Pellis’s campaigns in the Istro-Romanian villages. Here Pellis produced a corpus of photographs that, though numerically limited, exemplifies his method and sensitivity. His images can be divided into two broad categories: material culture — objects, tools, practices — directly linked to ALI’s questionnaire entries; and people and environments, portraying informants, families, and landscapes that contextualise linguistic data within their geographic, social and economic settings. By cross-referencing Pellis’s field notes, photo captions and questionnaire entries, the authors highlight his dual role as linguist and ethnographer, as well as his pioneering use of photography to capture the living environment of dialects. Nearly a century after their creation, Pellis’s photographs remain a unique ethnographic testimony, preserving a world now largely transformed by modernity.