Ridiculo futurus Latinis: pastiche linguistico, risum e il problema del volgare

The essay deals, through witnesses ranging from the 6th to the 9th century, with the terms risum and ridiculum in relation to a so called barbara locutio compared to a rationabilis locutio. Some passages by writers from the mid-ninth century concerning the problem of linguistic pastiche and the consequent possible ridiculum are analysed, above all as regards the mixture between latina lingua and barbaries quae est theotisca. From this analysis it is perhaps possible to derive a new interpretation of the presence of Germanisms in the so-called Parody of the Lex Salica, a playful text datable to the second half of the eighth century.