Considerazioni sull’(errato) concetto di arcaismo in alcune cantigas de amigo galego-portoghesi

Some Galician-Portuguese cantigas de amigo show interesting linguistic features. Among these, the maintenance of the intervocalic -N-, which is unknown to the medieval Galician consonant system, and the use of the allomorphs la(s) y lo(s) for the definite article in different contexts than those in which they usually appear. So far, scholars have been considered these features as archaisms, used by Troubadours to achieve a particular literary effect. This communication will re-examine this phenomenon, with the aim of providing an alternative explanation and identifying a possible literary source for these cantigas.