n recent years, heritage languages have become an important test bed in the study of linguistic variation and micro-variation from an ‘internal’, diachronic point of view. The study of heritage languages can constitute a particularly significant area of investigation, as it can allow us to tackle questions on the emergence of linguistic change. In this perspective, the present contribution aims to shed light on how and when a documented linguistic change has arisen in Taliàn or Brazilian Venetan, an Italo-Romance variety spoken in some states of Brazil. In particular, since clitic subject pronouns in Brazilian Venetan appear to have changed their categorial status, as is shown in recent studies, the target of this article is to establish how and when this change has begun. To do this, the morphosyntactic properties of the subject clitics will be analyzed within a literary text, the novel Nanetto Pipetta, that testifies Brazilian Venetan of a second generation speaker, fra’ Paulino de Caxias (born
Aquiles Bernardi). The analysis carried out will allow us to compare the morphosyntax of subject clitics in the Brazilian Venetan currently spoken and the one as emerging in the literary text. The analysis shows Brazilian Venetan testified in the literary text does not yet exhibit the innovations attested in today’s Brazilian Venetan. Thus, their emergence must be ascribed to a later chronological phase.
