Génie de la langue e le sue corrispondenze interlinguistiche in tedesco, inglese, italiano e spagnolo

In the history of linguistic thought génie de la langue has been a widely used collocation since its first occurrence in French in 1635. This paper, using the contact linguistics theoretical frame, aims at following its receiving into the different European cultural languages from the 18th to the 20th century including its recent uses in Spain and Ibero-America highlighting its adaptability through different metalinguistic settings. Its relevance began to fade when linguistics focused more on analogies than differences among idioms.