In addition to twelve recognized minority languages (Law no. 482/1999), Italy features a number of non-recognized so-called “dialects” that is difficult to state, but which renowned linguists like Tullio De Mauro and Giulio Lepschy calculate as ranging between 12 and 15. These languages are still spoken (and sometimes written) by slightly less than half of the Italian population and are the first languages of a significant part of it. Some of them even have a history of (semi)official usage and feature large and interesting literary traditions. An introduction on the linguistic situation in Italy, the classification of its “dialects” and their state of endangerment, is followed by discussion of the present (scant) legislation and action being taken to protect the seven language varieties chosen as case studies: Piedmontese, Western Lombard/Milanese, Venetan, Ligurian/Genoese, Roman, Neapolitan and Sicilian. These language planning strategies are discussed particularly in terms of graphization (corpus planning), status and acquisition planning, even when, as in most cases, this “planning” may be uncoordinated and even unconscious. The article closes with a few general considerations and with some suggestions on how these initiatives could be improved.
Aliberti, Daniela, Rita Bissola & Barbara Imperatori
2024. Don’t Rock the Boat: The Social-symbolic Work to Confront Ethnic Discrimination in Branches of Professional Service Firms. Journal of Business Ethics
Leone-Pizzighella, Andrea R.
2022. Displaying double-voiced expertise in a ‘difficult’ class. Linguistics and Education 72 ► pp. 101033 ff.
Smith, Maya Angela
2022. The Senegalese Diaspora in Rome: Romanesco and Other Nonstandard Varieties in the Face of Standard Language Ideologies. In Italo-Romance Dialects in the Linguistic Repertoires of Immigrants in Italy [Palgrave Studies in Minority Languages and Communities, ], ► pp. 169 ff.
2017. The position of Piedmontese on the Romance grammaticalization cline. Folia Linguistica 51:1
Tamburelli, Marco
2014. Uncovering the ‘hidden’ multilingualism of Europe: an Italian case study. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 35:3 ► pp. 252 ff.
Tamburelli, Marco
2024. Attitudes from Above: How Ausbau-centric Approaches Hinder the Maintenance of Linguistic diversity and why we must rediscover the role of structural relations
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Coluzzi, Paolo
2012. Multilingual Societies vs Monolingual States: The Linguistic Landscape in Italy and Brunei Darussalam. In Minority Languages in the Linguistic Landscape, ► pp. 225 ff.
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 19 september 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers.
Any errors therein should be reported to them.