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Programme: accepted abstracts

Abstract ID: 417

Part of Session 165: Language, Place and Identity (Other abstracts in this session)

Language and Identity in a multilingual city: the case of the Italian in Bozen (South Tyrol)

Authors: Meluzzi, Chiara
Submitted by: Meluzzi, Chiara (University of Pavia - Free University of Bozen, Italy)

OBJECTIVES: This work aims to investigate the linguistic self-perception and identity of the Italian speaking community in a peculiar multilingual city, i.e. Bozen (South Tyrol). Although the dominant language of South Tyrol is German (and German dialects), the main town Bozen is characterized by a great number of Italian L1 speakers, sometimes with low knowledge of German. The Italian community has grown during the last fifty years, through a strong immigration from other parts of Italy; this immigration marks in different ways the districts of the city. Morevoer, it is a matter of fact that a unique Italian dialect does not exist in Bozen: according to the previous works, Italian speakers would use a common Standard Italian. This study aims to investigate this Italian variety, and it also explores the presence of some dialectal features in this Italian variety, at least in speakers’ self-perception.

METHODS: The analysis takes into account the data from a recently collected corpus of about 40 interviews with Italian L1 speakers living in Bozen for almost thirty years. The informants were selected according to age, quarters of residence, and family origins. The informants are asked to evaluate their own Italian variety, its linguistics peculiarities and the presence or absence of dialect features. The results of the interviews are then compared to the general assumptions concerning Italian language in South Tyrol.

RESULTS: The analysis of the data shows a strong linguistic identity of the Italian group: it is possible to say that they perceive themselves as a “minority” in the town of Bozen and, more generally, in South Tyrol. The informants also show a strong linguistic self-perception, by marking out some peculiar features of the Italian language of Bozen, both at lexical and phonetic/phonological level. For example, according to the informants, words like foto “photo”, topo “mouse”and moto “bike” are pronounced with a close /o/ by Bozen speakers, while non-Bozen speakers would use an open vowel /ɔ/. It is also interesting to note how there is a large disagreement on the scholars’ classical assumption that in Bozen people speak Standard Italian (SI). A presence of dialectal features, especially from Venetian, is assumed by a great number of informants, especially those living in former “Italian-only” districts.

CONCLUSIONS: This study shows how the Italian community in Bozen has a strong self-perception and linguistic identity. The speakers themselves identify some specific features as characteristic of the Italian of Bozen. The data shows a great awareness of Italian speakers of what characterizes their speech and their speech community in this peculiar multilingual context. A difference between the different quarters is also observable. It is also remarkable that most of the features self-identified by the speakers do not emerge in previous’ scholars works.