Language

1
Language Nationalism in Europe

• Ch 8 Italy Language as a Weak Marker of Identity

2
Overall role of language in Italy

• Language is a weak indicator of national identity
  in Italy, despite substantial coincidence of
  linguistic, national, and state boundaries
  
• Late development of standard Italian reduced its
  relevance to identity standard language has
  become prevalent only with recent introduction of
  mass media, and mutually incomprehensible
  dialects remain local language varieties of choice

3
Italian identity politics

• There are distinctive families of mutually
  intelligible dialects in certain territories that
  have identities
  
• Italian has a formal standard literary language
  that is separate from any local spoken norm
  (though there is a spoken version of the literary
  language used by politicians)
• These two facts sustain ethno-nationalist
  sentiments

4
Lega

• Lega northern Italian separatist Lombardy
  League
  
• Initially used northern dialects as an
  exclusionary device, but later adopted a popular
  colloquial variant of Italian to gain support for
  opposition to Rome
• Rome and govt are perceived by many as distant,
  unpredictable, corrupt -- motivating desire for
  political self-determination

5
Language in Italy

• Most varieties in Italy are Romance, nearly all
  are variants of Italian, based on Tuscan dialect
  
• N dialects show Celtic influence Gallo-Italian
  Venetian
  
• S dialects Umbrian, Tuscan

6
Language in Italy, contd.

• Remember that dialects are sisters, not
  daughters, of Italian
  
• Many dialects have remained distinct, have a
  variety of registers, and have produced valuable
  literatures (e.g. 14th c Florentine)
  
• Today most Italians know the standard language
  and speak a dialect of Italian

7
Dialects in Italy

• Sardinian dialects -- a distinct language not
  comprehensible to mainland Italians
  
• Valle dAosta -- these dialects are
  Franco-Provençal, not Italian, and in this region
  both French and Italian are standard languages

8
Dialects in Italy, contd.

• Friuli region -- most people are bi/tri-lingual,
  using standard Italian, German dialects, and
  Friulian, which is a Romance dialect related to
  Romansch of Switzerland (but considered by
  Italians to be an Italian dialect)

9
Dialects in Italy, contd.

• Alto Adige/South Tyrol (NE border) --
  bilingualism with German, official bilingualism
  has defused demands for unification with Austria

10
Other small minorities with no political demands

• Slovene in NorthEast
• Albanian Italiot Greek in South

11
Back to Italian in Italy

• Italians from North and South often find each
  others speech unintelligible
  
• For most Italians, language is of secondary
  importance, not a source of identity
  
• Political fragmentation lasted until 19th c, and
  this contributed to linguistic fragmentation
  
• For centuries Latin was used as administrative
  language
  
• Early attempts to create a standard language were
  based on archaic literature and did not inspire
  real unification

12
Early nationalism

• Minimized internal linguistic differences for
  unification purposes
  
• Maximized external linguistic differences
• BUT The majority of Italians were never
  particularly interested in the process of
  national unification, or in the creation of a
  national language.

13
1861 - Year of Italian Unification

• At that time, only 2.5 of the population spoke a
  language called italiano, which was not a
  marker of identity
  
• the push for nationalism emerged from the
  contempt the educated classes in cities had for
  foreign occupiers, but the peasantry did not
  follow this lead
• Italy had been created, now it is the Italians
  who are to be made.

14
But were the Italians ever made?

• In some sense, this never really happened
• Very high illiteracy rate persisted through
  1930s, keeping access to standard Italian low

15
But were the Italians ever made?

• Fascism brought standard Italian to the masses
  propaganda, films, universal primary education
  emphasized pride in the nation and standard
  Italian
• Fascism brought a change from formal to familiar
  address, avoidance of foreign borrowings, and
  suppression of minority languages

16
After WWII

• After Fascism, fascist ideology, including
  linguistic pride, receded
  
• 1950s brought an economic boom, mass media, and
  migrations, which helped spread standard
  language
  
• Political parties, trade unions, and social
  movements also promoted spread of standard
  language

17
Recent history

• 1960s-70s -- Large growth in proportion of
  speakers of standard Italian -- grew to exceed
  25 who use it exclusively, 32 who use it
  alongside a dialect (diglossia) still,
  proportion of people speaking standard Italian is
  limited
• Upper strata use/identify with standard Italian
  the most
  
• Dialects remain viable, gradually losing
  distinctiveness due to mass communication and
  geographic mobility

18
Language politics in Italy today

• Lega, which initially represented the North, now
  has broader national appeal, perceives language
  as a carrier of social identity, sought to
  identify North Italian dialects as a separate
  language, focus on street-tough, macho language
• Recent resurgence of nationalist regionalist
  sentiments

19
Language politics in Italy today, contd.

• Lack of national pride due to losing WWII, Mafia,
  and other social ills, corruption
  
• Standard Italian has become predominant, but has
  lost its literary character