Endangered minority and regional languages (‘dialects’) in Italy

Modern Italy ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-54 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paolo Coluzzi
Keyword(s):  
Language Use ◽  
Ad Hoc ◽  
Language Shift ◽  
Minority Languages ◽  
Expert Group ◽  
Language Varieties ◽  
The Past ◽  
Regional Languages ◽  
Italian Dialects ◽  
Local Languages

The Italian linguistic situation is characterised by a remarkable number of language varieties, although the development of Italian in the past 150 years has been the cause of a language shift from local languages to Italian. The degree of endangerment suffered by so-called ‘Italian dialects’ is shown using the Major Evaluative Factors of Language Vitality drawn up by a UNESCO ad hoc expert group in 2003, and the data offered by the 2006 ISTAT survey on language use. The debate in Italy on the vitality of ‘dialects’ and their future has done little to activate mechanisms and strategies to reverse the worrying language shift that both minority languages and ‘dialects’ are undergoing.

Language Use and Sustainable Development: Opportunities and Challenges for Policy-Makers and Educators in Northeast Vietnamese Areas

2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 122-130
Author(s):  
Ha Ngan Ngo ◽  
Maya Khemlani David
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Groups ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Mother Tongue ◽  
Language Shift ◽  
Minority Languages ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Positive Attitudes ◽  
The Status ◽  
Wedding Songs

Vietnam represents a country with 54 ethnic groups; however, the majority (88%) of the population are of Vietnamese heritage. Some of the other ethnic groups such as Tay, Thai, Muong, Hoa, Khmer, and Nung have a population of around 1 million each, while the Brau, Roman, and Odu consist only of a hundred people each. Living in northern Vietnam, close to the Chinese border (see Figure 1), the Tay people speak a language of the    Central    Tai language group called Though, T'o, Tai Tho, Ngan, Phen, Thu Lao, or Pa Di. Tay remains one of 10 ethnic languages used by 1 million speakers (Buoi, 2003). The Tày ethnic group has a rich culture of wedding songs, poems, dance, and music and celebrate various festivals. Wet rice cultivation, canal digging and grain threshing on wooden racks are part of the Tày traditions. Their villages situated near the foothills often bear the names of nearby mountains, rivers, or fields. This study discusses the status and role of the Tày language in Northeast Vietnam. It discusses factors, which have affected the habitual use of the Tay language, the connection between language shift and development and provides a model for the sustainability and promotion of minority languages. It remains fundamentally imperative to strengthen and to foster positive attitudes of the community towards the Tày language. Tày’s young people must be enlightened to the reality their Tày non-usage could render their mother tongue defunct, which means their history stands to be lost.

scholarly journals Languages and language varieties: Comparative research on the linguistic attitudes in four bilingual minority communities in Hungary

2011 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-56
Author(s):  
Anna Borbely
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Research ◽  
Minority Groups ◽  
Language Shift ◽  
Minority Language ◽  
Minority Languages ◽  
Advanced Stage ◽  
Minority Communities ◽  
Significant Information ◽  
Language Varieties ◽  
Positive Attitudes

A central issue of this paper is to study the patterns invariation of attitudes toward minority language varieties in four minority communities from Hungary: German, Slovak, Serb and Romanian. This study takes part from the research which focuses on how to obtain significant information about the mechanism of the language shift process concerning autochthonous minorities in Hungary. The results demonstrate that in the course of language shift communities at an advanced stage of language shift have less positive attitudes toward their minority languages than individuals from communities where language shift is in a less advanced stage. In Hungarian minority groups speakers’ attitudes toward minority language varieties (dialect vs. standard) are the symptoms of language shift.

scholarly journals Language extinction and linguistic fronts

2014 ◽  
Vol 11 (94) ◽  
pp. 20140028 ◽  
Author(s):  
Neus Isern ◽  
Joaquim Fort
Keyword(s):  
Language Shift ◽  
Reaction Diffusion ◽  
Minority Languages ◽  
Language Diversity ◽  
The Past ◽  
Welsh Language ◽  
Language Competition ◽  
Area Of Influence ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Good Agreement

Language diversity has become greatly endangered in the past centuries owing to processes of language shift from indigenous languages to other languages that are seen as socially and economically more advantageous, resulting in the death or doom of minority languages. In this paper, we define a new language competition model that can describe the historical decline of minority languages in competition with more advantageous languages. We then implement this non-spatial model as an interaction term in a reaction–diffusion system to model the evolution of the two competing languages. We use the results to estimate the speed at which the more advantageous language spreads geographically, resulting in the shrinkage of the area of dominance of the minority language. We compare the results from our model with the observed retreat in the area of influence of the Welsh language in the UK, obtaining a good agreement between the model and the observed data.

scholarly journals Legislating Language Use in Alberta: A Century of Incidental Provisions for a Fundamental Matter

1969 ◽  
pp. 463 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edmund A. Aunger
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Past Century ◽  
Minority Languages ◽  
Comprehensive Overview ◽  
The Past ◽  
Fundamental Matter ◽  
The Many ◽  
Language Law

Language law deals with a matter of fundamental importance, and language rights haw been wide recognized as fundamental human rights. Yet very little is known about Alberta's legislative provisions for language use. This article examines those provisions that have had the greatest impact over the past century and places them in their historical context. It also presents a comprehensive overview of the many unheralded provisions and organizes them according to their thematic significance. During Alberta's early decades these language provisions commonly imposed English and repressed minority languages. In more recent years they have promoted a greater tolerance for French and other languages.

scholarly journals Dynamics of linguistic and social change: Minority languages in Hungary and the sociolinguistic situation of Serbian

2009 ◽  
pp. 331-357
Author(s):  
Marija Ilic
Keyword(s):  
Social Change ◽  
Language Ideology ◽  
Language Shift ◽  
Minority Language ◽  
Minority Languages ◽  
The Past ◽  
Language Research

Over the past decades, minority languages and processes of language shift/maintenance have become an important scholarly concern. This paper aims to describe in brief the sociolinguistic situation of the Serbian minority language in Hungary with special attention paid to the relation between language ideology and processes of language shift/maintenance. The first section of this paper presents the current socio-political framework for protection of minority languages in Hungary. The second paper's section provides an overview of the main sociolinguistic surveys of the minority languages in Hungary that have had many centuries of contact with Serbian i.e. German, Romanian, Bulgarian, and Croatian. Finally, the paper provides a quick recapitulation of the Serbian language research in Hungary, and depicts the current sociolinguistic situation of Serbian.

scholarly journals Language use in shifting contexts: Two multilingual Filipinos’ narratives of language and mobility

2016 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 153-167
Author(s):  
Rebecca Urip Wattimena ◽  
Christine Manara
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Identity ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Home Country ◽  
Language Shift ◽  
Research Data ◽  
Fourth Generation ◽  
Dominant Language ◽  
Research Questions ◽  
Local Languages

This study explores languages repertoire of two Filipinos who were brought up in a multilingual family and subsequently left their home country to live abroad. Both participants were exposed to more than 4 languages at their home country before they went to live abroad. The study was guided by three research questions: 1) how do these multilinguals use their languages? 2) what kind of linguistic dynamics the participants encountered during their mobility experiences? 3) how do the participants perceive themselves in relation to their linguistic and cultural identity? Narrative-based study was adopted to conduct this research. Data were elicited using open-ended interviews. The major findings show that although participants are still attached with their local languages, shifting of dominant language occurs in line with their mobility experiences. In addition, there is also an indication of language shift that takes place on the fourth generation. The 1st generation languages (participants’ grandparents, i.e. Ibanag and Karay-A) are no longer spoken and Tagalog is not inherited to the 4th generation of one of the participants.

Language planning for Italian regional languages (“dialects”)

2008 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 215-236 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paolo Coluzzi
Keyword(s):  
Language Planning ◽  
Minority Languages ◽  
Italian Population ◽  
Literary Traditions ◽  
Language Varieties ◽  
First Languages ◽  
History Of ◽  
Planning Status ◽  
Acquisition Planning ◽  
Regional Languages

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.

scholarly journals The Effects of a Linguistic Tsunami on the Languages of Aceh

2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 103 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zulfadli A. Aziz ◽  
Robert Amery
Keyword(s):  
Language Shift ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Warning Signs ◽  
Minority Languages ◽  
Language Loss ◽  
World Language ◽  
World Languages ◽  
Early Warning Signs ◽  
The World ◽  
Regional Languages

The languages throughout the world are in crisis and it is estimated that 50% to 90% will have disappeared by the end of this century (Grenoble, 2012). Colonisation, nationalism, urbanisation and globalisation have resulted in a linguistic tsunami being unleashed, with a few major world languages swamping others. The rate of language loss today is unprecedented as this small number of dominant languages expands rapidly. Small minority languages are mainly in danger, but even large regional languages, such as Acehnese with millions of speakers, are unsafe. Similar to the case of a tsunami triggered by an earthquake, it is generally too late before speakers are aware of what is happening. In most cases language shift will have already progressed and irreversible before people realize it. This paper examines the early warning signs of impending language shift and what can be done for minority languages to have the best chance of survival. We draw on the local situation in Aceh, as well as other parts of the Austronesian speaking world and Australia, where the record of language loss is the worst in the world. Language shift in Australia is well-progressed; in Indonesia it is more recent. Lessons learned from places such as Australia and Taiwan have relevance for Indonesia today.

scholarly journals ¿Falas galego?: The effects of socio-political change on language attitudes and use in the Galician sociolinguistic context

2019 ◽  
Vol 22 ◽  
pp. 116-131
Author(s):  
Bernadette O'Rourke
Keyword(s):  
Iberian Peninsula ◽  
Political Change ◽  
Language Attitudes ◽  
Overwhelming Majority ◽  
Minority Languages ◽  
Northwestern Part ◽  
Autonomous Community ◽  
The Past ◽  
Regional Languages ◽  
Shed Light

Over the past two decades, much discussion in sociolinguistics and the sociology of language has centred on concerns over the survival prospects of lesser-used or minority languages. The aim of the research being reported on here was to shed light on one such language case --- Galician, spoken in the Autonomous Community of Galicia in the northwestern part of the Iberian Peninsula. Of Spain’s officially recognized regional languages, Galician, known to its speakers as ‘galego’, shows greatest numerical strength within its own territorial region. According to census results, an overwhelming majority of the Galician population report an ability to speak the language and sociolinguistic surveys reveal that Galician is the habitual language of over two-thirds of the population. However, despite its apparent strength in numerical terms, as the following pages will show, a closer analysis of the Galician sociolinguistic context highlights a more precarious future for the language.

scholarly journals PENGGUNAAN DAN PERGESERAN BAHASA MASYARAKAT BELU DI KECAMATAN TASIFETO TIMUR (The Language Use and Language Shift of Belu Community at The East Tasifeto Districts)

Kandai ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 31
Author(s):  
Dewi Nastiti Lestariningsih
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Public Space ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Language Shift ◽  
Border Region ◽  
Foreign Languages ◽  
Language Attitude ◽  
Learning At Home ◽  
Local Languages ◽  
At Home

The result presented in this paper is the result of a survey conducted by Subbidang Tenaga Kebahasaan, Bidang Pembelajaran, Pusat Pembinaan, Badan Pengembangan dan Pembinaan Bahasa in 2016. In general, the survey aims to provide an overview of the language situation that includes language attitude also a description of the use of Indonesian, local languages, and foreign languages in the border region of the NTT and Timor Leste. The survey on the use of the Indonesian language, local languages, and foreign languages is done by quantitative and qualitative methods based on a questionnaire of language use and language attitude. In general, language speakers in the district of Belu admit that their attitude show loyalty to the Indonesian. Based on the results of research, the Indonesian language use has been done in the formal situastion and public space. Another interesting thing that we have found in the language use is the language shift from local languages to Indonesian language. This is shown by the use of Indonesian language by the respondents (productive age) when communicating to their children at home. The factors influencing language shift due to social factors. The handling efforts tend to be the local language learning at home and the elementary level in school.  

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