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SUMMARY:The hidden multilingualism of Italy: issues and challenges - Dr. M
 arco Tamburelli\, Prifysgol Bangor/Bangor University
DTSTART:20170125T181500Z
DTEND:20170125T193000Z
UID:TALK70268@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:46361
DESCRIPTION:This talk is co-organized with the Italian Department of the U
 niversity of Cambridge\n\nThe Romance varieties traditionally referred to 
 as “Italian dialects” comprise a number of linguistic systems that are
  quite different from one another\, so much so that the entity “Italian 
 dialects” is not linguistically definable (e.g. Maiden & Parry\, 1997)\,
  potentially existing only as a socio-political concept. While it is gener
 ally accepted that in linguistic terms the so-called “Italian dialects
 ” are Romance languages in a sisterhood relationship with Italian (e.g. 
 Cerruti & Regis\, 2014\; Coluzzi\, 2009)\, the terminology “dialect” p
 ersists\, demonstrating a tendency to give precedence to socio-political c
 onsiderations over linguistic classification\, and in keeping with the wid
 espread view that "languages" and "dialects" are social constructs rather 
 than independently identifiable structural entities (e.g. Trudgill\, 1974\
 , Chambers & Trudgill\, 1980). In this talk I argue that the development o
 f language legislation makes that conclusion no longer tenable. As the pro
 tection of linguistic rights hinges on discourse that often employs the co
 ncept of regional/ minority language\, the recurring assumption is that th
 e entity "language" does exist and that it is somewhat objectively identif
 iable. In such cases\, sociolinguistic criteria cannot provide a useful de
 finition since most regional/minority languages display very low socioling
 uistic status due to the very fact that they have been socially subordinat
 e to some other non-regional variety. A purely sociolinguistic view\, ther
 efore\, creates a paradox whereby the notion of "language" excludes a prio
 ri many of the linguistic varieties that legislation is meant to protect.
LOCATION:Faculty of English\, Room GR-05
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