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Italian Sociolinguistics, Department of Modern Languages, University of Reading – Supporteditalians by the Faculty of Arts & Humanities Teaching & Learning Office Reading Newsletter written & edited by the students of Italian Sociolinguistics, Department of Modern Languages, University of Reading – SupportedItalians by the Faculty of Arts & Humanities Teaching & Learning Office Code-mixing and code-switching in a multilingual family What are people’s attitutes towards Genoese dialect? I giovani ravennati e il dialetto romagnolo Il linguaggio di Clelia Marchi English as L2 for Italian Erasmus students at Reading Code-Switching and code-Mixing in my bilingual family Do young Catanese people still use dialect? You are what you eat, but do you know what you are eating? A message from the editors When we edited the first issue of Reading Italians we thought that introducing the research What are people’s attitutes Key words you may projects we were working on for our Sociolinguistics module (IT3SOCLING) would be a towards Genoese dialect? need to know... good way of gathering our (first) ideas about a topic that was still relatively new to all of us. (by the editorial board) The possibility of presenting this just from friends have encouraged us to pics – has now found its body and shape. After spending my year abroad in Genoa, I got very interested in the local dialect, the “Genovese”. In order to know more about it, and particularly about “intruduction” through a totally new work on this second issue. The general tone of the our writing Code mixing student-led “newsletter” was very exci- As you will see, this issue is very similar is – to some extent – more “serious” than its use, I have prepared a socio-linguistic survey based on a questionnaire addressed It involves the transfer of lingui- ting. The experiment also allowed us to to the previous one: same layout, same before, and our style is more academic. But, to people I have been in contact also after coming back to the UK: the members stic elements from one language use text and image both creatively and topics, same “writers”. Yet there is a big again, it has been a fascinating challenge to of the philharmonia I used to play with. Of course, these people – all from into another: a sentence begins in professionally thanks to the invaluable difference. What was only sketched in the sum up and present the results of our rese- Genoa, and all but one have lived in town all of their lives – cannot be considered one language, then makes use of help of Typography student Vittoria Bisi, first newsletter is here much expanded. arch, and transform the newsletter into a a representative sample, but they were available and they could provide me words or grammatical (phonolo- and the team of Design and Print Studio. The projects we introduced then are now sort of scholarly (and student-led!) journal. with some good hints in order to answer the following questions: gical, morphological, syntactical, The reception of that first issue has presented in a more informative and To conclude, we hope you will enjoy lexical, etc.) features belonging been warm and enthusiastic; comments detailed way: our “declaration of intent” browsing through these pages, having a 1 What is Genovese “dialect”? to another. This usage can be from fellow students, members of staff, – to do some “field work” in order to taste not only of our work but also of a 2 Is Genovese spoken only by older generations? both conscious and unconscious. across Reading University and beyond, or investigate a variety of Sociolinguistic to- discipline as a whole. Do young generations have a good understanding of their local dialect? 3 Are people speaking dialect less educated that those who mainly speak Normally, code-mixing is associa- The students of IT3SOCLING “standard” Italian? ted with particular pragmatics (or 4 To what extent do social factors (apart from education, class identity, communicative) effects, discourse gender identity, etc) affect the speakers’ attitudes towards dialect? functions, associations with group 5 Is foreign immigration into Italy and to Genoa in particular ‘threatening’ identity or lack of equivalent Code-mixing and code-switching in a multilingual family dialects or – by contrast – causing a surge in their knowledge and awareness? words/expressions in one of the What are the answers? What are the results? Well, if you fancy know more about two languages. It has given rise My project aims to explore the different ways in which code-mixing and code-switching my research, you are more than welcomed to contact me and have a look at what to ‘new languages’ like Hinglish I have done… (Hindi + English), Benglish (Ben- occur in several conversations in my multilingual family. Eve Binge gali + English), Tanglish (Tamil + English), Spanglish (Spanish + Having an Italian father and a Greek- In order to explore the topic, I have re- conversation. This could be an example of English) and so on. Cypriot mother, I come from a multi- corded a few multilingual conversations what Blom and Gumperz (1972) call a “si- A common code mixing in Puerto lingual background and, at home, it has via Skype. Then, I have transcribed them tuational code-switching”. The person who Rican Spanglish is, for instance, always been normal to speak in the diffe- according to a simplified notation system started the conversation (here being my using the English word so (there- rent languages. For instance: I normally adapted from Gail Jefferson’s classic mother) is talking to me and so the langua- fore): ‘Tengo clase, so me voy’ (‘I speak Greek with my mother, Italian with model. Finally, I have tried to look deeper ge is mostly Greek, seeing as it is habitual have a class, so I’m leaving’). Questionario my father, and because of my school and into chunks of conversations including for her to speak in that specific language Sto studiando un modulo in sociolinguistica university education I also speak English switching and mixing codes. The result? with me. But when my father enters the italiana per la mia laurea e le sarei molto grata with friends and relatives. Nothing definitive, I suppose, but some scene, she shifts the language to Italian in se rispondesse alle seguenti domande in dettaglio So, mixing and switching codes in a (good) hypothesis which would deserve order for her to be understood by him. e al più presto possibile. Grazie mille. conversation has never been, before, a further investigations. Let me give you a Another recurrent phenomenon that I • Età • Ha mai usato Genovese a scuola o università a • Considera che il Genovese sia più o meno “presti- subject that has drawn my attention be- couple of examples. have notices are intra-sentential shiftings, • Sesso Genova? gioso” rispetto a l’italiano? cause it has always been the reality of my or tag-switching. These tags are usually • Stato civile • Lavora o ha lavorato a Genova? • Secondo lei è importante sapere il dialetto Geno- life. Not a day goes by where I only speak Ex. 1 (conversation 1, lines 37–42): always the same ones, they have an im- • Luogo di nascita • Ha mai usato il Genovese a lavoro? vese? Perché? in one language, and so it is something 37 M: πολλά Raffiπ άρα πολλά (.) (1.5) portant pragmatical function, and they • Luogo di residenza • Qual’è la prima lingua che ha imparato? • Conosce letteratura in Genovese? • Da quanto tempo vive a Genova? • Quale lingua definirebbe la sua “lingua madre” • Conosce canzoni in genovesi? very ordinary to me. But when we were εχαθίκαν πολλά άτομα (.) usually invite for a response. • Ha vissuto in altre città italiane prima di stabilir- • Secondo lei, le persone che abitano a Genova • Conosce altri elementi culturali in Genovese? asked to create a project in Sociolin- [transl. “a lot Raffi, very much many si qui? Se sì, dove? dovrebbero sapere il dialetto Gnovese? • Cosa pensa dell’importanza del dialetto? guistics, I thought it was the perfect people three have gone missing”]. Ex. 2 (conversation 2, lines 12–13): • Dove è nata sua madre? • Ha mai avuto occasione di parlare il Genovese • Per lei è più importante conoscere il Genovese o opportunity to explore why people from 38 Ci:: sono due cinque italiani che non 12 M: ε μα μερικές φορές εν πολλά • Dove è nato suo padre? fuori Genova? una lingua straniera? • Capisce il dialetto Genovese? • Se sì, in che contesto e perché? • Conosce lingue straniere? Quali? a multilingual background – like me – trovano δύσκολο (.) o no? • Lo sa parlare? • Conosce altre dialetti? • Le capita di usare alcune parole in Genovese switch languages and mix them in the 39 R: Ah si? [transl. but sometimes it’s too diffi- • Lo sa scrivere? • Insegnerebbe o ha insegnato Genovese ai suoi quando sta parlando italiano? way they do. Furthermore, I am intere- 40 M: Si cult, or not?] • Lo sa leggere? figli? • Può dare qualche esempio? sted in seeing if there are specific reasons 41 F: E va bé rispetto ai giapponesi che 13 R: ye but εν κολλά o no? • Parla Genovese con amici? • Le capita di sognare in dialetto? • Legge mai in Genovese? Se sì che cosa? • Parla Genovese con I suoi fratelli? • Le capita di pensare in Genovese? • Ascolta mai musica in Genovese? to certain words or certain phrases being saranno centomila:: [transl. ye but it doesn’t stick or not?] • In quali contesti usa Genovese e perché? • Le capita mai di usare Genovese e italiano nello • Usa mai il Genovese nella comunicazione elettro- said in one language rather than ano- 42 R: Si infa:tti • I suoi genitori parlano in dialetto? stesso discorso? nica, per esempio internet, mail, sms? ther, or if there are reasons why it comes This is just a taste of my investiga- • Quale lingua usano i suoi genitori
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