Maria Simoniello | Università degli studi Guglielmo Marconi – Rome
Vittorio Ganfi | Università degli studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia

The increasing interest in language contact and variation, which has been determined by contemporary migration flows on a global scale, has resulted in significant studies in different linguistics subfields. Nevertheless, only limited attention has been paid to the construction of a comprehensive analysis of the phenomenon. In particular, the relation between linguistic, socio-demographic and legal aspects of migration in Italy highlighting the innovative potential of migrants’ plurilingualism in the Italian linguistic repertoire (see Bagna et al. 2003, 2007; Barni/ Vedovelli 2009) would deserve further analysis.  

Such superdiversity (Vertovec 2007), clearly demands new theoretical and operational tools in order to be analytically represented and integrated in the Italian linguistic repertoire (Blommaert/Rampton 2011; Vedovelli 2013). 

Analyzing some of the most relevant linguistic repertoires of migrants’ communities, this work proposes a focus on some ongoing changes in the Italian linguistic space due to the widespread presence of migrants. The study aims at suggesting new interpretative perspectives on language policies devoted to the preservation of migrants’ linguistic diversity.  

The following factors have been observed:  

• Demographic data: size of communities; migrants’ age and countries of origin.
• Sociolinguistic data: quantity and position of different varieties in the individual and collective repertoire; prestige accorded to them by each migrants’ speech community; possible international spread of these languages (e.g. English, West African English, Arabic); presence/absence of a shared standard and its influence on language maintenance.
• Language planning: analyses of language ideologies related to the laws preserving Italian historical minority languages; consideration of their inadequacy in managing Italian new plurilingualism (Vedovelli et al. 2007); study of the correlation between the absence of laws promoting plurilingualism and the loss of varieties in migrants’ repertoires.  

In conclusion, our analyses aims at: 1. Suggesting new forms of protection based on language specific sociolinguistic features in migration contexts; 2. Revealing the linguistic ideology underpinning policies related to Italian migrants’ plurilingualism. 

Selected references 

Bagna, Carla / Machetti, Sabrina / Vedovelli, Massimo (2003): Italiano e lingue immigrate. Verso un  plurilinguismo consapevole o verso varietà di contatto?, in: Valentini, Ada (ed.). Ecologia linguistica. Atti  del XXXVI Congresso internazionale di studi della Società di Linguistica Italiana (Bergamo, 26-28  settembre 2002), Roma, Bulzoni, 201-222.

Bagna, Carla / Barni, Monica / Vedovelli, Massimo (2007): Italiano in contatto con le lingue immigrate:  nuovi modelli e metodi per il neoplurilinguismo in Italia, in: Consani, Carlo / Desideri, Paola (ed.). Minoranze linguistiche. Prospettive, strumenti, territori. Atti del Convegno Pescara 6-8 aprile 2005, Roma,  Carocci, 270-290. 

Barni Monica / Vedovelli Massimo (2009): L’Italia plurilingue fra contatto e superdiversità, in: Palermo,  Massimo (ed.), Percorsi e strategie di apprendimento dell’italiano lingua seconda: sondaggi sull’ADIL 2. Collana del Centro di eccellenza della ricerca Osservatorio linguistico permanente dell’italiano diffuso fra  stranieri e delle lingue immigrate in Italia, n. 5, Perugia, Guerra, 29-47. 

Blommaert, Jan – Rampton, Ben (2011); Language and Superdiversities, in: Diversities, vol. 13, no. 2, 1- 22. 

Vedovelli, Massimo (ed.) (2013): La migrazione globale delle lingue. Lingue in (super-) contatto nei  contesti migratori del mondo globale, in Studi Emigrazione, no. 191, Centro Studi Emigrazione. 

Vertovec, Stephen (2007): Super-diversity and its implications, in: Ethnic and Racial Studies, vol. 30, no.  6, 1024-1054.