From trilingualism to monolingualism? Sicilian-Italians in Australia
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Francesco Cavallaro
Abstract
Australia still has a vibrant linguistic heritage, both from its indigenous people and the people that have left their countries of origin to call Australia home. The Italian community in Australia is the largest non-English-speaking group. However, like all other established immigrant groups, the Italians have been showing a steady shift away from their Italian languages to the use of English only. An analysis of recent censuses and data, obtained through recordings in the home and by participant observation in a transactional domain, presented in this article makes it clear that there are little grounds for optimism on the maintenance of either Italian or any of the Italian regional varieties in Australia.
© 2010 Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, Berlin/New York
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Articles in the same Issue
- Sociolinguistics and some of its concepts: a historian's view
- A critical commentary on the discourse of language rights in the Naivasha language policy in Sudan using habitus as a method
- Mixed language usage in Belarus: the sociostructural background of language choice
- Expressing age salience: three generations' reported events, frequencies, and valences
- “We should keep what makes us different”: youth reflections on Turkish maintenance in Australia
- From trilingualism to monolingualism? Sicilian-Italians in Australia
- Hong Kong and modern diglossia
- Streetwise English and French advertising in multilingual DR Congo: symbolism, modernity, and cosmopolitan identity
- Local and global perspectives on overcoming literacy challenges in South Africa
- Comparative accounts of linguistic fieldwork as ethical exercises
- Instrumental music and Gaelic revitalization in Scotland and Nova Scotia
- Indigenous students in bilingual Spanish–English classrooms in New York: a teacher's mediation strategies
- Book reviews
