Intimate identities and language revitalization in Veneto, Northern Italy

Sabina Perrino

doi:10.1515/multi-2017-0128

Article

Intimate identities and language revitalization in Veneto, Northern Italy

Sabina Perrino

Published/Copyright: September 4, 2018

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From the journal Multilingua Volume 38 Issue 1

Abstract

In this article, I explore how language revitalization initiatives are rescaled as part of a local, historical and sociocultural revitalization project in which ethnonationalist aspirations emerge in Northeastern Italy’s Veneto region. Through an analysis of political emblems, textual artifacts, and speech participants’ stories, I examine how the promotion of the local language is related to a developing sense of collective and intimate identity, especially vis-à-vis the many migrants and refugees that have landed in Italy, and Europe, in recent years. In the last decade, these new flows of migrants have triggered strong reactions by Italians, such as recent discourses about national identity and the aggressive anti-immigration politics promoted by the Lega Nord (‘Northern League’). I show how politics, history, and language become part of a complex spatiotemporal configuration in which chronotopic stances and intimate identities are enacted in speech participants’ everyday lives.

Keywords: chronotope; Lega Nord (‘Northern League’); migration; narrative; Veneto

Acknowledgements

This article was first presented as a conference paper at a panel entitled “Re-imagining Language Revitalization in Contemporary Europe” organized by Andrea Leone-Pizzighella and myself at the American Anthropological Association in Minneapolis, MN, in November 2016. My deepest thanks go to the many speakers in the Veneto region who agreed to be video- and audio-recorded for this project and who assisted me during my linguistic anthropological fieldwork. Some of the data used in this article were collected during twenty-two months of fieldwork in Senegal and Italy (1999–2004) and research in Northern Italy during summer trips and continuous contacts with informants and ordinary speakers (2005–2017). I acknowledge support from a Wenner-Gren Foundation Dissertation Fieldwork Grant (Grant Number 6957) and the University of Pennsylvania’s Penfield Scholarship in Diplomacy, International Affairs, and Belles Lettres. I am deeply thankful to the participants of the original panel, and to my co-guest editor, Andrea Leone-Pizzighella, for their comments and insights during our many conversations over these past years. I wish to thank Gregory Kohler and Michael Lempert for their comments on previous versions of this article. I owe my deep thanks to the close reading of my manuscript by an anonymous reviewer and to the Editor of Multilingua, Ingrid Piller, for her advice and guidance during the publication process. I am the only one responsible for any remaining mistakes and infelicities.

Transcription Conventions

::::	syllable lengthening
-	syllable cut-off
.	stopping fall in tone
,	continuing intonation
[	overlap
[…]	omitted material
[]	transcriber’s comments
*Bold and Italic*	Venetan (the local language of the Veneto region)
Italic and Underline	Bivalent forms
Regular Font	Standardized Italian

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Published Online: 2018-09-04

Published in Print: 2019-01-26

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https://doi.org/10.1515/multi-2017-0128

Keywords for this article

chronotope; Lega Nord (‘Northern League’); migration; narrative; Veneto