Mi parlo taliàn : uma análise sociolinguística do bilinguismo português-dialeto italiano no município de Santa Teresa

• Autor(a) principal: Rodrigues, Sarah Loriato
• Data de Publicação: 2015
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Repositório Institucional da Universidade Federal do Espírito Santo (riUfes)
• Texto Completo: http://repositorio.ufes.br/handle/10/1524
• topic: Contato linguístico; Bilinguismo; Dialetos da Itália setentrional; Tradição oral; Linguística; 80

This dissertation investigates the present status of maintenance of northern dialectal varieties of Italian in the town of Santa Teresa, located in the mountains of Espírito Santo state in Brazil. This work is justified because 141 years after the arrival of the first Italians in this town, there still have been no studies of the Italian dialects spoken in the area. Considering this scenario, the objective of this study is to offer an overview of the Portuguese-Italian bilingual situation in Santa Teresa, with identification of the areas of greater or lesser use of the dialect, the determining factors in language choice, domains of use, and linguistic attitudes of the speakers. A second objective of the study was to document some oral Italian traditions still present in Santa Teresa. The data were collected through participatory observation, a sociolinguistic questionnaire, and 146 partly structured interviews, in which the informants were divided by place of residence (rural or urban areas), and by three age groups (from 8-30 years of age, 31-60, and over 60). The results reveal that the term taliàn, which means ‘Italian’ in the dialects of northern Italy (cf. Boerio, 1956, Ricci, 1906, etc.) is used by most speakers in the over-sixty age group in rural and urban areas. Analyzing the use of the Italian dialect diachronically through different domains, in the childhood period of the informants and at the present time, it is possible to verify the loss of the dialect over the life of the speakers in the 31-60 and over-60 age groups. Among informants in the 8-30 age group, almost complete Portuguese monolingualism is found. Among those between 31 and 60 years of age, the use of the Italian dialect is strongly influenced by the age of the interlocutor: it is more common with grandparents than with parents, and more common with parents than with siblings. However, no informant of this age group reported using the Italian dialect with their children. In summary, the use of the Italian dialect only among the oldest members indicates the process of replacement by Portuguese and points to the fact that its transmission to younger generations is seriously hampered. The analysis of linguistic attitudes of the informants over 60 revealed a lack of prestige and prejudice against using the dialect during the informants’ childhoods. On the other hand, reports concerning the use of the dialect at the present time refer to the association of the language and culture of Italian origin with positive feelings, to the explicit desire of adults and elders to maintain the dialect, and to the interest in recovery of the language of immigration by informants from 8 to 30 years of age. In fact, among the youngest, an attempt is evident to return to their origins, along with attributing value to the culture and language of their ancestors.