This paper deals with the results of a written and oral survey, carried out among Russian speaking immigrants of the last wave, living in Italy for a period of at least 5 years. In Italy they cannot be considered a proper community, because they live isolated and scattered mostly in the central-north peninsula and show an individual way of life, in which the tendency to assimilation is very strong. This is the reason why in Italian field literature no attention has been devoted to them neither from sociological nor linguistic point of view. Most of them are women of Russian nationality, living in mixed families, but this “conglomerate” is also formed by Ukrainian, Belorussian or other ethnic groups from former USSR, often qualifying themselves simply as Russians for a matter of prestige or just to simplify the contact with Italian people, who could have some troubles in identifying their identity. The survey showed that last wave immigrants are still highly educated people, taking care of their native language and of its symbolic value. Though they are living in a mostly monolingual environment, they are trying to preserve Russian language from complete assimilation to the Italian dominant language. Their oral speech is oriented towards a pragmatic use of bilingualism, which involves code mixing and code switching strategies, even if their preferences are not favourable to this kind of language use. For our interviewed speakers code mixing and code switching are often a way of conveying linguistic empathy or expressing very strong feelings, irony, creative linguistic games. In this article some samples of code switching will be analyzed on the basis of Peter Muysken theory of the three levels of mixing: insertion, congruent lexicalization and alternation. Moreover, analysis of identity and language maintenance shows that in this context cultural and extralinguistic values are more important than language loyalty. Language integration seems not to leave room for assimilation of life habits, Russian spirit and mentality
Monica Perotto (2014). Post-Soviet Russian-Speaking Diaspora in Italy: Results of a Sociolinguistic Survey. Edinburgh : Edinburgh University Press.
Post-Soviet Russian-Speaking Diaspora in Italy: Results of a Sociolinguistic Survey
PEROTTO, MONICA
2014
Abstract
This paper deals with the results of a written and oral survey, carried out among Russian speaking immigrants of the last wave, living in Italy for a period of at least 5 years. In Italy they cannot be considered a proper community, because they live isolated and scattered mostly in the central-north peninsula and show an individual way of life, in which the tendency to assimilation is very strong. This is the reason why in Italian field literature no attention has been devoted to them neither from sociological nor linguistic point of view. Most of them are women of Russian nationality, living in mixed families, but this “conglomerate” is also formed by Ukrainian, Belorussian or other ethnic groups from former USSR, often qualifying themselves simply as Russians for a matter of prestige or just to simplify the contact with Italian people, who could have some troubles in identifying their identity. The survey showed that last wave immigrants are still highly educated people, taking care of their native language and of its symbolic value. Though they are living in a mostly monolingual environment, they are trying to preserve Russian language from complete assimilation to the Italian dominant language. Their oral speech is oriented towards a pragmatic use of bilingualism, which involves code mixing and code switching strategies, even if their preferences are not favourable to this kind of language use. For our interviewed speakers code mixing and code switching are often a way of conveying linguistic empathy or expressing very strong feelings, irony, creative linguistic games. In this article some samples of code switching will be analyzed on the basis of Peter Muysken theory of the three levels of mixing: insertion, congruent lexicalization and alternation. Moreover, analysis of identity and language maintenance shows that in this context cultural and extralinguistic values are more important than language loyalty. Language integration seems not to leave room for assimilation of life habits, Russian spirit and mentalityI documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
