Lingue Migranti: a Dialectic on the Languages of Italy

April 25th, the day when Italians celebrate the anniversary of their liberation from the German Nazis and the Fascist regimes, holds yet another sense of interest for Italian Americans in New York. The John D. Calandra Italian American Institute has scheduled their annual conference, “Lingue Migranti: The Global Languages of Italy and the Diaspora” to start on the Italian national holiday and extend to the 27th of April.



Aside from Italy’s history surrounding both World Wars I and II, the country has had a turbulent timeline, its map having been rearranged through a myriad of appropriations and separations. Italy as it exists today has only been around for approximately 152 years, though its extensive cultural foundations stem to antiquity. While the country remains segmented into twenty distinct provinces, the stark division between them is owed to the dialects, which animate each region.



Following Italy’s unification, inhabitants speaking dialects ranging from Neapolitan to Venetian were expected to learn the Tuscan dialect, as it became the official language of the state. The Calandra Institute aims not only to focus on the polemics of such an imposition, especially when viewed in context of the mass emigration from Italy to the United States, but also to inspire conversation from the perspective of Italian American literature, minority groups in Italy and the Italian language today, as it operates in Italy and abroad.



The first full day of the conference, Friday April 26th, will feature speakers concerned with expressing views on topics ranging from Italian dialects in the theatrical sphere, whether this means performances in dialect or representations of Italians immigrant culture on stage, to Judeo-Italian culture of the Mediterranean. The conference’s afternoon session will feature an examination of minority groups and their languages as they appear in Italy, this including the Griko and Albanian cultures of central and southern Italy, as well as the German and Cymbrian people.



Friday’s discussions will also cover Italian literature written in dialect, best embodied by writers Luigi Capuana and Massimo Bontempelli, as well as the art of translating Italian-American authors. It will conclude with an analysis of the limits imposed on immigrant literature in Italy.



The discussion will continue on Saturday with another full day of thought-provoking topics that take a more modern approach to the Italian culture and language. The day will begin by taking a look at the question of authentic vs. inauthentic representations in Guido culture, moving further to the evolution of linguistic practices and identities, especially in Italian-American youth. The following panel will address Postcolonial languages and language in general as a “means of resistance” to colonization.



Additionally, speakers will approach the idea of dialects in everyday conversation, as well as consider the ways in which the Italian language is regarded abroad. Attendees may find the “Italian Language in Argentina” seminar especially interesting in light of Argentinian Pope Francis I’s Italian heritage. The evening will conclude with an entertaining discussion of the language in lyric form, as well as the diffusion of dialect into Italian music.




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