Strutture ritmico-prosodiche dell'italiano e del croato: monolingui e bilingui a confronto

Many linguistic aspects of the Italian language spoken outside the borders of Italy are still underinvestigated. This work uses recent acoustic rhythmic measures developed by Ramus et. al. (1999), Dellwo and Wagner (2003), Dellwo (2006) and Grabe and Low (2002) to investigate the speech rhythm of the Italian spoken by Italian and Croatian monolinguals and by Istrian bilinguals of Croatian and Italian. Italian is traditionally considered to belong to what is traditionally called the “isosyllabic rhythmic class”, while Croatian to a mixed class like Czech and Slovak. Building up on recent studies in the field (i.e. Mok and Dellwo 2008, Tortel and Hirst 2010, Mairano 2011, Schmid and Dellwo 2012, 2013, Dellwo et al. 2012) the present research provides an answer to the following questions: Which features do the Italian and Croatian of monolingual speakers show? Are there any differences between these two languages? Which features does the Italian spoken by Istrian bilinguals show in terms of rhythm metrics i.e. is it closer to Italian or Croatian? As shown by Schmid and Dellwo (2012, 2013) the rhythmic properties in the speech of bilingual speakers can either correspond to those found in the monolingual speech production for both languages respectively or can differ from the two languages and show intermediate values. The corpus consists of recordings of the narrative The boy who cried wolf, translated into Italian and Croatian for the purpose of the study and read by 8 monolingual Italian students from the University of Padova (Italy), 8 bilingual students of Croatian and Italian from Istria (Gallesano, Valle, Cittanova and Umago) who graduated or are enrolled in graduate courses in Italian language at the Juraj Dobrila University of Pula, and 8 monolingual Croatian students (Lisignano, Pola, Umago e Parenzo) from the same university. The recordings were labelled manually in CV intervals with Praat (Boersma and Weenink 2016); the rhythm metrics suggested by Ramus et al. (1999), Grabe and Low (2002), Dellwo & Wagner (2003) and Dellwo (2006) were calculated with Correlatore (Mairano 2014, v. 2.3.4). A statistic analysis of the results was calculated with one-way ANOVA with Tukey HSD post-hoc test. Other rhythmic indices like articulation rate (AR) and speech rate (SR) were calculated using Praat scripts. The use of different rhythm metrics showed different results. There seems to be a difference between the Italian and Croatian spoken by their respective monolinguals in terms of Ramus’ et al. ∆C and %V metrics (1999) and White and Mattys’s varcoV metrics (2007a). However, with Grabe and Low’s Crpvi and Vnpvi metrics (2002) and Wagner and Dellwo’s (2003) and Dellwo’s (2006) varcoC metrics there does not seem to be a relevant difference between the two languages. The results of the AR and SR for the Italian language spoken by 5 monolinguals correspond to the ones obtained in previous studies by Giannini (2000, 2005) and Giannini e Pettorino (1998, 2010), while the results for Croatian seem to correspond to the ones of languages usually considered stress-timed that have a more complex syllabic structure. The results obtained for the bilinguals’ speech confirm both Schmid and Dellwo’s hypotheses, namely they show values of the prosodic indices AR and SR that are intermediate between those of the two monolingual groups when reading the story in Italian, and native ones, i.e., similar to the monolinguals’ when reading the story in Croatian. On the other hand, we could also hyphotesize that the bilinguals read slower in both the languages with respect to the two monolingual groups. This study is the first attempt to describe the Italian spoken by Istrian bilinguals, but also the standard Croatian language spoken in Istria, since Croatian has not been previously studied applying rhythm metrics. Future studies will enlarge the corpus to semi-spontaneous or dialogic speech and include more speakers

Lingue minoritarie e traduzione: il caso dell’italiano amministrativo nella Regione Istriana

Questo saggio nasce come risultato del progetto bilaterale Bilinguismo amministrativo nell’Istria slovena e croata – esempi di traduzione dei testi amministrativi (2018-2019) che ha avuto come obiettivo l’analisi della traduzione dei testi amministrativi della Regione Istriana, nonché delle città e dei comuni in cui viene attuato il bilinguismo. I risultati esposti in due precedenti lavori, a cui si aggiungono dati sulla situazione recente relativa al periodo 2020-2021, si concludono in questa sede con una proposta di classificazione delle incongruenze traduttive riscontrate nella terminologia amministrativa

The Official Bilingualism in the Istrian County: State of the Art and Perspectives

Službena dvojezičnost pretpostavlja svakodnevno stvaranje usporednih tekstova u dvojezičnim područjima. Slučaj je takav i u Istarskoj županiji, u kojoj se tekstovi obično sastavljaju na hrvatskome, a zatim se prevode na talijanski jezik. Zbog činjenice da je riječ o službenim tekstovima i zbog konteksta uporabe talijanskoga jezika vrlo je važno imati precizno i ujednačeno nazivlje te razvijene jezične tehnologije koje bi omogućile brže i kvalitetnije prevođenje u dvojezičnim institucijama u Istarskoj županiji. Ciljevi su ovoga rada: (1) prikazati ostvarivanje ravnopravne službene uporabe talijanskoga kao manjinskoga jezika u Istarskoj županiji (1a) analizom prevedenih sadržaja na službenim mrežnim stranicama službeno dvojezičnih gradova i općina i (1b) prikazom dosadašnje prakse prevođenja te (2) ukazati na važnost i nužnost razvoja jezičnih tehnologija (2a) prikazom trendova u razvoju jezičnih tehnologija u sličnim dvojezičnim i višejezičnim institucijama, (2b) prikazom pripreme usporednoga korpusa administrativnih tekstova Istarske županije i (2c) analizom postojećega nazivlja provedenom na priređenome korpusu. Rezultati analize dostupnosti dvojezičnih sadržaja na mrežnim stranicama te analize nazivlja provedene na usporednome korpusu pokazali su da je nužno razviti i upotrebljavati prevoditeljske alate i jezične izvore prilagođene talijanskomu kao manjinskomu jeziku kako bi se olakšalo i ubrzalo prevođenje, a time i omogućilo uspješnije ostvarivanje ravnopravne uporabe talijanskoga kao manjinskoga jezika.Official bilingualism assumes the daily creation of parallel texts in bilingual areas. This is also the case in Istria County, where texts are usually written in Croatian and then translated into Italian. Given the official nature of texts and the context of the Italian language usage, it is extremely important to have a precise and uniform terminology, as well as well-developed language technologies, which would allow a faster and more accurate translation processes in bilingual institutions of Croatia. The aims of this paper are (1) to investigate the equal use of both Croatian and Italian as a minority language in the Istrian County through (1a) an analysis of the translated content on the official websites of the officially bilingual cities and municipalities and through (1b) an overview of current translation practices, and (2) to highlight the importance and necessity of the development of language technology through (2a) the presentation of trends in the development of language technology in similar bilingual and multilingual institutions, (2b) the presentation of the parallel corpus compiled from administrative texts of the Istrian County and (2c) the analysis of existing terminology conducted on the compiled corpus. The analysis of the availability of bilingual content on websites and the terminology extracted from the compiled parallel corpus indicates the need to develop and use translation tools and linguistic resources tailored to the Italian language as a minority language, in order to facilitate and accelerate the translation activity, thus allowing a more efficient use of Italian as a minority language

Strutture ritmico-prosodiche dell'italiano e del croato: monolingui e bilingui a confronto

Many linguistic aspects of the Italian language spoken outside the borders of Italy are still underinvestigated. This work uses recent acoustic rhythmic measures developed by Ramus et. al. (1999), Dellwo and Wagner (2003), Dellwo (2006) and Grabe and Low (2002) to investigate the speech rhythm of the Italian spoken by Italian and Croatian monolinguals and by Istrian bilinguals of Croatian and Italian. Italian is traditionally considered to belong to what is traditionally called the “isosyllabic rhythmic class”, while Croatian to a mixed class like Czech and Slovak. Building up on recent studies in the field (i.e. Mok and Dellwo 2008, Tortel and Hirst 2010, Mairano 2011, Schmid and Dellwo 2012, 2013, Dellwo et al. 2012) the present research provides an answer to the following questions: Which features do the Italian and Croatian of monolingual speakers show? Are there any differences between these two languages? Which features does the Italian spoken by Istrian bilinguals show in terms of rhythm metrics i.e. is it closer to Italian or Croatian? As shown by Schmid and Dellwo (2012, 2013) the rhythmic properties in the speech of bilingual speakers can either correspond to those found in the monolingual speech production for both languages respectively or can differ from the two languages and show intermediate values. The corpus consists of recordings of the narrative The boy who cried wolf, translated into Italian and Croatian for the purpose of the study and read by 8 monolingual Italian students from the University of Padova (Italy), 8 bilingual students of Croatian and Italian from Istria (Gallesano, Valle, Cittanova and Umago) who graduated or are enrolled in graduate courses in Italian language at the Juraj Dobrila University of Pula, and 8 monolingual Croatian students (Lisignano, Pola, Umago e Parenzo) from the same university. The recordings were labelled manually in CV intervals with Praat (Boersma and Weenink 2016); the rhythm metrics suggested by Ramus et al. (1999), Grabe and Low (2002), Dellwo & Wagner (2003) and Dellwo (2006) were calculated with Correlatore (Mairano 2014, v. 2.3.4). A statistic analysis of the results was calculated with one-way ANOVA with Tukey HSD post-hoc test. Other rhythmic indices like articulation rate (AR) and speech rate (SR) were calculated using Praat scripts. The use of different rhythm metrics showed different results. There seems to be a difference between the Italian and Croatian spoken by their respective monolinguals in terms of Ramus’ et al. ∆C and %V metrics (1999) and White and Mattys’s varcoV metrics (2007a). However, with Grabe and Low’s Crpvi and Vnpvi metrics (2002) and Wagner and Dellwo’s (2003) and Dellwo’s (2006) varcoC metrics there does not seem to be a relevant difference between the two languages. The results of the AR and SR for the Italian language spoken by 5 monolinguals correspond to the ones obtained in previous studies by Giannini (2000, 2005) and Giannini e Pettorino (1998, 2010), while the results for Croatian seem to correspond to the ones of languages usually considered stress-timed that have a more complex syllabic structure. The results obtained for the bilinguals’ speech confirm both Schmid and Dellwo’s hypotheses, namely they show values of the prosodic indices AR and SR that are intermediate between those of the two monolingual groups when reading the story in Italian, and native ones, i.e., similar to the monolinguals’ when reading the story in Croatian. On the other hand, we could also hyphotesize that the bilinguals read slower in both the languages with respect to the two monolingual groups. This study is the first attempt to describe the Italian spoken by Istrian bilinguals, but also the standard Croatian language spoken in Istria, since Croatian has not been previously studied applying rhythm metrics. Future studies will enlarge the corpus to semi-spontaneous or dialogic speech and include more speakers.Di molti aspetti linguistici dell’italiano parlato oltre i confini nazionali si sa ancora poco. In questa tesi vengono usate le recenti metriche ritmiche di Ramus et al. (1999), Dellwo e Wagner (2003), Dellwo (2006) e Grabe e Low (2002) al fine di indagare il ritmo dell’italiano parlato da monolingui italiani e da bilingui di croato e italiano istriano (Croazia), e al contempo di descrivere le proprietà ritmiche del croato parlato dai monolingui. Tradizionalmente si ritiene che l’italiano appartenga alla “classe ritmica isosillabica”, mentre il croato sembra appartenere ad una classe ritmicamente mista, similmente al ceco e allo slovacco. La ricerca prende spunto dai recenti lavori nel campo del ritmo (ad es. Mok e Dellwo 2008, Tortel e Hirst 2010, Mairano 2011, Schmid e Dellwo 2012, 2013, Dellwo et al. 2012) e vuole rispondere ai seguenti quesiti: Quali caratteristiche ritmiche mostrano l’italiano e il croato? Ci sono differenze tra le due lingue? Quali sono le caratteristiche dell’italiano parlato dai bilingui istriani? È più simile al ritmo del croato o dell’italiano? Come dimostrato da Schmid e Dellwo (2012, 2013) il parlato dei bilingui può presentare caratteristiche di tipo nativo, riproducendo quindi il parlato dei monolingui dei due gruppi, oppure valori intermedi, posizionandosi tra le due lingue. Il corpus è costituito da registrazioni di parlato letto del testo The boy who cried wolf tradotto in italiano e croato per lo scopo della ricerca e letto da 8 studenti italiani monolingui dell’Università degli Studi di Padova (Italia), 8 studenti bilingui di croato e italiano dell’Istria (Pola, Gallesano, Valle, Cittanova e Umago) laureati o iscritti a corsi di laurea magistrali in lingua italiana all’Università “Juraj Dobrila” di Pola, e 8 studenti croati monolingui dell’Università “Juraj Dobrila”, anche loro tutti provenienti dall’Istria (Lisignano, Pola, Umago e Parenzo). Le registrazioni sono state segmentate manualmente in intervalli CV utilizzando Praat (Boersma, Weenink 2016). Successivamente sono state calcolate con Correlatore (Mairano 2014, v. 2.3.4) le metriche ritmiche sviluppate da Ramus et al. (1999), Grabe e Low (2002), Dellwo e Wagner (2003) e Dellwo (2006). La differenza nei valori tra i 4 corpus è stata verificata con il test statistico one-way ANOVA e con il test post-hoc Tukey HSD. Altri indici ritmico-prosodici come la velocità di articolazione (VdA) e la velocità di eloquio (VdE) e il parametro VtoV sono stati calcolati utilizzando gli script di Praat. L’uso delle diverse metriche ha portato a risultati diversi. I dati mostrano l’esistenza di una differenza tra l’italiano e il croato per quanto riguarda le metriche ∆C e %V (anche se statisticamente è significativa solo la differenza nei valori della metrica %V) di Ramus et al. (1999) e varcoV di White e Mattys (2007a). Tuttavia, con le metriche Crpvi e Vnpvi di Grabe e Low (2002) e varcoC di Wagner e Dellwo (2003) e Dellwo (2006) non sembra ci sia una 3 differenza rilevante tra le due lingue. I risultati della VdA e VdE confermano i risultati ottenuti in studi precedenti da Giannini (2000, 2005), Giannini e Pettorino (1998, 2010) per la lingua italiana, ma sembrano anche confermare che le lingue dalla struttura sillabica più complessa, come il croato, presentano valori minori di VdA e VdE. I risultati ottenuti per il parlato dei bilingui confermano entrambe le ipotesi di Schmid e Dellwo (2012, 2013). I bilingui presentano valori intermedi (collocandosi a metà strada tra i due gruppi di monolingui) nella lettura del testo italiano e valori nativi (più simili al parlato dei monolingui) nella lettura in croato. In base ai risultati ottenuti si potrebbe ipotizzare anche che i blingui siano più lenti nella lettura sia in croato che in italiano, rispetto ai due gruppi di monolingui. Questo studio rappresenta il primo tentativo di descrivere l’italiano parlato da bilingui istriani, e descrive contemporaneamente la lingua croata standard parlata in Istria, che non è stata studiata in precedenza applicando le metriche ritmiche. In studi futuri il corpus sarà esteso a più parlanti e a diversi tipi di parlato come ad esempio a quello semi-spontaneo o dialogico

FROM BILINGUALISM TO PLURILINGUALISM, FROM MULTICULTURALISM TO INTERCULTURALISM. BEING ITALIAN IN ISTRIA

The paper is a reflection on bilingualism and plurilingualism in a society in which monolingualism becomes more and more an exception. The themes of multiculturalism and interculturality are addressed. After some basic considerations on the phenomenon of bilingualism and on the advantages of being bi/plurilingual, we discuss the typical phenomena of bilingual communication such as interference and code switching. Moreover, when it comes to bilingualism in a land like Istria, it is also necessary to tackle the discourse of identity; a many facetted identity which is a result of the Italian component but also the Adriatic and Triestine one. The question of the future of bilingualism in Istria is discussed in the end and the idea that since we all belong to a minority it is important to educate the citizens to a European citizenship by working on an approach that develops from the cultural roots of the individual