LANGUAGE POLICY AND LANGUAGE BELIEFS IN SARDINIA: A CASE STUDY

The present dissertation investigates the Sardinian language policy, focusing on the language beliefs and attitudes of a specific educational institution’s teaching staff. Language policy is considered to be composed of language practices, language beliefs and language management (Spolsky, 2004), and speakers’ beliefs and attitudes are thought to be capable of conditioning the success of language management provisions (Baker, 1992; Spolsky, 2009). The language planning initiatives carried out by the Sardinian authorities have been trying to promote the use of Sardinian in various public settings, especially in schools, and therefore, teachers’ language ideologies and attitudes might be particularly important for their implementation. The data – obtained from questionnaires and interviews – show that participants see Sardinian positively at a general level, because that language is part of their identity and cultural heritage. Furthermore, teachers acknowledge the importance of a plurilingual education that could include the local language. However, many teachers perceive that Sardinian lacks instrumental value and, being a minority language, it can hardly cover certain public functions without affecting individual rights. Consequently, a deep assimilation of Sardinian in the school context, especially as a medium of instruction, is not unthinkable, but it will probably be a rather controversial proces

MACRO-POLICY VS. MICRO-POLICY: A STUDY ON TWO ITALIAN-SARDINIAN WEBSITES

The present study aims at investigating the relationship between language policies at macro- and micro-level. Drawing on Baldauf’s conceptualisation (2006), language choices at the micro-level can be considered either as a microimplementation of a macro-policy or as an autonomous micro-policy. These dynamics have been explored in two Italian-Sardinian bilingual websites, whose language practices have been measured against the precepts and spirit of the macropolicy of the Regional Administration of Sardinia

Speakers selection for a matched-guise technique in Sardinia: how to appropriately select valid representatives of Sardinian and Italian

This article deals with the selection of speakers for a Matched-Guise Technique to be conducted in Sardinia, with the final aim of studying attitudes towards Sardinian and Italian. Speakers who could validly represent the two main varieties of Sardinian – Campidanese and Logudorese – and the variety of Italian typically spoken in Sardinia were sought after. Following mainly Newman et al. (2008) and Nejjari et al. (2019), twenty candidates produced a reading in Sardinian (either in Campidanese or in Logudorese) and in Italian: the nativeness of their Sardinian voices and the accentedness (or typicalness) of their Italian voices were evaluated by sixty non-linguists with bilingual competence in Sardinian and Italian. Seven candidates out of twenty were perceived as not native or typical enough to be accepted as “matched guises”. This demonstrates that the selection of appropriate guises should not rely only on the judgment of researchers, but it should also rely on the perceptions of linguistically naïve evaluators, especially when speakers of minority languages in which literacy is normally not acquired are asked to read aloud a text. Nevertheless, the procedure carried out in this study allowed us to identify speakers with the required level of nativeness while speaking Sardinian (Logudorese or Campidanese) and with the required level of typicalness while speaking Italian. Moreover, it has been found that male candidates were perceived as having a more pronounced regional accent than female candidates when speaking Italian; and Logudorese candidates reached higher peak scores than Campidanese candidates, especially when they got judged on the nativeness of their Sardinian voices. Even regardless of the specific outcomes though, the procedure described in this article provides a helpful contribution for the selection of speakers in matched-guise experiments to be conducted in contexts where a national majority language and an unstandardised minority language are involved

Dotare il sardo di dati normativi su età d’acquisizione, familiarità e accordo sul concetto: Uno studio preliminare con 50 figure di Snodgrass & Vanderwart (1980)

In the present work, some normative data specifically relating to the Sardinian language were obtained on a set of 50 pictures taken from the famous study by Snodgrass & Vanderwart (1980). The parameters on which these normative data were obtained are some of the most studied in the literature: Age of Acquisition (AoA), Familiarity (FAM), and Concept Agreement (CA). 106 Sardinian native speakers took part in the experiment, carried out completely in written form via an online platform. In addition to providing, for each of the 50 images, normative data on the aforementioned parameters, this work found that AoA and FAM are strongly negatively correlated indicators; a correlation was also observed between both these parameters and the Concept Agreement measure, although these correlations are decidedly more moderate. A comparison was also made between the results of this work and those of two studies that collected normative data for Italian on the same parameters: Nisi et al. (2000) and Dell’Acqua et al. (2000). It was observed that Sardinian participants judged the depicted objects as significantly more familiar, and they claimed that they had learned the words denoting those objects significantly earlier. As for the CA, on the other hand, the data on Italian show a significantly higher percentage on average. However, while for AoA and FAM a strong positive correlation was found between the data on Italian and those on Sardinian, the data on these two languages are clearly uncorrelated for CA, suggesting that the degree of ease in finding a valid name for a picture is dictated by different factors in a national language such as Italian compared to a local language such as Sardinian. More generally, this shows that, before carrying out picture-naming tasks in a given language, it is advisable to have specific normative data for that language, even if it is a minority language or a dialect

Dotare il sardo di dati normativi su età d’acquisizione, familiarità e accordo sul concetto: Uno studio preliminare con 50 figure di Snodgrass & Vanderwart (1980)

In the present work, some normative data specifically relating to the Sardinian language were obtained on a set of 50 pictures taken from the famous study by Snodgrass & Vanderwart (1980). The parameters on which these normative data were obtained are some of the most studied in the literature: Age of Acquisition (AoA), Familiarity (FAM), and Concept Agreement (CA). 106 Sardinian native speakers took part in the experiment, carried out completely in written form via an online platform. In addition to providing, for each of the 50 images, normative data on the aforementioned parameters, this work found that AoA and FAM are strongly negatively correlated indicators; a correlation was also observed between both these parameters and the Concept Agreement measure, although these correlations are decidedly more moderate. A comparison was also made between the results of this work and those of two studies that collected normative data for Italian on the same parameters: Nisi et al. (2000) and Dell’Acqua et al. (2000). It was observed that Sardinian participants judged the depicted objects as significantly more familiar, and they claimed that they had learned the words denoting those objects significantly earlier. As for the CA, on the other hand, the data on Italian show a significantly higher percentage on average. However, while for AoA and FAM a strong positive correlation was found between the data on Italian and those on Sardinian, the data on these two languages are clearly uncorrelated for CA, suggesting that the degree of ease in finding a valid name for a picture is dictated by different factors in a national language such as Italian compared to a local language such as Sardinian. More generally, this shows that, before carrying out picture-naming tasks in a given language, it is advisable to have specific normative data for that language, even if it is a minority language or a dialect

Local languages and the linguistic landscape: the visibility and role of Sardinian in town entry and street name signs

The present study deals with the presence and role of the Sardinian language in the linguistic landscape of sixteen villages in the province of Oristano, Sardinia. Specifically, their entry signs and street name signs were photographed and analysed using both quantitative and qualitative approaches. In the entry signs, Sardinian was found to have a very strong presence, generating a high degree of bilingualism with Italian, as recommended by national and regional language policies. Systematic bilingualism could not, however, be observed in the street name signs, where Italian clearly prevails. Notwithstanding, the local language is visible in around a quarter of all street name signs. Complying with the provisions of national and regional legislations, Sardinian is used in the majority of street signs to recall the historical memory of the communities. Nonetheless, signs could be found where Sardinian is used in parallel bilingual texts to express exactly the same content as Italian, fostering a modern vision of the minority language. The present work shows how top-down language policies can be locally implemented or re-interpreted in the linguistic landscape; moreover, the article sheds light on how street naming can be exploited to influence society’s perception of minority languages and convey messages of local or regional/national identity

Analisi densitometrica ed istomorfologica della osteointegrazione delle protesi con rivestimento osteoconduttivo

Dottorato di ricerca in fisiopatologia e clinica del tessuto scheletrico. 7. ciclo. A.a. 1994-95. Coordinatore R. ScandurraConsiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche - Biblioteca Centrale - P.le Aldo Moro, 7, Rome; Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale - P.za Cavalleggeri, 1, Florence / CNR - Consiglio Nazionale delle RichercheSIGLEITItal

Odonimi e identità linguistica nell’Alto Oristanese

È ben noto che lingua ed identità formano un nesso difficilmente separabile. Se spesso è stata messa in evidenza l’importanza delle lingue nazionali per la costruzione delle identità nazionali e del costrutto di Stato-nazione, negli ultimi decenni – in particolare in Europa – grande attenzione è stata rivolta all’identità linguistica di popolazioni che sono da considerarsi in condizioni di minoranza in seno a uno Stato nazionale. In altri termini, ci si è spesso concentrati sulla connessione tra identità e lingue che possono essere definite a seconda delle specifiche circostanze ‘piccole’, ‘minoritarie’, ‘non-standard’, ‘ereditarie’. Un’indagine sulle lingue minoritarie, magari a forte rischio d’estinzione, non può prescindere da un allargamento di prospettiva rispetto alla mera analisi linguistica, che prenda in considerazione gli aspetti identitari, e dunque la funzione simbolica più che quella comunicativa delle lingue stesse. L’inclusione dell’elemento dell’identità a sua volta richiama altri aspetti sociali, quali il contesto politico-economico nel quale le lingue sono immerse. In questo senso, inoltre, è inevitabile parlare non solo del nesso tra identità e singole lingue, ma anche di quello tra identità e bilinguismo, in virtù dello stretto contatto che tali lingue minoritarie mantengono con quelle che si possono definire ‘grandi’, ‘maggioritarie’, ‘ufficiali’, ‘statali’. Il contesto della Sardegna rappresenta un fertile terreno di ricerca per ciò che concerne i rapporti tra lingua, bilinguismo, politiche ed identità. In particolare, la connessione tra lingua sarda ed identità sarda è avvertita da tempo e a diversi livelli della società isolana

Dotare il sardo di dati normativi su età d’acquisizione, familiarità e accordo sul concetto: Uno studio preliminare con 50 figure di Snodgrass & Vanderwart (1980)

In the present work, some normative data specifically relating to the Sardinian language were obtained on a set of 50 pictures taken from the famous study by Snodgrass & Vanderwart (1980). The parameters on which these normative data were obtained are some of the most studied in the literature: Age of Acquisition (AoA), Familiarity (FAM), and Concept Agreement (CA). 106 Sardinian native speakers took part in the experiment, carried out completely in written form via an online platform. In addition to providing, for each of the 50 images, normative data on the aforementioned parameters, this work found that AoA and FAM are strongly negatively correlated indicators; a correlation was also observed between both these parameters and the Concept Agreement measure, although these correlations are decidedly more moderate. A comparison was also made between the results of this work and those of two studies that collected normative data for Italian on the same parameters: Nisi et al. (2000) and Dell’Acqua et al. (2000). It was observed that Sardinian participants judged the depicted objects as significantly more familiar, and they claimed that they had learned the words denoting those objects significantly earlier. As for the CA, on the other hand, the data on Italian show a significantly higher percentage on average. However, while for AoA and FAM a strong positive correlation was found between the data on Italian and those on Sardinian, the data on these two languages are clearly uncorrelated for CA, suggesting that the degree of ease in finding a valid name for a picture is dictated by different factors in a national language such as Italian compared to a local language such as Sardinian. More generally, this shows that, before carrying out picture-naming tasks in a given language, it is advisable to have specific normative data for that language, even if it is a minority language or a dialect