Eszter Salamon (University of West Hungary, Szombathely) [Bio]
Email: salamoneszter@btk.nyme.hu
Among the language minorities in Italy the situation of the Friulian community of about 700.000 inhabitants in the region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia and that of the Sardinian community of about 1.500.000 on the Island of Sardinia (Sobrero, 1996) are special for different reasons. In their own state their languages were regarded as dialects until 1999 along with many other minority languages, while linguists have considered them as separate languages for nearly one centuryi.
An important parallel in the situation of the two minority groups is that they do not have a mother country of their own languages or a bigger language community outside Italy, whose elaborated language variety could serve as a model for their language standardisation. Together with 10 other language minority groups, the Sardinian and Friulian minorities obtained their statal recognition of language rights only in 1999 by the Law n. 482 ‘Regulations on the matter of historical language minorities of Italy’.
However, this recognition poses an enormous challenge for these minority groups: their languages, which had been classified by UNESCO’s surveys as endangered languages during the last few decades,were standardized in a very short period of time so that they could be used formally and taught at school. Due to the lack of outside language models, and relying only on the internal resources, the two minority groups had to select the varieties to form the base for the standard language variety, which in the case of the Sardinian language was virtually zero. They also had to carry out its graphisation, grammaticalisation and lexicalisation, its spreading, and its approval by a language community, as well as its continuing modernisation. For this process things of great implication are needed, which require a well-managed collaboration of several experts and a lot of time even one by one:
-
for the public use of these languages they need to create their own newspaper and book publications as well as their own radio and TV programs;
-
for their use in education they need to compile textbooks and other educational materials, as well as to organise a teacher training programme;
-
for the use of these languages in the administration they need to translate the laws and the regulations, to create documents, forms, to organise the language training of the civil servants, and to replace the street signs and place name signs with bilingual ones;
-
for their use in jurisdiction they need to provide the civil servants with languages courses, to train and to employ translators and interpreters;
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in order to make it possible for the languages to be used in the Church, the holy texts must be translated and approved by the Holy See;
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in order to be able to use it in academic context, it is important to support its use in different disciplines, and to change the official approach favouring the language of the state, etc.
During my previous research I examined the situation of the two minorities before the Law n. 482/1999 based partly on the secondary analysis of other sociolinguistic surveys, partly on my own surveys, then I analysed the changes after 1999, with regard to the decisions of the two communities about the standardisation and school teaching of their own languages.
In the course of the examination of these language communities I found three culture-specific features, the analysis of which generally does not belong to the sphere of sociolinguistics surveys, although their development and the increase of their popularity may have a big significance in terms of language maintenance. Namely, acting in their own language, poetic competitions and pop musicii.
Available sociolinguistic research about the musical life of the Friulian and Sardinian language minorities
Only four papers on sociolinguistics have been written in the last twenty years that deal with the musical life of these minorities and with their role in language maintenance. Only one of these papers deals with the question from the Sardinian point of view. Three papers discuss notes or data about the music of the Friulian language.
The largest and most comprehensive research on the sociolinguistic situation of the European linguistic minorities was the Euromosaic survey commissioned by the European Commission between 1992 and 1996. The very detailed survey, however, hardly deals with the musical life of the minority languages, or in the case of the Sardinian language, it does not deal with it at all.
A couple of ideas can be found about the musical life in Friulian language in the Euromosaic survey, as well as in Coluzzi’s descriptive sociolinguistic treatise written a decade later (Coluzzi 2004). Angeli’s sociolinguistic research deals specifically with the potential of the musical events in Friulian language and with its increasing popularity in recent years at a much smaller scale than the previously mentioned European survey (Angeli 2004).
Since no comprehensive, state initiated sociolinguistic research has been made about the Sardinian oral culture, in 2005 researchers of the University of Cagliari and Sasssari were asked by the Sardinian regional government to compile a survey. The result of the research was a very thorough sociolinguistic treatise with more than 2400 respondents’ answers processed and published in Le lingue dei sardi (Oppo 2007).
Sardinian poetic competitions and the popular music of Sardinia
The Sardinian culture has a very strong oral tradition on the island. Since among the various Sardinian dialects not even the koiné was created spontaneously, literacy only existed within certain dialects.
Song versifying or impromptu or improvisational poetry are one of the unique manifestations of this culture founded on verbality. This form is cultivated by peasants or shepherds, who make their everyday work and long evenings more colourful with rhymed, ”answering” discourses.
They do not spend a lot of time creating these “songs” or sung poems, and they never write them down. A 1909 literary monthly discussed many cases, which had been recorded in studies, where two minstrels welcomed each other in rhymes in the street, and then continued their conversation in verse. (Manca, 1909).
The most popular form of artistic manifestation of song versifying is the poetic competition repeatedly organised at more and more places. During the poetic competitions minstrels compete with their performance of impromptu poems in different specific Sardinian metrical forms on a certain topic.
According to the rules a minstrel or a group of minstrels can have vocal accompaniment. The specified theme is developed by the minstrels alternating each other circularly, often improvising several hours of performance on some topics. In this case, there are several metaphoric lines behind the primary development of the theme, which can only be decoded in all of their subtleties by the local population.
Each year there are approximately 200 minstrel competitions in different towns held generally outdoors during the time of special occasions, on religious holidays. Nowadays this genre, just like a hundred years ago (Manca, 1909) has its own celebrities on the island.
Recordings of this deeply rooted tradition in the Sardinian culture can already be watched and listened to on the Internet. At the website of the Sardinian Digital Library both television and radio broadcasts made today and decades ago can be found in a very good quality.
The previously mentioned sociolinguistics survey prepared for the commission of the Autonomous Region of Sardinia, shows an interesting picture in one of the tables. It shows the proportions of the respondents, who have attended a poetic competition and on the other hand those who know songs, nursery rhymes in Sardinian (Oppo, 2007).
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Have attended a poetic competition
Sex
Place of Residence (inhabitants)
Male
Female
< 4000
4000 – 20.000
20.000 – 100.000
> 100.000
%
53.9
46.0
77.1
52.9
53.2
36.4
N.
1176
1262
290
453
804
890
We can see a surprisingly high percentage among the data concerning the poetic competitions: approximately half of the respondents declared that they had already attended an event like this. Poetic competitions in small settlements are much more popular, than in the cities, but even in the bigger cities more than 1/3 of the population follows them with interest.
-
Have attended a poetic competition
Age
(years)
Level of Education
15-24
25-44
45-64
65 +
4 years of study
8 years of study
High school
Univ./ College
%
26.1
39.5
62.1
69.8
70.8
49.7
41.6
47.0
N.
358
904
727
444
391
798
827
415
The indicators of the age and of the education show that this genre is more popular among older and less educated people.
The following data refer to the people, who know songs or nursery rhymes in Sardinian.
-
Know songs and nursery rhymes
Sex
Place of Residence (inhabitants)
Male
Female
< 4000
4000 – 20.000
20.000 – 100.000
> 100.000
%
85.7
81.6
87.7
87.2
80.9
82.8
N.
1176
1262
290
453
804
890
A much larger part of the population belongs here than to the groups, who attend poetic competitions. Although there are big overlaps between the two groups of course, there is a difference between them concerning their age and their level of education.
-
Know songs and nursery rhymes
Age
(years)
Level of Education
15-24
25-44
45-64
65 +
4 years of study
8 years of study
High school
Univ./
College
%
87.0
86.5
82.4
76.6
78.4
82.4
85.8
86.7
N.
358
904
727
444
391
798
827
415
It is apparent from the distribution based on the age that younger people know Sardinian songs or nursery rhymes in a bigger number than the elders. Even the survey team itself pointed out this unusual data (Oppo, 2007), and attributed it to the popularity of pop bands singing more and more in Sardinian during the last decade.
While the pop music in Sardinian language did not figure in the Euromosaic survey of 1992-1996, nowadays there are many bands which return to Sardinian musical traditions, or use Sardinian language to express their modern message. Even rap music exists in Sardinian, which is unique considering that one of the most typical peculiarities of the genre is that it prefers fast and rhythmised speech to instrumental music.
The other essential difference between the respondents, who know songs or nursery rhymes and the attendants of poetic competitions can be found in the educational indicators. According to the data, while the number of highly educated people, who attend the poetic competitions is lower, the knowledge of Sardinian songs or nursery rhymes is in direct proportion to the level of education.
-
Age
(years)
Level of Education
15-24
25-44
45-64
65 +
4 years of study
8 years of study
High school
Univ./ College
Have attended a poetic competition (%)
26.1
39.5
62.1
69.8
70.8
49.7
41.6
47.0
Know songs and nursery rhymes (%)
87.0
86.5
82.4
76.6
78.4
82.4
85.8
86.7
N.
358
904
727
444
391
798
827
415
This means that the interest in the songs in their own language is exceptionally high among the younger and more educated people: 85-87%, while the other groups at different levels of education are also very interested in this matter.
This is a surprising and positive result from the point of view of language maintenance, since according to the surveys of the previous decades the children then spoke Sardinian in a very low number and in their language use in almost every case they preferred to use the Italian language. The table below shows the results of two previous surveys made in 1988 and in 1994, in which the option for the exclusive use of Sardinian language was 5.7% and 1.6% respectively, but the sum of its exclusive and mixed use compared to the totality of language choices was not higher than 29.7% and 14.1%.
|
Results of previous sociolinguistic surveys about the language choices of Sardinian children |
Which language do you prefer to speak? (%) (Sole 1988) |
The children’s language use among themselves (%) (Euromosaic 1994) |
|
Italian |
69.4 |
28.7 |
|
Italian and Sardinian |
24 |
12.5 |
|
Sardinian |
5.7 |
1.6 |
|
NA |
0.9 |
57 |
The Friulian musical life and the language revival
The Friulian community does not have such a unique orally performed genre, like the song versifying tradition in the Sardinian culture. According to the Euromosaic survey made in 1992-1996 the musical life in Friulian language is largely composed by folk music played mainly during traditional holidays, and there are very few pop music bands. Conversely, one decade later we read in Coluzzi’s sociolinguistic papers (Coluzzi 2004) about a vivid, modern musical life, with young new bands who perform their songs in Friulian language.
The annual music competition (Premio Friuli) launched by the Radio Onde Furlane greatly contributed to it, and has evoked a bigger and bigger recognition for several years in the region. In my opinion this can lead to the revival of the language for several reasons:
• This process signals a return to a language system, which was about to be abandoned concerning the topics of today’s life.
• The language was only used before in private conversations, but they are starting to use it in the public sphere.
• The Friulian language is used in a new field (modern music), the typical language of which have been Italian and English until now.
• Its usage in a new sphere gives a prestige to the language.
• According to the statistics the new language users belong to the age group which used Friulian the least. (It would be a great achievement from the point of view of language maintenance, if an age-independent genre would start to revive, but this process has an even bigger significance in terms of spreading the language, because of the probability of increased intention of these young people for the transmission of the language to the next generations.)
• These bands attract audience, and their performance will affect the young people’s language use.
• It is not a genre demanding a substantial state support or a regional contribution, or a lot of money (at least in the beginning) as opposed to regular TV broadcasts.
• It is a good example of how a small-scale cultural initiative may create (the Radio Onde Furlane) another one (Premio Friuli), and that can become part of a chain which initiates a movement. The effect that this initiation can achieve, is probably multiple compared to what a radio could have achieved as a radio.
• As a result of this initiative, a material worth broadcasting is produced, which can also be transmitted through other means of mass communication.
The survey, which is dedicated entirely to the musical life in Friulian language (Angeli 2004), due to the selection criteria of the respondents, it is not representative of the whole Friulian community. However, the information provided is very useful to get to know the musicians’ and audience’s opinion who perform and listen to music in Friulian.
The respondents of the survey were participants of a ceremony and a concert before a conference on music in Friulian language. Thus the interviewed 64 listeners and the 15 musicians belong with great probability to the group of speakers specifically interested in Friulian music.
|
Statements |
Totally agree % |
Sufficiently agree % |
Agree a little % |
Do not agree at all % |
|
”Friulian language is not appropriate for texts of modern hits” |
6.3 |
6.3 |
33.3 |
54 |
|
” Friulian language is appropriate only for folksy texts” |
4.8 |
11.1 |
27 |
57.1 |
(Angeli, 2004)
Even in this group there are many people, who do not consider Friulian language suitable to express modernity. In reference to the whole language community the 54% and the 57,1% who do not agree at all with these statements would seem to be a good result from the point of view of prestige and of the intention to preserve the mother tongue. In this context, however, this ratio is surprising, since in that place the people, who are interested in Friulian language are presumably overrepresented. Maybe the speakers themselves, and even those who are really interested in this matter, think in this way not only because of the earlier stigmatizing language policy of the Italian State against the language minorities to be found within the boundaries, but also because the modernisation of the Friulian language is still in progress.
Another important issue in the same survey concerns the obstacles facing the supporters of a wider spreading of the Friulian language music. In response to an open question the musicians listed a variety of factors (Angeli 2004). Outside the Radio Onde Furlane they can mainly rely on the cooperation between each other, on the enthusiasm of the audience, on local event organizers, and on the activity of some cultural affiliation and websites. However, there are even more obstructive factors: the insufficiency of the distribution and that of the advertising, the low number of opportunities for live performances, the poor interest of the institutions and the lack of an organisation to support Friulian music. It seems that despite the increasing interest the artists themselves still do not feel they receive sufficient support from the institution of the State and of the Region.
To create works of art in a mother tongue and to pay attention to a culture on one’s own language are important components and at the same time indicators of the vitality of a language minority and of intention of a community to preserve its language. There is no doubt concerning the language preserving power of singing. In case of these two communities and from their examples it is obvious that the singing in a given language can attract the audience in both in its traditional and modern forms, and can promote the rediscovery of the values of the language minority and its maintenance.
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