Linguistic Encounters Now and Then: Amara Lakhous and Tahar Lamri Engage in the Debate on (Dis)United Italy

Abstract

Se prima era il nemico da sconfiggere, una volta che è stato sconfitto è ridiventato l'amico, il padre, il nonno da proteggere" 1 -in these few lines Umberto Eco brilliantly captures the most salient trends of the linguistic and political history of the Italian dialects since the 1861 Unification. The political fragmentation of the peninsula that had lasted over fourteen centuries has contributed to the establishment of a number of Italo-Romance languages, also known as "primary dialects." These languages share the same Latin origin as standard Italian and are, in fact, autonomous linguistic systems. Once the Florentine dialect found in the works of Petrarca, Boccaccio and Dante had been codified by Pietro Bembo as the standard written Italian in the sixteenth century, the remaining primary Italian dialects gradually became subordinate to standard Italian in terms of social prestige.La questione della lingua acquired a completely new political and ideological meaning once the Peninsula had regained its (formal) unity. Alessandro Manzoni and Graziadio Isaia Ascoli's contrasting views on the role of local languages expressed this paradigmatic shift: 2 while for the former the dialects were an obstacle to the linguistic unity of the nation, the latter sustained the spread of popular bilingualism (where knowledge of one's local dialect would be combined with the national standard Italian) as a major boost for successful civic and cultural education of the new Italians.Naturally, Manzoni's theory prevailed over that of his opponents. Sdialettalizzazione, a process of decreasing usage of primary dialects in favour of local hybrid varieties of Italian, began to run its course once compulsory education was introduced in Italy. 3 Notwithstanding the diffusion of literacy, increasing internal migratory flows, and the advent of radio, the country had largely preserved its linguistic disunity until the end of 1950s, making it a true exception among European nation-states. Not even school reforms and specific linguistic politics implemented during Fascism managed to succeed in the attempt to eradicate the use of dialects in favor of national Italian language.