Lombard is one of the 12-15 non-recognized regional languages spoken in Italy. This article focuses on the new speakers of Lombard, i. e. people who have learned or are learning Lombard as a second language. Through an open questionnaire the author has probed into various aspects concerning these new speakers' competence and learning trajectories,…

Argues that objective conditions are always interacting with widespread "subjective definitions" to explain the variable capacities of linguistic minorities. Looks at the hypothesis formed by Giles, Bourhis, and Taylor in their theory of language in ethnic group relations as it relates to the multilingual context of the Valdotan…

Presents the data from a study of the Valdotan community in northern Italy which examined, according to Smelser's model of social and cultural change, the Valdotans' level of ethnolinguistic identification. Re-interprets this data according to Giles, Bourhis, and Taylor's theory of the interaction between the ethnolinguistic vitality and the…

Discusses the psychological or sociopsychological problems of two bilingual areas in Italy: The Alto Adige area and the Italian-Albanian area. The extremely important role of interlinguistic attitudes in attaining and maintaining bilingual status is explored. (92 references) (CFM)

After a definition of terms, a dialectological and sociolinguistic review of linguistic minorities existing in Italy is made. Geographic aspects of distribution and retrogression of regional speech and use of Italian by minorities form the basis for differentiating degrees of deculturization. The role of linguistic and other minorities is studied.…