ATrA 7. Language and Identity Theories and experiences in lexicography and linguistic policies in a global world

Details

This book was conceived during the closing event of the DiM project, developed within the framework of the Erasmus plus KA204 - Strategic Partnerships for Adult Education programme.
Its fourteen chapters intend to offer food for thought on some of the currently most debated questions for linguists in the global village, and are divided into three thematic sections: 1) multilingualism, minority languages and the eternal dichotomy between orality and writing; 2) lexicography and L2 teaching; 3) the role of linguistics in particularly complex multilingual contexts. The book was published thanks to a grant obtained in 2018 by Regione Friuli Venezia Giulia.

Ilaria Micheli, coordinator of the scientific committee of the AtRA series, is Associate Professor in African Linguistics at the University of Trieste.

Flavia Aiello is Associate Professor in Swahili at the University of Naples “L’Orientale”.

Amelia (Lia) Pensabene is a teacher of English at the CPIA Avellino, where she was coordinator for the DiM project.

Maddalena Toscano is a former researcher and teacher of Swahili language at the University of Naples “L’Orientale”.

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Recent Submissions

Now showing 1 - 5 of 16
  • Publication
    Linguistic ambiguity in Timor- Leste: local languages between pride and shame
    (EUT Edizioni Università di Trieste, 2021)
    Boldoni, Carolina
    Emerging from centuries of Portuguese colonisation and a violent Indonesian military occupation lasted 24 years (1975-1999), Timor-Leste became the first sovereign state of the 21st century, in 2002. The Democratic Republic of Timor- Leste adopted Portuguese and Tetun Dili as the two national languages and this decision has been under debate since the birth of the nation, not just among local politicians, but also among foreign consultants and scholars. Based on an ethnographic fieldwork lasted 18 months, conducted between 2017 and 2018, this paper aims to address the ambiguities regarding the linguistic diversity in Timor- Leste. Local indigenous languages have been undergoing a process of governmental recognition (being 20 the local languages mentioned in the Constitution as ‘mother tongues’) and other international institutions have developed projects aimed to their safeguard. However, often both in national institutions as well as to a more grassroot level, the local linguistic diversity is considered more as a burden than as an asset. By focusing on these local ambiguities, the paper aims to discuss the interaction between linguistic prestige and status, as well as economic relations embedded in the Timor-Leste national linguistic policies.
      227  403
  • Publication
    The future of minority languages in Nigeria
    (EUT Edizioni Università di Trieste, 2021)
    Batic, Gian Claudio
    Nigeria exhibits an extraordinary linguistic diversity, both in terms of genetic affiliation and sociolinguistic status. A large proportion of the 520 (and counting) Nigerian languages are spoken by minority groups. In most cases, these groups are subject to a process of linguistic and ethnic conversion that will lead to a reduction in linguistic diversity and the consolidation of two main vehicular languages: Hausa and Nigerian Pidgin. This paper will discuss the notion of minority language and the idea of language endangerment, and consequently the factors that seem quintessential in determining the sociolinguistic framework of tomorrow’s Nigeria.
      123  764
  • Publication
    Wolof language and literature: an introduction
    (EUT Edizioni Università di Trieste, 2021)
    Minerba, Emiliano
    Wolof language is knowing a period of rapid increment of its status and prestige, which is making it, from being one of the several local languages of Senegal, the second vehicular language of the country alongside with French. To this increasing status, also a rapid evolution of Wolof literature is accompanied: this particular development has started before the independency of Senegal, with the activity of Muridiyya brotherhood at the beginning of the 20th. This paper aims at being an introduction to the Wolof language from these two aspects: the socio-linguistic one, where the extents and limitations of the employment of Wolof in Senegal will be outlined, and the literary one, when the rapid developments in Wolof literature – and particularly poetry – from the beginning of the last century will be presented.
      219  805
  • Publication
    Transcription and orthography in two endangered languages of Ethiopia: Ts’amakko and Ongota
    (EUT Edizioni Università di Trieste, 2021)
    Savà, Graziano
    This paper touches upon the process of mapping spoken languages onto writing systems. Case studies relating to two endangered languages of Ethiopia, Ts’amakko and Ongota are presented. The discussion concerns two kinds of mapping, transcription for descriptive purposes and orthography for literary and literacy purposes. It is shown that transcription is more scientific and precise but less readable than orthography, that is more user-friendly for the wider public and the community of speakers.
      135  398
  • Publication
    Lingua e storia in Africa: considerazioni sul caso del tigrino (Eritrea ed Etiopia)
    (EUT Edizioni Università di Trieste, 2021)
    Lusini, Gianfrancesco
    Tigrinya (Təgrəñña) is a Semitic language spoken in Eritrea and in the Ethiopian regional state of Tigray (Təgray) by about seven million people. In Eritrea it is also working and school language and the medium of a rich literature. Here, one can find a brief discussion of the main issues concerning the history of language and literature, as well as the development prospects of an idiom used in a highly troubled African territory.
      132  809