Popular children’s songs and the display of Italian multilingualism in Australia
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/jmtp.18564Keywords:
multilingualism, migration, ItalianAbstract
Italians in Australia have been shown to have a varied linguistic repertoire, due to the presence of a high number of regional languages/dialects spoken in Italy, which they brought with them upon migration. Yet, their own efforts to bring attention to their multilingualism have not been fully explored. This article examines an audiocassette recording of a collection of children’s songs produced at the end of the 1970s by an Italo-Australian association for local circulation. It focuses on the design of the audiocassette cover and the range of regional languages/dialects of the songs in the collection, showing how (often mixed-language) texts and images aid language display. The results bring to the surface a deliberate effort to shed light on the rich multilingualism of Italy, which is consistent with the changing role of community languages in the period when this audiocassette was produced. These Italians in Australia make visible their multilingualism, presenting a range of regional languages/dialects also through their use in traditional songs, thereby showing another way in which multilingualism can be acknowledged and valued.
References
ABS: Australian Bureau of Statistics (2016) Cultural diversity in Australia, 2016 Census Article. Retrieved from https://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/[email protected]/Lookup/by%20Subject/2071.0~2016~Main%20Features~Cultural%20Diversity%20Article~60
Alcorso, C., Popoli, C. G. and Rando, G. (1992) Community networks and institutions. In S. Castles, C. Alcorso, G. Rando and E. Vasta (eds) Australia’s Italians: Culture and Community in a Changing Society 106–124. North Sydney: Allen & Unwin.
Aronin, L. (2018) Theoretical underpinnings of the material culture of multilingualism. In L. Aronin, M. Hornsby and G. Kilia?ska-Przyby?o (eds) The Material Culture of Multilingualism 21–45. Cham: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-91104-5_2
Aronin, L. and Ó Laoire, M. (2013) The material culture of multilingualism: Moving beyond the linguistic landscape. International Journal of Multilingualism 10.3: 225–235. https://doi.org/10.1080/14790718.2012.679734
Baldassar, L. (1992) Italo-Australian youth in Perth (space speaks and clothes communicate). In R. Bosworth and R. Ugolini (eds) War, Internment and Mass Migration: The Italo-Australian Experience 1940–1990 207–223. Rome: Gruppo editoriale internazionale.
Baldassar, L. (2001) Visits Home: Migration Experiences between Italy and Australia. Carlton South: Melbourne University Press.
Baldassar, L. and Pesman, R. (2005) From Pesani to Global Italians: Veneto Migrants in Australia. Crawley: UWA Press.
Battiston, S. (2012) Immigrants Turned Activists: Italians in 1970s Melbourne. Kibworth Beauchamp: Troubador Publishing.
Berruto, G. and Bernini, G. (2012) Saggi di sociolinguistica e linguistica. Alessandria: Edizioni dell’Orso.
Bertini Malgarini, P. (1994) L’Italiano fuori d’Italia. In L. Serianni and P. Trifone (eds) Storia della lingua italiana Vol. 3, 883–922. Turin: Einaudi.
Bettoni, C. (1985) Tra lingua, dialetto e inglese: il trilinguismo degli Italiani in Australia. Leichhardt: Filef Italo-Australian Publications.
Bettoni, C. (1991) Language variety among Italians: Anglicisation, attrition and attitudes. In S. Romaine (ed) Language in Australia 263–269. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511620881.020
Bettoni, C. (1993) Italiano fuori dall’Italia. In A. A. Sobrero (ed) Introduzione all’italiano contemporaneo. La variazione e gli usi 411–460. Bari: Laterza.
Bettoni, C. (2007) Un profilo socio-linguistico della comunità italo-australiana. In A. Ciliberti (ed) La costruzione interazionale di identità: repertori linguistici e pratiche discorsive degli italiani in Australia Vol. 56, 36–67. Milan: FrancoAngeli.
Bettoni, C. (2010) Tra lingua, dialetto e inglese: mezzo secolo di emigrazione italiana in Australia. In A. Ledgeway and A. L. Lepschy (eds) Into and out of Italy: lingua e cultura della migrazione italiana 153–163. Perugia: Guerra.
Blommaert, J. (2013) Writing as a sociolinguistic object. Journal of Sociolinguistics 17.4: 440–459. https://doi.org/10.1111/josl.12042
Bosworth, R. (1990) Storia dell’emigrazione e storia nazionale: Australia. Altreitalie 4.1: 24–42.
Cecilia, T. (1992) Gli italiani in Australia, 1788–1945: una cronistoria. In S. Castles, C. Alcorso, G. Rando and E. Vasta (eds) Italo-australiani: la popolazione di origine italiana in Australia 33–49. Turin: Fondazione Giovanni Agnelli.
Clyne, M. (1991) Community Languages: The Australian Experience. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511597084
Clyne, M. (2001) Can the shift from immigrant languages be reversed in Australia? In J. A. Fishman (ed) Can Threatened Languages Be Saved? Reversing Language Shift, Revisited: A 21st Century Perspective 364–391. Bristol: Multilingual Matters. https://doi.org/10.21832/9781853597060-018
Coluzzi, P. (2006) Minority language planning and micronationalism in Italy: The cases of Lombardy and Friuli. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 27.6: 457–471. https://doi.org/10.2167/jmmd451.1
De Mauro, Tullio (1970) Storia linguistica dell’Italia unita. Rome-Bari: Leterza.
Eastman, C. M. and Stein, R. F. (1993) Language display: Authenticating claims to social identity. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 14.3: 187–202. https://doi.org/10.1080/01434632.1993.9994528
Gafaranga, J. (2017) Bilingualism as Interactional Practices. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. https://doi.org/10.3366/edinburgh/9780748675951.001.0001
Girola, S. (2009) Serving the changing needs of Italian migrants. Spunti e Ricerche 24.1: 114–132.
Haller, H. W. (1993) Una lingua perduta e ritrovata: l’italiano degli italo-americani. Scandicci, Firenze: La Nuova Italia.
Higgins, C. (2009) From Da Bomb to Bomba: Global hip hop nation language in Tanzania. In H. S. Alim and A. Pennycook (eds) Global Linguistic Flows: Hip Hop Cultures, Youth Identities, and the Politics of Language 95–112. New York: Routledge.
Kinder, J. (1992) Italian in Australia 1940–1990. In R. Bosworth and R. Ugolini (eds.) War, Internment and Mass Migration: The Italo-Australian Experience 1940–1990 279–290. Rome: Gruppo editoriale internazionale.
Law 482, 15 December 1999, Gazzetta Ufficiale Serie Generale 297 del 20/12/1999. Retrieved from https://www.gazzettaufficiale.it/eli/id/1999/12/20/099G0557/sg. https://doi.org/10.1088/2058-7058/12/12/3
Lee, S. J. and Hawkins, M. R. (2008) ‘Family is here’: Learning in community-based after-school programs. Theory into Practice 47.1: 51–58. https://doi.org/10.1080/00405840701764763
Lo Bianco, J. (1989) Labelling Italian. In J. Lo Bianco and C. Bettoni (eds) Understanding Italy: Language, Culture, Commerce: An Australian Perspective 168–176. Sydney: Frederick May Foundation for Italian Studies.
Lo Bianco, J. (2016) Multicultural education in the Australian context: An historical overview. In J. Lo Bianco and A. Bal (eds) Learning from Difference: Comparative Accounts of Multicultural Education 15–33. Cham: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-26880-4_2
Lo Cascio, V. (1987) L’italiano in America Latina. Florence: Le Monnier.
Pascoe, R. (1992) Place and community: The construction of an Italo-Australian space. In S. Castles, C. Alcorso, G. Rando and E. Vasta (eds) Australia’s Italians: Culture and Community in a Changing Society 35–55. North Sydney: Allen & Unwin.
Pennycook, A. (2007) ‘The rotation gets thick. The constraints get thin’: Creativity, recontextualization, and difference. Applied Linguistics 28.4: 579–596. https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/amm043
Prifti, E. (2014) Italoamericano: italiano e inglese in contatto negli USA: analisi diacronica variazionale e migrazionale. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110300352
Rando, G. (1992) Narrating the migration experience. In S. Castles, C. Alcorso, G. Rando and E. Vasta (eds) Australia’s Italians: Culture and Community in a Changing Society 184–201. North Sydney: Allen & Unwin.
Ricatti, F. (2011) Embodying Migrants: Italians in Postwar Australia. Bern: Peter Lang. https://doi.org/10.3726/978-3-0351-0195-9
Rubino, A. (2009) Language maintenance strategies and language attitudes of new migrants from Italy. In A. Mahboob and C. Lipovsky (eds) Studies in Applied Linguistics and Language Learning 203–223. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars.
Rubino, A. (2012) Negotiating repairs in an Italo-Australian phone-in radio program. Studi italiani di linguistica teorica e applicata 41.2: 293–316.
Rubino, A. and Bettoni, C. (1990) The use of English among Italo-Australians in Sydney. Australian Review of Applied Linguistics 14.1: 58–89. https://doi.org/10.1075/aral.14.1.04rub
Scollon, R. and Scollon, S. B. K. (2003) Discourses in Place: Language in the Material World. London: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203422724
Sebba, M. (2013a) Multilingualism in written discourse: An approach to the analysis of multilingual texts. International Journal of Bilingualism 17.1: 97–118. https://doi.org/10.1177/1367006912438301
Sebba, M. (2013b) The visual construction of language hierarchy. Journal of Language & Politics 12.1: 101–125. https://doi.org/10.1075/jlp.12.1.05seb
Sorce Keller, M. (2016) Continuing opera with other means: Opera, Neapolitan song, and popular music among Italian immigrants overseas. Forum Italicum 50: 244–263. https://doi.org/10.1177/0014585815593527
Tamburelli, M. (2012) Dalla diglossia al bilinguismo: note sul mantenimento del patrimonio linguistico d’Italia. In G. Agresti and M. De Gioia (eds) L’enseignement des langues locales institutions, méthodes, idéologies: Actes des Quatrièmes Journées des Droits Linguistiques 187–202. Rome: Aracne.
Tosi, A. (2010) The language of Italians in Britain. In A. Ledgeway and A. L. Lepschy (eds) Into and out of Italy: lingua e cultura della migrazione italiana 99–110. Perugia: Guerra.
Vasta, E. (1990) Gender, class and ethnic relations: The domestic and work experiences of Italian migrant women in Australia. Migration 7.1: 7–31.
