European University Institute Library

Trilingual talk in Sicilian-Australian migrant families, playing out identities through language alternation, Antonia Rubino, Department of Italian Studies, University of Sydney, Australia

eng

Includes bibliographical references and index

index present

non fiction

Trilingual talk in Sicilian-Australian migrant families

bibliography

879370896

Antonia Rubino, Department of Italian Studies, University of Sydney, Australia

playing out identities through language alternation

This book is an indepth study of the linguistic dynamics among Sicilian migrants in Australia, one of the largest regional groups in the context of Italian emigration. Through conversations gathered within the family, language choice and language alternation among Sicilian, English and Italian are explored in talk between first and second generation. The analytical approach combines the interactional with the language and identity perspective, focusing on code-switching as a strategy to construct and contest conversational and social identities. A corpus of quantitative surveys and other Sicilian-Australian voices gathered through interviews complement the conversational data, contributing to the representation of the linguistic and cultural identities of Sicilian migrants. The study is placed in the context of the family migrant experience and the shifting attitudes towards immigrant languages in Australia.--, Provided by Publisher

Introduction 1. The Context of Italian Migration 2. From Bilingualism in Sicily to Trilingualism in Australia 3. Approaches to Multilingual Talk 4. Trilingual Talk in Family A 5. Trilingual Talk in Family B 6. From Qualitative to Quantitative Data: Language Choice in the Family 7. Summary and Conclusions