Enrico Chessa - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Papers by Enrico Chessa
Revista De Llengua I Dret, 1994
Revista De Llengua I Dret, 2008
L'alguerès és, per raons de caràcter diferent, la varietat més distant i diferenciada dins del do... more L'alguerès és, per raons de caràcter diferent, la varietat més distant i diferenciada dins del domini lingüístic català. Des d'un punt de vista estrictament fonètic, fenòmens com ara la metàtesi (pobre > probe), el rotacisme (vida > [víשa]), l'assimilació (pedra > perra), la despalatalització (any > [án]), etc. fan de l'alguerès un dialecte del català ben peculiar. D'altra banda, les dades sociolingüístiques més recents ens informen d'un procés de substitució lingüística en fase molt avançada. El català ja ha deixat de transmetre's de pares a fills, l'italià és la varietat dominant en gairebé tots els contextos comunicatius, i, consegüentment, les competències (entre les generacions més joves) són mínimes o, en molts casos, nul. les. El planificador, a l'hora de posar en marxa un procés de normalització lingüística a l'Alguer, cal que tingui en la justa consideració les dues qüestions suara esmentades; altrament, s'arrisca al fracàs-total o par-177
This thesis is a study of linguistic contact in Alghero, a multilingual town on the northwest coa... more This thesis is a study of linguistic contact in Alghero, a multilingual town on the northwest coast of Sardinia characterised by the presence of three main language varieties: Italian, Catalan, and Sardinian. By looking mainly at the contact between Catalan and Italian, I aim to analyse and explain the language shift process in favour of Italian, the dominant language. Attention is focused on the family domain-and intergenerational language transmission in particular-as a clear indicator of the state of affairs of language contact in Alghero. I propose to establish what is happening (i.e., what are the dominant norms of linguistic behaviour within the family domain), and to determine which socio-psychological factors lie at the root of behavioural patterns among family members. The study is therefore both descriptive and explanatory. The description is made possible by a quantitative study, by means of which the interactions are quantified and discussed in terms of percentages of Alguerès being used between different family members. By contrast, the explanation emerges from the analysis of the reasons and motives behind the language choice in the qualitative study, and aims to answer the question 'why do parents choose one language rather than the other(s)? Two main instruments have been used to collect the data: a self-administered questionnaire completed by eleven-to fifteen-year-old children, and a semi-structured interview conducted with a small sample of selected parents. This thesis has been funded in part by a one-year grant (Beca Batista i Roca) from the Anglo-Catalan society. I would like to thank the staff in the School of Languages, Linguistics and Film of Queen Mary, University of London. I am particularly grateful to my supervisor, Prof. Ralph Penny, for his invaluable guidance. Working with him has been to me highly rewarding and fulfilling: I have learnt a great deal about language contact and language shift. I also owe a special debt of gratitude to my friend, Dr. Josep-Anton Fernàndez, for his advice, suggestions and support. I would also like to express my gratitude to Dr. Emili Boix and Dr. Albert Bastardas, who first whetted my appetite for sociolinguistics while I was a BA student in the Universitat Central of Barcelona. Both of them have been of great help whenever I needed 'technical' support for my PhD thesis. I am particularly indebted to Dr. Joan Albert Argenter, for his generous help and encouragement: his support has contributed a great deal to the completion of this thesis. I would also like to thank Prof. Peter Trudgill who found time to look at parts of my work. The contribution of my friend, Dr. David Barnett, has been crucial for making this thesis both readable and legible. I am also enormously grateful to him for the encouragement and support he has given me in the last stage of completion. The historian Tonino Budruni has contributed a great deal to clear all my doubts about historical information; Giovannangela Floris has helped me with maps, figures and tables; the staff in Computing Services at Queen Mary, University of London, have also been very useful in assisting with the preparation of the first draft of chapter 6 on quantitative data: many thanks to all of them. I would like to thank the children who completed the questionnaire and those informants who have spared me a couple of hours for the semi-structured interviews; those people (headmasters, teachers, educators, priests, etc.) who have made the fieldwork possible; my aunt Assunta Piras and my cousin Giusy Pascalis for providing me with the right contacts in schools and churches; my father, Ignazietto, my mother, Doloretta Piras, my nephews Gino and Fabio, my friends Luigi Spanedda and Luca Feniello for helping me to find informants. Many other friends and relatives contributed in various ways to the completion of this thesis; my apologies for not mentioning all of them. Special thanks go to Fregenet Mengesha, my partner, to whom this thesis is dedicated, for encouraging me not to give up on my PhD, despite all the time this thesis has taken away from her and our children Christian Elias and Angelina Zewede: all credit to her. My family and friends have supported and encouraged me throughout. Special thanks go to my mother, my father, and my brothers. They have always been there for me during such a tortuous path.
Escola Catalana, 2009
En aquest article es mostra una visio de conjunt relativa als usos linguistics fora de la llar, t... more En aquest article es mostra una visio de conjunt relativa als usos linguistics fora de la llar, tal com se'ns presenten, en els set territoris de llengua catalana, en diferents ambits comunicatius (amics, botigues, grans establiments comercials, bancs i caixes, metge, amb un desconegut). L'analisi pren cos a partir de les dades que ens proporcionen les enquestes d'usos linguistics (EUL) que, seguint unes pautes metodologiques comunes, es van dur a terme, a partir de l'any 2003, a totes les arees on el catala es llengua tradicional.
Revista De Llengua I Dret, 1994
Revista De Llengua I Dret, 2008
L'alguerès és, per raons de caràcter diferent, la varietat més distant i diferenciada dins del do... more L'alguerès és, per raons de caràcter diferent, la varietat més distant i diferenciada dins del domini lingüístic català. Des d'un punt de vista estrictament fonètic, fenòmens com ara la metàtesi (pobre > probe), el rotacisme (vida > [víשa]), l'assimilació (pedra > perra), la despalatalització (any > [án]), etc. fan de l'alguerès un dialecte del català ben peculiar. D'altra banda, les dades sociolingüístiques més recents ens informen d'un procés de substitució lingüística en fase molt avançada. El català ja ha deixat de transmetre's de pares a fills, l'italià és la varietat dominant en gairebé tots els contextos comunicatius, i, consegüentment, les competències (entre les generacions més joves) són mínimes o, en molts casos, nul. les. El planificador, a l'hora de posar en marxa un procés de normalització lingüística a l'Alguer, cal que tingui en la justa consideració les dues qüestions suara esmentades; altrament, s'arrisca al fracàs-total o par-177
This thesis is a study of linguistic contact in Alghero, a multilingual town on the northwest coa... more This thesis is a study of linguistic contact in Alghero, a multilingual town on the northwest coast of Sardinia characterised by the presence of three main language varieties: Italian, Catalan, and Sardinian. By looking mainly at the contact between Catalan and Italian, I aim to analyse and explain the language shift process in favour of Italian, the dominant language. Attention is focused on the family domain-and intergenerational language transmission in particular-as a clear indicator of the state of affairs of language contact in Alghero. I propose to establish what is happening (i.e., what are the dominant norms of linguistic behaviour within the family domain), and to determine which socio-psychological factors lie at the root of behavioural patterns among family members. The study is therefore both descriptive and explanatory. The description is made possible by a quantitative study, by means of which the interactions are quantified and discussed in terms of percentages of Alguerès being used between different family members. By contrast, the explanation emerges from the analysis of the reasons and motives behind the language choice in the qualitative study, and aims to answer the question 'why do parents choose one language rather than the other(s)? Two main instruments have been used to collect the data: a self-administered questionnaire completed by eleven-to fifteen-year-old children, and a semi-structured interview conducted with a small sample of selected parents. This thesis has been funded in part by a one-year grant (Beca Batista i Roca) from the Anglo-Catalan society. I would like to thank the staff in the School of Languages, Linguistics and Film of Queen Mary, University of London. I am particularly grateful to my supervisor, Prof. Ralph Penny, for his invaluable guidance. Working with him has been to me highly rewarding and fulfilling: I have learnt a great deal about language contact and language shift. I also owe a special debt of gratitude to my friend, Dr. Josep-Anton Fernàndez, for his advice, suggestions and support. I would also like to express my gratitude to Dr. Emili Boix and Dr. Albert Bastardas, who first whetted my appetite for sociolinguistics while I was a BA student in the Universitat Central of Barcelona. Both of them have been of great help whenever I needed 'technical' support for my PhD thesis. I am particularly indebted to Dr. Joan Albert Argenter, for his generous help and encouragement: his support has contributed a great deal to the completion of this thesis. I would also like to thank Prof. Peter Trudgill who found time to look at parts of my work. The contribution of my friend, Dr. David Barnett, has been crucial for making this thesis both readable and legible. I am also enormously grateful to him for the encouragement and support he has given me in the last stage of completion. The historian Tonino Budruni has contributed a great deal to clear all my doubts about historical information; Giovannangela Floris has helped me with maps, figures and tables; the staff in Computing Services at Queen Mary, University of London, have also been very useful in assisting with the preparation of the first draft of chapter 6 on quantitative data: many thanks to all of them. I would like to thank the children who completed the questionnaire and those informants who have spared me a couple of hours for the semi-structured interviews; those people (headmasters, teachers, educators, priests, etc.) who have made the fieldwork possible; my aunt Assunta Piras and my cousin Giusy Pascalis for providing me with the right contacts in schools and churches; my father, Ignazietto, my mother, Doloretta Piras, my nephews Gino and Fabio, my friends Luigi Spanedda and Luca Feniello for helping me to find informants. Many other friends and relatives contributed in various ways to the completion of this thesis; my apologies for not mentioning all of them. Special thanks go to Fregenet Mengesha, my partner, to whom this thesis is dedicated, for encouraging me not to give up on my PhD, despite all the time this thesis has taken away from her and our children Christian Elias and Angelina Zewede: all credit to her. My family and friends have supported and encouraged me throughout. Special thanks go to my mother, my father, and my brothers. They have always been there for me during such a tortuous path.
Escola Catalana, 2009
En aquest article es mostra una visio de conjunt relativa als usos linguistics fora de la llar, t... more En aquest article es mostra una visio de conjunt relativa als usos linguistics fora de la llar, tal com se'ns presenten, en els set territoris de llengua catalana, en diferents ambits comunicatius (amics, botigues, grans establiments comercials, bancs i caixes, metge, amb un desconegut). L'analisi pren cos a partir de les dades que ens proporcionen les enquestes d'usos linguistics (EUL) que, seguint unes pautes metodologiques comunes, es van dur a terme, a partir de l'any 2003, a totes les arees on el catala es llengua tradicional.