Observații asupra cultivării limbii române la prima și a doua generație de români din Italia. Conservarea și transmiterea idiomului matern în mediile urban și rural

The present research aims to explore the sociolinguistic dimension of the Romanian immigrant community in Italy, with a relatively long presence in this Country (at least a decade). A questionnaire has been used as main tool to collect data, with focus on first and second-generation immigrants, to identify the extra-linguistic factors that might have conditioned the intra-generational maintenance and intergenerational transmission of the Romanian language and influenced the process of linguistic and cultural integration. The survey has been conducted on a group of 120 Romanians, all from Moldova and residing in Italy, either born in this Country or migrated at different ages at least 9 years before ago and at different stages in schooling in Romania and/or in Italy. Case studies are strictly limited to Romanian families in order to eliminate possible socio-cultural and linguistic interference from the private context. Since the environment can either facilitate or severely limit the use of Romanian, two different settlement options have been identified: the big city, represented by Rome, and the small rural centre, represented by villages located along the coast of the Calabrian region. A further factor of variability is the age of the subjects at the time of migration. Participants of the study have been divided into first generation (G1), constituted by those who arrived during adulthood (25 to 40 years), and second generations, divided into various levels: G2.0, represented by individuals born in Italy; G1.75, which groups those who migrated in pre-school age, at the age of 4 or 5; G1.50, formed by those who arrived at the age of 9 or 10. Schooling represents a further factor of behavioural variability and therefore first-generation migrants have been regrouped according to their educational background: middle school diploma, high school diploma, university degree. The members of the second generation (G2.0, G1.75 and G1.50) have been identified among Romanian students enrolled at Italian schools (primary, lower secondary and upper secondary) with no educational deficit. Two sociolinguistic questionnaires have been created and distributed for the survey. The former for the first generation (G1) – consisting of 127 question – and the latter for the second generation, with 107 questions, with answers on a 5-point scale (1 lowest value; 5 highest value). The two questionnaires, written in Romanian and Italian, have been divided into different sections. Results show how subjects' age at the time of migration and schooling has a significant effect on L1 retention. Reduced and/or no schooling in the home country appear to be a foregrounding aspect for the second generations, which show a strong loss of Romanian, while, for the first generation, a weaker effect of language erosion has been observed. The environmental factor seems to be determinant for G1 in the urban context, with a better retention of L1, but not for the intergenerational transmission, which shows similar results in all the contexts. Evidence of a stronger bond with Romanian emerge from research in the metropolitan area, where chances for social interaction with people with the same cultural and linguistic heritage arise. Conversely, subjects who live in Calabria, in smaller conurbations and in tighter contact with Italian speakers, tend to establish social relationships with single individuals rather than with culturally determined groups. Second generation subjects are somewhat indifferent to where they live, stating that they feel more connected to their host country than to their home country.