Abstract:
The aim of this paper is to present a bibliographic study and a survey on the Perception of the Italian language in Argentina today.
First, an overview will be presented of how the Italian language reached Argentina and the historical and geopolitical reasons that led and continue to lead many people to regain interest in their original language. The descriptive part, that includes a parenthesis on the issue of today's linguistic and migratory policies, is fundamental to read the survey responses and investigate how the migratory phenomenon from a linguistic point of view has changed until today.
The survey consists of a form distributed to students at various Italian adult schools in Argentina. The questionnaire is structured to get a profile of the students, get the possibility to disaggregate data (as age, sex and socio-cultural profile). Then, some questions about the migration context (origins, desire to emigrate, perception of the phenomenon) are presented and the Italian language issue is explored (motivation, linguistic prestige). Finally, and not for importance, the issue of identity (plural identity) and citizenship are taken into consideration.
Following the presentation of the form and the methodology, in the analysis of the responses and the results, it’s shown that Italian language and culture for Argentinians is not anymore just an issue of recovering their far away roots but there are more other reasons.
