[Foundation-l] Umberto Eco on small languages/dialects Wikipedias (Aristotle article)

[Ilario Valdelli]

On Sun, Sep 19, 2010 at 2:08 PM, David Gerard <dgerard at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 19 September 2010 12:42, Ilario Valdelli <valdelli at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> It is normal because any standard language has different registers, the
>> dialect has limited registers and in general only for daily and familiar
>> use.
>
>
> This, by the way, is why we don't have multiple English Wikipedias -
> in the higher registers, all the dialects (which are frequently all
> but mutually incomprehensible in the lower registers) converge and
> educational English is quite consistent. The only major dialectic
> variant is American versus British spelling, and anyone who reads one
> can read and often write in the other.
>
>
> - d.
>

Yes, the question of English is different.

The dialects and local languages in Europe are generated by:
A) a form of "regionalism" or local adaptation of a standardized language
B) local languages derived directly from from Indo-European root or
from an old language like Latin (i.e. the Sardinian languages). These
local languages don't have a large presence of registers and the
standard language substitutes them for *different kind of registers*
(i.e to write administrative documents).

For this reason there are persons who use Italian in some geographical
areas with different accent and with a substratum of local language.
It can be considered like a "regionalism" but this situation lives
together with local languages which have a strong derivation from an
old language from whom they keep archaisms or old syntax. An example
that I have faced is a local language in Calabria which is an old
Greek not derived from current language spoken in Greece but generated
probably from a local form of Greek due to the presence of Byzantium
in this area in the Middle Age.

The problem is that the regional languages are disappearing because
they would be "official language" and the local government forgot that
the vitality of these local languages is in the daily use. In few
words the local governments focus their effort in a high level, to
build new registers, and not to support the low levels and the low
registers.

In the same time the large use of Italian in the media is generating a
form of local regionalism which is replacing the local old language.

The result is that the young people are changing their language in a
standard Italian with interference of local language (most of all in
the inflection).

The English languages spoken in USA or Australia, for example, are
more or less similar to this last situation: it is not a derivation
from an old root of English language, but it's a "local" adaptation of
the standard English.

The example that I have is the Italian spoken in Switzerland (who I
live) who is influenced a lot from French and it's also used in high
registers, but for daily use the persons continue to use a local form
of the Lombard language. This Swiss Italian language is derived from
the standard Italian with some small differences most of all in some
colloquial expression or in some accent and with an "enrichment" of
words derived from French or from local dialect.

Ilario