Last week during an international conference on linguistic variation in Europe in Leeuwarden, in the Netherlands (historical region on the North Sea), the first results of the linguistic analysis were presented as part of the project “Museum of Migration, Paths and Stories di Peoples ”, with the study of intangible assets in the Biella area at its center.
Ambitious work plan supported by the Piedmont Region and the Autonomous Region of Sardinia, through the cultural activity of the “Su Nuraghe” association of Biella.
Scientific investigation with parents and grandparents called to tell their stories of migration at school to students and students, entrusted to young researchers, the linguist, Dr. Chiara Meluzzi and the visual anthropologist, Dr. Luca Ghiardo.
Through different themes scanned relating to knowledge and places of food culture, artisan technical knowledge, social rituals and customs, vocabulary and knowledge transmitted orally are collected with instruments that allow to go back to the mother tongue of the speaker through sounds and not only phonemes.
Dr. Chiara Meluzzi, cossatese by birth and professor of sociolinguistics at the University of Pavia, presented together with her young team the results of the linguistic analysis carried out within the project, with particular attention to the linguistic identity of the Venetian migrants in Piedmont. The research focused on the case of grandparents of as many students attending the “Aglietti” by Cossato, the pilot school of the Su Nuraghe project.
“The data collected allowed us to demonstrate how the Venetian linguistic heritage is very little preserved in contexts of internal migration” – explains Dr. Meluzzi. “This can certainly be linked to the young age of the speakers at the time of migration, as well as to the lack of contacts with the homeland, that is Veneto. On the contrary, in almost all cases the speakers have learned the dialect of the new country, namely the Biellese“.
The work of the Pavia research group has received many positive comments, arousing great interest among the participants in the Dutch conference. Soon, Dr. Meluzzi and her students will present the results of the project also at a conference in Greece, where they will talk mainly about multilingual and migration contexts.
