Internet and the minority languages: the case of Sardinian' May 2005'

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Internet and the minority languagesthe case of
Sardinian. May 2005.
By Matteo Ionta
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• You already know something or someone that comes
  from Sardinia.
• You may not know that Tiscali the most important
  Italian internet provider is also Sardinian.
• The name Tiscali refers to the last Nuragic
  village that survived into Roman times.
• For many Sardinians, Tiscali is a mysterious
  name, important for Sardinian identity and
  self-representation.

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A share of my thesis will be on Internet and the
minority languages the case of Sardinian. I
want to look at identity plus language.

• First of all what is a minority language?
• According to many scholars there are about 6000
  languages spoken worldwide (Grimes 1998).
• 96 of world population speaks 4 of the
  languages (Crystal 2000).
• That means the majority of languages can be
  considered minority languages.
• These 4 are official languages. They are written
  and have spread in part through the printed book
  and the media.

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• Political scientists explained the role of print
  capitalism in the spread of national language and
  nation building.
• The Internet may be or become a means of
  maintaining and/or promoting minority languages.
  It is a medium for publishing and disseminating
  all kinds of texts in the language. It is much
  cheaper than traditional publishing.
• This paper will try to assess whether the
  Internet is being used by Sardinian activists in
  the same way.
• This research, which is part of a larger UNESCO
  project investigating this area, sets out to
  identify the agencies authoring these sites and
  which interests they represent and the audiences
  they address.

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My questions

• Is the site built and maintained by insiders
  for an insider audience to promote Sardinian
  identity?
• Does it also have the role of promoting Sardinian
  language?
• What role is such a website playing in the
  movement for Sardinian autonomy or independence?

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Print Capitalism the role of written language in
nation state building

• Anderson (1983) has explained the role of print
  capitalism in the spread of national language and
  nation building.
• Anderson also shows how the national newspaper
  helps create a sense of national identity.
• I have investigated Unione Sarda for nearly one
  year June 2004-May 2005.

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Anderson was speaking about the past. The
interesting thing is that it is still going
on29th May 2005Corriere della Sera pushes
forward the Republican Bank Holiday as a gateway
to re-discover the language to share amor
patriae without being suspected of being a
fascist through its more left-liberal and
respected, anti-fascist journalist.

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• Unione Sarda plays a double fold action in
  promoting a bi-nation globalized building
  identity rediscovering Sardinian roots as
  homeland of one of the most important ancient
  (and therefore appealing) cultures in the
  mediterranean area (mixing existing and invented
  tradition) and Sardinia as potential economic
  strength in the Mediterranean trading arena.

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• Portal for many kinds of sites
• This site promotes language maintenance
• But it is currently (from May 22th 2005) shifting
  to Italian-Sardinian bilingualism..
• Other aspects of the mission of those
  authoring this site changes along with the
  general political environment.
• This kind of sites are built as traditional
  magazines but they allow the surfers to play a
  role in the updating of the site etc.

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Comitau shifts its contents depending on the
audienceItalian speakers or Sardinian insiders

• Leporis Ten Commandaments for those who already
  know Sardinian in Gramàtiga sarda po is
  campidanesus, (Sardinian Grammar for Campidanese
  people) ed. C.R., Quartu S. Elena, 2001.
• 1) Kistiona sa lìngua tua donnya borta ki podis,
  prus de totu in domu, cun is amigus e cun sa
  genti connota. Piga sidea de kistionai in sardu
  cun kini scis ki ti cumprendit, mancai finsas a
  imoi dapas kistionau in italianu.2) Siast
  arrespetosu cun kini kistiònat in d-unatra
  lìngua, perou depis pretendi kis atrus siant
  arrespetosus cun sa lìngua tua.3) Acostadì a
  totus kistionendi in sardu, in sarruga , a su
  telèfunu, in su traballu, etc. Ki ti
  cumprèndinti, sighi a dus kistionai in sardu
  mancai tarrespùndant in italianu.4) A sa genti
  connota ki ancoras no cumprendit beni su sardu,
  ajudadda a provai a du cumprendi, kistionendi a
  pagu a pagu e sprikendi de tanti in tanti tzertus
  fueddus.5) Ki bis a calincunu sfortzendisì de
  kistionai in sardu, ajudaddu e faiddi biri ki su
  sfortzu suu dagradessis.6) Acabadda de curregi
  a kini no bolit essi curreju, perou dona
  sesempru de preguntai a personis o a assòtzius
  calis fueddus sballiaus tòcat a cambiai.
  Ajudeussi is unus e is atrus a kistionai in
  d-unu sardu biu e bonu.7) Depis arrespetai is
  bariedadis de sa lìngua sarda. Kistiona cun
  sacentu tuu a is logudoresus , a is nugoresus, a
  is baroniesus, etc. Impara is acentus e is
  fueddus diferentis ki teneus totus. Custa est
  sarrikesa de su sardu, cumenti de totu is atras
  lìnguas.8) Abonadì a jorronalis e arrevistas in
  sardu. E sìant in sa lìngua nosta is ligiduras ki
  faisi, is spetàgulus ki bis, is programas de
  sarràdiu ki ascurtas, etc. Fetzaus po contu
  nostu su ki no anti bòfiu fai po tantis
  annus.9) Detzididì a-i scriri totu is litras e
  is apuntus in sardu. De imoi a innantis dona
  sempri in sardu su nòmini tuu. Poniddu in is
  billetus de abisita, in is targhetas, in is
  insinnas, etc. Iat a essi troppu leju ki po no
  spendi unu pagu in prus lassessimus de donai
  tistimonju de sardidadi.10) Depis pretendi de
  totus, po finsas de is autoridadis, ki ti
  kistiònint in sardu. Faiddu cun gentilesa. No
  perdas tempus e assèliu cumbatendi contras a is
  nimigus decraraus de sa lìngua nosta. Lassaddus a
  una parti. Donnya personi ki difendit a sa lìngua
  cosa sua kentz''e safracai a nisçunus, tenit su
  deretu e sarrexoni a su costau.

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This chart shows that the young participants to
my survey knew very few Sardinian websites. Only
4 were the websites mentioned. Among them only
one hosted contents partially written in the
Sardinian language

• Girls mentioned 4 websites
• Boys mentioned 1 website

www.iscallonarasa.com was the only site known by
the male informants
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FORMS OF NATION BUILDING Juvenile Language
Identity at Codda.orgIrreverent language use of
the English language The following example
was drawn from a web site which far for promoting
a standardized Sardinian language is highly
presents in young peoples demand for an
interactive web which enable them to share
COMMITMENT TO A SPECIFIC CULTURE RATHER THAN TO
THE SARDINIAN LANGUAGE

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Italian-American Stereotypesre-mapped in a
Sardinian setting for Cagliarian insiders
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Juvenile internet Cartoons conveying identity
through cheap humorism. Still there are some top
hits. Back in the mid eighties the first one who
tried to revitalize Sardinian to an insider and
outsider audience was Benito urgu. Today are the
Lapolas who use the traditional media.

• The negative hero or the human trickster the
  rising of the villain Mr Fisietto Pistis
• At a linguistic level this issues push forward
  Divergence from a standard gt Southern Sardinian
  Codemixing
• http//www.fisietto.com
• The urban setting of Cagliari becomes a stage for
  playing tricks. The first one who set out to
  re-map a city(Venice) as a place to hide and play
  tricks was Ben Jonson in Volpone(1606). Fisietto
  as a permanent villain is an attack to common
  negative social manners including racism and
  sexism.
• Internet in this case is used as a means of
  promoting traditional press.

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Music gateways

• Ancient cultural symbols are considered of
  extreme value. But the first to outspread
  Sardinian cultural artifacts to the world were
  aknowledged outsiders all over the 20th
  century.
• Today the net is helping the Sardinian artists
  to promote their work in the Sardinian and in the
  English language. Traditional instrumental songs
  such as Passu torrau are nowadays downloadable
  as ring tones for your mobile phone.
• http//www.sardinia.net/sonus/storia.htm
• http//www.talloru.net/sardegna/ballus/index.html

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• Are the sites built and maintained by insiders
  for an insider audience to promote Sardinian
  identity?
• Does it also have the role of promoting Sardinian
  language?
• What role is such a website playing in the
  movement for Sardinian autonomy or independence?
• Identity or language?

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Thank you

• Gràtzias meda,
• a si biri mellus.