Considerazioni su alcune dinamiche sociolinguistiche in contesto siculoalbanese

This study investigates diverse sociolinguistic dynamics relating to Sicilian Albanian communities. In light of a survey of the socio-demographic and socio-economic aspects characterising the communities under scrutiny, it has emerged that these communities have a twofold configuration: on the one hand, the community of Piana degli Albanesi presents features of mobility and typically “urban” details, on the other hand, the communities of S. Cristina and Contessa Entellina can be distinguished by an apparent state of isolation and typically “rural” traits. By contrast to what mainstream tendencies may encourage thinking about, the urban socio-economic structured community is sociolinguistically “conservative”, whereas the smaller, “isolated” and “rural” centres appear to be oriented towards crucial forms of innovation by means of rapid attempts to abandon the linguistic variety that still contributes to the preservation of their ethnic identification. On the basis of what maintained, the objective of this analysis is to demonstrate how, in essence, the Albanophones belonging to the urban socio-economic structured community, by modalities of adoption of uninhibited communication strategies flexible to “compromise” and linguistic fusion, as well as to mistilingualism, are successful in the defence of their ethnic and linguistic identity.