Language Diversity and Preservation in the Slovene-Italian Cross-Border Area

 Abstract

The paper will bring some of the outcomes of the sociolinguistic research conducted in the nationally mixed area at the Slovene-Italian border, i.e. Slovene Istra in Slovenia and Trieste region in Italy. The theritory is characterised by the presence of Slovene and Italian autocthtonous minorities (the Slovene in Italy and the Italian in Slovenia). Although some international agreements signed by Yugoslavia and Italy after World War II assure both minorities an equal, reciprocal treatment of their linguistic and ethnic rights (Slovenia »inherited« in 1991 the rights assured by those agreements), the reality is quite different. All existent municipalities of Slovene Istria are officially declared to be bilingual, thus meaning that in this area both Italian and Slovene are official languages. As the law prescribes, all public signs have to be written in both languages, both languages can be used in any public office, at public events listeners ought to be addressed in both languages etc. In order to achieve this, not only schools for members of the minority community, but the whole schooling system in the Slovene coastal area promotes bilingualism. The situation is different in Italy, where only a few municipalities inhabited by Slovenes and Italians are partially regarded as bilingual (in spite of the fact that in March 2001 a law for the protection of the Slovene minority has come into effect) with bilingual public signs, documents etc., but, for example, no bilingual schooling for majority children.

The paper will focus on the extent and level of bilingualism in Slovene Istria and Trieste region approximately fifty years after the implementation of the respective minority and language policies in this areas. While members of the Italian majority from Italy do not understand nor speak Slovene unless they follow a spare-time course to learn it, members of the Slovene majority in Slovene Istria learn Italian language as a compulsory subject at school, so they are able to speak Italian at least to some extent. Such difference is due to the fact that in Slovene Istria, Italian language is compulsory at all school levels for representatives of the cultural/linguistic majority as well as for members of the cultural/linguistic minority that, additionally, have to learn to make use of the majority language, i.e. Slovene, too (two-way bilingualism). On the other hand in Italian Friuli Venezia Giulia the learning of both languages is compulsory for minority members only, while members of the cultural/linguistic majority do not have to learn the minority language (Slovene) at school (one-way bilingualism).

Profile

Vesna Mikolič, Ph.D., was born on February 25, 1965, in Koper (Slovenia). In 1989, she graduated in Slovene language and literature and Italian language and literature from the Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana (Slovenia). In 2001, she received her master's degree in Slovene language and stylistics (course on sociolinguistics) and in 2003 with the thesis »Language as a reflexion of the interethnic awareness in the ethnically mixed area of Slovene Istra« she received PhD degree, both from the Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana.

She is a Dean of the Faculty of Humanities of the University of Primorska in Koper (SI). At the same faculty she is a Senior Lecturer of Sociolinguistics, Academic Writing and Tourist Discourse. As Research Associate at the Science and Research Centre of the University of Primorska in Koper she has taken an active part in national and international research projects. She publishes in scientific and specialised periodicals at home and abroad. Fields of her research and professional interest are: sociolinguistics, language policy, language and culture, ethnic identity, communicative competence, languages in contact, bilingualism, intercultural communication, pragmatics, discourse analysis (academic and tourist discourse).

As visiting professor or teacher of Slovene as a second/foreign language she co-operated with many universities in Slovenia and abroad (University of Ljubljana (Slovenia), University of Rijeka (Croatia), Okanagan University College (Kelowna, BC, Canada), University of Trieste (Italy) etc.). In 1994, she conceived and later began managing the project of Summer Courses of the Slovene Language on the Slovene Coast entitled “Hello, this is the Slovene Mediterranean”. In 1999/2000 she received one-year scholarship for research on the "National Awareness and Communication Competence in a Multicultural Society" at the University of Trieste - Consorzio per lo Sviluppo Internazionale, Scuola Superiore di Lingue Moderne per Interpreti e Traduttori dell'Università di Trieste (Italy).
　

Address: University of Primorska, Faculty of Humanities, Glagoljaška 8, SI - 6000 Koper, vesna.mikolic@fhs-kp.si