Series | Diaspore
Review | Human Mobility and Circularity of the Idea
Chapter | Os contatos entre os dialetos italianos e o português no Espírito Santo
Os contatos entre os dialetos italianos e o português no Espírito Santo
Abstract
This paper presents part of the history of the contacts between the Italian dialects and Portuguese in Espirito Santo - State of southeastern Brazil – which has received thousands of immigrants from the North of Italy in the late nineteenth century. As immigrants set up in isolated areas, in the woods, the Italian dialects were preserved for many decades. Currently, these dialects are no longer being spoken, but the language contact that remained left a mark on the Portuguese's descendants, especially on the phonetic-phonological level. With respect to the social history of these contacts, the research caused in the state register the end of transmission of the dialects to the following generations: the sad reminders that the land and also the ancestral language evoked; the use of dialect for adult conversation only, keeping children away from older issues; the prohibition to speak foreign languages in the country, the New State period, Getúlio Vargas, 1937-1945; and prejudice and discrimination, which generated shame immigrants and their descendants. Therefore, it appears the importance of social factors for the preservation or the disappearance of minority languages in immigrant communities, from the case of the Italians in the State of Espírito Santo.
Submitted: Nov. 8, 2016 | Language: it
Keywords Italian dialects in Espírito Santo • Language contact • Language maintenance • Language shift
Copyright © 2017 Edenize Ponzo Peres. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
Permalink http://doi.org/10.14277/6969-122-5/DSP-7-1
