"Algherese? Sì, ma solo per scherzare." Zum Gebrauch katalanischer Versatzstücke in der Jugendsprache von L'Alguer

Abstract

Summary: In the northwestern Sardinian city of Alghero (l’Alguer), three distinct languages are spoken. Italian is the administrative language of the island; Sardinian exists in all its different variants; and, not surprisingly, given the centuries-long occupation of Sardinia by the Corona de Catalunya i Aragó, there is also Algherese or Alguerès, a Catalan dialect. The goal of the field research on which the following article is based was to collect data on the present-day use of Algherese and on the vitality of a local variant which must hold its ground on the one hand against the superiority of Italian in all areas of life and on the other hand with the help – or in spite – of the language-promotion measures of the Catalonian administration. Using the example of the local youth, this article sketches a social-linguistic description of the particular situation of the inhabitants, who to a certain extent find themselves between several linguistic and cultural contexts. Qualitative interviews with Alghero teenagers undertaken by the author in 2008 serve as the source and some excerpts are provided here. The fact that these interviews could only be done in Italian and not in Algherese or Standard Catalan provides one crucial observation: the natural everyday language of these young people, or the language in which one can address them, is Italian – and not the local variant of Catalan. The latter is used, at best, as a linguistic prop or to “spice up” particular expressions. Even so, or because of this, Algherese has an identity-creation function in peer groups. This is a characteristic feature that, despite the small number of concrete examples from the Catalan language, justifies placing this article in the larger context of Catalan youth idiom, which is the overarching theme of the contributions in this thematic issue. [Keywords: Sardinia, dialects, language policy, minorities, multilingualism, identity, sociolinguistics].