PAROLE MIGRANTI. I MIGRATISMI TRA LETTERATURA E LINGUA COMUNE

The research is part of the linguistic studies related to the Italian literature of migration. The First Part traces the history of these studies, from the first critical essays in the Nineties, up to the most recent developments, observed during the three-year doctoral period. Thirty years after the birth of a literature produced by migrants in Italy, it can be seen that criticism has highlighted some problematic issues, such as editing, as well as the role of co-authors and curators who accompany migrant authors during the drafting of the text in Italian. Over the last decade new paths have been taken, mainly focused on the study of lexicon and phraseology, which have revealed the presence of neologisms, the frequent use of similes, metaphors and proverbs. Noteworthy is also the widespread presence in these works of “migratismi”: untranslatable voices, designating foods, clothes, objects and traditions typical of migrant’s cultures of origin. One of the main objectives of this work is to understand whether these words are occasional or destined to take root in Italian, due to contact with the languages of migrants. First of all, the analysis of “migratismi” required the formation of a corpus: the chapters of Second Part present and discuss the reasons and criteria underlying the constitution of the corpus. Given the impossibility of considering the totality of migrant writings, which can be estimated at about a few thousand, it was decided to isolate a specific “line” of works, in order to guarantee an adequate sampling of the phenomenon. This begins with the pioneering novels of the two-year period 1990-1991 and extends to 2020, the year in which the survey was closed. The “line” considered brings together a cohesive group of “immigration narratives”: mostly autobiographical novels and short stories in which the migratory journey and the living conditions of the immigrant in Italy are narrated. The plots are repetitive, with topoi constantly returning, and have a close link with the current events. The titles resemble each other, making the protagonist’s condition explicit (e. g. Immigrato, Il clandestino, Il profugo, etc.) or anticipating the theme of the plot (e.g. La tana della iena. Storia di un ragazzo palestinese, Dal Congo in Italia come in un sogno, Via dalla pazza guerra. Un ragazzo in fuga dall’Afghanistan, etc.). From a linguistic point of view, authors born in countries where Italian is a foreign language and who have learned Italian as adults after migration were privileged. This led to the exclusion of both second generations and postcolonials, for whom the Italian language (and culture) cannot be considered as completely “other”. The corpus consists of 156 works (78 novels, 37 short stories published in personal collections, 41 in miscellaneous anthologies), published in Italy between 1990 and 2020, written by 90 authors from 34 different states. The Third Part reports the results of the analysis conducted on this corpus. First of all, the graphic effect produced by the insertion in the text of “migratismi” and the ways to explain their meaning are studied. It is then detected the abundance of graphic variants, due to the recent acquisition of the voices, for which only rarely exists already a standard universally accepted form. A similar argument also applies to the grammatical class adopted in Italian. Contrariwise, the data relating to the languages of origin (over 30) and the most frequent semantic fields (primarily, gastronomy and religion) are more robust. Finally, the lexicographic works (usage vocabularies, new word supplements, neological databases) and the corpora used to consider the spread of “migratismi” are reviewed. The last Part consists of a Glossary, where the 526 “migratismi” identified in the corpus are alphabetically arranged. For each one, a sheet has been drafted to summarize the data analysis. The headword is the previous graphic variant among those found in the corpus, followed by the other graphic variants, the grammatical mark, the indication of the language of origin and the semantic field. A definition of the meaning is given from internal (notes or glossaries of the authors) or external (vocabularies or neological repertoires) sources. In the absence of sources, the definition is taken from the context. The central body of the sheet reports the occurrences of the “migratismo” in the corpus. The final part is dedicated to the comment and verification of the spread of the word. Overall, the Glossary conveys the idea of a good circulation of “migrant words” in contemporary written Italian, measured across various and diversified sources. The dialogue between attestations in literary texts and attestations in common language corpora turned out to be profitable in determining which words are already adopted, which ones are in the process of being adopted and which ones are scarcely or not at all circulating. At the same time, in the numerous cases of coexistence of multiple variants, the survey allowed to ascertain which is the majority and prevalent form.