IAP 135: Le Belle Lingue - Dialects, Regional Languages, and Italian American English, Part 2

If any language proves that there's room at the linguistic table for everyone... it's Italian! This week, we continue our examination of the languages of Italy as we take a closer look at her many Regional Languages and Dialects, including the unique blend of Italian and English spoken by Italian Americans through the generations. We'll discus the state of Italy's diverse Regional Languages, both before and after Italian Unification, as well as their contemporary renaissance thanks to social media. Plus we'll explore the rich patrimonies of Sicilian poetry and Neapolitan music and how both these forms, and many others, are vehicles for linguistic survival. We'll focus on Italy's constitutional commitments to protect her linguistic minorities, and even see some of the enduring aspects of "Italianness" in Italy's former colony Eritrea. Heading back to the United States, we talk about how the Italian American dialect changes depending on geographic location and how certain Italian American-born words have cemented themselves as part of the American vernacular. And, for our weekly off topic ramble, we'll discuss Italian clothing culture and how it is seen as a source of identity and pride in the Italian American community, how this translates back across the ocean in the Motherland.