Language and identities in US communities of Italian origin. (August 2014)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: De Fina, Anna
• Other Names: Repetti Lori guest-editor.; Haller Hermann W guest-editor.
• Is Part Of: Forum Italicum. Volume 48:Number 2(2014)
• Page Start: 253
• Page End: 267
• Publication Date: 2014-08
• Subjects: code-switching -- identity -- Italian Americans -- narrative -- storytelling; Italian language -- Periodicals; Italian literature -- History and criticism -- Periodicals; Italian literature -- 20th century -- Periodicals; Italy -- Civilization -- Periodicals; 850.5
• DOI: 10.1177/0014585814529227
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0014-5858

Abstract

In this article I discuss relationships between language use and identity among Italian Americans. I argue that the study of identities needs to abandon essentialist stances that are particularly common in research on Italian Americans, and approach identity construction as a process that takes place within concrete social practices enacted by specific communities. I provide a brief overview of the linguistic development of Italian Americans in the USA in order to provide a frame of reference to the discussion of the links between language use and identities. I then focus in particular on the following phenomena: symbolic uses of individual Italian words or expressions within talk in English, engagement with the heritage language in Italian-American families and storytelling, to illustrate how Italianness is constructed through those practices in different communities. I use these examples also to problematize the idea that knowledge of the heritage language is central to ethnic identification.