Autobiografie linguistiche di adolescenti calabresi

Aim of the paper is to examine the relationship between dialect, Regional Italian and standard Italian among a group of adolescents from the city of Lamezia Terme (Calabria). The research was conducted in two different schools in Lamezia Terme, one humanities high school (‘Liceo Classico’) and one vocational school (‘Istituto Tecnico’): in the school students were asked to answer a sociolinguistic questionnaire concerning the perception of the local varieties. Questionnaires were properly constructed to have information on the students’ linguistic biography, on the use and evaluation of the dialect, on the perception of the geographical and linguistic boundaries. Data show a picture in which the dialect is used to perform and construct social identity: It is used among adolescents to mark affiliation and in-group relationships, but, at the same time, there is social stigma toward people who use it. Regarding the informants’ attitudes to their own dialect and the connection between language and identity, it seems that there is a paradox, between the relatively negative attitudes they express towards their own dialect, on the one hand, and the strong significance the dialect has for their personal and local identity, on the other.