Effects of National Language Policies on Local Varieties Campanian and Sicilian Case Studies

Abstract

This study analyses the impact of institutional language policies on the status of two local varieties spoken in the area of Messina and in the province of Caserta, which are non-officially promoted in national laws concerning plurilingualism but specifically addressed in legislative measures at Regional level. In order to unveil the impact of language policy on speaker view of languages, this study offers a quantitative analysis, based on questionnaires and focusing on (a) speakers’ judgments about their regional languages; (b) local varieties collocation in their repertoires; (c) correlation between specific communicative situations and local varieties; (d) differences in linguistic prestige assignment among demographic classes of informants.