Linguistic Identity of an Ethnic Minority: The Main Directions of Actualization (On the Example of the Friulian Language)

Abstract

The article is devoted to the study of the reaction of the ethnic community of Friuli, a territorial-linguistic minority of the Friuli region, which is part of the multiethnic region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia in northeastern Italy, in response to the legislative measures of the Italian Republic in the field of regulation of minority languages in the period 1970–2020, time of awareness of the Friulians of their cultural, historical and territorial authenticity. A brief overview of the legislative measures of the Italian Republic in the field of linguistic regulation of minority languages is given, which can be characterized both as supportive and restrictive at the same time. Among the main areas of support for the Friulian language on the part of local authorities and the ethnic community, the following are highlighted as priorities: the creation of television and radio broadcasting in Friulian, as well as the introduction of the practice of clerical work in the Friulian language in local authorities. The studied material allows us to assert that it is the media in modern society that retain the leading role in the construction of social-spatial “imaginary communities”, incl. and local ethnic communities. The practice of document circulation in the language of the national minority in the authorities is a guarantee that this language is as close as possible to the state language in functions, therefore, the status of the official language is confirmed, and not the dialect, the scope of which is the sphere of everyday communication. The national state (the Italian Republic) has the intention to keep under its control the volume and nature of social functions that the minority language performs and only forcibly lets the minority language into the sphere of functioning of the state language – media communication channels and official office work.

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