Italy's local dialects are cool again thanks to youths

By Monica Carolan

ROME, Nov.8 - Young Italians are returning to the roots of their culture by keeping the local dialects of their region popular, a linguistics expert told a gathering at John Cabot University on Wednesday. 

In the northern part of Italy it is most pronounced. The Friuli-Venezia Giulia and Veneto are the dominating regions in this trend, Professor Arturo Tosi said in a lecture entitled "I Giovani e la pubblicità: Come parla l'Italia d'oggi". In the south, Puglia and Sicily take the lead, he added.

Tosi, a professor visiting from University of London, Royal Holloway, discussed the varying forms of language and communication styles prevalent in Italy, particularly between young people. Tosi also discussed how these linguistic differences appear in mass media, across borders.

Advertisements shape the way many young people develop their language, Tosi said. For example, in the first three decades of the past century, short and informative ads were used. In the 1930s in Italy, there was a nationalistic tone in ads due to Fascism. 1950s and 1960s were decades defined by modern consumerism, and the ads reflected this. The next thirty years, known as the age of transgression, was crucial for the way young people speak today, Tosi said. During that period, different techniques were used, such as hyperboles, internationalization, oxymorons, linguistic anomalies, mild sexual innuendos (eventually leading to explicit sexism), machismo, and what is known as "Giovanilese" (language of the young people).

The language of the young became important in this time for effective advertising, and endures today. Tosi defines this language of young people as "a series of words invented by young people in order to make their differences apparent."

Advertising companies became aware of the fact that in order to sell they would have to adapt to a newer, younger culture. For example, advertisements such as "Bullock. L'antifurto con le palle" ("Bullock. The alarm system with balls") started becoming popular.

Of course, young people like to have a language of their own, whether it is a dialect or general slang, to separate themselves from other groups of people.