Salvaguardia del patrimonio linguistico: la Campania

Abstract

The regional bill for the protection of the linguistic heritage of Campania leaves many issues open both in relation to the interpretation of the bill’s actual scope (does it include only Naples urban dialect or also all other dialects in the region?) and the possible measures that can or should be taken in view of such protection. The dialectal complexity of Campania, its history and its denomination, the dynamics the dialects are presently showing, their tendencies toward mutual convergence and toward a certain degree of hybridization with Italian, are among the main issues that are discussed in this paper. In particular, the role that school teaching can play with regard to the dialects and their survival is also taken into account, describing the possible actions that could or should be taken and their apparent limitations due to a number of theoretical and practical factors involved.