Grammatiche scisse nel contatto linguistico: il caso delle minoranze galloitaliche in Sicilia. Parte prima

This paper focuses on the outcomes of language contact in the Gallo-Italic varieties in Sicily. It investigates the relationship with Sicilian, which, from the arrival of settlers on the island in Medieval times (11th-13th Centuries) until a few decades ago, represented the prestige code and the dominant variety. In particular, an attempt is made to clarify the reasons for the greater resistance to the sicilianisation of morphology than of syntax. This split behaviour of grammar is grafted onto an even sharper polarisation: while the syntax of the Gallo-Italic minorities has been based on the Sicilian model, phonology has essentially retained a Northern facies. The preservation of phonological level has recently been explained on the basis of sociolinguistic factors that can be summarised in the identity value assigned by the Gallo-Italic communities to the phonetic specificities of their ancestral language, as a reaction to the assimilating action exerted by the majority code. The examination conducted in this contribution on the morphology yields a remarkable series of traits that are very resistant to contact and that mark a clear distance, also perceptive, with Sicilian dialects. This resilience can have not only a structural explanation. In fact, various sociolinguistic evidences contribute to show that identity-type factors – similarly to what emerged for the phonetic component – as well as aspects such as salience and awareness also played a key role in the preservation of certain areas of morphology.