You can speak it now: assessing the effect of official recognition on vitality of minority languages

In 1999, an Italian controversial law granted official recognition to twelve regional and minority languages, but denied it to others such as Piedmontese, Venetan, Sicilian, Emilian, Romagnol, that nevertheless are rated as endangered by UNESCO and Ethnologue. This particular situation offers an ideal laboratory to assess the impact of language policies on protected languages and at the same time the effect of lack of official protection and recognition on languages denied of institutional support. In this research we have coupled official census data with the results of an extensive survey carried out among speakers of all endangered languages of Italy, recognised or not, to re-assess their vitality in terms of speakers' number, domains of use, intergenerational transmission and speakers' attitudes. After illustrating the methodology adopted for the survey, we will show how the law was largely ineffective in producing quantitatively significant changes, while had a sharp effect on speakers' attitudes. We will argue that official recognition generally improved self-esteem and generated a pride in the language that is severely lacking among speakers of other languages, while lack of top-down recognition can be a powerful element in reinforcing negative feelings and overestimation of the diffculties of language revitalization.