Italian Language in Istria: Status Planning, Corpus Planning and Acquisition Planning

Abstract

The geopolitical features and the historical cohabitation of the Slavic and Romance ethnic and socio-cultural components in the Croatian Istria County marked the overall heterogeneity of the multicultural and multilingual Istrian territory. A particulary important issue regarding language planning and policy is the statutary official status of the Italian language, besides Croatian. This paper focuses on analyzing language policies and practices based on status planning, acquisition planning and corpus planning. Language planning in the context of the Croatian-Italian bilingualism in Istria is considered significant the role of the legal system which guarantees the preservation of the Italian language as the language of the social environment, helping to create the conditions for its use and the availability of its services, ensuring linguistic rights to the members of the Italian national community, the only (autochthonous) national community in Istria (status planning). In order to determine and increase its prestige on the social level, learning Italian as the language of the social environment is encouraged among members of the majority in Croatian language teaching schools, for broadening its knowledge and the use of available services for a wider range of users (acquisition planning). The least efforts are applied to the development of attempts to ensure and expand its use within various social language functions (corpus planning). Although Italian is institutionally protected and its teaching is widely encouraged, the goal of its application in everyday socialization remains unreached. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2015.v6n2s5p385