Abstract
Abstract This article examines the current sociolinguistic situation of Veneto in Santa Teresa, a small municipality located in the highlands of the state of Espirito Santo, in Southeastern Brazil. Santa Teresa was founded in 1874 by a group of about 300 Italian immigrants from Veneto-speaking towns in Northern Italy. The study is based on a survey conducted in 2016, which compares three distinct age groups of descendants of Veneto heritage residing in the rural area of Santa Teresa by examining self-rated language abilities in both Veneto and Portuguese, language use, and attitudes. The 98 informants that participated in this study belong to the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth generations of Veneto descendants. At the conclusion of this preliminary study, the results of the self-evaluations show that Veneto continues to be spoken and used at home, at work, and with neighbors and friends by respondents of all of these generations, which means that the rural community of Santa Teresa surpassed the typical three-generation shift to the majority language observed in heritage language families in the United States. However, findings also indicate that language shift towards Portuguese is taking place in Santa Teresa, and that the heritage language runs the risk of disappearing in the near future if nothing is done to stop the ongoing language shift.
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