engleski

The maintenance of the Fiuman dialect.

The Fiuman dialect is the Romance idiom spoken by an indigenous minority group that has lived for centuries in the city of Rijeka (Croatia) and its surroundings, which is today a Croatian-dominant language environment. It is not known for sure whether it developed from the vernacular Latin spoken by Romanized Illyric tribes or was introduced later by merchants from Italy. Throughout its hisory, the Fiuman dialect has come into contact with other Croatian dialects, standard Croatian and standard Italian, Latin, German, Hungarian, French and Turkish. Fiuman and Croatian are structurally and genetically different and mutually unintelligible. From standard Italian, Fiuman differs at almost all levels of linguistic analysis (Bratulić, Đurđulov, Blecich and Kraš 2015). Today’s Fiuman dialect is regarded as a koine of the Italian, Croatian and German language (Drljača Margić, Kraš and Smiljanić 2015). It has not been codified and relatively limited scientific interest has been directed towards it. According to Lukežić (2008), Fiuman is primarily a sociolect, used by a particular social group, rather than by the entire population in the city. It is mainly spoken by the bilinguals/multilinguals who mostly declare themselves as Italian minority members. No accurate or official record of the current number of Fiuman speakers exists. According to the Constitution of the Republic of Croatia (2014) and the Statute of the City of Rijeka (2016), language rights regarding the use of the language and script in public and in educational and cultural activities are conferred on to the Italian minority in Rijeka. Accordingly, standard Italian is the medium of education/instruction in Italian minority nurseries and schools in Rijeka, and the official language of Italian minority institutions of Rijeka, such as the Italian Community of Rijeka (It. Comunità degli Italiani di Fiume), the Italian National Theatre (It. Dramma Italiano) and the EDIT publishing house, as well as of the La voce del popolo daily newspaper. The local radio station, Radio Rijeka/Radio Fiume, also boasts several editions of daily news in Italian. As regards Fiuman, there is a dearth of educational activities, literature and media contents in the dialect. It is used in informal communication in the Italian minority educational and other institutions, while standard Italian is used in formal minority environments/contexts. Nevertheless, Fiuman is primarily spoken in private domains, with family, friends and colleagues from the Fiuman community (Lukežić 1993 ; Rošić 2002 ; Crnić Novosel and Spicijarić Paškavan 2014). It seems that there are both the intergenerational language transmission and awareness of its importance, and speakers feel a very high level of emotional attachment to the collective identity (Crnić Novosel and Spicijarić Paškvan 2015). According to Fiuman speakers, the attitude of the dominant language speakers towards the use of the dialect is also positive and encouraging (cf. Crnić Novosel and Spicijarić Paškvan 2014). The Fiuman dialect persists primarily due to the efforts of older generations, while younger speakers tend to shift to Croatian or standard Italian (Crnić Novosel and Spicijarić Paškvan 2014, 2015). However, there seems to be an increase in the written use of Fiuman, especially among younger speakers, primarily as far as communication on social networks, in text messaging and via e-mail is concerned (Plešković, Kraš and Drljača Margić submitted). In our opinion, the maintenance of Fiuman depends on its use in various domains and with a vast range of its speakers. It also hinges upon the activities undertaken by the minority institutions, engaging primarily Fiuman speakers but also encouraging other citizens to partake. Fiuman should also get more space in the media through broadcasting of radio and television programmes and publishing newspapers and magazines in the minority language. The potential of modern technologies and the new media in the maintenance of Fiuman should also be further exploited. Minority schools should offer elective subjects and organise activities in the minority language, as well as stimulate students to participate. Students who do not speak the language should also be given an opportunity to take part. Closely related is the design of appropriate teaching materials and training teachers in the use of the minority language. To sum up, minority institutions should take greater advantage of the legal frame and the language rights granted to the minority, not only to back the use of Italian but also to further Fiuman use.

Fiuman dialect ; language maintenance ; language shift

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