Linguistic practices and language attitudes of second-generation Italo-Australians

Abstract

This article explores the role of Italian and Sicilian in the life of a second-generation woman of Sicilian origin. It examines her linguistic practices with family and friends through spontaneous conversations, interviews, and a language diary. The analysis focuses on language choice in relation to different interlocutors as indexical of her multiple identities, and on her language attitudes as they emerge implicitly in the conversations and explicitly in the interviews. The trends identified are explained in the light of the language ideologies prevailing in the Italo-Australian and Australian contexts, giving an insight into the prospects of language maintenance in the transition from second- to third-generation Italo-Australians.