Impieghi simbolici (e non solo) del dialetto bergamasco nel paesaggio linguistico locale

This chapter focuses on the public display of Bergamasco, an Italo-Romance dialect of the Eastern Lombard group spoken in Northern Italy. It will be argued that the introduction of road signs displaying both the Italian and the Bergamasco version of place-names by some of the local municipal authorities may have shaped community members’ attitudes and, possibly, encouraged the use of Bergamasco in other (both offline and online) written domains, thus substantiating the view that «being visible may be as important for minority languages as being heard» (Marten et alii, 2012: 1). The presence of Bergamasco in the local linguistic landscape began in the second half of the 1990s with a prevalently symbolic function, i.e. to express a local identity as opposed to the national one, and gradually paved the way for the public display of signs fulfilling a communicative function. The analysis suggests that a diachronic approach to the study of the linguistic landscape, i.e. the possibility to cover developments over a longer time span, may deepen our understanding of the language beliefs, attitudes and practices which may influence the public display of languages and dialects (e.g., Blackwood, 2018).