Introduction

This survey was undertaken by a team of 12 interviewers from the University of Udine under the direction of Dra. S. Schiavi-Fachin during the spring of 1996. The interviewers were fully trained during a two week period in February 1996. It involved a total of 336 interviews randomly selected by reference to a distributional quota using telephone calls within a range of localities within the Friulian area. In the absence of relevant census data the number to be interviewed was divided into ten sets, each set consisting of an equal number of respondents divided by reference to age, gender and social class. Each interviewer was allocated a quota and an area within which to fill the quota. In order to identify respondents a preliminary telephone call was undertaken with randomly chosen individuals from the telephone directory. The telephone interview established the Friulian ability of the respondent, his/her gender, age and social class. A follow up interview was arranged during which responses to the items on the language use survey instrument were obtained. These interviews were all conducted in Friulian.

It would appear that most of the respondents have lived in the same locality throughout their lives, with almost two thirds having lived since the age of three in the same community, and a further 26% having lived within the same region since the same age. The patterns are broadly similar for the previous generation, suggesting that there has been little internal migration (Table 1). On the other hand fewer than half of the partners have married into their own community, but the percentage of respondents and partners drawn from within the region are not significantly different indicating that most marriages are contracted with partners from within the region even if not with partners from within the same communities.

This is reiterated in Table 2:

Those drawn from outside Italy tend to be return migrants into the region. The extent of in-migration from outside the region among the respondents and their partners is low.

The nature of the marriage pattern by reference to language group membership is evident in Table 3. It would appear that the majority of the parental generation were drawn from the Friulian language group, with a limited amount of marriage into the group.

There does not appear to be much variation in the incidence of language group endogamy between the parental and grand parental generations.

FRIULIAN

Neither is there much difference within the generation of the respondents, most of whom have married partners with a good understanding of Friulian.

Clearly language use relates to ability, the level of which by reference to different functions is shown in Table 4:

Whereas the majority (94%) understand Friulian perfectly, the ability to speak the language at the same level diminishes to 79%. What is even more significant is the decrease in the level of literacy, with only 24% claiming to read the language very well and 9% claiming the same level of ability by reference to writing. As we shall see below this has a great deal to do with the lack of formal educational facilities by reference to Friulian.

It is hardly surprising therefore that Friulian was the first language learnt by almost two thirds of the respondents (Table 5):

Yet there is almost a quarter of the respondents whose first language was Italian, suggesting that even within the family there has been some tendency to resort to Italian as the dominant language. We shall return to this point momentarily. Clearly the figures in Table 5 suggest that most of the respondents would have learnt Friulian in the home. Table 6 indicates the learning context of the other respondents:

Note: Multiple contexts apply to most respondents.

It is evident that the majority learnt Friulian within a social context, either by living within a community where the predominant communication medium was Friulian, or through involvement in Friulian social networks. The motivation to learn in indicated in Table 7:

Note: Multiple contexts apply to most respondents.

These figures reinforce the context of learning, with the majority claiming that the motivation for learning was primarily social, involving either community integration or family reasons.

We have already referred to the language ability of family members in Table 3. In Table 8 we turn to the language use patterns within the family when the respondent was a child:

Clearly the majority were raised in households where the parents spoke Friulian together, the remainder are equally divided between those whose parents spoke only Italian and those who spoke a mixture of Italian and Friulian.

Evidently language use in the family depends upon the language ability of the different family members (Table 3). When we turn to consider the ability data with the actual patterns of use in Table 8 we again find that the majority (66%) of respondents spoke only Friulian with their parents.

This incidence is similar to that employed with the grandparents. Yet a significant minority (22%) spoke only Italian with their parents. A comparison of Tables 3 and 9 does however suggest that as many as 15% have parents who speak Friulian fluently but do not use the language exclusively with them, the same being true of the language used with the respondents when with their grandparents. If anything, the incidence of use with siblings when taking ability level into consideration is even higher than with parents, with virtually all of those who have a brother or sister who speaks a very good Friulian using the language exclusively with them.

Given the extent of language group endogamy it is no surprise that similar patterns and incidences of language use apply to the partner of the respondent:

What is interesting in Table 10 is the language used with the children. There appears to be a marked change in language use, the incidence of use changing from about three quarters who used Friulian exclusively with their parents to only half doing so with their own children. In contrast, the use of Italian only increases from a little less than 15% for the parental generation to over 25% with the current generation. There is also a marked increase in the use of both languages with the children, at the expense of the exclusive use of Friulian.

This information is reiterated in Table 11:

It seems that half of the families use Friulian exclusively at mealtime, with almost a quarter using either Italian exclusively or both languages. This pertains to the pattern of language use across the family interactions. About two thirds use Friulian exclusively with their parents, and a similar percentage with their partner. However, the proportion using the language exclusively with their children decreases to less than a half, a proportion not dissimilar to that for the use of Friulian at mealtime.

This indicates a very definite realignment of language use within the family to a situation in which far more Italian is currently being used with the children than was previously the case. It also suggests that Friulian continues to be the exclusive language used by many parents together, but who resort to Italian or a mixture of both languages with their children. The overall tendency appears to be towards the exclusive use of Italian among those parents who are realigning in this way.

Among the children of the respondents only 39% use Friulian exclusively together whereas the exclusive use of Italian increases to 32%. About a quarter use a mixture of both languages, the tendency being to favour Italian (Table 12).

The use of the telephone in the home suggests that answering the telephone involves a greater tendency to favour Italian but with a considerable use of Friulian, even if the number who use it exclusively are few (Table 13):

Table 14 indicates the subjective evaluation of the extent of the use of Friulian within community contexts when they were children and currently:

A number of things stand out. Firstly that the use of Friulian in religion is considerably less than in the informal contexts of social interaction. Secondly, that a number of the respondents suggest that there has been a decline in the use of Friulian over the time span that they refer to. Within clubs and societies there has been a significant reduction in the number who claim that Friulian is often heard, and an increase in the number who claim that it is never heard. This implies a tendency for such contexts increasingly to introduce and rely upon Italian within their activities. There does not appear to be much change by reference to the evaluation of the use of Friulian in religion. Indeed, if anything, there is a suggestion that there has been some increase in its use, albeit that it is probably from a low use base. The reduction in the incidence of use in the street and in the shops is similar. The incidence of use in these contexts remains fairly high, most respondents claiming that it is still used and often.

We can now turn to Tables 15 and 16 in order to throw more light upon the above. Table 15 covers both formal and informal activities:

If we retain only those activites cited by more than 50 respondents, and rank them by decreasing use of Friulian, the following is obtained:

What is immediately apparent is the high use of Friulian in the informal activities involving social meetings at the bar or cafe and in socialising with friends. It would appear that in the context of social interaction Friulian has priority and may even structure the social networks within the region. We shall return to this issue below. On the other hand the language used at the restaurant tends to be primarily Italian, suggesting that this was interpreted by reference to the interaction with the personnel working in the restaurants rather than the company kept at restaurants. It is also relevant that these three informal activities are the ones in which most of the respondents participate. The figures concerning the Church are also confusing in that they contradict the preceding figures. Again it is necessary to recognise that there are two sides to such institutional settings. On the one hand are the formal activities of religious practice which, as we shall see below, tend to be dominated by Italian. On the other hand are the informal social encounters within the institution and it would appear that Friulian dominates these interactions. The remainder of the activities listed tend to be very much minority activities. Again Friulian appears to be the most popular language used except by reference to the Theatre, Ecology group and Gjenitors. Even sports activities which, if they are universal activities such as swimming, athletics or football, rather than language group specific activities, tend to be carried out through the medium of the dominant language are, in this case, dominated by Friulian. Yet there is also a strong presence of Italian and even of the exclusive use of Italian in sports activities.

Table 16 gives an indication of the evaluation of the language ability of interlocutors in different community contexts and of the language used in these contexts by the respondents:

ABILITY (in % ranges)

USE:

It is evident that the majority feel that most of the people in these contexts are able to speak Friulian, something that suggests a high incidence of ability among the general population. The highest perceived incidence of ability is by reference to friends, followed by pubs and cafes. The lowest incidence is by reference to 'cultural' activities.

The languages used in these contexts follows the perception of language ability among the interlocutors. Among friends and in the bars and cafes, two contexts which clearly overlap, Friulian is the dominant language of use. Over half claimed that Friulian was the exclusive language of communication by reference to these two contexts. This incidence decreases across shops, sports clubs and cultural activities. Most interesting is the 'shops' context which seems to imply either that this is a context in which the use of Italian is institutionalised or that a significant number of shop workers do not speak Friulian. Given that there is a lower incidence of Friulian ability in Udine it is quite possible that the figures would differ if local and central contexts were differentiated. Again we note that Italian tends to dominate the 'cultural' activities.

We have already made some reference to the Church as a formal community based institutions. Tables 17 and 18 offer more evidence on language and religious activity:

Clearly the majority do involve themselves in these activities even if it is not on a regular basis. Most of the formal activities of mass, communion, prayer, baptism and 'doctrine' are conducted exclusively in Italian. The extent of the use of Friulian in more than a token context is small:

Thus far we have alluded to the general use of language in universal community activities or those activities which usually pertain to adults. Table 19 considers activities directed at the young:

Most of these appear to be minority activities, the most popular being Church based activities and 'palestre'. Given what has been said above it is not surprising that these activities are dominated by Italian. Indeed only two activities - excursions and ball team - reverse this situation by prioritising Friulian. Even here there is also a considerable amount of Italian language use indicating that none of the activities are specific to one language group or another. Yet there are other activities such as the choir which do have a significant Friulian presence.

Finally in Table 20 we consider the dyadic contexts of language use within the community:

If we rank them according to the greater to lesser possibility of using the language, the following emerges:

A pattern that appears to emerge from the preceding tables is one in which the localised activities, no matter the social status of the interlocutor, will be undertaken in Friulian wherever possible, whereas the more centralised activities, including those in the public sector, will focus more on the use of Italian. In many of these cases, where the incidence of Friulian use is low, the respondent claims that it is not possible to use the language. Many of these contexts are centralised public sector contexts or specialised services - the tax office, power station, telephone exchange, social security, optician, cinema or the dentist. Among these contexts are 'asking a stranger the time' implying that the use of Friulian involves a personalised knowledge of the interlocutor.

The data presented in Table 13 suggested a low level of literacy by reference to Friulian, something we suggested related to the availability or lack of availability of Friulian-medium education. We expand upon this in this section. Tables 21 to 24 all tell the same story - regardless of the wishes of the population, education through the medium of Friulian is almost non-existent at any educational level.

The question as to the distance travelled to the chosen school is thus virtually meaningless.

All this being the case it is hardly surprising that the literacy rate in Friulian is so low.

Tables 24 and 25 indicate that most of the respondents in employment worked for SMEs managed by personnel from within the Friuli region:

Only 7% of the managers were drawn from outside of Friul. Table 26 suggests that most of the managers also speak Friulian fluently, the incidence of ability being quite similar to that among the respondents themselves:

The incidence of language ability and use within the workforce is indicated in Tables 27 and 28:

PERCENTAGE SPEAKING FRIULIAN

It seems that more than two thirds of the respondents work for enterprises where more than three quarters of the directors and workforce speak Friulian. This is a higher incidence than by reference to the clients, with fewer than half of the respondents claiming that three quarters or more of their clients speak Friulian.

Yet over a quarter of the respondents claimed they spoke only Italian with the directors and a third claiming they spoke either Italian only or more Italian than Friulian with the directors. This is a far greater tendency to use the state language than with their colleagues, only 12% using Italian exclusively with their colleagues, and a further 12% using both languages but mainly Italian. Where 30% spoke Friulian exclusively with the management, 40% spoke the language exclusively with their colleagues:

Even though 65% of the respondents claimed that all of the directors spoke Friulian, only 30% claimed they used the language exclusively with them. In contrast, where half the respondents claimed all of their colleagues spoke Friulian, 40% used the language exclusively with them. That is, there is a tendency for work to be conceived of as favouring Italian regardless of ability, this conception being particularly true by reference to power relationships in work. Yet the relationship is by no means universal.

This tendency is reinforced by the language of administration to be almost exclusively Italian:

It is hardly surprising therefore that Table 30 indicates that Italian is almost universally essential by reference to the four ability contexts:

The figures for reading and writing of Friulian are not surprising given the low range of abilities in these two contexts. Yet there does appear to be more support for the relevance of Friulian at work than is suggested by the figures in Table 28. Over half of the relevant respondents claim that speaking and understanding the language is essential.

There is not a great deal of specific emphasis placed by employers for the language at work. Few employ anyone because of an ability in Friulian (Table 31):

The most relevant context is by reference to public relations and client contact indicating that there is some sensitivity to the wishes of the public by reference to language even if it is limited.

Given the preceding discussion it is not surprising that so few companies have any form of concerted language policy (Table 32):

Only four companies had a fully implemented policy and a further twelve companies had any other form of explicit policy by reference to language. When it comes to language practice the picture is much the same:

Only five companies had any specific practice by reference to recruiting Friulian speakers, all of the others having no preference.

Clearly Friulian tends to be used in work as a social dimension having little relevance to actual work practice or policy. In this respect it tends to be institutionalised as a matter of social practice rather than work or employment practice, where Italian tends to be normative.

Access to radio and television broadcasting in Friulian is by no means universal (Table 34):

Fewer than a third claim to be able to receive radio broadcasts in the language and only a little over 20% receive television broadcasts in the language. The use of the broadcasting media is even less:

Only about 20% claim to listen to radio programmes in the language and less than 15% watch television broadcasts in Friulian. This is hardly surprising given the limited amount of broadcasting available in the language. RAI 3 broadcasts a single cultural programme in the language. One private radio station broadcasts between 70 and 80 hours in the language weekly but has only about 35,000 listeners. A single television transmitter broadcasts one night a week in the language.

Turning to the print media it is hardly surprising that use is low given the limited amount of literacy in Friulian:

FRIULIAN:

ITALIAN:

The contrast between Friulian and Italian is striking.

Table 37 indicates that most of the respondents have a dual identity, with three quarters claiming a Friulian identity and 82% claiming an Italian identity. Clearly, for many, these two identities overlap and there is no mutual exclusivity by reference to either:

This indicates that a Friulian identity does not present any threat to the coherence of the Itlain state domain.

The figures presented in Table 38 pertaining to the attitude scales indicate a strong tendency in one direction or the other for the majority of the respondents, few of the items are polarised:

1 = Strongly disagree; 2 = Disagree; 3 = Neutral; 4 = Agree; 5 = Strongly agree

Yet there are one or two contradictions. On the one hand there appears to be support for the idea that there Friulian should be used in work but there is no support for extending Friulian into administration. This is hardly surprising given the low level of the literacy that would be essential if Friulian speakers were to be benefit from such a development. Unsuprisingly there is a tendency to agree that there are more important languages than Friulian but there is a reluctance to conceive of the language in negative terms. It tends not to be seen as outdated, as symbolic of a lower class status, of having no place in the modern world. On the other hand there is more ambiguity about the suitability of Friulian for science and business than for any other of the items. Again this is indicative of a realistic response to the current situation. There is a strong identity dimension most agreeing with the claim that the language is an essential prerequisite of the Friulian identity and that the language should be learnt by the children of the region. Also, given what we have said above about language and work it is hardly surprising that the vast majority did not agree that the language was a vehicle for social mobility.

Finally Table 39 indicates the evaluation by the respondents of the support given to the language by different bodies and individuals:

There was a very strong tendency to feel that central government and public and state bodies were uninterested in Friulian. There was a certain ambiguity by reference to the interest of the regional council and a feeling that the community council was most interested. These are the very conditions which foster marginalisation and alienatyion from the main agencies of the broader society. There was also an ambiguity by reference to the church which is not surprising given what we have discussed above about the negative involvement of Friulian in the formal activities and the relatively high involvement in informal activities. In-migrants tended to be viewed negatively but not entirely so which again reflects the nature of the migration flow which involves both the entry of non-Friulian and return migrants. Private enterprise tended to be seen in a negative light. On the personal level friends, family and self tended to be the most positive by reference to support for the language. This again reinforces how the preceding data presents the language as being used far more in social networks than in the formal activities of formal institutions and establishments.

The Friulian language appears to have a strong demographic base within the area. There is a fairly strong reproduction role within the family but there is evidence that this is changing, with parents electing to use far more Italian with their children than was hitherto the case. The community also appears to be able to play an important role by reference to both production and reproduction. However this is qualified by the knowledge that most of the strength derives from the informal activities of social networks and social interaction rather than from the organised activities of formal organisation and institutions. Centralised functions tend to be particularly weak and reflect the lack of interest at the central level, something that is very evident to the Friulian speaker. In this respect these are the very circumstances where alienation and marginalisation surfaces. The Church does not appear to offer a lead by reference to the language and this seems to be a mater both of indifference and also of centralised institutionalism which focuses upon the use of italian in Church affairs. yet as a social focus the Church is important in drawing together the community which operates to a large extent in terms of the Friulian language group.

Education is systematically unable to play any role of relevance by reference to either production or reproduction. Equally important it is not able to paly role by reference to standardisation and most of the Friulian speakers are illiterate in the language. In many respects this is the major deficiency by reference to any desire to sustain the language group.

The use Friulian in work does not relate to language prestige in the manner in which we have used the concept but rather to informal activity. This means that insofar as the formal aspects of work are concerned Italian is very much privileged. as a consequence Friulian has a relatively low index of language prestige.

As might be expected the attitude towards the language is strong and it has a significant symbolic potential. yet there is also an awareness that the political authorities and formal bodies an institutions have little interest in the language. This promotes a tendency to feel that they do not have any interest in the language group. It is seen very much as a community language that receives little support from the bodies within the wider society. It is institutionalised within informal contexts but not in formal contexts and appears to have very little degree of legitimisation.

In sum Friulian language community is one which has a strong sense of self-identity, a sense that is reinforced by a strong sense of regionalism that links with a state orientation that is positive. This self-identity relates to the language and structures most informal social activities. On the other hand the lack of formal support gives considerable room for concern. There is an urgent need to extend the use of Friulian in education at all levels and to extend the use of the language in the mass media. Most importantly there is a need to extend the prestige value of the language. Unless such steps are taken any significant change in the demographic situation, deriving from economic restructuring, can lead to the rapid demise of the language group.

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