Ghanaian immigrants and the twofold potential of Italo-Romance dialects

In present-day Italy, there are huge differences in the way immigrants adapt to the Italo-Romance varieties spoken in the receiving communities. Attitudes range from almost complete accommodation of the whole repertoire —i.e. from (Regional) Italian to the local dialect— to an outright rejection of the Italo-Romance dialect(s) spoken by the autochthonous population. These differences may underpin the status and prestige hierarchies within the receiving community repertoire, but they may equally be a consequence of the social restrictions imposed by community norms concerning the people that are considered to be the legitimate, entitled users of Italo-Romance dialects. The present chapter focuses on Ghanaian immigrants in Italy. The analysis of excerpts from a sample of face-to-face interactions and semi-structured interviews involving a group of first-generation Ghanaian immigrants (cfr. Guerini 2006 and 2018), combined with the author’s long-term participant observation in the Bergamo community, will reveal that the interplay of three main factors —i.e. lack of input, negative attitudes and lack of motivation— feed into a self-reinforcing dynamic, which makes the incorporation of Italo-Romance dialects into the linguistic repertoire of first generation Ghanaian immigrants unlikely.