Italianization

 ( History Of Dalmatia ) 

The period of violent persecution of Slovenes in Trieste began with riots on 13 April 1920, which were organised as a retaliation for the assault on the Italian occupying troops by the local Croatian population in the 11 July Split incident. Many Slovene-owned shops and buildings were destroyed during the riots, which culminated in the burning down of the Narodni dom ("National Home"), the community hall of the Triestine Slovenes, by a group of Italian Fascists, led by Francesco Giunta. Benito Mussolini praised this action as a "masterpiece of the Triestine fascism". Two years later he became prime minister of Italy.

In September 1920, Mussolini said:

This expressed a common Fascist opinion against the Croatian and Slovene minority in the Julian March.

Italian teachers were assigned to schools and the use of Croatian and Slovene language languages in the administration and in the courts restricted. After March 1923 these languages were prohibited in administration, and after October 1925 in law courts, as well. In 1923, in the context of Riforma Gentile prepared by the fascist minister Giovanni Gentile, teaching in languages different from Italian was abolished. In the Julian March this meant the end of teaching in Croatian and Slovenian. Some 500 Slovene teachers, nearly half of all Slovene teachers in the Littoral region, were moved by the Italians from the area, to the interior of Italy, while Italian teachers were sent to teach Slovene children Italian. However, in Šušnjevica (it: Valdarsa) the use of Istro-Rumanian language was allowed after 1923.PUŞCARIU, Sextil. Studii istroromâne. Vol. II, București: 1926

In 1926, claiming that it was restoring surnames to their original Italian form, the Italian government announced the Italianization of German, Slovene and Croat surnames.Regio decreto legge 10 Gennaio 1926, n. 17: Restituzione in forma italiana dei cognomi delle famiglie della provincia di TrentoMezulić, Hrvoje; R. Jelić (2005) Fascism, baptiser and scorcher (O Talijanskoj upravi u Istri i Dalmaciji 1918–1943.: nasilno potalijančivanje prezimena, imena i mjesta), Dom i svijet, Zagreb, In the Province of Trieste alone, 3,000 surnames were modified and 60,000 people had their surnames amended to an Italian-sounding form. First or given names were also Italianized.

Slovene and Croat societies and sporting and cultural associations had to cease every activity in line with a decision of provincial Fascist secretaries dated 12 June 1927. On a specific order from the prefect of Trieste on 19 November 1928, the Edinost political society was also dissolved. Croat and Slovene financial co-operatives in Istria, which at first were absorbed by the Pula or Trieste savings banks, were gradually liquidated. A Historical Outline Of Istria

In 1927, Giuseppe Cobolli Gigli, the minister for public works in fascist Italy, wrote in Gerarchia magazine, a Fascist publication, that "The Istrian muse named as foiba those places suitable for burial of enemies of the national Italian characteristics of Istria". Gerarchia, vol. IX, 1927: "La musa istriana ha chiamato Foiba degno posto di sepoltura per chi nella provincia d'Istria minaccia le caratteristiche nazionali dell'Istria" [3] http://www.danas.rs/20050217/dijalog1.html http://www.lavocedifiore.org/SPIP/article.php3?id_article=1692 http://www.osservatoriobalcani.org/article/articleview/3901/1/176/

The Slovene militant anti-Fascist organization TIGR emerged in 1927. It co-ordinated the Slovene resistance against Fascist Italy until its dismantlement by the Fascist secret police in 1941. At the time, some TIGR ex-members joined the Slovene Partisans. As a result of the repression, more than 100,000 Slovenes and Croats emigrated from Italian territory between the two world wars, the vast majority to Yugoslavia. Among the notable Slovene émigrés from Trieste were the writers Vladimir Bartol and Josip Ribičič, the legal theorist Boris Furlan, and the architect Viktor Sulčič.

During the Italian annexation of Dalmatia in World War II, Giuseppe Bastianini immediately gave way to a massive and violent Italianization of the annexed provinces: the political secretaries of the fascist party, of the after-work club, of the agricultural consortia and doctors, teachers, municipal employees, midwives were sent to administer them, immediately hated by those whose jobs they took away.G. Zanussi, Guerra e catastrofe d'Italia,volume I, pagina 233 Italian was imposed as a compulsory language for officials and teachers, although Serbo-Croatian was tolerated for communications within the civil administration.Marina Cattaruzza, L'Italia e il confine orientale, 1866-2006, Bologna, Il Mulino, 2007, pagina 213 In the major centres, various signs written in Croatian were replaced by writings in Italian, Croatian flags, newspapers and posters were prohibited except the bilingual ones published by the Italian civil and military authorities; cultural and sporting societies dissolved, the Roman salute imposed, some Italian surnames restored.Giorgio Bocca, Storia d'Italia nella guerra fascista 1940-1943, Mondadori; pag. 404 We also proceeded, as already in Julian March and South Tyrol, with the Italianization of geographical names, streets and squares. A special office for the Adriatic lands offered loans and benefits to those willing to denationalize, and in the meantime purchased land to redistribute to former Italian combatants.Giorgio Bocca, Storia d'Italia nella guerra fascista 1940-1943, Mondadori; pagg. 404-405 Scholarships were established for Dalmatians who wanted to continue their studies in Italy and 52 Dalmatian Italians and 211 Croatians and Serbs made use of them.Burgwy, Empire on the Adriatic, pag. 116

Regulations by the fascist authorities required that all kinds of signs and public notices be in Italian only. Maps, postcards and other graphic material had to show Italian place names. In September 1925, Italian became the sole permissible language in courts of law. Illegal Katakombenschulen ("Catacomb schools") were set up by the local German-speaking majority to teach children the German language. The government created incentives to encourage immigration of native Italians to South Tyrol. Several factors limited the effects of the Italian policy, namely the adverse nature of the territory (mainly mountains and valleys of difficult access), the difficulty for the Italian-speaking individuals to adapt to a completely different environment and, later on, the alliance between Nazi Germany and Italy: under the 1939 South Tyrol Option Agreement, Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini determined the status of the German people living in the province. They either had to opt for emigration to Nazi Germany or stay in Italy and become fully Italianized. Because of the outbreak of World War II, this agreement was never fully implemented and most ethnic Germans remained or returned at the end of the war.

Following World War II, South Tyrol was one of the first regions to be granted autonomy on the ground of its peculiar linguistic situation; any further attempts at Italianization were formally abandoned.

In the 21st century, just over 100 years after the Italian annexation of the region, 64% of the population of South Tyrol speak German as their first language and everyday language.

A secret society was organized in the region for the defense of the Aosta Valley identity and the use of the French language, the Ligue valdôtaine, whose founder was Anselme Réan, as well as a partisan activity which led to the Declaration of Chivasso, signed by the representatives of the communities Alpine in defense of their particularism. A member of the resistance, Émile Chanoux, arrested by the fascist militia, was assassinated in prison on the night of 18-19 May 1944.

However, it was not until the rise of fascism that Sardinian was actively banned and/or excluded from any residual cultural activities to enforce a thorough language shift to Italian."Dopo pisani e genovesi si erano susseguiti aragonesi di lingua catalana, spagnoli di lingua castigliana, austriaci, piemontesi ed, infine, italiani ... Nonostante questi impatti linguistici, la "limba sarda" si mantiene relativamente intatta attraverso i secoli. ... Fino al fascismo: che vietò l'uso del sardo non solo in chiesa, ma anche in tutte le manifestazioni folkloristiche.» De Concini, Wolftraud (2003). Gli altri d'Italia: minoranze linguistiche allo specchio, Pergine Valsugana: Comune, pp. 195-196. According to Guido Melis, the resulting assimilation created "an intergenerational rift that could no longer be healed".Guido Melis, La Sardegna contemporanea, in Manlio Brigaglia (1982). La Sardegna. La geografia, la storia, l'arte e la letteratura. 1. Cagliari: Edizioni Della Torre. p. 132.

After the end of the Second World War, efforts continued to be made to further Italianize the population, with the justification that by doing so, as the principles of the modernization theory ran, the island could rid itself of the "ancient traditional practices" which held it back, regarded as a legacy of barbarism to be disposed of at once in order to join the Mainland's economic growth; Italianization had thus become a mass phenomenon, taking roots in the hitherto predominantly Sardinian-speaking villages. To many Sardinians, abandoning their language and acquiring Italian as a cultural norm represented a means through which they could distance themselves from their original group, which they perceived as marginalized and lacking in prestige, and thereby incorporate themselves into an altogether different social group."Come conseguenza dell'italianizzazione dell'isola – a partire dalla seconda metà del XVIII secolo ma con un'accelerazione dal secondo dopoguerra – si sono verificati i casi in cui, per un lungo periodo e in alcune fasce della popolazione, si è interrotta la trasmissione transgenerazionale delle varietà locali. ... Potremmo aggiungere che in condizioni socioeconomiche di svantaggio l'atteggiamento linguistico dei parlanti si è posto in maniera negativa nei confronti della propria lingua, la quale veniva associata ad un'immagine negativa e di ostacolo per la promozione sociale. ... Un gran numero di parlanti, per marcare la distanza dal gruppo sociale di appartenenza, ha piano piano abbandonato la propria lingua per servirsi della lingua dominante e identificarsi in un gruppo sociale differente e più prestigioso.» Gargiulo, Marco (2013). La politica e la storia linguistica della Sardegna raccontata dai parlanti, in Lingue e diritti. Lingua come fattore di integrazione politica e sociale, Minoranze storiche e nuove minoranze, Atti a cura di Paolo Caretti e Andrea Cardone, Accademia della Crusca, Firenze, pp. 132-133 The Sardinians have been thus led to part with their language as it bore the mark of a stigmatized identity,«La tendenza che caratterizza invece molti gruppi dominati è quella di gettare a mare i segni che indicano la propria appartenenza a un'identità stigmatizzata. È quello che accade in Sardegna con la sua lingua (capp. 8-9, in questo volume)." Mongili, Alessandro (2015). Topologie postcoloniali. Innovazione e modernizzazione in Sardegna, Chapt. 1: Indicible è il sardo the embodiment of a long-suffered social and political subordination in a chained society, as opposed to the social advancement granted them by embracing Italian;"...Per la più gran parte dei parlanti, la lingua sarda è sinonimo o comunque connotato di un passato misero e miserabile che si vuole dimenticare e di cui ci si vuole liberare, è il segno della subordinazione sociale e politica; la lingua di classi più che subalterne e per di più legate a modalità di vita ormai ritenuta arcaica e pertanto non desiderabile, la lingua degli antichi e dei bifolchi, della ristrettezza e della chiusura paesane contro l'apertura, nazionale e internazionale, urbana e civile." Virdis, Maurizio (2003). La lingua sarda oggi: bilinguismo, problemi di identità culturale e realtà scolastica, cit. in Convegno dalla lingua materna al plurilinguismo, Gorizia, 4. such social stigma went beyond the Sardinian language itself to also encompass the Sardinian-influenced accent when speaking Italian, which, unlike other accents, was equally considered uncouth and befitting criminals, or ignorance. For Sardinian language, (almost) all work is yet to be done Research on ethnolinguistic prejudice has pointed to feelings of inferiority amongst the Sardinians in relation with mainlanders and the Italian language, perceived as a symbol of continental superiority and cultural dominance."It turns out that the Italian: Sardinian dichotomy is not so much realized in the form of affective group-images, but that Italian is generally perceived as symbolizing continental superiority and cultural dominance. In her dissertation on ethnolinguistic prejudice, Diana (1981) points to the feelings of inferiority Sardinians have in relation to Italians.» Many indigenous cultural practices were to go extinct, shifting towards other forms of socialization.

Within a few generations Sardinian, as well as Alghero's Catalan dialect, would become a minority language spoken by fewer and fewer Sardinian families, the majority of whom have turned into monolingualism and monoculturalism Italians.«Gli effetti di una italianizzazione esasperata - iniziata e voluta dai Savoia fin dal lontano 1861 con l'Unità d'Italia - riprendevano fiato e vigore, mentre il vocabolario sardo andava ormai alleggerendosi, tagliando molti di quei termini perché non più appropriati alla tecnologia emergente o perché lontani dalla dalla mentalità e dall'azione delle nuove generazioni che andavano ormai identificandosi nella lingua e nella cultura imposte dal "sistema" italiano, che ignorava la lingua e la cultura dei nostri padri.» Melis Onnis, Giovanni (2014). Fueddariu sardu campidanesu-italianu, Domus de Janas, Presentazione«...se è vero che la lingua è memoria attiva, struttura del ragionamento, cosmo delle emozioni; altrimenti tutto ciò che ci appartiene rischia di esser visto, anche e proprio a casa nostra, da noi stessi voglio dire, con gli occhi dello straniero che guarda l'esotico: e non esagero nel dire ciò, nei centri urbani e nei ceti urbanizzati si pensa alle cose della tradizione o della specificità sarda con le parole della pubblicità di un agenzia turistica. ... Bisogna partire dal constatare che il processo di 'desardizzazione' culturale ha trovato spunto e continua a trovare alimento nella desardizzazione linguistica, e che l'espropriazione culturale è venuta e viene a rimorchio dell'espropriazione linguistica." Virdis, Maurizio (2003). La lingua sarda oggi: bilinguismo, problemi di identità culturale e realtà scolastica, cit. in Convegno dalla lingua materna al plurilinguismo, Gorizia, 5-6. This process has been slower to take hold in the countryside than in the main cities, where it has become most evident instead."The results of the Oristano surveys seem to show that the change in the use of the two languages is taking place very quickly (...), while the detailed studies of Ottava and Bonorva (Province of Sassari) show that Italianization in the countryside is hampered by the lack of social mobility and by the normative pressure of the rural Sardinian-speaking community network."

Nowadays, the Sardinians are linguistically and culturally assimilated into Italian and, despite the official recognition conferred to Sardinian by the national law in 1999, according to Giulio Paulis "identify with their language to lesser degree than other linguistic minorities in Italy, and instead seem to identify with Italian to a higher degree than other linguistic minorities in Italy"."I si identificano con loro lingua meno di quanto facciano altre minoranze linguistiche esistenti in Italia, e viceversa sembrano identificarsi con l'italiano più di quanto accada per altre minoranze linguistiche d'Italia." Paulis, Giulio (2001). Il sardo unificato e la teoria della panificazione linguistica, in Argiolas, Mario; Serra, Roberto, Limba lingua language: lingue locali, standardizzazione e identità in Sardegna nell'era della globalizzazione, Cagliari, CUEC, p. 16) It is estimated that around 10 to 13 percent of the young people born in Sardinia are still competent in Sardinian,Coretti, Paolo, 04/11/2010, La Nuova Sardegna, Per salvare i segni dell'identitàPiras, Luciano, 05/02/2019, La Nuova Sardegna, Silanus diventa la capitale dei vocabolari dialettali and the language is currently used exclusively by 0.6% of the total population. ISTAT, lingue e dialetti, tavole A 2012 study conducted by the University of Cagliari and Edinburgh found that the interviewees from Sardinia with the strongest sense of Italian identity were also those expressing the most unfavourable opinion towards Sardinian.

As soon as the fascist governor Piero Parini had installed himself on Corfu he vigorously began a forced Italianization policy that lasted until the end of the war. The islands passed through a phase of Italianization in all areas, from their administration to their economy. Italian was designated the islands' only official language; a new currency, the Ionian drachma, was introduced with the aim to hamper trade with the rest of Greece, which was forbidden by Parini. Transportation with continental Greece was limited; in the courts, judges had to apply Italian law, and schooling followed the educational model of the Italian mainland. Greek administrative officials were replaced by Italian ones, administrative officials of non-Ionic origin were expelled, the local gendarmes were partially replaced by Italian Carabinieri, although Parini initially allowed the Greek judges to continue their work, they were ultimately replaced by an Italian Military Court based in Corfu. The "return to the Venetian order" and the Italianization as pursued by Parini were even more drastic than the Italianization policies elsewhere, as their aim was a forced and abrupt cessation of all cultural and historical ties with the old mother country. The only newspaper on the islands was the Italian language "Giornale del Popolo".