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In:Italo-Romance Heritage Languages: Multiple approaches
Edited by Eugenio Goria and Margherita Di Salvo
[Studies in Bilingualism 68] 2025
► pp. 64–100

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‘Medium’ choice in a community of Italians in the UK

 | Tilburg University
Published online: 11 September 2025
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https://doi.org/10.1075/sibil.68.04del
Abstract
This study investigates language use and code-switching patterns within a close-knit, village-based Italian community in Bletchley (UK), aiming to understand how these social characteristics shape everyday linguistic practices and to propose a model for the description of a community’s average linguistic repertoire. Findings reveal that participants rely on a continuum of linguistic resources that do not necessarily align with separate entities, suggesting that what speakers alternate between are not languages in the strict grammatical sense. The study offers a fresh perspective on describing linguistic repertoires in similar communities, proposing a shift from the conventional notion of discrete language varieties to the more fluid concept of ‘medium’. Mediums can be either monolingual or bilingual, with the latter exhibiting varying degrees of mixing depending on several extra-linguistic factors. The nature of social networks plays a significant role in shaping the range, characteristics, and intergenerational distribution of the mediums available within a community.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Italians in Bletchley: The community from Benevento
    • 2.1The community
    • 2.2Sociolinguistic background
  • 3.Code-switching, intergenerational variation, and language shift
  • 4.Code-switching, codes, and languages
    • 4.1Studies on code-switching and the notion of ‘code’
    • 4.2‘Medium’ vs. ‘language’: Describing a bilingual repertoire in migrant communities
  • 5.Language use in Bletchley
    • 5.1The monolingual-bilingual medium continuum: A descriptive model
    • 5.2Evidence from the micro-interactional level
  • 6.Discussion and conclusions
  • Notes
  • References
References (95)
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