Events Events: Questioning the Norm of the Portuguese Spoken within the Comunidade in Montreal

February 13, 2018

“Questioning the Norm of the Portuguese Spoken within the Comunidadein Montreal”
Fabio Scetti, Université Sorbonne Nouvelle - Paris III

February 13, 2018 (Wednesday), at 5:00pm
Liberal Arts Building, Room 379D

Light refreshments will be served. All are welcome. Free and welcome to the public. Please use parking lot 2.

This contribution is based on a doctoral research in Sociolinguistics concluded in 2016. It provides important insight into the complex issues of language practice and identity representation among speakers of Portuguese within the Portuguese community of Montreal.

Following two periods of ethnographic field research carried out in 2011 and in 2014 among the comunidade settled by Portuguese migrants in Montreal from the 1950s, this sociolinguistic research focuses on how the Portuguese language and culture may well survive over the coming years, both within the community and the bilingual context particular to Montreal. 

This research is carried out to underline the importance of linguistic changes and the evolution of norms of the Portuguese language considering Montreal’s context of language contact that is dominated by both French and English. Moreover, considering the methodological approach adopted, Epilinguistic Discourse Analysis helped while observing discourses about language practice and identity between speakers of Portuguese within the group. In conclusion, the current conditions of global movement help the reflection on how this ethno-linguistic identity is mutating in the face of new migratory waves from different Lusophone countries using the comunidade as their foothold when arriving in Montreal.

About Fabio Scetti

Fabio holds a PhD from the Université Paris Descartes (Sorbonne Paris - Cite), where he was associated with the CEPED Laboratory (UMR 196 - IRD). At present, he is an associate researcher at CLESTHIA Laboratory Université Sorbonne Nouvelle, in Paris. His doctoral research shows the evolution of the Portuguese language spoken by Portuguese immigrants settled in Montreal.

Since 2015, he has been an associate researcher for the project of the new dictionary of Ladin (VOLF) at the Istitut Cultural Ladin, Vigo di Fassa (TN), and the head of the project on the new dictionary of Valoc’, in Valtellina (SO), Northern Italy. He is also a member of the Organization Committee for Mesas Redondas Internacionais (international round-tables) about Portuguese language and variation.

For more information: Professor Gláucia Silva, Department of Portuguese: gsilva@umassd.edu

Sponsored by The Department of Portuguese and the PhD Program in Luso-Afro-Brazilian Studies and Theory in collaboration with The Center for Portuguese Studies and Culture / Tagus Press.