Contatto e variazione in romaní. Il caso dei sinti lombardi

This book offers an updated overview of the sociolinguistic situation of a Lombard Sinti community in Pavia (Italy), whose members are bilingual in Lombard Sinti (Romani) and Italian. Drawing on questionnaires and sociolinguistic interviews, it examines the community’s linguistic repertoire, with a particular focus on bilingual speech practices, using methods from language contact and variationist research. A range of bilingual speech patterns is analyzed, with special attention to the insertion of Italian elements into otherwise Romani discourse, examined according to multiple criteria. Inter-speaker variation is also explored in detail. Overall, the book sheds light on an under-studied contact situation characterized by asymmetric and non-institutionalized bilingualism, and situates Lombard Sinti within a broader comparative perspective.