The newly launched app MovIT - Moving Italian(s) tracks how the Italian language is changing in the context of migration and global networking. It was developed by a team of researchers from the University of Bern, two Belgian universities, and an Italian university.
Italy’s history is shaped by emigration, which has given rise to a now globally networked Italian-speaking diaspora. What does Italian sound like in their world? And how is it changing compared to the Italian-speaking cultural sphere? These are the questions addressed by the project MovIT - Moving Italian(s) which systematically records and analyzes the development of the Italian language using a smartphone app that can be used all’over the world. This is of particular interest at a time when migration from Italy has increased again since the 2008 financial crisis, and affordable telephony and digital communication platforms make it possible to remain closely connected with the Italian-speaking cultural sphere.
The MovIT project team consists of researchers from the Institute of Italian Language and Literature at the University of Bern, KU Leuven, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, and the University of Turin.
Crowdsourcing-based tool
The MovIT app contains surveys on language use, allows users to make anonymous voice recordings, and offers entertaining features such as interactive maps and quizzes. The crowdsourcing initiative is creating a unique database on the Italian language in the context of migration.
"Our app enables active participation of Italian speakers through crowdsourcing," says co-initiator Silvia Natale of the University of Bern. "In this way, we want to capture the modern facets of the developments of the Italian language, whose history has always been closely linked to migration."
The MovIT app builds on language apps developed at the University of Bern that have attracted considerable international attention, most notably the Dialäkt Äpp Adrian Leemann and the Dave Britain of the University of Bern.
The data collected through the app will feed into a database for a wide range of linguistic analyses and ultimately document modern Italian language practices both within and beyond the Italian-speaking world.
