Abruzzese: pertaining to the region of Abruzzo.

Acculturation: a process by which an immigrant group accepts cultural practices of the host country.

Assimilation: a linguistic process through which a foreign structure or a foreign word becomes part of the grammar or vocabulary of the receiving language.

Bilingualism: the ability to use two languages in any situation.

Borrowing: a form or a word that has been accepted into a language from another language.

Brevini, Franco: author of, among others, the three volume study entitled La poesia in dialetto, Milano: Mondadori, 1999

Calabrian: pertaining to the region of Calabria.

Camilleri, Andrea: born in 1925; best-selling Italian novelist, whose detective works such as Il ladro di merendine (Palermo: Sellerio, 1996), or historical novels such as La mossa del cavallo (Milano: Rizzoli, 1999) have been translated into numerous languages. One of the distinguishing characteristics of his style is his use of Italian mixed with Sicilian.

Commedia dell’arte: a type of theatrical piece, originating in Italy in the 16th century and characterized by improvisation and standard characters such as Harlequin, Pantaloon.

Di Pietro, Robert J.: linguist and language educator, known for his Language Structures in Contrast (Rowley, Mass.: Newbury, 1971) and Strategic interaction (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986).

First generation: in sociology, this term refers to the immigrants, i.e. the first people who emigrated (for ex., from Italy to Canada).

Friulian: pertaining to the region of Friuli.

Gadda, Carlo Emilio: Italian novelist (1893-1973), reference is made here to his multilingual novel Quer pasticciaccio brutto de via Merulana.

Gleason, H.A.: linguist, best known for his An Introduction to Descriptive Linguistics (New York: Holt Rinehart&Winston, 1969).

Gradatum: a gradual evolving of forms (pronunciation and grammar) from one variety of language into another.

Italian dialects: these linguistic varieties are not dialects of standard Italian, but the continuation of Latin spoken in the different geographical regions throughout Italy. Although their names derive from the regions (for ex., Molisano from Molise), the territories they occupy do not necessarily coincide with the political boundaries. The dialects have a long history; some of them have achieved important results from a literary perspective (for ex., Sicilian). Notwithstanding the fact that Friulian (together with Sardinian) are normally categorized as separate languages, for the purposes of this work Friulian has the same status as all the other non-standard Romance varieties.

Italiese: a particular linguistic variety used by Italian immigrants in Toronto. Its morphosyntax and lexicon are similar to those of “popular Italian”; it also has dialect and English influences. Normally, the dialect influences are heard in the pronunciation; English is the source of numerous borrowings.

L’Aquila: the capital city of the Abruzzo region.

Latin: an Indo-European language, sister to such languages as (ancient) Greek, Celtic, Slavic, Armenian, Germanic, etc. It gives origin to all the Romance languages and varieties (for ex., Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Rumenian; Provençal, Sardinian, etc.).

Lexicon: that area of language that concerns the vocabulary.

Legislation: for further information on the linguistic legislation regarding Italian and other varieties used in Italy, see the Italian Constitution, Articles 3 and 6 and the Web site dedicated to the Italian Constitution.

Levelling: a linguistic process which results in the elimination of differences or alternate forms.

Linguistic Atlas of Sicily: published in CD-ROM format (accompanied by explanatory book-form volumes) by the Centro di Studi Filologici e Linguistici in Palermo.

Loanword: also known as borrowing.

Milano: the capital city of the region of Lombardy (in Italian, Lombardia).

Morphology: the study of the forms of a language (for ex., the mechanisms the language possesses to distinguish between singular and plural forms, or between feminine and masculine forms, or between the present and the past).

Naples: the capital city of the region Campania.

Neapolitan: of or concerning the city of Naples (in Italian, Napoli).

Occitan: pertaining to Provence.

Phonology: the study of the distinctive sounds of a language.

Piedmontese: pertaining to the region of Piedmont (in Italian, Piemonte).

Pizzoferrato: a small town in the Abruzzo region.

Ricci, Nino: Canadian novelist of Italian background (born in 1954), author of the trilogy Lives of the Saints, In a Glass House, Where She Has Gone and numerous other works.

Sardinian: pertaining to the island of Sardinia.

Sceneggiate: this term is in the plural, in the singular, it is sceneggiata. The sceneggiata refers to a Neapolitan theatrical piece, characterized by a scanty dialogue accompanied by songs that culminate in a hit song whose title is the title of the whole piece.

Second generation: the sons and daughters of the immigrants (i.e., the first generation).

Sicilian: pertaining to the region of Sicily.

Torino: the capital city of the region of Piedmont.

Tuscans: the inhabitants of the region Tuscany (in Italian, Toscana).

Venice: the capital city of the Veneto region.

Venetian: pertaining to the region of Venetia (in Italian, Veneto).

Verga, Giovanni: Italian novelist (1840-1922), best known for his I Malavoglia, available in English as The House by the Medlar Tree.