Nomi (e identità) di luogo nella canzone dialettale siciliana

Abstract

Authors of neo-dialect songs choose dialect, on the one band, because they need to find better metrical and rhythmic solutions, and, on the other, they wish to use an ‘alternative’ language to standard Italian. At the same time, their pro loco linguistic choice gives authors the chance to use the dialect as a symbol of microspace opposing the sense of estrangement and alienation caused by globalization. Thus, besides the linguistic «locality» expressed by means of dialect, we find another kind of locality, consisting in the authors’ constant reference to local settings, related to the space they live in, symbolizing the return to their own roots in opposition to the global village. Of course, the most powerful tools songwriters and singers have at their disposal to express their supporto for (antiglobal) localness are dialect place names and street names. Dialect songs are therefore rich not only in place names references: often the place name itself is the title or the ‘theme’ of a song. The paper focuses on several examples taken from songs in Sicilian dialect in which the authors seem particularly concerned with the use of place names, a strong symbol of ‘(g)localization’.