Tracce dell’emigrazione di ritorno nel paesaggio linguistico irpino. Il ruolo dell’inglese

This paper describes the linguistic landscape of some villages in the province of Avellino, with specific attention on the role of English. It focuses on the use of English as an act of identity by return migrants who returned to their home villages after some years abroad. In this case, the choice of English does not depend on its value in the global linguistic market, but on the returners’ desire to express their hybrid identity: in fact, through this language they position themselves and their business in a transnational perspective. In doing so, they communicate their double identity and feelings of belonging to the country where they lived temporarily, both to locals and to those migrants who, every summer, visit their villages, not for economic purposes but for affective reasons.