Il dialetto nel paesaggio linguistico: un caso di gentrificazione?

This study explores the potential for defining a form of linguistic gentrification regarding the use of dialect within the linguistic landscape of Florence. A functional stratification of the local variety is highlighted through a qualitative analysis of the inscriptions on display: on the one hand, an identity use is visible in graffiti and stickers; while on the other hand, a use for predominantly commercial purposes is evident in shop signs. With regard to the latter, particularly in cases where dialect is not aimed at the local community, the study hypothesises the existence of a process of linguistic gentrification. In order to define this process, the study attempts to demonstrate how the local language can also undergo expropriation by its ideal speakers and re-functionalisation in a commercial key, starting from the original concept of gentrification. To support this hypothesis, dialect occurrences in the linguistic landscape were analysed from a social, spatial, and economic perspective. From this analysis, it emerges that dialect increasingly appears in contexts where ideal speakers are declining and is used to ennoble products, also in economic terms, distinguishing them as authentic, local, and not globalised, and thus making them less accessible.