The Italians and their Language in Australia

Abstract

"Australia's largest non-British and yet probably least understood - or most misunderstood - minority", W. D. BORRIE, p. vi of the Foreword to J. A. HEMPEL'S 'Italians in Queensland' (I959). It is appropriate to embark upon a survey of this kind at a time when migration to Australia from overseas has lost momentum and the economic recession of 1971, together with changing public attitudes, make it likely that there will be a considerable diminution in immigration from Europe, and that this external source of population increase for Australia may be relatively ignored for many years. It has also been the case, from the late I960s, that with the improvement of the West-European economy and the creation of the Common Market, the source was already running out and that the Italian influence had almost certainly reached its all-time peak. Referring particularly to the post World War II influx Professor BORRIE more than a decade ago asked the following questions, "Where have these people settled, what occupations have they followed, how have they brought their families together, ... have Italians integrated to any degree with Australians, do Australians want or expect them to do so - ?" (op. cit., p. vi). While these questions are demographic and social and the answers belong strickly to spheres other than language, it is the case that the surviving pointers may ultimately be held to be linguistic and to have been fossilized both in speech and literature.