Linguistic innovations in an Italian heritage community

This article attempts to explore several of the key issues inherent in the term heritage language, a term which the ever-increasing body of work on Italian abroad has allowed us to coin. At the same time, it proposes an alternative interpretation which applies equally across the theoretical, the methodological and applied domains of the multiple situations and contexts in which Italian is spoken within communities of Italian origin. This is achieved through a combination of analysis and data from earlier studies of the Italian community of Bedford which provides the case study. The analysis focuses particularly on innovations which are not a result of contact. These are examined in terms of phonetics and morphosyntax to understand how HLs can be distinguished by such innovations, found even in the first migrant generation who thereby diverge from speakers who have remained in the country of origin. The article concludes by proposing an interpretation of the causes that lead to speakers of the first generation differentiating themselves from those who have continued to live in the country of origin. While maintaining the need to include members of the first generation among heritage speakers, I intend to engage in a discussion of the possible underlying causes of changes that do not depend on to contact with the dominant language.