Le differenze linguistiche e le lingue minoritarie nella società attuale

The multicultural and globalized present society raises new linguistic and identitary questions for the Western countries and in particular for Italian society. The linguistic rights and the other fundamental liberty rights find it difficult to establish themselves in the complex intertwining of contradictory forces characterizing the socio-cultural reality. On the one hand, models and symbolic universes created by the national ideology and tradition are yet active, on the other hand society reflects the breaking and changing of social relations because of new migratory processes. So, new linguistic, cultural and identitary minority groups arise; besides, new mass communication media interpreting the interests of economic and politic powers and interests, interact with the social organization. This article discusses some of these issues, with specific attention to the status of the linguistic minorities and to the relation between linguistic differences and socio-cultural and symbolic categories.