Abstract
This paper investigates the relationship between media exposure and language vitality (Jonas, Elin Haf Gruffydd:2013) within the Ladin-speaking communities of South Tyrol, Italy. Focusing on plurilingual young adolescents the study examines patterns of language use and presents the habits of language exposure and media consumption across both traditional media and digital platforms, with particular attention to social media such as WhatsApp, Instagram, and TikTok.
The paper presents results from both quantitative and qualitative data collected in all third-grade classes in Ladin lower secondary schools. Data were gathered through an online questionnaire (N=203) and a simulated WhatsApp conversation task, designed to elicit written interactions of plurilingual students.
While in the mid-1990s Ladin was used in written communication almost exclusively by cultural associations and language ‘activists’ (Craffonara, Lois: 1995), less than fifteen years later it was no longer a rarity in digital correspondence (Forni, Marco: 2009). The analysis of recently collected simulated WhatsApp conversations shows that Ladin is now widely used in everyday peer interactions: it appears in nearly half of all WhatsApp messages analyzed, written by students who were asked to communicate as they normally do on the messaging app. On the other hand, English and other majority languages tend to dominate in the consumption of content on broader social media platforms. Traditional media in the region continue to offer content in Ladin but social media platforms constitute a more dynamic domain for minority language. In this context, new technologies emerge as spaces where plurilingual repertoires are flexibly negotiated, reflecting broader dynamics in youth culture and digital communication.
By presenting the linguistic behaviors of plurilingual adolescents in a multilingual region, this paper seeks to shed light on how the use of Ladin is evolving in the digital age. Furthermore, by reflecting on the implications of these findings for language maintenance policies and media production strategies, it argues that a deeper understanding of young adolescents media habits is essential to support the vitality of minority languages across both traditional and new social media.