Italian or a regional language: raising a child abroad

Use with your child what the grandparents actually speak with them, and decide with your family what the rest of the home speaks. In The Bilingual Edge (ch. 11), King and Mackey tell parents to use the variety that is really theirs, and that is the one part of this topic a source we read states directly. The sources we read do not say which regional languages Italy has, what status each one has, how each relates to standard Italian, or how schools treat them. We state none of that as fact. The rest is practical advice and a description of what the app does.

What the sources say

King and Mackey say there is no agreed scientific line between a language and a dialect, so the word a family uses for its speech does not settle anything about the speech. We use dialect and regional language both in this article, and neither is a ruling. They say a nonstandard variety is not a broken version of a standard, and they advise parents not to switch to a standard they do not speak natively. The article on dialects and school standards covers this position and one family's story in more detail.

One further point comes at second hand. King and Mackey cite research finding that children raised with a home dialect pick up the standard taught at school without real difficulty. They name Swiss German and a regional Italian dialect. Our notes do not say which Italian dialect, and we have not read the research.

What none of this tells us: which regional languages exist, how each differs from standard Italian, what schools in Italy or abroad do with them, or how long a child takes to move between a home variety and a school standard. We found nothing on those questions in the sources read (UNVERIFIED).

What the app does with Italian

A child has one heritage language and one community language, plus any extra languages you add. The plan form also has an optional field for the variety or dialect your family speaks, and one for the script. Both are display only: the variety field changes no minutes and the app does not link it to any content. This is how Italian and a regional name are handled:

• Italian is not among the 15 languages in the picker, which lists the most spoken in the world. Choose Other and type Italian or italiano, and the app saves it as Italian.
• Italian is one of seven languages with curated content: songs, practice phrases and sound guides. We found nothing in the app's content that says which regional form of Italian they were written for, so ask a relative whether they sound like your family.
• If you type the name of a regional language as the language itself, it is saved as you typed it, and the app does not link it to Italian. The note under the field says the plan is then generic: no songs, books or sound guides, and the practice phrases are left blank for your family to fill in. If you would rather keep the Italian content, choose Italian and write the regional name in the variety field. The app shows it back as typed and nothing else changes.
• The phrase boxes on the Practice moments page are text boxes you can edit, including for Italian, so a grandparent's words can replace a curated phrase.

Ways to include the grandparents' speech

1. Ask the grandparents what they would like to say to your child every day, and in which words. Write the words as they say them.
2. Decide what your home's main language is: the regional language, Italian, or both. Your family decides, and no source we read ranks them. If you speak the regional language yourself, King and Mackey's advice is to use the variety that is really yours.
3. If you do not speak it, the grandparents can carry it. The family goal in the plan gives more weight to a family ritual, and when no grandparent lives in the household, the plan's tip is a standing call with a relative who speaks the language, even one who lives elsewhere.
4. Tell your child's teacher which speech is used at home, and ask what the school teaches and how. If you choose an Italian class or tutor, ask which form of Italian it teaches. The app's Find a class or tutor page draws on King and Mackey's advice to check a program's goals.
5. If you want the app to hold both, add the second under Another language to protect and enter each by name. The app treats them as two separate languages and splits the daily minutes evenly between them, with any extra minute going to the heritage language. That split is the app's design and no source tests it.

What is still unknown

• Which regional languages exist, their status, how they relate to standard Italian and what schools do with them. No source we read covers it. UNVERIFIED.
• Whether the research King and Mackey cite holds for the regional language your family speaks. We have not read it. REPORTED.
• Whether any step above helps a child move between a home variety and a school standard. They are the app's suggestions, not tested ones. UNVERIFIED.
• Which variety the app's curated Italian content reflects. The app does not say.

In short: ask the grandparents what they say, choose with your family what the home speaks, and fill the app's blank fields with their help. If a teacher or a speech and language professional raises a concern about your child's progress, that is their remit and not this article's.