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  • Roberto

    Member
    November 8, 2020 at 8:03 pm

    I don’t think that there’s any snobbery about accent in Italy. There are several accents in Italy due to the different regions and dialects. Once, the southern accents were source of discrimination. In particular, when in the 50’s and 60’s million of people moved from Southern regions to northern cities searching job, northern people felt that like an invasion, so for some decades dialects or southern accents were not well accepted in northern areas. Southern were called “terroni” (from “terra”, working the land).

    Nowadays this discrimination is disappearing (maybe there can be a discrimination against migrants non speaking well Italian). A bit of snobbery can remain in some cases. For instance, in Firenze someone can take the piss whom coming from other towns (Arezzo, Pisa) or in Milan for people coming from other areas.

    I think that in UK the accent can be “discriminating” between upper class people and working class.

    To be honest, I have never felt discriminated about my accent in Italy. Abroad, I felt embarrassed not for my accent but because I was still learning the language. Now, I am used to my Italian accent when speaking English. Other people recognize soon my origin from my accent, but that does not bother me. The important issue is to improve English so as to communicating with others in a fluent way.