For Myriam, a researcher at the University of Cagliari, the Sardinian language is not only the language of her profession, but also the language of her heart with which she talks to her two-year-old daughter. In her testimony, Myriam focuses on the experience of Sardinian-language kindergartens and the potential of curating Sardinian-Italian bilingualism.

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Ecco la trascrizione completa del video:

MYRIAM: «Hello everyone, my name is Myriam Mereu. I am a research fellow at the University of Cagliari.
What do I do? I do research on Sardegna Uno, which is a Sardinian television.
How did this television come about? Well, I’va been in the research field for many years now. I did a PhD on the language of cinema in Sardinia. So I stayed in this area.
I also work with televisions, with the Sardinian radio in Sardinian.
So, Sardinian language has become a working language for me, it’s not just the language of the heart, but also my working language.
I speak it when I can, for work, but I also try to speak it with my daughter.
My daughter, Margherita, is two years and four months old. With her there has always been this interest, this passion, this attention to language, because she did a project for a year, at the daily nursery, an immersive nursery, as they say in Italian, a daily nursery in Sardinian at the Sacred Heart Institute of Cagliari, it was called “Happy children”.
Along with other boys and girls, she took part in this project, who was born with “No more shame”, which is an association of mothers and fathers who have a passion for Sardinian language, parents who want to raise their sons and daughters in Sardinian and that’s how this beautiful project started.
Now it’s over, but I continue, as much as I can, to speak in Sardinian to my daughter but it’s not easy.
Why? For someone who grew up like me, a woman of my generation, born in the 1980s, so 40-41 years, it’s not easy, because in society this language is not used much and I can feel that, as when I speak Sardinian with the child, people look at me, somehow with surprise, someone also with interest, but also with… not exactly afraid, but maybe with a little suspicious, because they say: “Why does she speak Sardinian with the girl?”
So, there’s a kind of pressure or in any case we, as fathers and mothers who have this interest, this commitment, sometimes we have to, how can I say, limit our use of Sardinian, because it looks like it’s something you shouldn’t do, it’s kind of taboo in society, so I notice it a lot.
Although there are fathers and mothers, and I know them not only through “No more shame”, but also in other areas, who speak in Sardinian with their boys and girls, it’s a very nice thing that they give them the possibility of having another language, to think with another brain in another language, as also experts who work in this field of research have taught us, which is bilingualism.
Therefore, the possibility of raising, growing up in another language it’s a wealth. It is a wealth that we cannot deny to the generations of the future, because we have to think that Sardinian also serves not just to talk about things of the past, but also to talk, to reason about the present and the future. So you have to use it, but in a systematic way.
Also about parenting, for example, which is a word that in Sardinian has no translation, you can’t use “parenting”, we can say it, however, it would be a calque of Italian. So, we also have to think of new words, of words, of neologisms in Sardinian, that they can express this wealth, this variety of meanings, of emotions and also of relationships that we have in society, in the family.
So, I really liked what Ivo said about the absence of the word parent in Sardinian. We have a father and a mother, but not parent. So, those who do not recognize themselves in this category of father and mother, what can you call them?
“Parent 1” and “Parent 2” are the terms in Italian, but you also need to think about them in a minority language, such as Sardinian.
So, we have to do a job for ourselves, for today’s but also for tomorrow’s fathers and mothers for our sons and daughters.»

Sardo campidanese:

MYRIAM: «Saludi a totus, deu mi tzèrriu Myriam Mereu.
Seu assinnista de circa me s’Universidadi de Casteddu. Ita fatzu? Fatzu una circa a pitzus de Sardegna Uno, ca est una televisioni sadra. Cumenti est nàscia custa televisioni? Intzandus seu in su campu de sa circa giai de medas annus. Apu fatu unu dotorau de circa a pitzus de sa lìngua de su cìnema in Sardìnnia. Duncas seu abarrada in custu àmbitu. Traballu fintzas cun televisionis, cun s’arràdiu sadra in sadru.
Custa est, sa lìngua sadra s’est fata una lìngua de traballu po mei, no est sceti sa lìngua de su coru, ma fintzas sa lìngua de traballu. Dda chistionu candu potzu, po traballu e circu fintzas de dda chistionai cun filla mia.
Filla mia, Margherita, tenit duus annus e cuatru mesis. Cun issa nc’est sempri stètiu custu interessu, custa passioni, custa atentzioni po sa lìngua, poita issa at fatu po un’annu unu progetu, unu niu fitianu, “un asilo nido immersivo” cumenti si narat in italianu, unu niu fitianu in sadru me s’Istituto Sacro Cuore de Casteddu, si tzerriàt “Bimbi in allegria”.
Duncas issa, cun àterus pipius e pipias, at pigau parti a custu progetu, chi fiat nàsciu cun “Spaciada sa bregùngia”, chi est un’assòtziu de babus e mamas chi tenint sa passioni po sa lìngua sadra, chi ‘olint pesai is fillus e is fillas insoru in sadru e duncas est partiu custu bellu progetu. Imoi est acabbau, perou sigheus nosu, cumenti podeus, a chistionai in sadru cun sa pipia e no est una cosa simpli, no est fàcili.
Poita? Po una chi est pesada cummnti deu, una fèmina de sa generatzioni mia de is annus ’80, duncas coranta, corantun’annus, chistionai in sadru no est fàcili, poita in sa sotziedadi custa lìngua no si imperat meda e custu ddu intendu, poita deu candu chistionu in sadru cun sa pipia, mi càstiant, cument’‘e nai, cun spantu, calincunu fintzas cun interessu, perou fintzas cun… No timoria, ma mancai cun unu pagu de dudas, poita nant: «Poita custa est chistionendi in sadru a sa pipia? Ita dd’est narendi?»
Duncas nc’est una spètzia de pressione o comunque nosu cumenti babus e mamas, chi teneus custu interessu, custu impinnu, a bortas si depeus, cument’‘e nai, limitai me s’imperu de su sardu, poita parrit ca est una cosa ca no si fait, ca est una spètzia de bregùngia, nc’est una spètzia de tabu’ in sa sotziedadi, duncas deu ddu biu meda.
E fintzas chi nci funt babus e mamas, e ndi connòsciu no sceti de “Spaciada sa bregùngia”, ma fintzas de àterus àmbitus, chi chistionant, chi fueddant in sadru cun is pipius e is pipias, e custa est una cosa bella meda chi ddis donat a issus sa possibilidadi de tenni un’àtera lìngua, de pensai cun d-un’àteru ciorbeddu in d-un’àtera lìngua, cumenti s’ant fintzas imparau spertus e spertas ca traballant e faint circa in cust’àmbitu, ca est su bilinguismu, duncas sa possibilidadi de pesai, de cresci in un’àtera lìngua e custa est un’arrichesa.
Est un’arrichesa ca no podeus negai a is generatzionis de su tempus benidori, pota depeus pensai fintzas ca su sadru srebit no sceti po chistionai de is cosas de su passau, ma fintzas po chistionai, po arrexonai a pitzus de su presenti e de su benidori.
Duncas tocat a ddu imperai, perou de manera sistemàtica. Custu fintzas po unu discursu de “genitorialità”, chi est unu fueddu ca in sadru no tenit una tradusidura, no si podit imperai “genitorialidadi”, ddu podeus nai, mancai, perou est unu calcu de s’italianu.
Duncas tocat a a pensai fintzas a fueddus nous, a fueddus, a neologismus in sadru, chi potzant espressai cust’arrichesa, custa bariedadi de sentidus, de emotzionis e fintzas de arrelatas chi teneus in sa sotziedadi, in sa famìllia. Duncas m’est praxu meda su chi at nau Ivo a pitzus de s’assèntzia de is fueddus “genitore” in sadru. Teneus babu e mama, perou no teneus “genitore”. Duncas chini no s’arreconnoscit in custa categoria de babu e mama, cumenti si podit tzerriai? “Genitore 1” e “genitore 2” funt is fueddus in italianu, perou tocat a ddus pensai fintzas in una lìngua de minoria, cument’‘e su sadru. Duncas tocat a fai unu traballu chi siat po nosu, “genitori”, babus e mamas de oi e fintzas po cras, po is fillus e is fillas nostas.»

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