The linguistic and cultural minorities in Italy: the case of the Arbereshe language and culture

This paper presents the results of a research carried out to study the Arbereshe culture and population, who coming from the old Albania, reside since the 15th century in the southern Italy. The methodology used in this work has different levels: First to analyze the academic papers, which have also helped to define what their culture is and where it is spread, second, the participant observation, and third, a questionnaire and in-depth interviews with directors of ethnographic museums and Arbereshe people of the villages of San Costantino Albanese and Civita, some of the most important in the Arbereshe Italy. The results show that it is a well-integrated minority in the host culture, that even though it is a long time since the first Arbereshe arrived to Italy and not so many arrived in the following centuries, their culture continues alive specially through its language, which begins to be less used among young people, but it continues fulfilling a certain social function.