What do you consider to be a more important part of your identity: race/ethnicity or language?

[Tooting Carmen]

And state why.

[alfieb]

Language is important but not as important. Look at the Irish. Very few of them actually speak Irish, but they're still killing each-other over ethnicity and religion. Look at Yugoslavia. They all speak the same fucking language, just don't tell them that.

Look at the Jews. They didn't even speak Hebrew until Zionism came around. Nationalism brought that religion back from the abyss.

[Tooting Carmen]

Language is important but not as important. Look at the Irish. Very few of them actually speak Irish, but they're still killing each-other over ethnicity and religion. Look at Yugoslavia. They all speak the same fucking language, just don't tell them that.

Look at the Jews. They didn't even speak Hebrew until Zionism came around. Nationalism brought that religion back from the abyss.

How do you personally feel when it comes to your own identity though?

[Trogdor]

Assuming this is a personal question, my father speaks Italian and my mother speaks a tiny bit. I also have a very limited understanding of the language. What I consider my ethnic identity is stuff that I was raised with like the foods I ate or music I heard. So, I guess my ethnicity. Race was never mentioned to me until I was exposed to the outside world.

However, although my ethnic identity is very much a part of me, it does not define me.

[alfieb]

It bothers me that Sicilian isn't given official status in Sicily, because the government in Rome doesn't allow it. It bothers me that on road signs you have Albanian and Italian but not Sicilian. It bothers me that they don't teach it in schools. It bothers me that they call it a dialect when it isn't.

How fucked up is Italian law? In Messina, where no-one speaks Greek, they decided to give Greek language official status in the city recently. So now Greek is protected there and signs will be in Greek. But Sicilian, the language of the people, is not.

But my identity is more than my language. If I were born in Malta and only spoke Maltese and English, I wouldn't discard my Sicilian heritage.

[jatt]

both are important but language is more important for our people. if one cant speak Punjabi he ist Punjabi. I voted for both though

[Leto]

It bothers me that Sicilian isn't given official status in Sicily, because the government in Rome doesn't allow it. It bothers me that on road signs you have Albanian and Italian but not Sicilian. It bothers me that they don't teach it in schools. It bothers me that they call it a dialect when it isn't.

Italy has a good unified language for the whole of itself, Sicilian is just one of many local idioms.

[Sikeliot]

How fucked up is Italian law? In Messina, where no-one speaks Greek, they decided to give Greek language official status in the city recently. So now Greek is protected there and signs will be in Greek. But Sicilian, the language of the people, is not.

It's too bad Sicilian and Greek aren't official and both spoken by most people.

[Leto]

I think both things are importnat.

[randomguy1235]

Anyone can learn a language. You can't learn genes.