Gerghi storici nell'Italia settentrionale odierna: il caso di circensi e giostrai

Italian historical jargons have been spoken for centuries, mostly, but not only, in Northern Italy, by vagabonds, pedlars and itinerant artisans like tinkers, knife grinders, chair menders etc. During the XXth century the most of these groups have become extinct, together with their jargons, because of the deep economic and social changes implied by the transformation of Italy in an industrial country. Among the few groups which are still preserving historical jargons, merry-go-round operators and circus families seem to be the most active. Field research has confirmed that both know and use two jargons, respectively called Dritto and Sinto. The first one is a continuator of the historical criminal slang (Furbesco), the second one consists mostly of Romani words hosted by Italian grammar. The advantage of having two jargons seem to consist in the possibility of choosing between them in order to express, depending on the time, closeness or distance respect to the Sinti, a Romani speaking group, socially stigmatized, which had and still has a tight contiguity with merry-go-round operators and circus families. It is interesting to observe that in some circus families, in which adults tend to stigmatize, at least at emic level, the use of Sinto, young members of the family can adopt it as youth slang.