Zu wem ghör i jetz? bzw. due lingue che sono entrambe mie“ : Sprachbiographien ein- und zweisprachiger Sprecher aus einem Grenzgebiet“

Research on >language biographies<, as collected by means of narrative interviews, has shown the usefulness of a discursive, qualitative approach when studying bi- and multilingualism, providing insights on how individual speakers perceive, experience and represent languages and their learning paths, and discursively construct their identity. Taking such body of research as a departure point, the paper explores the language biographies of eight speakers living in South Tyrol, investigating the ways speakers represent their linguistic repertoire, specifically the notions of L1 and L2, and bilingualism — its definition, values, advantages and disadvantages that are attributed to it. Particular attention is thereby devoted to similarities and differences in the discursive work carried on by (self-defined) >bilingual< and >non-bilingual< speakers and to the ways these may be related to the larger societal context.