Italianizzazione e vitalità del dialetto nel sistema di selezione degli ausiliari di alcune varietà biellesi

The so called Italianizaion of the dialects is one of the major outcomes of the vertical contact between the national language and the Italo-Romance dialects. An accurate study of the process also results in an insight on the behaviour of the dialect structures when they came in contact with the higher code in the linguistic repertoire, Italian. This means that we can also evaluate the linguistic, internal vitality of the dialects themselves. The present paper aims to analyse the extent of the Italianization process in some Piedmontese dialects in the area of Biella, in the North-West of the region, with regard to auxiliary selection in the perfect tense. The purpose is to assess the internal vitality of the dialects under examination with respect to this particular phenomenon. After a brief presentation of the concept of Italianization and of the area covered by the survey (§§ 1-2), the two phenomena of split intransitivity and auxiliary selection will be discussed and the data about the Biellese area will be presented (§ 3).