Lingue, culture ed esperienza

A sketchy presentation of today linguistic space in Europe is presented, with attention to the traditional genealogical grouping in families, as well as with focus on multilingual communities. These communities are more than minorities; as a matter of fact, they represent instances of multilingual communities whose members are constantly engaged in mediation between different and often conflicting cultural worlds. An account of socio-cultural variation of languages is then proposed, and the assumption is made that languages are always interrelated - in fact, language contacts can be found in all times and in all countries.