Cross-cultural Adaptation as a Form of Translation: Trans-lating Food in the uk Italian Community

Abstract

This article provides a sociolinguistic qualitative analysis combined with translation aiming at bridging different fields of investigation which may be useful in detecting linguistic forms of cross-cultural adaptation and hybridisation. It is Mainly driven by the idea of investigating the complex experience of Italian immigrants who settled in Bedford and Peterborough in the 50’s, adopting an interdisciplinary framework which will examine contemporary practices of cultural hybridisations in the UK. Pinpointing all those cultural elements emerging from the creative linguistic forms of cultural positioning enacted by the Anglo-Italian community, the present work aims at detecting cultural elements of diasporic heritage which, by recreating and fostering a sense of community and cultural identity, seem to demand new kinds of linguistic analyses. A corpus of 57 restaurant menus was collected in catering businesses of Anglo-Italians from Bedford and Peterborough in July 2013 through fieldwork research and analysed in order to decode typical translation practices that, consciously or unconsciously, the informants may adopt in their diasporic workplace as a reflection of their hybridised identity.