Towards an Oral Corpus for Heritage Piedmontese

This paper presents the creation of an oral corpus as part of the ongoing PILAR project (Piedmontese Language in Argentina, 2019 – present), focused on the linguistic and ethnographic documentation of Piedmontese (Italo-Romance) as a heritage language in Argentina. The project gathers linguistic autobiographies and video recordings of grassroots initiatives that either actively use Piedmontese or reference cultural elements from Piedmont, such as music, folk songs, and traditional cuisine. Piedmontese has been spoken in Argentina since the late 19th century, when the government encouraged European migration to support agricultural development in the central provinces of Córdoba, Santa Fe, and Entre Ríos. High numbers of Piedmontese-speaking migrants and the isolation of these communities from urban centres allowed the language to persist longer than other Italian dialects in Argentina. As language shift eventually occurred, a revival movement emerged in Argentina, inspired by similar efforts in the Piedmont region. This paper details the corpus, its contents, and its significance in preserving Piedmontese as a living cultural and linguistic heritage in Argentina.