The aim of this paper is twofold: firstly we want to describe the status of the Arbėresh spoken in Molise, a southern region of Italy, and secondly we want to test the validity of the recent introduction of Standard Albanian in the Arbėresh community. The data collected through a sociolinguistic survey in Portocannone, one of the Arbėresh enclaves in Molise, clearly show a high degree of variation in speakers' linguistic uses, as well as the age-related linguistic choice in the speaker's repertoire. The relevant generalisation is that there is a clear and marked trend with age: the older the speaker, the more Arberesh is the preferred language, and the less Italian is the preferred language. The picture showed by the youngest speakers, age 3 to 10, is not encouraging: Arbėresh is absent in their linguistic repertoire both in the form of active and passive competence. We observe a conscious interruption of the language transmission from one generation to another, which is the core point of the language death process.
However, some elements of revitalisation are recognised in the language minorities' status under the recent Italian laws, introducing the minority community languages in public life and in schools. What creates a problem is that Standard Albanian is being introduced. The results of the present analysis show as the adult Arbėresh speakers do not identify themselves with Albania and refuse Standard Albanian, stressing the relevance of the introduction of Arbėresh against Standard Albanian. While the youngest speakers, mostly monolingual in Italian, identify themselves neither with Arbėresh people, nor with Albanians. Another clear sign of decline and death of this language.