Ladino

Italian

Often, the Dolomites’ territory is called Ladino (Ladin) and Ladini (Ladins) is the Dolomites’ people. This outlook of the Pale Mountains is, in a certain way, wrong. In fact, even if it is true that Ladins are the very people of the Dolomites and that they live in the main part of the territory, it is even true, by a side, that many linguists does not consider Ladino as a true language and Ladins as a true people; but,on the other side, there are Dolomites’ places that are not Ladin and there are Ladins outside the Dolomites’ territory.

As regard the first sentence, it’s important to precise that there’s not a joint Ladin language: however the try to create a standard Ladin language, the SPELL project, is an artificial project and it involved the historic, or ex-Habsburg, Ladin territories only. But there are many Ladin dialects, sometimes very different by one another, so different that speakers from different valleys could not understand each other. Moreover linguists believe that Ladin dialects are actually northern Italian dialects, very old, which were present in a wider area and now are relegated in some insulated or more conservative places from the point of view of the traditions or language. So it’s possible to speak about Ladino as a language only as a group of dialects with archaic characteristics, various ones, not just one, that are not present in other dialacts of the Alps or of the northern Italy.

Essentially Ladino is a language born in modern age, nor as a tongue with an independent develop from Latin in stet of the nearer language, neither, as someone says, as a jam of Latin and Rhaetian languages. It is just a group of dialects with ancient features in which there aren’t characteristics totally unrelated to other language or words with an exclusive Ladin origin. To the fact that there are not-Ladin regions in the Dolomites’ area, it’s easy to note this to those that know the Dolomites’ territory and culture. For example: there are many German valleys in the Tyrolean Dolomites; in Val Belluna, Feltre, Alpago northern Venetian dialect are spoken, even if they are piedmont areas with Dolomite peaks. In the same way, there are zones in which people speaks Ladin outside the Dolomites: i.e. Romansch in Switzerland or Friulano, even spoken in plain zones.

In ancient times Ladin area was larger than today. The most part of the Alps, many piedmont areas and plain zones were Ladin. Gradually the Ladin area has been reduced, and so on today. So, in many places, archaic Ladin linguistic characteristics are lost to vantage of linguistic innovation and, in the same way, people have preferred to use languages considered more impressive: German or Northern-Italian dialects according to the zone of influence. About the matter of the Ladin area was larger than the current one, this recognized thesis makes insignificant the others that say Ladins people living in Mount Sella area only, we could think about High Venosta Valley that was Ladin until the first years of XIX century and than about Trieste where part of the people spoke a Ladin dialect (Tergestino), similar to Friulano, till XIX century too. Moreover there are many toponymic examples in Northern-Venetian dialect area (Valbelluna, Feltre) and in Alto Adige (South Tyrol).

The current zone Ladino can be divided into three broad sub-areas corresponding to particular families Ladin, but these are not always uniform within them, there are other sub-families and a number of differences between different dialects belonging to each of these macro-regions.

Romansh.

Romansh is spoken in the most western Ladin, is spoken in Switzerland in the canton of Grisons in western and central and upper and lower Engadine Valley and also in Münstertal.

Dolomitic Ladin or central.

Is spoken in the valleys of the Non and Sole (Trentino) - however, the Nones and the Val di Sole are not unanimously recognized as dialects-Ladin - valleys of Fassa (Trento), Gardena and Badia (South Tyrol) and in some villages of Castelrotto (South Tyrol), the common Livinallongo del Col Di Lana, and Colle Santa Lucia e Rocca Pietore (Belluno) tyrolean-ladin; in Cadore, Comelico and Cortina d'Ampezzo cadorin-ladin; in Val di Zoldo and in Agordino (Belluno) refers a Ladino-Venetian dialect, which gradually becomes more like the northern-Venetian in the valleys to the south and the more archaic Ladin in the northern valleys. Ladin-Venetian dialect Zoldano is interesting because in it has characteristics of idioms tyrolean-Ladin, Agordino and Cadore.

Friulian.

Ladino is the group most easterly and has its own characteristics not found in other spoken. Is certain that the Friulano, spoken in lowland areas, belongs to the Ladin language.

Ladino is spoken in the Veneto only in the upper part of the province of Belluno: Territories Ladin ex- Habsburg (Livinallongo Del Col Di Lana, Colle Santa Lucia e Cortina d’Ampezzo); apart from some municipalities in the province of Venice, where people speak the Friulian (Portogruaro Zone, municipalities of: Concordia Sagittaria, San Michele al Tagliamento, Fossalta di Portogruaro, Gruaro, Cinto Caomaggiore, Pramaggiore).

In the territory of Cadore Ladino some varieties must be distinguished: Ampezzano, spoken in the town of Cortina D'Ampezzo (Ladin: Anpezo), particularly conservative (i.e. the Interdental consonants has not been used as in the rest of Cadore), because of a longer period of Austrian rule, which did not allow a strong Venetian influence. However, the Ladin has unexpected archaic phenomena where dialect has been changed and innovative where it is more archaic. For example in Cortina they use the less conservative word “caal” (horse) instead of more conservative “ciaval” used in the rest of Cadore.

Oltrechiusano, spoken in the municipality of San Vito di Cadore (lad.: San Vido), Borca di Cadore (lad.: Borcia), Vodo di Cadore (lad.: Guodo) and Cibiana di Cadore (lad.: Zubiana), also very conservative, even if slightly less than Ampezzano, especially in the municipalities of Cibiana and San Vito and in the small village of Vinigo (lad.: Vinego) in the municipality of Vodo.

The Central Cadore is spoken in the municipalities of Valle di Cadore (lad.:Val), Pieve di Cadore (lad.: Piee), Perarolo di Cadore (lad.: Perarol/Peraruò), Calalzo di Cadore (lad.: Cialauz) and Domegge di Cadore (lad.:Domeie/Domiege). The central Cadore is not homogeneous throughout its area. Precisely the town of Valle has lost much of its Latin culture, the more retained in the country of Venas. Even less Ladino shows the village of Perarolo and in Pieve, although the latter does not occur in the same situation throughout the municipal area.

In fact, if the language in the countries of Pieve, Sottocastello (lad.: Sotecastel) and Tai (lad.: Tai/Tei) Ladin is almost unrecognizable, is already more evident in the village of Nebbiù to become very evident to Pozzale (lad.: Pozale). In particular the village of Pozzale has the language most archaic of all the Central Cadore, strange phenomenon when you consider that there is only two kilometers above the town of Pieve, where the traces of Ladin are minimal. The speech of Pozzale presents olrechiusano and archaic traits: for example the words daos (back) and pistorte (potatoes) similar to the word pestorte used in Cortina. The language becomes again strongly Ladino in the town of Calalzo and even more conservative in the village of Rizzios (lad.: Rezuos) and even more throughout the municipal area of Domegge.

The eastern Cadore is a series of dialects with traits different from each other, but with similar features: for example the ending of past participles in OU and IU: zerciòu (sampled), dormiù (slept). It’s spoken in the municipalities of Lozzo di Cadore (lad.: Loze), Vigo di Cadore (lad.: Vigo), Lorenzago di Cadore (lad.: Lorenzago) and Auronzo di Cadore (lad.: Auronzo/Auronze). It is a decidedly more conservative dialect than the central and with some different characteristics, such as the past participle of which was said above. There is an odd linguistic jump between Lozzo and Domegge being only a few kilometers between them. Among these dialects the Lozzese is the most particular because of some own linguistic solutions: for example denogio (knee) instead of denocio/denoio/denuoio and vuou (egg) instead of uòvo/goo. The dialects of Laggio (lad.: Laio), town of Vigo, and Auronzo are very conservative. In Auronzo very archaic words are found absent in other Oriental Cadore languages, i.e. sartio (sun) like in Comelico.

The Cadore dialect of Comelico is the most conservative, for many even more than the Ampezzano. It could be confused with a Cadore dialect having its own traits sometimes similar to Friulano. Linguists actually do it belong to the dialects of Cadore, although in the group it has its own role. It is spoken in all the municipalities of Comelico (lad.: Comelgo/Comelgu), but in Sappada about of which we’ll tell later. The Comelico dialect could be divided into two sections: 1) eastern Comelico: towns of Costalissoio (lad.: Costliseign), Campolongo (lad.: Cianpolongo), San Pietro (lad.: San Piero), Mare (lad.: Mar), Presenzio (lad.: Parnei) e Cosalta (lad.: Costata); 2) Westwrn Comelico: towns of Candide (lad.: Candide), Casamazzagno (lad.: Sciamazeign), Dosoledo (lad.: Dudlè), San Nicolò (lad.: San Colò), Cosat (lad.: Costa), Parola (lad.: Padla), Danta (lad.: Danta), Santo Stefano (lad.: Sa Stefi), Campitello (lad.: Ciampedel), Casta (lad.: Ciasada). The town of Ospitale di Cadore, who is the most southerly of all the Cadore, can be considered as belonging to the northern Venetian dialects than to the Ladin ones. In the town of Zoppè, belongin in history to Cadore, but in the valley of Zoldo, is used a Ladin-Venetian-Zoldo dialect. In the municipality of Selva di Cadore (lad.: Selva) belongs to Cadore, but in Val Fiorentina, Agordo, they use a Ladin-Agordo dialect with few worlds of Venetian. In it there are some characteristics of the Tyrolean-Ladin from the nearer town of Colle Santa Lucia, Livinallongo del Col di Lana e Rocca Pietore and Cadore archaisms, i.e.: alolo (immediately) found in the language of Cortina and Comelico. Finally, the town of Sappada (dial.: Plodn) is a German island, an ancient Bavarian dialect, very similar Friulian German island Sauris (dial.: Zahre).

Claims historical, political and ethnic exist only in the so-called historic Dolomitic Ladino or ex-Habsburg, divided between the provinces of Bolzano (Val Gardena, Val Badia and some fraction of Castelrotto) and Belluno (town of Cortina D'Ampezzo, Colle Santa Lucia and livinallongo del Col di Lana). Beyond the fact that these areas have few cultural and linguistic characteristics in common (are areas Ladino Tyrolean except Cortina d'Ampezzo that it is Cadore-Ladino, but excluded Rocca Pietore which belongs to the group Ladino-Tyrolean) except the Habsburg They are the only ones to make historical, political and ethnic claims. All the other Areas define themselves as Ladin only in a linguistic and cultural way. All Ladin municipalities are protected by law 482/99, which has finally given voice to many Ladin parts (i.e. the Cadore, Agordo and the Zoldo in the province of Belluno), until now not protected by point of view of culture and language.