The fate of minority languages
The case of Ladins in North Italy

Carmen Rubatscher, South Tyrol/Alto Adige, Italy

[Editorial note: it is natural for people in the humanistic language teaching movement to feel strong support for language diversity and for the creation of good conditions for the development and modernisation of minority languages. If only all minority languages could be as successful as Basque and Welsh have been over the past quarter century! ]

Regional or minority languages are languages which differ from the official language of the state; they are traditionally used within a given territory and form a group numerically smaller than the rest of the State's population. In Northern Italy, in the province of Bolzano or South Tyrol, only 30 per cent of the population is Italian, 60 per cent is "German" (speaking a South-Tyrolean German dialect) and 4 per cent Ladin. The Ladins are a trilingual community, small in number and daily confronted by two state languages - Italian and German.

Although Ladin in Italian is referred to as "ladino", this language should not be confused with "Ladino", name for Judaeo-Spanish. Then Ladin is a neo-Latin or Rhaeto-Romance language spoken in the Central and Eastern Alpine regions. In the past it formed one language area, nowadays it is divided in Central, Eastern and Western Ladin.

WESTERN LADIN OR ROMANSH is spoken in Switzerland by about 60,000 speakers, that is less than 1 per cent of the Swiss population. In 1982 its five Ladin idioms have been unified, under the scientific consultancy of Prof. Heinrich Schmid, in a lingua franca called "Rumantsch Grischun". Romansh is officially recognized as fourth Swiss language and is used for all kinds of official, semi-official, commercial and literary writings (train tables, telephone books, post office and bank publications, poems, novels, etc.)

CENTRAL LADIN, better known as DOLOMITE LADIN (Ladin Dolomitan) is made up of six dialects: "Mareo", "Badiot", "Gherdëina", "Fascian", "Fodomi" and "Anpezan"(I speak Mareo). It is spoken by approximately 30,000 people in the five valleys in the Dolomites in Italy. The Ladins of Val Badia and Val Gardena belong to the province of Bolzano or South Tyrol. They enjoy more rights than the Ladins in the other three valleys: In fact, the Ladins of Fassa, Fodom and Cortina d'Ampezzo (provinces of Trento and Belluno, Venice) use less Ladin in public administration, in schools and in general in public. (In Fassa, Ladin teaching, for example, was implemented in compulsory school only in 1997 for two hours a week. In Cortina d'Ampezzo dissociation from Ladin came with the Olympic Winter Games of 1958. There and in Fodom Ladins have been protected only since 1999. They have no own school administration, the teaching is Italian, but there are extra curricular activities organised in Ladin.)

In the 80's, following the Swiss example, the local varieties of Ladin Dolomitan have been unified into a standard unified koiné. A project called SPELL has been called into life for the purpose. Its experts work on a unified approach to grammar and spelling, neologisms and offer publications on this. At the moment Ladin Dolomitan is only used by scholars and some politicians, the population doesn't seem to want to use it.

EASTERN LADIN is referred to as FRIULAN and is spoken in the Friuli-Venezia-Giulia province in Italy. Under the influence of surrounding cultures (Italian, German, Venetian, Slovenian) it has developed in different ways but is most heavily influenced by Italian. Of the 600,000 speakers only about 20,000 speak "real" Friulan nowadays. Furthermore, the dialect has problems of standardisation, for there exist four different writing systems.

Ladin is a very old language, in fact it is the oldest language in the Alpine area. It developed 2,000 years ago, when in the year 15 BC Latin legions marched into the Alps in the region then called Rhaetia. The language of the Latin soldiers mixed with the language of the native Rhaetians. The result was the Rhaetian language, that during more than four centuries of Roman rule, spread from the Swiss Alps to the Adriatic. When the Germanic tribes of the Bavarians and Alemanni moved south in the 6th century, the area of the Rhaetian language split up into the enclaves mentioned above.

Around the year 1800 some of the Ladin-speaking areas came under Austrian rule; between 1806 and 1813 they fell to Bavaria/Germany and Italy. They returned to Austria where they remained until the end of the First World War in 1918. That year, after having signed a secret pact with the Allies, Italy annexed South Tyrol against the wishes of its people. Under the Fascist regime (1922/25-1943), a period of forced Italianisation followed. In 1927, under the same regime, the Laden-speaking valleys were allocated to the three Provinces of Blazon, Trenton and Balloon as a way of weakening the national groups. From 1943-1945 forced Germanisation by the Nazis took place, but after World War II the whole of South Tyrol was granted a significant degree of autonomy and minority language protection by the Special Statue of 1948. But it was not until 1972 that the cultural rights and teaching rights of the Ladins were guaranteed in the revised, new Statute of Autonomy of South Tyrol-Trentino. With it the Ladins were given rights such as the promise of the teaching of Ladin, Ladin place-names and the enhancement of Ladin culture in general. Under the Statue the Ladin minority has one representative on the Regional Council and one in the South Tyrol Parliament, but is still excluded from other political committees. Ladins are entitled to occupy 4,2 per cent of government posts in South Tyrol. (This percentage is not a fixed quota: it is revised according to the percentage reached by the Ladin population through census.)

In general, Ladins regard themselves primarily as Ladin people from South Tyrol. There is a low degree of self-identification in terms of being Italian. Spoken and written Ladin can be used with authorities inside and outside the Ladin-speaking area, if Ladin issues are primarily concerned. In civil and public service the knowledge of Ladin is actually a requirement and is acknowledged through an exam. In court proceedings Ladins are entitled to be questioned with no extra cost in their own language with the aid of an interpreter. The other Ladins of the other valleys don't have these rights. The protection of Ladin in South Tyrol is, in fact, a side effect of the high degree of protection granted to the German minority (a "majority" in fact within provincial boundaries).

In the past Ladin people lived especially from agriculture, in the last fifty years they have moved over to the hotel and catering trade. (In the Gardena valley a further source of income is wood-carving.) Some Ladin villages are nowadays famous ski resorts, in whose shops and businesses the three languages (Ladin, Italian and German) are used. Although in most situations Ladin use is possible, Ladin is used especially in everyday speech (a glaring exception to this is the police, as main arm of the state.) People speak Ladin with their parents, children and other relatives. Though 80 per cent of the households are Ladin, the use of Ladin within the family differs enormously from valley to valley. In Val Badia it is used by 95 per cent, in Gardena by 60-70 per cent. (In Gardena "de-ladinisation" started as early as the turn of the century, when the woodcarvers started selling their products outside. To me, who come from Val Badia, it is very funny to hear people from Val Gardena speak German and not Ladin in public places like swimming pools or shops.) In the past there was a high degree of local endogamy; most marriages are still made within the Ladin-speaking community. Half of church services are held in Ladin.

The level of understanding, speaking and reading Ladin is high, but declines with reference to writing. According to one survey some 53.7 per cent of Ladin speakers are able to write the language and a further 23.1 per cent "with difficulty". This has a great deal to do with the role of Ladin in formal education and with the characteristics of Ladin spelling (some accents are similar to those of the French language.) Ladin has no declensions; it uses only two grammatical genders: the grammar is not that difficult. The vocabulary reveals old words that are disappearing, many loan words and neologisms. The degree of uncertainty is very high when Laden is related to modernity and science.

All Laden varieties have witnessed a continuous decline, both in speakers and in territory. Especially young people speak Laden less well than their parents' generation. Due to this situation, since the 70's a large number of organisations have been created to ensure the preservation of the Ladin language and culture. Some examples: "Micurà de Rü", the cultural institute for adult education and main developer of books, the "Ladin Pedagogical Institute", concerned with educational research and in-service training of teachers and the "Union di Ladins", which edits the "Usc di Ladins" (The Voice of Ladin). This journal appears once a week entirely in Ladin. Circulation is now 3,000, an increase of 500 since 1987. Books and magazines are published in Ladin, too; especially children's books, schoolbooks, books of poetry, literary works and reference books. (The print run is usually only between 100 and 400.) There are also daily programmes on radio and TV, though on restricted time spans. (Radio Rumantsch, Radio Gherdëina, the Italian radio and television station RAI, Swiss station SRG). No films are dubbed into Ladin and there is no separate software in Ladin. (On the computer Ladins have especially difficulties with the characteristic Ladin letters.) Every year Ladin singer-songwriters perform Ladin pop and rock music on the Ladiniatour. A number of choirs perform popular music and there are many theatre groups.

Ladin is taught in South Tyrol as a main language at nursery schools. Pre-primary school is not compulsory and is attended by children aged from 3 to 6. According to the specialists, teaching the home language at this level is a condition for successful second and third language acquisition and a safeguard for endangered minority language.

When pupils start compulsory school, parents - in cooperation with teachers and perhaps by means of a language test - may choose whether their children attend the German-Ladin or Italian-Ladin class. At this stage, Ladin is used in a play context as a language of communication and instruction as well as a medium for the acquisition of the other language (to explain content or expressions pupils cannot understand in Italian or German.) From the second class onwards, "ordinary" teaching is carried out. The regulations prescribe that compulsory instruction must be divided equally between Italian and German. In a subject-teacher system, Ladin pupils have 12 hours of instruction through the medium of Italian, twelve hours of teaching through the medium of German, two hours through Ladin and since 1997/98 two hours of English, too. Religion is taught in the three languages Ladin, German and Italian.

The upper secondary level (students aged 14-18/19) consists of a five-year course leading to the secondary leaving certificate ("esame di stato".) The first year is compulsory and can be attended at a vocational school (for those who seek training in practical jobs) or in secondary schools (we have an art school, a scientific lyceum, a business school and a commercial school.) At this stage, Laden is offered as a school subject for one hour a week, but the local school board can grant permission for a second hour of Ladin language.

At the end of the Ladin school system, students are supposed to speak at the same level Ladin, German and Italian and some English, too. (In a survey, competence of Ladin students in Italian or German resulted slightly lower than that of mother tongue speakers but the competence in their mother tongue was far better than the knowledge German or Italian speaker had of their own mother tongue.)

Due to this system, the approximately 300 teachers in Ladin pre-school, primary and secondary school must be able to speak Italian, German and Ladin. They all have to pass a trilingual exam. For this they are paid a trilingual allowance and are given priority in job placement. Though the primary responsibility for the schools' functioning lies with the state, teachers are supervised by a Ladin education officer ("Intendënt dles scoles ladines") but are paid by the province. (Teachers can, however, opt for signing a national contract if they are not ready to take on the extra tasks demanded by the provincial collective agreement.) There are no separate establishments for the training of German, Italian or Ladin teachers. Universities take no account whatsoever of the needs of Ladin speakers, since they are too small in number. Subject teachers in upper secondary schools are not prepared for multilingual teaching either. At university there are no courses given in Ladin, only single hours at the Faculty of Educational Science in Bressanone/Brixen and at the universities in Padua and Innsbruck. In general, Ladin does not feature in higher education. Adult education is offered only in local institutions in form of lectures and courses.

At the moment important changes in Italian schools are being prepared. A new general reform of the education system has been initiated from September 2001: There will be a compulsory primary level of seven years for all pupils, followed by a compulsory higher biennium, giving access to the final vocational triennium of higher professional specialisation. This will lead to the reorganisation and reconsidering of teaching programmes and methods as well as the role of in-service training under the terms of the new "autonomous school". New language and computer programmes will be introduced. The new system will be implemented gradually and become fully established around the year 2007. What role is Ladin as an endangered language going to play in this new system? Despite the spatial and language group endogamy, it is the positive self-image, the high sense of vitality and a few feeling that it is under threat, which has insured the survival of Ladin so far, through a high degree of family and community use together with educational support. The minority language is highly prestigious on a local level but almost has no relevance outside its area. Maybe this article can make a little contribution to let Ladin be a little more relevant "outside".

Carmen Rubatscher's nationality is Italian. She belongs to the Ladin linguistic group but her mother tongue is South Tyrolean German. Carmen attended Ladin nursery and compulsory school, German secondary school and Italian university. Originally her family's name was "Ruaz" (Ladin), under Fascism it was turned into "Dalla Rovina" and then into "Rubatscher" (German.) The history in a family name.

For a version of Central Ladin of "Our Father" see: www.language-museum.com/e/ladin.htm