Questione Ladina

Questione Ladina called the question of whether there is a close linguistic relationship between the spoken in Grisons Romansh, as spoken in the Dolomite valleys Ladin and the spoken Italian Friuli Furlan, and whether it is justified to treat these three languages ​​under an umbrella concept, Romansh or Alpenromanisch to summarize.

Since the beginning of the 20th century and until today this question is controversial among two groups of linguists. Explosive outside of the small circle of scholars got the problem with the conclusions which drew the politics of it.

View the Ascolianer

The first group is based on a 1873 published work of the linguist Graziadio Ascoli ( 1829-1907 ). The fact held view has been significantly expanded by Theodor Gartner (1843-1925) in the following years.

Both researchers postulate, there existed so many similarities between the ( Graubünden ) Romansh, Ladin - taking place except the Dolomites Ladin also the dialect of the Val di Non ( Nones ) and the Sulzbergtals ( Solander ) as Ladin - and the Furlanischen that one of have a kind of Romansh assumed " original language " in the area between the Oberalp pass in Switzerland and Friuli in Italy.

This unit would have been heavily dissected in the sequence by the geographical conditions in dialects; by the spread of the German and the Italian south to north was torn apart the original unit.

View the Battis Tianer

The second group - from Carlo Battisti and Salvioni Carlo (1858-1920) - on the other hand meant by the Romanche only spoken in Grisons Romansh, with its five idioms. A further unit with the Dolomitic Ladinian and the Friulian language is a mere scientific construct without reference to reality.

The Romance with the Ladin and Friulian common features found in different strong extent in many dialects galloitalischen on the southern slopes of the Alps of Lombardy to Veneto, which are commonly reckoned to Italian; some of these characteristics is also common in the Po Valley. Thus, the alleged similarities between the " Romansh " recognized as typical features of linguistic refuge areas of a formerly different nature northern Italian dialect.

Policy Implications

The dispute between Ascolianern and Battistianern was first performed purely scientific. Since the beginning of the 20th century, however, the positions Battisti were also taken over by representatives of the Italian irredentism. This saw Battisti views a support for their theory that Grisons novels, Dolomites Ladin and Friulian actually speak Italian and therefore Italians are that need to be combined in an Italian state. To ensure that the Swiss canton of Ticino and most of the Grisons had ( according to the logic of the Nationalists ) must be connected to Italy.

The underlying problem is from today's perspective is that the policy must not use knowledge of historical linguistics for the assessment of current problems: No matter historically whether Romansh, Ladin and Friulian actually represent " northern Italian " dialects or not, there is nowadays for most speakers of this dialects no such awareness.

Are being said from a linguistic point of view precisely those northern Italian varieties north of La Spezia - Rimini line (ie in the entire Po valley ), which border south to the Ladin varieties, also not " Italian " in the strict sense, but is part of the Western Roman; this was back in the political debate of the 19th and early 20th century not matter today is the independence of the " Po valley " language and culture but, among other things loudly represented by the Lega Nord.

Newer discussion

Since the introduction of the language group affiliation declaration in Trentino at the 2001 census, numerous Nonsberger and Sulzberger have declared Ladin. The idioms Nones and Solander are not traditionally classified as Ladin, but merely referred to as semi- Ladin or ladino - anaunisch, and enjoy as part of the autonomy of Trentino been no legal recognition, unlike the Ladin dialects of the Fassa Valley.

Recently, therefore, a heated debate on the official recognition of the ananunisch - Ladin dialects has evolved.

In the 2011 census, 23.19 % of the Nonsberger have declared Ladin, in 2001 it had still been 17.54 %. To live in the Non's and Sulzberg more Ladin as in Val di Fassa.

According to a recent study can be neither the classification of some north- Trentine dialects ( Noce Valley: Sulzberg and Nonsberg ) as " halbladinisch " nor the assignment of some of these dialects (upper Sulzberg ) justify the Alpine Lombard. In contrast, the varieties are presented clearly linked to the zentraltrentinische, now increasingly influenced by Venedischen system. In addition, the study found that the three sub-groups Romansh ( Romansh, Dolomitenladinisch, Friulian ) occurs as a completely differentiated from the Upper Italian language family, and is therefore not attributable to the Italian language type, but their autonomy is justified.