EUROPE OF LANGUAGES AND OF NATION

LADIN (F)

Ladin belongs to the Rhaeto-Romanic branch of the Romance group within the Indo-European family of languages. Carlo Tagliavini in History of Neolatin languages divides ladin in three areas : occidental, in Switzerland, near Grison district , where it is spoken Romansch; central constituted by dialects spoken on italian dolomitic area; oriental represented by Friulan. In South Tyrol, where German is also spoken, Ladin is mainly found in the valleys of Gherdëina and Val Badia. Ladin speakers here number 18,434 or 4.3% of the population It is also spoken by some 7,000-7,500 people in Trentino and by 6,000-7,000 in the province of Belluno. According to one survey some 53.7% of Ladin speakers are able to write the language, and a further 23.1% 'with difficulty'. Of those speaking other mother tongues in the Ladin speaking valleys, 93.8% of those with Italian as their mother tongue are able to understand Ladin, 56.3% are able to speak it and 6.3% can write it. Of those with German as their mother tongue, 87.5% can understand and speak Ladin and 37.5% can write it. Regional statutes in Trentino grant the Ladins certain linguistic rights which are not fully realised in practice. In South Tyrol Ladin does not have full linguistic equality with German and Italian. However, South Tyrol's special statute of autonomy gives the Ladins the right to use their language with public official bodies situated in the Ladin speaking valleys, with regional official bodies which deal exclusively or mainly with the interests of the Ladins, and also they may speak in their own language in court. In the Ladin schools in South Tyrol, instruction is divided equally between Italian and German, with the exception of the first two primary school classes, which are taught either through Ladin and German or through Ladin and Italian. Nursery schools use Ladin. In compulsory schooling, Ladin is taught as a subject. The relevant local variant of Ladin is used both in the nurseries and in the schools. The provision of media in the Ladin language is poor; given the lack of a recognised standard language and the absence of an intellectual, cultural and political centre within the Ladin valleys. The most important written news medium of the Ladin language is the weekly newspaper La Usc di Ladins*. Weekly pages appear in the following newspapers: Dolomiten*, Alto Adige and a weekly column in Das Katholische Sonntagsblatt. A new German language daily newspaper Tageszeitung publishes three columns in Ladin every day. In addition there exists a number of periodicals dealing with culture, folklore and linguistics in Ladin, including: in Val Badia Ladinia (annual) and Lingaz y Cultura (irregular), both of which are produced at the Istitut Ladin "Micurà de Rü"; Sas dla Crusc (published by the Union dai Ladin dla Val Badia) and the Calënder Ladin (published by Ert pur i Ladins); in Val Gherdëina Calënder de Gherdëina (published by the Union di Ladins de Gherdëina, circulation: 1500 per year). As far is radio is concerned, Radio Gherdëina* broadcasts in three languages. RAI in Bozen (Radio ladin)* broadcasts twenty or twenty-five minutes of Ladin (news and culture) twice daily (except Sundays). Since 1988 RAI Ladina* has also been broadcasting television programmes in Ladin (10 minutes of news and culture on Tuesdays and Thursdays). This had previously stopped in 1979. Every three weeks there is a half hour broadcast in Ladin on Wednesday on the state channel RAI 3.

C. TAGLIAVINI, Le origini delle lingue neolatine (Origins of Neolatin languages), Bologna, 1962;

F. DESSEMONTET, (1984): Le droit des langues en Suisse. Etude présentée au Conseil de la langue française. Québec.

G. CALGARI, Les 4 littératures de la Suisse ( Four literature in Switzerland), Flammarion, Paris, 1991;

G. MARCHETTI, Lineamenti di grammatica friulana (, Torino, Utet, 1952;

G. MARCHETTI, Lineamenti di grammatica ladina, Torino, Utet, 1963;

M. DUVAL-VALENTIN, (1983): La situation linguistique en Suisse. In: Foder, I. et al. (éds): Sprachreform I. Hamburg, 463-544.

P. DUBOIS (1983): Union et division des Suisses. Les relations entre Alémaniques, Romands et Tessinois aux XIXe et XXe siècles. Lausanne.

P. LANSEL, Musa romontscha ( Romanisch Muse), Coira, 1979.

R.SHLAFTER (1986): La Suisse aux quatre langues. Genève.

U. DURMULLER (1992): The Changing Status of English in Switzerland. In Ammon, U. (éd.): Status Change of Languages. Berlin.

Occitan (or langue d'oc as it is also called) is spoken in Occitania (an area of 190 000 km2, which accounts for nearly a third of the area of the French state - 32 département), one valley in the Spanish Pyrenees (The Aran Valley), and twelve valleys in the Italian Alps. In total, 13 million people live in this area. Occitan is a Romance Language from the same Indo-European branch as Italian, Catalan and Rumanian. There are six Occitan dialects: Vivaro-alpin, Auvergne, Limousin, Gascon, Languedoc and Provençal. According to estimates, about 1.5 million people speak Occitan in their daily lives, and between five and six million are able to speak the language. Most Occitan speakers live in rural areas and the majority of these are elderly people. Because of this, the situation of the language is precarious and the future uncertain, especially so as the French government continues to marginalise the language and that Occitan has no official status whatsoever in France. In the French state, no effort is made to promote Occitan or to integrate the language into public life. Occitan has a very minor position in the educational system, it's taught in school as a foreign language. The situation is very different in the Spanish state: in

the Aran Valley, Occitan is by its status of an official language, along with Catalan in the Generalitat de Catalunya. Work was started at the end of the 19th century to standardize Occitan. Following WWII, this work was continued by I.E.O..

Standardized Occitan is based on the Languedoc dialect. Media marked with an asterisk are described in further detail in the media database. Any Occitan media that exists is mainly due to the efforts of voluntary organisations, associations and political parties. In the Occitan language press, there exists currently only one weekly newspaper (La Setmana), and one monthly magazine (Prouvènço d'Aro) written entirely in Occitan. Some of the most popular regional newspapers publish a column written in Occitan (e.g. La Dépêche du Midi). There are also cultural and/or political magazines and reviews (such as L'Occitan*), and bilingual ones such as Aquo d'Aqui*, Monde en Óc*, Lo Lugarn* and Ousitanio Vivo. The main publishers are Federop*, I.E.O*, Ostal del Libre*, Vent Terral*, Cultura d'Òc*, S.O.E.D Princi Negre*, Vistedit* and Edisud*. In the field of radio, there isn't one station that broadcasts exclusively in Occitan, but there are some programmes broadcast in the language by stations such as Radio Clapas*, two channels of Radio France*, Radio Occitania* and Radio Païs*. Compared to other minority languages in France, the radio service provided for Occitan speakers is pretty good. In Spain, Catalunya Radio.

There is only one Occitan language television programme currently shown on French television, until very recently on France 3 Sud there were two programmes - the second one has now been withdrawn. In the Aran Valley, Television de Catalunya (Val d'Aran) broadcasts one programme. d'Aran diffusé par Television de Catalunya.

M.F.ANGIOLINI L’occitane d’aujourd’hui,.Marseille, Edisud, 1998.

C. TAGLIAVINI, Le origini delle lingue neolatine (Origins of Neolatin languages), Bologna, 1962;

K. BARTSCH, Grundriss zuer Geshiscte der provenzalischen Literatur, Elberfeld, 1972;

J. ANGLADE, Le troubadur, Flammarion, Paris, 1908;

CH. CHAMPROUX, Histoire de la littérature occitane, Paris, Bordas, 1930;

R. HILL e TH: BERGIN Anthology of the Provencal Troubadours, New Heaven, 1980;

M. DE RIQUER, La lirica de los trobadores, Ed. Gaudi, Barcelona, 1980;

F. GARAVINI, La letteratura trovadorica moderna, Utet, Torino, 1970