The Ladin language and the museum

As already mentioned, Ladin is the oldest language in the Alpine region: it emerged in the 1st century AD from the fusion of the Celtic culture of the Rhaetic people and the Roman one. The various migrations were a strong threat for this language. Luckily, is survived in some tributary valleys: in Val Gardena, Val Badia, Val di Fassa, Livinallongo, in the area around Cortina d’Ampezzo as well as in the Italian Autonomous Region Friuli-Venezia Giulia and in the Grisons in Switzerland.

The Ladin language is one of the most outstanding characteristic of Val Gardena and has attracted the interest of many linguists. Although it has some similarities with Italian, its orthography, vocabulary and pronunciation are yet very different. In addition, Ladin was born one thousand years before the Italian language, and it is not a dialect as many people erroneously still believe.

Unfortunately, the modern technological progress has forced the people of Val Gardena to use words of other languages in order to describe new concepts and objects which are not present in the original language. The majority of the assimilated words comes from German, Italian or English, what inevitably brings an impoverishment of the language with it.

An interesting fact is that knowing Ladin makes it easier for the people of Val Gardena to learn other languages. One of the first ones to show this phenomenon was the famous minnesinger Oswald von Wolkenstein, who on his numerous journeys confirmed that his knowledge of the Ladin language helped him a lot in learning other Romance languages.

The first one showing interest for the Ladin language from a philological point of view was the priest J. A. Vian of the municipality of Ortisei, who was from Val di Fassa. He analyzed thoroughly the Ladin grammar and vocabulary and collected the idiomatic forms of this language in a book. This study was the basis for the work of many other scholars. Nowadays, Ladin is officially recognized as a language and thousands of lemmata have been integrated with their translation and description in dictionaries. Some linguists estimate, that 80 % of the Ladin words originate from Vulgar Latin, 15 % from Germanic and the rest from the ancient language of the Rhaetic people.

In the Museum de Gherdëina in Ortisei, founded in 1960, many testimonials of the Ladin culture and tradition can be visited. The museum is located in the Cësa di Ladins (“House of the Ladins”) and hosts interesting collections documenting the wood carving evolution from the 16th century until today as well as geological and archaeological discoveries of the Dolomite area. A permanent exposition illustrates and commemorates the adventurous life of the famous film maker and mountaineer of Val Gardena Luis Trenker (1892-1990).

The museum and its activity such as the organisation of numerous cultural events as well as the promotion of historic and scientific research would not exist without the Union di Ladins de Gherdëina. This non-profit association was founded in 1946 and is part of the Union Generela di Ladins dla Dolomites, the most important cultural association of the Dolomite Ladin area. The Union di Ladins de Gherdëina promotes the Ladin language and culture through television and radio programmes as well as through publications, expositions, concerts and theatrical productions.