10 ‘What language is spoken in Val Gardena?’ This is one of the first questions asked by people who visit our mountain valley. The curiosity is more than legitimate, also if the question should rather be: ‘What languages are spoken in Val Gardena?’ Our spoken and written languages accompany you throughout your holiday: along the promenades, on the signs of shops and craft enterprises, in conversations in the café, in your hotel or in the restaurant. German and Italian are the official languages in the entire territory of the bilingual province of Bolzano (‘Alto AdigeSüdtirol’), which enjoys a high degree of autonomy. German has always been spoken by the majority of the population. Language use is regulated by the so-called Autonomy Statute, a sum of legal norms for the protection of the linguistic and cultural minorities living in this area. Due to its importance and high status, the Autonomy Statute has the value and force of a constitutional norm. Additionally, the inhabitants of the Dolomite valleys of Val Gardena (Gherdëina) and Val Badia speak Dolomitic Ladin. This ancient Rhaeto-Romanic language has withstood domination and cultural colonization over the centuries and is protected in South Tyrol as the third official language. Ladin is also spoken in other Alpine regions: in Graubünden in Switzerland, in the nearby Fassa Valley in Trentino, in valleys of Belluno such as Livinallongo and Ampezzo (Fodom and Ampezan), and in parts of the Friuli region. The trilingualism in Val Gardena is due to historical developments. The history of our valley is a story with a happy ending, but it could also have ended very badly. The area we are talking about was part of Austria-Hungary until the end of the First World War. With the end of the war and the signing of the Treaty of Saint-Germain in 1919, the area of Tyrol south of the Brenner Pass was handed over to Italy. However, not only the area became part of Italy, but also the people and families living in it with all their possessions, their stories, their feelings, their culture and their language. Without success, the Fascist regime The languages of Val Gardena THE LANGUAGES OF VAL GARDENA
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