South Tyrol talk · Languages in South Tyrol
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Languages in South Tyrol
Languages in South Tyrol
The official languages in South Tyrol are German and Italian. In general, everyone younger can speak and is taught Italian. One could say that most Ladin people can speak German as well but only a few Italian south tyrolians can speak German depending on where they live. If they live in big cities they are unlikely to speak German. Really to get around outside of Bolzano or Merano one should speak German. All road signs and services to the public have to be provided in both languages. In the regional parliament deputies can speak their mother tongue and laws have to be published bilingual. In addition to German and Italian in South Tyrol there is a third semi-officially recognized language - Ladin. This ancient language originated after the invasion of the Ancient Romans in the Alpine region is spoken in the Gardena and Badia valleys - and also in the Fassa Valley in Trentino and Cortina d'Ampezzo area in Veneto. Ladin has a fully official status in the valleys in which it's spoken and also in the capital is common to see trilingual signs - but not road signs. It is a sister language of Romansh still spoken in eastern Switzerland and Fruali spoken in north-eastern Italy.
Every 10 years during the census South Tyrolean have to declare their ethnic affiliation in order to decide the percentage which has to be given at working places to German-, Italian- or Ladin-speakers. In the last census 69.15% declared to be German-speaking, 27.65% is Italian-speaking and 4.37% is Ladin-speaking.
Italian-speaking South Tyroleans live mostly in Bolzano - about 55% of the whole Italian-speaking population, and they are a majority in 4 other municipalities: its metropolitan area - the three metropolitan municipalities of Laives, Bronzolo and Vadena, and in the village of Salorno which borders Italian-speaking Trentino to the south. Other big Italian-speaking communities are located in the most important towns such as Meran, Brixen, Sterzing and generally in the Wipp Valley. Ladin-speaking people are a majority in 8 municipalities and there are small minorities in Bolzano (0.71%), Brixen and Bruneck. German-speaking South Tyrolean are the dominant group in 103 of 116 municipalities - the most German-speaking village is Sankt Pankraz with a 99.81% german-speaking population. In general the more rural, the more likely the inhabitants speak German.
In everyday life most of German-speaking South Tyroleans speak their local dialect, generally called Südtirolerisch but this has a lot of varieties from location to location. The South Tyrolean German dialect is related to the Bavarian dialects spoken in Austria and Bavaria. Some loan words have been taken from Italian - especially bad words, though! A local Italian dialect exists only in the area of Laives in the Bolzano metropolitan area - here Italian-speakers of ancestors from Trentino speak a dialect of central Trentino mixed with local German dialect (this dialect is commonly called Laivesòt). Only old Italian-speakers can speak the dialect (mostly Venetian) of origin being the others born in South Tyrol where the literary standard was the solution in order to communicate - however in local Italian there is a regional Venetian substrate as well as German influences. Ladin has no officially recognized literary standard - but it exists - and Ladins speak in South Tyrol two different dialects: Gherdeina and Badiot.
So, if you're going to go to South Tyrol it would be better to know some words of German instead of Italian, especially if you decide to visit villages and the mountains - in some valleys some local populations could have problems understanding foreigners speaking Italian, which is for them a foreign language too particular if they are older.
English is spreading fast and especially younger people can speak it - but this depends on their education level. English is a compulsory subject in South Tyrolean schools. In hotels, tourist offices and tourist places English is well known. In other places it would be better if you know some words of German (or Italian).
French is not so popular but especially in Bolzano and other towns some young people can speak a little French.
The Most Frequently Asked Travel Questions about South Tyrol
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WHERE TO TRAVEL NEXT IN 2020
South Tyrol Travel Guide from Wikitravel. Many thanks to all Wikitravel contributors. Text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0, images are available under various licenses, see each image for details.