Languages in Aosta Valley – An initial less conventional picture from the inside

Aosta Valley’s territory has a historic link with the Gallo-Romance linguistic area, and, from the XII century onwards, was politically tied to the Duchy of Savoy. Besides the widespread practice of many variants of francophone dialects – which can be grouped the name of Franco-Provençal or Patois – since the 16th century, French has consolidated as an administrative and teaching language, as well as a language of the Catholic Church. In addition, since the 12th century, some areas have been populated by Walser communities who speak the Alemanic dialect variants of titsch and töitschu. Since the proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy in 1861, the entire region’s linguistic particularism underwent a progressive erosion, initially caused by the cultural and educational policies of nation-building put forward by the Kingdom and then, especially, those submitted during the fascist regime. Furthermore, Aosta Valley witnessed an almost unique (at least in Italy) migratory phenomenon, which reinforced the diffusion of the Italian language in the territory. This occurred as a result of both processes of emigration from Aosta Valley and internal migration from other Italian regions. A considerable moment of demographic change occurred from 1921 to 1939, when 30.000 people from the region of Veneto moved to Aosta Valley, while at the same time the same number of Valdôtains went to France either to escape from fascist persecution or to start a new life abroad after the local credit system underwent a huge crisis. Another migratory flow which affected Aosta Valley’s demography was the internal migration of workers from Calabria which was particularly encouraged during the 60s and 70s for political reasons. Notably, the expansion of the Italian language has not produced a sharp contrast between ethno-linguistic groups but has rather facilitated the increase of bi-and multilingual speakers. This is especially the case with the people who speak Patois: the latter idiom is widely employed in family and with friends, while preference is generally given to Italian or (to a very limited extent) French in the workplace or in other more formal contexts (like in public offices).

The power relations among the languages derived from the constitutional-legal framework are far from a realistic depiction of daily linguistic practice. As a matter of fact, sociolinguistic research has described Aosta Valley as a highly diverse and dynamic context, where perceptions of the speakers and social legitimacy of the different idioms play a significant role in shaping people’s language choices. In sociolinguistic terms, Aosta Valley is characterized by “endogenous community societal bilingualism with multiple dilalia”. The latter definition describes the coexistence of two standard languages (Italian and French) as having a legally but not concretely equal standing (as Italian has eroded the spaces of French), and of various low linguistic repertoires (Franco-Provençal, Piedmontese in the lower valley, and German dialects). Notably, the situation is even more complex in the villages where the Walser population reside, as there, three standard (Italian in dominant position, French and German with very limited use) and three low (titsch and töitschu, Franco-Provençal and Piedmontese) varieties of languages coexist. To complete this linguistic picture, there is a slow but constant increase in the use of the languages of the so-called new minorities, which add another significant dimension. Sociolinguistic scholars have highlighted that Italian is increasingly replacing all the areas of use of the other idioms in every kind of communication, be it formal, informal or even within families themselves. Patois is anyhow a vital idiom, still known and practiced by a considerable number of inhabitants (at least one third of the population); the same applies, even though to a rather lesser extent, to the Walser dialects, while French is the least used language in all areas. Thus, the analyzed socio-linguistical context can be defined as diffusely multilingual while the region is officially, legally and structurally bilingual and French, despite its symbolic relevance, is the third language in terms of use. Against this background, Aosta Valley’s bilingual legal system, inspired by restorative and promotional purposes when it comes to language provisions, is thus confronted with a reality which relativizes the legal categories highlighting their distance from the social and socio-linguistic reality. Several reasons may explain this unfortunate situation. With regard to the restoration purpose, it should be recalled that Aosta Valley’s population of 1945–1948 was considerably different from that which, in the early twentieth century, still spoke French widely. The formal guarantee of equal standing between languages did not apply to effectively equally used languages. Due to this discrepancy, even promotional actions aimed at compensating the minority through a possible and necessary “re-Francisation” based above all on school policies, have not achieved their goals. Furthermore, it was not realistic to believe that the objective of rebalancing could be reached only by use of this instrument. A bilingual school system was just not enough to recreate the socio-linguistic habits that had already been overturned by profound transformations.