Mócheno is an Upper German

Upper German

Upper German is a family of High German dialects spoken primarily in southern Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Northern Italy.-Family tree:Upper German can be generally classified as Alemannic or Austro-Bavarian...

 variety spoken in three towns of the Mocheni Valley

Mocheni Valley

The Mocheni Valley , also known as Fersina Valley from the name of the torrent Fersina, is a valley in Trentino....

 (German

German language

German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....

: Fersental, Italian

Italian language

Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...

: Valle del Fersina, Mócheno: Bersntol), in Trentino, northeastern Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

.

Mócheno is closely related to Bavarian and is variously classified either as a Southern Bavarian dialect

Dialect

The term dialect is used in two distinct ways, even by linguists. One usage refers to a variety of a language that is a characteristic of a particular group of the language's speakers. The term is applied most often to regional speech patterns, but a dialect may also be defined by other factors,...

 or a separate language of its own. Mócheno speakers reportedly partially understand Bavarian

Bavarian

Bavarian is the adjective form of the German state of Bavaria, and refers to people of ancestry from Bavaria. Bavarian may also refer to:* Austro-Bavarian, a group of closely related dialects of German, spoken in parts of Bavaria, most of Austria and the Alto Adige/Südtirol* Bavarian cream, a...

, Cimbrian, or Standard German

German language

German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....

. However, many essential differences in grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation render it difficult for speakers of standard German

German language

German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....

 to understand.

Geographic distribution

According to the census of 2001, the first in which data on native languages were recorded, Mócheno was spoken by a majority in the following municipalities (numbers of members of the Mócheno linguistic group): Fierozzo

Fierozzo

Fierozzo is a comune in Trentino in the northern Italian region Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol, located about 15 km northeast of Trento. As of 31 December 2004, it had a population of 456 and an area of 17.9 km²...

/Florutz/Vlarotz (423 people, 95,92%), Palù

Palù del Fersina

Palù del Fersina is a comune in Trentino in the northern Italian region Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol, located about 20 km northeast of Trento...

/Palai/Palae (184 people, 95,34%), Frassilongo

Frassilongo

Frassilongo is a comune in Trentino in the northern Italian region Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol, located about 14 km east of Trento...

/Gereut/Garait (340 people, 95,24% - including the village of Roveda/Eichleit/Oachlait). In other municipalities of Trentino

Municipalities of Trentino

The following is a list of municipalities of the autonomous province of Trentino in northern Italy. Trentino is divided into 223 administrative subdivisions . Some municipalities have a second official language such as German and Ladin.- See also :* Municipalities of South Tyrol* Prontuario dei...

1,329 persons declared themselves members of the Mócheno linguistic group, a total of 2,276 in Trentino.

Status

Mócheno is officially recognised in Trentino by provincial and national law. Starting in the 1990s, various laws and regulations have been passed by the Italian parliament and provincial assembly, that put the Mócheno language and culture under protection. A cultural institute was founded by decree, whose purpose is to safeguard and educate on the language. School curricula were adapted in order to teach in Mócheno, and street signs are being changed to be bilingual.

Example

Mócheno	German	English
Vatar ingar en Himbl, gahailegt kimmp der Núm. Der da Raich schellt kemmen.	Vater unser im Himmel, geheiligt werde Dein Name. Dein Reich komme.	Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come,

Further reading

Grammar

• Anthony Rowley: Liacht as de sproch. Grammatica della lingua mòchena / Grammatik des Deutsch-Fersentalerischen. Istituto Culturale Mòcheno-Cimbro / Kulturinstitut für das Fersental und Lusern / Kulturinstitut Bersntol-Lusérn, Palù del Fèrsina (Trento) 2003, ISBN 88-900656-1-3 (Digitalisat: PDF)

Dictionary

• Anthony Rowley: Fersentaler Wörterbuch. Wörterverzeichnis der deutschen Sprachinselmundart des Fersentals in der Provinz Trient/Oberitalien. Buske, Hamburg 1989 (= Bayreuther Beiträge zur Sprachwissenschaft, Dialektologie, 2), ISBN 3-87118-593-0

Secondary literature

• Federica Cognola: Costruzioni infinitivali e fenomeni di trasparenza nel dialetto della Valle del Fèrsina In: Quaderni patavini di linguistica 22 (2006), pg. 3-48
• Hans Mirtes: Das Ferstental und die Fersentaler. Zur Geographie, Geschichte und Volkskunde einer deutschen Sprachinsel im Trentino/Norditalien. Institute für Geographie, Regensburg 1996 (= Regensburger geographische Schriften, Heft 26)
• Giovanni Battista Pellegrini (ed.): La Valle del Fèrsina e le isole linguistiche di origine tedesca nel Trentino: Atti del convegno interdisciplinare, Sant'Orsola (Trento), 1 - 3 settembre 1978. Museo degli usi e costumi della gente trentina, S. Michele all'Adige 1979
• Anthony Rowley: Fersental (Val Fèrsina bei Trient/Oberitalien) - Untersuchung einer Sprachinselmundart. Niemeryer, Tübingen 1986 (= Phonai. Lautbibliothek der deutschen Sprachen und Mundarten, Deutsche Reihe, Bd. 28; Monographien, Bd. 18), ISBN 3-484-23131-9
• Anthony Rowley: Die Mundarten des Fersentals. In: Maria Hornung (ed.), Die deutschen Sprachinseln in den Südalpen. Mundarten und Volkstum, Olms, Hildesheim / Zürich / New York, 1994 (= Studien zur Dialektologie, 3; Germanistische Linguistik, 124/125), pg. 145-160, ISBN 3-487-09957-8
• Anthony Rowley: Die Sprachinseln der Fersentaler und Zimbern. In: Robert Hinderling / Ludwig M. Eichinger (ed.): Handbuch der mitteleuropäischen Sprachminderheiten, Narr, Tübingen 1996, pg. 263-285, ISBN 3-8233-5255-5
• Anthony Rowley: "Mocheno e Cimbro". Von Dialekt(en) zu Sprache(n)? In: Dieter Stellmacher (ed.), Dialektologie zwischen Tradition und Neuansätzen: Beiträge der Internationalen Dialektologentagung, Göttingen, 19. - 21. Oktober 1998, Steiner, Stuttgart 2000 (= Zeitschrift für Dialektologie und Linguistik, Beiheft 109), pg. 213-221, ISBN 3-515-07762-6
• Bernhard Wurzer: Die deutschen Sprachinseln in Oberitalien. 5. erw. Aufl., Athesia, Bozen 1983, ISBN 88-7014-269-8