AlpiLinK

Alpine Languages in Contact

AlpiLinK (Alpine Languages in Contact) is a project for the documentation, investigation and promotion of the Germanic, Romance and Slavic dialects and minority languages spoken across the Alpine regions of Italy.

The Alpine language belong to three language families. Tyrolean dialects and the minority languages Cimbrian, Mòcheno, Saurano, Sappadino, Timavese, Val Canale German and Walser German are Germanic languages. The varieties of Ladin, Friulian, Occitan Francoprovençal and the Venetan, Trentino, Lombard or Piedmontese dialects are Romance languages. Val Canale Slovenian and Resian belong to the Slavic languages.

Listen & Explore

Listen to some examples of Alpine languages! Just click “Listen & Explore” below in order to access the interactive AlpiLinK map. Then simply select a sentence, a part of a story, a sound or an image and click on any location to listen to the recording.

The project

What is AlpiLinK?

AlpiLinK is an acronym of Alpine Languages in Contact. It is a collaborative project of the Universities of Verona, Trento, Bolzano-Bozen, Turin and Aosta, funded by the Italian Research Ministry in the PRIN framework. Its objectives are the promotion and investigation of the Germanic, Romance and Slavic dialects and minority languages spoken in the Alpine regions of Italy: Piedmont, Aosta Valley, Lombardy, Veneto, Trentino-South Tyrol, and Friuli-Venezia Giulia.

Please find above a video of a talk given at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (U.S.) in which the Principal Investigator (Stefan Rabanus) explains the goals, methods and results of AlpiLinK (in English, approx. 50 minutes).

Discover the linguistic varieties

AlpilinK collects data for all linguistic varieties that are part of the Germanic, (Rhaeto-)Romance and Slavic language familes and that are spoken in the regions of the Italian Alps.

Team & Contact

Meet the team! For questions, comments, or suggestions, please contact us.