Aosta · Italy

Two official languages, and a third

Observe the road signs: they are in two languages. In the Aosta Valley both Italian and French are official, and that is not a courtesy to visitors but the result of a particular history. This valley was French-speaking for centuries, long before it was Italian. Under Fascism, French was forbidden in schools and courts and the names of villages were Italianised by decree. After the war the valley obtained a special statute recognising the language, and the names returned to what they had been. There is then a third language, absent from the signs: patois, the Franco-Provençal spoken at home and at the market, different from village to village and without a single spelling. Those who speak it can tell within a few words which commune another speaker comes from. Nobody teaches it. It is learned by listening.

Go deeper

Is patois still spoken?

Yes, mainly in the communes outside the city and more among older people than younger ones. There are school competitions, a dictionary and theatre in patois, which says two facts at once: that it is holding on, and that it needs holding on to.

What is Franco-Provençal?

A Romance language in its own right, not a dialect of French or of Italian. It is spoken across a band taking in the Aosta Valley, Savoy and French-speaking Switzerland. Linguists gave it the name in the nineteenth century; the people who speak it just call it patois.

What will I hear in the street?

Mostly Italian, here in the city. French is in the schools, the paperwork and the signs more than in conversation. Patois you hear in the villages, at the market and between people who know each other. The three languages occupy different places rather than replacing one another.

Where it is

Via Torre del Lebbroso, 11100 Aosta · 45.73504, 7.31529 · Open in Maps

Listen where it happened

Part of Memoro, a free audio guide you open in your browser. No app, no account.