Fig. 29—Stelvio Pass at the eastern edge of the area of Romansh dialects, showing the mountainous character of the country in which this language has survived.
The southerly advance of the German language in the mountainous province has followed the valleys of the Etsch and Eisack, for the channels through which mountain waters flowed towards the Adriatic also facilitated the transportation of goods from the German highlands of central Europe to the Mediterranean. A steady current of freight has been maintained in a southerly course along this route since the beginning of continental commerce in Europe. In the Middle Ages numerous colonies of German traders had acquired solid footing along the much traveled road over the Brenner Pass which connected Augsburg and Venice.[55]
Fig. 30—Sketch map of the Trentino showing languages spoken. Scale, 1:2,400,000.
Early activity of German traders stamped its imprint on the linguistic map by a wedge of Teutonic speech thrust towards the Trentino, between Italian on the west and Ladin on the east. This linguistic protuberance occupies the valley of the Etsch south of its confluence with the Eisack. The divide between the two languages has its westernmost reach near Trafoi,[56] known also as Travis. The junction of Swiss and Austrian political boundaries at this point corresponds to the contact between the German of the Tyrol and the Romanic idioms of Engadine. Thence, the linguistic line of separation skirts the base of the Ortler massif and subsequently coincides with the watershed of the Etsch and Noce rivers. Ladin settlements begin north of the Fleims valley[57] and spread beyond the Gradena basin (Grödenthal) to Pontebba (Pontafel) and Malborghet where the meeting of Europe’s three most important linguistic stocks, the Romanic, Germanic and Slavic, occurs.
The language spoken by the Italians of the Trentino consists of Lombard and Venetian dialects. Ladin dialects are spoken in some of the small valleys east of the Adige. In the valley of Monastero, near the Swiss frontier, the inhabitants speak a dialect of Ladin or Romansh which is akin to Friulian. This patois was in greater use during the Middle Ages. The Ladins, both in Austria and Italy, are Italians in every respect save that of language, although here also the two peoples are closely related. Ladin language is a slightly altered form of Latin containing words of non-Romanic stock which differ according to the locality overrun by the Romans. The same definition applies to the Romansh language of Switzerland. Romansh and Ladin are therefore basically Latin languages which did not develop to the stage of Italian or French and which differ from each other in the number of pre-Roman words they contain. Friulian belongs to the same category of Romance languages and differs from Ladin merely in having a larger proportion of Italian words. Like Ladin it is not a literary language and is therefore being superseded by Italian. Romansh dialects of Switzerland will probably survive longer since in the canton of Grisons they are recognized as official together with German and Italian, and in Engadine Romansh is still a literary dialect.
The claims of Italy in the Trentino include[58] the Bolzano district lying at the confluence of the Isarco and the Adige. This locality is peopled by 16,000 Germans and 4,000 Italians. Meran, the upper valleys Of the Adige and Isarco together with their affluents, Bressanone on the Isarco, and Bruneco on the Rienza likewise fall within the territory claimed by Italy. A return to the Italian fold of the small groups of Italians scattered between Salorno and Bolzano, between Bolzano and Meran and between Bruneco and Bressanone is shown in this manner to lie within the realm of possibility. As early as 774 Charlemagne’s division of the region between the kingdoms of Bavaria and Italy had implied recognition of linguistic variations. But the importance of maintaining German control over natural lines of access to southern seas determined his successors to award temporal rights in the southeastern Alps to bishops upon whose adherence to Germanic interests reliance could be placed. The bishopric of Trentino thus passed under the Teutonic sphere of influence. The present political union of the territory of the old see with the Austrian Empire is hence a relic of medieval German politics.
Historically the Trentino’s connection with Italy rests on ancient foundations. At the height of Roman power Tridentium was an important city. It was situated in the tenth Italian region, known as Venetia et Histria. After the fall of the western Empire it was included in the Italian districts conquered by the Ostrogoths and Byzantines. Under the Lombards Trent became the capital of a dukedom. In the Romano-Germanic feudal period it was part of the kingdom of Italy constituted by Charles the Great, and later, of the Marches of Verona established by Otto I. Conrad II in 1027 turned the region over to religious ownership. From this date on it is known as the princely bishopric of Trent. The bishop-princes who ruled in the Trentino, however, were constantly at war with the feudal lords who had authority over the lands north and south of the Trentino. In the sixteenth century the court of Bernardo Clesio, one of the most famous of these religious rulers, was distinctly Italian in thought and customs.