Valle d'Aosta
Patois dialect

Patois dialect

Every civilization has its own particular language, by which its cultural and literary inheritance is handed on. In the Valle d'Aosta, French has been the written language for centuries, while everyone used to speak a dialect called "patois", with many local variants.

Abbot Jean-Baptiste Cerlogne (1826-1910) began to put the patois dialect in a written form. He is the author of works such as "Petite grammaire du dialecte valdotain" (1893), "Dictionnaire du du dialecte valdotain" (1908) and "Le patois valdotain - son origine literaire et sa graphie" (1909). He is also one of the major literary authors in patois language (Merenda a Tzesalet!, la Bataille di vatse a Vertosan-1858), together with the poetess Eugenie Martinet (1896-1983).

The first draft of a play in patois, "Le female a lave bouiya" (Women at the wash-board) was written in 1933 by Abbe' Henry and was published on the "Messager Valdotain".

Written patois works have given a new impulse to theatre: throughout the Valley there are many companies performing very original pieces; the most famous playwrights are Rene' Willien, Pierre Vietti and Raymond Vautherin.

The main chance for companies and authors to display their work is the event called "Le printemps theatral", held in Aosta.

Special attention must be paid to "Lo Chabran", a company based in Aosta, founded in 1958. Every year it performs a couple of plays, which run over a week. However it is usually very hard to get a ticket: a Chabran show is an extremely important event for the Valley people, who queue all night before the opening of the ticket sale.

Another event connected with the patois dialect is the "Concours Cerlogne", where schools present their annual works in patois, on a particular subject.

The linguistic outline of the Region is then completed by "walser" dialect, of German origin, spoken in the Gressoney Valley. Due to the reduced number of speakers, there are only a few cultural activities connected to walser.

Three institutions support the Valley dialects patois and walser: the "Bureau Regional pour l'ethnologie et la linguistique" , the " center d'etudes franco-provencales de Saint-Nicolas, with the "Mussee Cerlogne" and the walser Cultural center in Gressoney-Saint-Jean.

Courtesy of the Regione Valle d'Aosta

© 1997-2010 Enrico Massetti
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