Ljetzan
Ljetzan (officially Italian Giazza ; the written German names Glätz and Gliesen are rarely used) is a very small place (113 inhabitants in 2001) at 758 m above sea level in the province of Verona ( Italy ). It is the shrunken remnant of a formerly larger German- speaking island in an Italian environment. The distance to the closed German-speaking area (southern border of South Tyrol ) is about 60 km as the crow flies, more than twice as far by car.
location
Ljetzan (name of the residents), part of the municipality of Selva di Progno (name of Brunge), is located in the rearmost Illasi valley, which is traversed by the stream of the same name, which flows into the Adige a few kilometers east of Verona . The Ljetzan is also part of the so-called Thirteen Municipalities .
History, language
The settlement by Bavarian people goes back to the year 1340. This probably came from the nearby seven parishes that had been settled by Baiern in the 11th or 12th century AD.
According to a 2012 study, there are still a few speakers in Ljetzan who use Cimbrian primarily in contexts of remembrance. Diseer dialect is a Bavarian dialect that shows both ancient and innovative features, both of which are due to the linguistic and geographical isolation of the speakers; there are also strong Italian influences.
The closest, still German-speaking town, Lusern , can only be reached by car via detours. He is a few days' walk away on foot; Both places are connected via the European long-distance hiking trail E5 , which is very worthwhile for nature lovers and those interested in history.
Culture
In Lietzan is the Ethnographic Museum of the Zimbern (Zimbarn) . Every year on June 23 there is the fire festival (Italian: festa del fuoco, Cimbrian: Waur Lietzan ). In addition, the feast of St. James the Elder (July 25th) and the Assumption of Mary (August 15th) are celebrated.
literature
- Bidese Ermenegildo: The Cimbrian of Giazza. Studienverlag, Innsbruck / Vienna / Bozen, 2011, ISBN 3706548216 .
- Bernhard Wurzer: The German language islands in Northern Italy. Athesia, Bozen 1998.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Stefan Rabanus: Language contact on the "Brenner Line". Pre-articles, partitive pronouns and subject pronouns in Romance and Germanic-German varieties. In: Michael Elmentaler, Markus Hundt, Jürgen Erich Schmidt: German dialects. Concepts, problems, fields of action. Files of the 4th Congress of the International Society for the Dialectology of German (IGDD) (= Journal for Dialectology and Linguistics. Supplements. Volume 158). Steiner, Stuttgart 2015, pp. 415-433.
Coordinates: 45 ° 39 ' N , 11 ° 7' E