Lofty Italian village is home to Europe's rarest tongue

By Carina Braun Oct 4, 2011, 3:06 GMT

Lusern, Italy - The Cimbrian stronghold lies tucked away beside a green meadow deep in the mountains. In the little village of Lusern, 1,333 metres above sea level, the locals refer to a wife as ''s baibe' instead of the usual high German 'Ehefrau' while girls are known as 'di diarn' instead of the customary 'Maedchen.'

These villagers in Italy are among an estimated 2,200 people who speak a rare Bavarian German dialect known as 'Zimbrisch' or Cimbrian, one of the most endangered tongues in Europe and indeed the world. The grammar and pronunciation make Cimbrian virtually unintelligible to Germans or Italians so that although it is often classed as a dialect it represents a language of its own.

Cimbrian was imported with Bavarian farmers who fled famine in their homeland around 1,000 years ago in search of pastures new. They settled in the deep valleys of the Pre-Alps where their vernacular has been able to survive intact for centuries.

Luigi Nicolussi, 61, was mayor of Lusern for 25 years. He is a friendly gent with an important mission in life: He aims to ensure that spoken Cimbrian does not become extinct - a tall order for the mere 300 inhabitants of Lusern.

Nicolussi has stopped using the local word for 'birth' since he finds it too cold and unfeeling for an event of such significance. He likes to refer to 'gifts' being bestowed.

'Three children were given to us this year,' he says. This is a big number for Lusern since every Cimbrian counts. 'It amounts to a village growth of one per cent,' says Nicolussi with pride.

The world into which the baby Cimbrians have been thrust is a remote one. The roads that lead here wend their way from Vicenza and Trento through thick woodland, approaching the foothills of the mountains via serpentine curves.

After World War One Lusern and the neighbouring Cimbrian communities such as Asiago and Fersental were proclaimed as Italian. The antique dialect was dismissed as the language of barbarians and those who used it risked incurring a fine. Cimbrian was ousted from everyday life but Lusern has managed to retain its linguistic identity.

The village snuggles up beside the mountain, a place of stone-built alpine houses adorned with flowers. There is a football pitch, which is seldom used, and a cemetery perched above a sheer drop. The gravestones bear Italianized names like 'Giovanni-Haensle'. Four-fifths of the locals carry the surname Nicolussi. The pastor looks in twice a day and the doctor calls three times over the same period.

In recent years things have been looking up. There is now a gallery in Lusern for regional artists to display their works, two hotels and a documentation centre which features the history and culture of the Cimbrians. One of the old houses has been turned into a museum with examples of furniture and traditional costume which aim to show the old way of life in these parts.

Luigi Nicolussi was the man behind these innovations and he is driven by the conviction that a region renowned for its culture is harder to erase from the linguistic map. Holidaymakers to Lake Garda can be in Lusern within the space of an hour or two and still have time to visit the nearby Sette Comuni (seven districts) around Asiago.

Not all the villagers here speak perfect Cimbrian but they all maintain the old cultural traditions. Since 2001 the Cimbrians have been legally recognized as a minority. Children in Lusern receive language lessons at nurseries and schools and there is even a weekly TV broadcast in Cimbrian.