Resia
Encyclopedia
Resia is a comune
(municipality) in the Province of Udine
in the Italian
region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia
. It is located in the Alpine
valley with the same name, about 90 km northwest of Trieste
and about 35 km north of Udine
, on the border with Slovenia
and around 20 km from the border with Austria
. As of 31 December 2004, it had a population of 1,244 and an area of 119.0 km². It is home to an indigenous South Slav people who speak an archaic dialect of the Slovene language, known as Resian, and are officially considered part of the Slovene minority in Italy.
Resia borders the municipalities of Kobarid
(Slovenia), Chiusaforte
, Lusevera
, Bovec
(Slovenia), Resiutta
, and Venzone
.
The municipality comprises the Resia valley, a typical Alpine glacial valley, surrounded by high mountains, with a narrow opening towards the west. The valley is located on the western edge of the Julian Alps
. To the east, it is closed by the Kanin
mountain range, which separates it from the Soča
valley in the Slovenian Littoral
. To the west, the valley opens towards the Fella valley, which leads to the upper Friuli
an plain. This is the most usual way to access this isolated valley.
To the south-east of the Resia Valley, there is a narrow mountain pass, called Carnizza , leading from Resia valley to the upper Torre Valley
. The same mountain pass also leads to the Učja Canyon (Uccea), which ends in the Soča
valley near the Slovenian village of Žaga
. For centuries, this narrow pass was the only way connecting the Resia Valley with Venetian Slovenia
and the Slovene Lands
.
, Venetian Slovenia
The inhabitants of Resia speak a unique form of the Slovene language, known as the Resian dialect
. According to most linguists, Resian is a transitory dialect between the Carinthian Slovene and Littoral Slovene dialects. Resian maintains several archaic features that have been lost in most other Slovene dialects. Due to its isolation, the dialect has also developed a specific phonetic system, unlike any other in the South Slavic
language group.
The people of Resia usually do not consider themselves as Slovenes, although they maintain close cultural, economic and family connections with the people of the historical region known as Venetian Slovenia
, where Slovene linguistic and cultural identity is much more rooted. Resian is the only Slovene dialect, in which the native name for the vernacular is not 'Slovene' (slovenski or slovenji). The Resians call their language rozajanski, while they frequently refer to the Slovene language as tabuški, meaning 'the one from Bovec
', which is the first large Slovene settlement on the other side of the Kanin
mountain range.
Since 2007, the Resia has been included in those municipalities where the Law on the Protection of the Slovene Linguistic Community is to be applied. Many bilingual signs have been erected in the valley since the early 2000s. Most of the Slovene inscriptions are, however, rendered in the local orthography, which takes into consideration the specific phonetic features of the Resian dialect, and differs significantly from the standard Slovene alphabet.
The Resian people are known for their rich folkloric traditions, especially their music and dances. Many Slovenia
n folk
and folk rock
groups, such as Katalena and Terrafolk
, have drawn their inspiration from the Resian folk tradition. Resian folklore is also famous for its fable
s, which have been extensively collected, translated into standard Slovene and published in various Slovenian publications since the late 19th century.
Similarly to some areas in Venetian Slovenia
, the people of Resia have either Italian or Italianized
surnames, although they maintain their own traditional system of family names, which are of Slavic
origin.
Since 2005, a bilingual cultural journal is published in Resia, called Naš Glas – La nostra voce (Our Voice). Articles are in Italian, Resian and standard Slovene.
In January of 2009, the mayor of the Resia municipality filed an official demand that Resia be included among the municipalities, in which the Italian-Slovene bilingualism is applied.
In February 2010, the new municipal administration of Resia replaced the bilingual Italian-Resian road signs with new ones, in which the Resian place names were written in the Italian orthography
instead of the scholarly accepted New Resian orthography. The Slovenian Foreign Ministry denounced the incident and brought it to the attention of the international community
as an evidence of the institutional subversion of minority rights
in Italy.
In March 2010, the Italian Ministry of Interior confirmed that Resia is to be considered part of the bilingual Italian-Slovene territory and that linguistic rights guaranteed by the Italian Act for the Protection of the Slovene Minority are to be fully applied in Resia. In August 2010, the municipal assembly of Resia asked for the removal of Resia from the list of municipalities, in which the Law for the Protection of the Slovene Linguistic Community is enforced. However, such removal is not possible according to the law.
Comune
In Italy, the comune is the basic administrative division, and may be properly approximated in casual speech by the English word township or municipality.-Importance and function:...
(municipality) in the Province of Udine
Province of Udine
The Province of Udine is a province in the autonomous Friuli-Venezia Giulia region of Italy, bordering Austria and Slovenia. Its capital is the city of Udine....
in the Italian
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia
Friuli-Venezia Giulia
Friuli–Venezia Giulia is one of the twenty regions of Italy, and one of five autonomous regions with special statute. The capital is Trieste. It has an area of 7,858 km² and about 1.2 million inhabitants. A natural opening to the sea for many Central European countries, the region is...
. It is located in the Alpine
Alps
The Alps is one of the great mountain range systems of Europe, stretching from Austria and Slovenia in the east through Italy, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Germany to France in the west....
valley with the same name, about 90 km northwest of Trieste
Trieste
Trieste is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is situated towards the end of a narrow strip of land lying between the Adriatic Sea and Italy's border with Slovenia, which lies almost immediately south and east of the city...
and about 35 km north of Udine
Udine
Udine is a city and comune in northeastern Italy, in the middle of Friuli-Venezia Giulia region, between the Adriatic sea and the Alps , less than 40 km from the Slovenian border. Its population was 99,439 in 2009, and that of its urban area was 175,000.- History :Udine is the historical...
, on the border with Slovenia
Slovenia
Slovenia , officially the Republic of Slovenia , is a country in Central and Southeastern Europe touching the Alps and bordering the Mediterranean. Slovenia borders Italy to the west, Croatia to the south and east, Hungary to the northeast, and Austria to the north, and also has a small portion of...
and around 20 km from the border with Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
. As of 31 December 2004, it had a population of 1,244 and an area of 119.0 km². It is home to an indigenous South Slav people who speak an archaic dialect of the Slovene language, known as Resian, and are officially considered part of the Slovene minority in Italy.
Resia borders the municipalities of Kobarid
Kobarid
Kobarid is a town and a municipality in the upper Soča valley, western Slovenia, near the Italian border.Kobarid is known for the famous Battle of Caporetto, where the Italian retreat was documented by Ernest Hemingway in his novel A Farewell to Arms. The battle is well documented in the museum in...
(Slovenia), Chiusaforte
Chiusaforte
Chiusaforte is a comune in the Province of Udine in the Italian region Friuli-Venezia Giulia, located about 90 km northwest of Trieste and about 40 km north of Udine, on the border with Slovenia...
, Lusevera
Lusevera
Lusevera is a comune in the Province of Udine in the Italian region Friuli-Venezia Giulia, located about 80 km northwest of Trieste and about 20 km north of Udine, on the border with Slovenia. , it had a population of 767 and an area of 52.9 km²...
, Bovec
Bovec
Bovec is a small city and municipality in northwestern Slovenia. The city of Bovec lies in the Bovec Basin in the Soča Valley below the Kanin mountain in the Julian Alps.-Geographical location:...
(Slovenia), Resiutta
Resiutta
Resiutta is a comune in the Province of Udine in the Italian region Friuli-Venezia Giulia, located about 100 km northwest of Trieste and about 35 km north of Udine...
, and Venzone
Venzone
thumb|250px|The Communal Palace.Venzone is a comune in the Province of Udine in the Italian region Friuli-Venezia Giulia, located about 90 km northwest of Trieste and about 30 km north of Udine.-History:...
.
Geographical location
Julian Alps
The Julian Alps are a mountain range of the Southern Limestone Alps that stretches from northeastern Italy to Slovenia, where they rise to 2,864 m at Mount Triglav. They are named after Julius Caesar, who founded the municipium of Cividale del Friuli at the foot of the mountains...
. To the east, it is closed by the Kanin
Kanin (mountain)
The Kanin or Canin is a mountain in the Julian Alps on the border of Slovenia and Italy. Its highest summit is at 2,587 m above sea level...
mountain range, which separates it from the Soča
Soca
The Soča or Isonzo is a 140 km long river that flows through western Slovenia and northeastern Italy. An Alpine river in character, its source lies in the Trenta Valley in the Julian Alps in Slovenia, at an elevation of around 1,100 metres...
valley in the Slovenian Littoral
Slovenian Littoral
The Slovenian Littoral is a historical region of Slovenia. Its name recalls the historical Habsburg crown land of the Austrian Littoral, of which the Slovenian Littoral was a part....
. To the west, the valley opens towards the Fella valley, which leads to the upper Friuli
Friuli
Friuli is an area of northeastern Italy with its own particular cultural and historical identity. It comprises the major part of the autonomous region Friuli-Venezia Giulia, i.e. the province of Udine, Pordenone, Gorizia, excluding Trieste...
an plain. This is the most usual way to access this isolated valley.
To the south-east of the Resia Valley, there is a narrow mountain pass, called Carnizza , leading from Resia valley to the upper Torre Valley
Torre River
The Torre is a river of the Province of Udine in Friuli-Venezia Giulia, north-east Italy. It is the main right tributary of the Isonzo; the Torre together with its own tributary the Natisone drain a large part of the Isonzo basin....
. The same mountain pass also leads to the Učja Canyon (Uccea), which ends in the Soča
Soca
The Soča or Isonzo is a 140 km long river that flows through western Slovenia and northeastern Italy. An Alpine river in character, its source lies in the Trenta Valley in the Julian Alps in Slovenia, at an elevation of around 1,100 metres...
valley near the Slovenian village of Žaga
Žaga, Bovec
Žaga is a settlement on the right bank of the river Soča in the Bovec Municipality in the Littoral region of Slovenia. The turning for the road into the Resia in Italy is in the middle of the settlement.-External links:*...
. For centuries, this narrow pass was the only way connecting the Resia Valley with Venetian Slovenia
Venetian Slovenia
Venetian Slovenia is a small mountainous region in northeastern Italy . Most of the region is located in the Italian region of Friuli Venezia Giulia, in the area between the towns of Cividale del Friuli, Tarcento and Gemona ....
and the Slovene Lands
Slovene Lands
Slovene Lands or Slovenian Lands is the historical denomination for the whole of the Slovene-inhabited territories in Central Europe. It more or less corresponds to modern Slovenia and the adjacent territories in Italy, Austria and Hungary in which autochthonous Slovene minorities live.-...
.
Language and traditions
See also: Slavic settlement of the Eastern AlpsSlavic settlement of the Eastern Alps
Slavic settlement of the Eastern Alps region was a historic process that took place between the 6th and 9th century AD, having culminated in the final quarter of the 6th century...
, Venetian Slovenia
Venetian Slovenia
Venetian Slovenia is a small mountainous region in northeastern Italy . Most of the region is located in the Italian region of Friuli Venezia Giulia, in the area between the towns of Cividale del Friuli, Tarcento and Gemona ....
Resian dialect
The Resian dialect is a distinct dialect of Slovene spoken in the Resia Valley, Province of Udine, Italy, close to the border with Slovenia...
. According to most linguists, Resian is a transitory dialect between the Carinthian Slovene and Littoral Slovene dialects. Resian maintains several archaic features that have been lost in most other Slovene dialects. Due to its isolation, the dialect has also developed a specific phonetic system, unlike any other in the South Slavic
South Slavic languages
The South Slavic languages comprise one of three branches of the Slavic languages. There are approximately 30 million speakers, mainly in the Balkans. These are separated geographically from speakers of the other two Slavic branches by a belt of German, Hungarian and Romanian speakers...
language group.
The people of Resia usually do not consider themselves as Slovenes, although they maintain close cultural, economic and family connections with the people of the historical region known as Venetian Slovenia
Venetian Slovenia
Venetian Slovenia is a small mountainous region in northeastern Italy . Most of the region is located in the Italian region of Friuli Venezia Giulia, in the area between the towns of Cividale del Friuli, Tarcento and Gemona ....
, where Slovene linguistic and cultural identity is much more rooted. Resian is the only Slovene dialect, in which the native name for the vernacular is not 'Slovene' (slovenski or slovenji). The Resians call their language rozajanski, while they frequently refer to the Slovene language as tabuški, meaning 'the one from Bovec
Bovec
Bovec is a small city and municipality in northwestern Slovenia. The city of Bovec lies in the Bovec Basin in the Soča Valley below the Kanin mountain in the Julian Alps.-Geographical location:...
', which is the first large Slovene settlement on the other side of the Kanin
Kanin (mountain)
The Kanin or Canin is a mountain in the Julian Alps on the border of Slovenia and Italy. Its highest summit is at 2,587 m above sea level...
mountain range.
Since 2007, the Resia has been included in those municipalities where the Law on the Protection of the Slovene Linguistic Community is to be applied. Many bilingual signs have been erected in the valley since the early 2000s. Most of the Slovene inscriptions are, however, rendered in the local orthography, which takes into consideration the specific phonetic features of the Resian dialect, and differs significantly from the standard Slovene alphabet.
The Resian people are known for their rich folkloric traditions, especially their music and dances. Many Slovenia
Slovenia
Slovenia , officially the Republic of Slovenia , is a country in Central and Southeastern Europe touching the Alps and bordering the Mediterranean. Slovenia borders Italy to the west, Croatia to the south and east, Hungary to the northeast, and Austria to the north, and also has a small portion of...
n folk
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
and folk rock
Folk rock
Folk rock is a musical genre combining elements of folk music and rock music. In its earliest and narrowest sense, the term referred to a genre that arose in the United States and the UK around the mid-1960s...
groups, such as Katalena and Terrafolk
Terrafolk
thumb|220px|Terrafolk in concert Terrafolk is a Slovenian folk band which formed in 1999 at Festival Lent in Slovenia. They quickly rose to fame, performing at numerous fesivals throughout Europe, including the Edinburgh Fringe and Glastonbury, before winning the BBC World Music Audience Award in...
, have drawn their inspiration from the Resian folk tradition. Resian folklore is also famous for its fable
Fable
A fable is a succinct fictional story, in prose or verse, that features animals, mythical creatures, plants, inanimate objects or forces of nature which are anthropomorphized , and that illustrates a moral lesson , which may at the end be expressed explicitly in a pithy maxim.A fable differs from...
s, which have been extensively collected, translated into standard Slovene and published in various Slovenian publications since the late 19th century.
Similarly to some areas in Venetian Slovenia
Venetian Slovenia
Venetian Slovenia is a small mountainous region in northeastern Italy . Most of the region is located in the Italian region of Friuli Venezia Giulia, in the area between the towns of Cividale del Friuli, Tarcento and Gemona ....
, the people of Resia have either Italian or Italianized
Italianization
Italianization or Italianisation is a term used to describe a process of cultural assimilation in which ethnically non or partially Italian people or territory become Italian. The process can be voluntary or forced...
surnames, although they maintain their own traditional system of family names, which are of Slavic
Slavic languages
The Slavic languages , a group of closely related languages of the Slavic peoples and a subgroup of Indo-European languages, have speakers in most of Eastern Europe, in much of the Balkans, in parts of Central Europe, and in the northern part of Asia.-Branches:Scholars traditionally divide Slavic...
origin.
Cultural associations
Since the 1990s, several cultural institutions have been set up to promote the historical and cultural heritage of the valley. The most important is the Cultural Association 'Resian Home' (Te kultürski čirkolo "Rozajanski Dum", Italian: Circolo culturale resiano "Rozajanski dum", standard Slovene: Kulturno društvo "Rezijanski dom"), founded in 1983 to foster and protect the local culture. In the 1990s, the 'Resian Cultural Centre' (Ta Rozajanska Kultürska Hïša, Italian: Centro Culturale Resiano, standard Slovene: Rezijanski kulturni dom) was established as the central cultural venue in the valley. Both associations are fully included in the network of cultural associations of the Slovene minority in Italy.Since 2005, a bilingual cultural journal is published in Resia, called Naš Glas – La nostra voce (Our Voice). Articles are in Italian, Resian and standard Slovene.
Identity disputes and minority rights
The political and public sphere in the valley is highly divided between those who understand the Resian identity in the frame of the Slovene minority in Italy, and those who oppose this identification and refuse to be considered part of the Slovene people. While the majority of the Resian cultural associations are integrated in the network of the Slovene minority in Italy, there are also political movements rejecting the identification of Resians with Slovenes.In January of 2009, the mayor of the Resia municipality filed an official demand that Resia be included among the municipalities, in which the Italian-Slovene bilingualism is applied.
In February 2010, the new municipal administration of Resia replaced the bilingual Italian-Resian road signs with new ones, in which the Resian place names were written in the Italian orthography
Italian alphabet
The Italian alphabet is a variant of the Latin alphabet used by the Italian language.-Vowels:The Italian alphabet has five vowel letters, ⟨a e i o u⟩. Of those, only ⟨a⟩ represents one sound value while each of the others has two...
instead of the scholarly accepted New Resian orthography. The Slovenian Foreign Ministry denounced the incident and brought it to the attention of the international community
International community
The international community is a term used in international relations to refer to all peoples, cultures and governments of the world or to a group of them. The term is used to imply the existence of common duties and obligations between them...
as an evidence of the institutional subversion of minority rights
Minority rights
The term Minority Rights embodies two separate concepts: first, normal individual rights as applied to members of racial, ethnic, class, religious, linguistic or sexual minorities, and second, collective rights accorded to minority groups...
in Italy.
In March 2010, the Italian Ministry of Interior confirmed that Resia is to be considered part of the bilingual Italian-Slovene territory and that linguistic rights guaranteed by the Italian Act for the Protection of the Slovene Minority are to be fully applied in Resia. In August 2010, the municipal assembly of Resia asked for the removal of Resia from the list of municipalities, in which the Law for the Protection of the Slovene Linguistic Community is enforced. However, such removal is not possible according to the law.
Famous natives and residents
- Jan Niecisław Baudouin de Courtenay, Polish linguist, who lived in Resia studying the Resian dialectResian dialectThe Resian dialect is a distinct dialect of Slovene spoken in the Resia Valley, Province of Udine, Italy, close to the border with Slovenia...
- Luigia Negro, minority rights activist, columnist and public figure
- Silvana Paletti, poet in the Resian dialect
External links
- www.resianet.org
- The song 'Lipa ma Mariza', one of the main cultural symbols of the valley
- Folk music from Resia
- Resian folk song
- Resian folk song