Leventinéss áut d’Airö – what language, where?

The Leventina region is located in the south of Switzerland, in the canton of Ticino. It is mainly spoken in Swiss Italian, but small, isolated groups of Alpine languages remain in mountain and valley villages. The language into which Walter Arnold translated the Kalevala is related to Rhaeto-Romanic. The name of Canton in this language is Tasinn.

The municipalities of Quint and Airö (Airolo in Italian, Eriels in German) in the upper Leventina valley and the Büdre valley (Bedretto) have a combined population of about 2 500, about half of whom can read Walter Arnold’s translation of the Kalevala. There is hardly any written literature in this language, which is why Arnold’s Kalevala is such a landmark work.

 

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Map source: Google Maps