Zaia's speech celebrates Veneto and its language: an expression of cultural identity and integration
On the occasion of the next National Dialect Day, the President of Veneto, Luca Zaia, celebrates the value of the Venetian language, a symbol of historical identity, culture and integration for millions of people around the world.
Zaia's speech celebrates Veneto and its language: an expression of cultural identity and integration
On the occasion of the “National Day of Dialect and Local Languages”, the President of the Veneto Region underlined the importance of the Venetian language as a symbol of historical identity, culture and integration.
“Every time someone greets a person by exclaiming 'ciao!', they express themselves with a Venetian word. A language is such when it is a great element of communication and we must be proud of the Venetian one because it is the immediate expression of our historical and popular identity. The 7 out of 10 people who think about it and have regular relationships with it, confirm not only its vitality and diffusion but also the rooting of a secular idiom that is alive even outside the borders of our Region to the north and along the Adriatic and which for centuries was one of the lingua francas of the Mediterranean”.
This is the thought of the President of the Veneto Region, Luca Zaia, on the occasion of the "National Day of Dialect and Local Languages“, which is celebrated on January 17.
"I myself started speaking regularly in Italian and no longer just in Veneto at the age of six while going to school – continues the Governor -. Also for this reason I always insist that those who define Veneto as a dialect are wrong, it is a language, a fundamental element of daily life for at least 8 million people, regardless of profession or social position, in the wake of tradition and the essential right to express oneself in local and minority languages also sanctioned by the European Community authorities.
Historically it was the language of the Serenissima, one of the oldest and most lasting republican experiences. It has generated a literature of universal relevance like that of the Paduan Ruzzante or the Venetian Goldoni. It was the primary vehicle of culture and knowledge in the relationships between peoples: in Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil, it is enough to speak in Veneto to be understood by millions of people”.
“I often meet immigrants who have learned to converse in Veneto even before they learned to converse in Italian,” concludes President Zaia. “It is the confirmation that our language, therefore, it is not a folkloristic optional but it is theexpression of an identity reality that is the cultural glue of a people but also tool for true and concrete integration for those who have serious plans for life in our land. Every time we speak in Veneto we keep alive and increase one of the greatest patrimonies of our history”.
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