ABSTRACT
‘Ladin’ here designates the group of dialects spoken in the Dolomites around the Sella massif, united by historical circumstances and an awareness of belonging to the same language group, which distinguishes them from their neighbours (even though one cannot speak of definite linguistic borders with respect to other Romance varieties). We thus take the term, Ladin, in the narrow sense of 'ladino atesino’ or 'dolomitico’ (Carlo Battisti) and view the common features on which the unity of the so-called Rhaeto-Romance (Ital. ‘ladino’) group was traditionally based as essentially negative in nature (i.e. residual traces of once more extensive phenomena; see below). Therefore, despite their traditional ‘ladin’ classification, Noneso and Solandro are considered under Trentino, and Ampezzano (linguistically, a conservative variety of Cadorino, although historically and culturally part of the Sella group) under Venetan.
