Ladin Dolomitan

The contract to work on the project was given in 1988 by representatives from the Dolomite Ladins to the Zurich Professor Heinrich Schmid, who had previously designed the Dachsprache Rumantsch Grischun written language. Schmid accepted this challenge and in 1998 he published for standard Ladin its Guidelines for the Development of a Common Written Language of the Dolomite Ladins (Wegleitung für den Aufbau einer gemeinsamen Schriftsprache der Dolomitenladiner), in which the outlines for the new written language were presented. All written forms of Ladin Dolomitan words are carried over from spoken forms already existing in the spoken dialects based on a principle of the lowest common denominator in language formation.^[2][4][5] Its popularity within the Ladin community varies by valley and dialect spoken.^[6]

The goal of Ladin Dolomitan is not to replace or displace the existing Ladin languages of the different valleys but rather to serve as a Dachsprache and standard language for communication between speakers of the different dialects. This may also reduce the administrative burden of authorities and organization, which are not only linked to a single valley.^[3][7] For example, it allows for the administration of the South Tyrol to use a single Ladin language form for the communities in Val Gardena and Val Badia. Today, some institutions, such as the Union Generela di Ladins dles Dolomites (the umbrella organization of the Sella Ladin), the Comunanza Ladina de Bulsan, and the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, use Ladin Dolomitan as the default language in their publications.

The proposed orthographic conventions largely follow the Italian orthography.^{[5]: 25–30} It is compatible with the unified orthography for the ladin dialects.^[7]