The Ladin language

Ladin is the oldest spoken language in South Tyrol. 

The first population of Val Badia can be dated back to the Bronze Age; this is proved from the recovery of artefacts at Sotciastel in San Leonardo/Badia. However, who these first inhabitants actually were is still not clear although it is thought they were a Celtic people. Due to the annex of the region by the Roman Empire, the population took up the “vulgar” Latin of the Roman conquerors, forming a Romance language that developed in parallel to Italian, French and Spanish; thus Ladin was born.