Ligurian features in “Lara’s language journey through Italy”, the Council of Europe’s educational guide

Ligurian is among the languages featured in “Lara’s language journey through Italy”, a new educational guide for schools in Italy and across Europe, published by the Council of Europe’s European Centre for Modern Languages (ECML) to mark the European Day of Languages.

The booklet contains a short introduction to each language spoken in Italy, with common expressions, the numbers from one to ten and a QR code linking to audio recordings of the pronunciation of every word. Ligurian is introduced as “the language of Columbus and Genoa’s maritime empire”, which still “remains an important element of regional identity” today.

The guide introduces students to Italy’s rich linguistic heritage and encourages them to move beyond the idea of Italy as a monolingual country, pointing out that before 1861 over 95% of Italians did not speak Italian in everyday life. The spread of the national language in the twentieth century often led to the marginalisation of regional languages, whose use was often discouraged and punished in schools.

The publication explains that the so-called “regional languages” have been misleadingly called “dialects”, although they are languages in their own right, with their own grammar, history and literary traditions, and are recognised by international codes such as ISO 639‑3. Still spoken by millions of people, these languages form a cultural heritage that needs to be preserved.

Lara’s language journey through Italy is available free of charge (currently in English) on the project page and as a PDF download.

The project was developed in collaboration with CLIRD (Coordinamento Lingue Regionali e Diritti linguistici, the coordinating body for regional languages and linguistic rights), with specialist support from its member associations for the eight regional languages they represent (Emilian, Ligurian, Lombard, Neapolitan, Piedmontese, Romagnol, Sicilian and Venetian), including the Council for Ligurian Linguistic Heritage.

“It is a great source of satisfaction to see our linguistic heritage recognised in a Council of Europe initiative. We at the Council for Ligurian Linguistic Heritage are pleased to have contributed to this project, which gives younger generations the chance to discover the linguistic richness of Liguria and Italy,” says Jean Maillard, president of the Council for Ligurian Linguistic Heritage.

“‘Ligurian language’ is a term used internationally to refer to the Romance varieties spoken in Liguria or, to be more precise, the Romance varieties that linguists classify within the Ligurian group on the basis of specific criteria,” explains Stefano Lusito, a researcher in linguistics and a member of the Council. “This family also includes varieties spoken outside the region’s borders, such as Monégasque and Bonifacino. That said, when people speak of ‘Ligurian’, the reference variety is almost always Genoese, the most widespread variety and, above all, the one with the greatest historical prestige.”

Ligurian language events on October 1, 2026

On 1 October, our member Stefano Lusito, who currently holds a research fellowship at the University of Genoa, will take part in two academic events in Genoa and Dolceacqua.

The first is his presentation “Denominazioni della fauna marina tra Liguria e Provenza: il caso del monegasco”, at 11.15am during the seminar “La terminologia del mare e degli oceani” at the University of Genoa (Via Balbi 4). The seminar is part of the activities of the university’s interdepartmental Centre for Research in Multilingual Terminology (Ce.R.Te.M.).

At 5.30pm, Lusito will speak at the linguistics seminar “Otto parole per quante lingue? | Huit mots pour combien des langues ?”, to be held in the council chamber of Dolceacqua Town Hall (Via Roma 50). Organised as part of the “MoPa – Parole di passaggio” project and funded by the VI-A France–Italy ALCOTRA 2021–2027 interregional cooperation programme, the event will focus on the linguistic features of the transition zone between Liguria and Provence. Lusito will be joined by Lorenzo Filipponio (University of Genoa) and Philippe Del Giudice (University of Nice).

The first Ligurian keyboard prototype

After numerous preliminary experiments, members of the Council have produced the first physical prototype of a Ligurian keyboard.

It is the first keyboard designed to let people type the characters needed to write in all Ligurian varieties, including the vertical accents used in Monégasque. The layout takes account of how often the different characters are used, to make typing easier.

The testing phase will continue for a few more months, with the aim of producing further physical prototypes in 2027. Anyone interested in taking part in the testing can write to us at [email protected].

The Anthology now features over 150 authors

Our Anthology of Ligurian literature edited by Alessandro Guasoni keeps growing: it now features works by more than 150 authors, from the earliest days to the present.

From the verse of the Genoese Anonym and Paolo Foglietta to the poetry of Fiorenzo Toso and contemporary authors, the collection spans centuries of Ligurian literature. Introductions accompany the texts, helping readers get to know the authors and the context in which their works were written. Every excerpt is accompanied by its Italian translation. A growing number of texts are also available in audio format, with readings by the authors themselves where possible.

Discover new voices and revisit old favourites.

Artificial intelligence and Genoese: Seminar at the University of Genoa

On June 11, at 3:00 PM, our members Jean Maillard and Stefano Lusito will hold an invited seminar at the Department of Computer Science, Bioengineering, Robotics and Systems Engineering (DIBRIS) of the University of Genoa.

The meeting – entitled “Towards AI for all of the world’s languages: from massively multilingual models to a set of digital tools for Genoese” – will be dedicated to language technologies based on artificial intelligence and their applications to languages with few digital resources, with particular attention to Genoese.

The seminar will take place in room 710 of the Valletta Puggia campus, in via Dodecaneso 35, Genoa.