Abstract

This thesis focuses on the neology in minority languages, especially in the Ladin spoken in the Fassa Valley (Trentino-Alto Adige, Italy) and Aranes spoken in the Aran Valley (Catalonia, Spain), as a means of evaluation of the vitality of these languages. The real grade of Ladin and Aranes is definitely endangered as UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger demonstrated in 2003, but I think that the rule of the neology in Ladin is enough important to improve this grade. For this reason, I will analyse the lexicon related to Information Technology (IT) as a semantic field rich in neologisms. In the first part I will examine two corpora: one, based upon the language as used in websites and databases and the other, taken from questionnaires carried out in elementary schools and middle schools. In the second part, I will provide concrete examples of how minority languages create new words and form neologisms (i.e. with innovative or conservative lexicon or morphological structures, etc.). This will produce an overview of neology in Ladin and Aranes. However, I will specify the rule of norms, use and contact throughout this process.