Editing Cimbrian language (section)

== Dialects and status ==
The three major dialects of Cimbrian are spoken in: 
* The [[Sette Comuni|Seven Communities]] ({{lang|cim|Siben Komoin}}), currently only the village of [[Roana]] (Robàan)
* [[Luserna]] (Lusern), in [[Trentino]]
* The [[Thirteen Communities]] ({{lang|cim|Dreizehn Komoin}}), currently only the village of [[Giazza]] (Ljetzan)
* Some villages in the [[Carnic Alps]] such as [[Sappada]], [[Sauris]] and [[:it:Timau|Timau]]

Cimbrian is in danger of extinction both from standard Italian, which is often used in public, and the neighboring regional [[Venetian language]].  It is estimated that about 2,220 people speak Cimbrian.

In Trentino, according to the census of 2001, the first in which data on native languages were recorded, Cimbrian was spoken by a majority in the municipality of Lusérn (267 people, 89.9%). In other [[municipalities of Trentino]] 615 persons declared themselves members of the Cimbrian linguistic group, a total of 882 in Trentino.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.minoranzelinguistiche.provincia.tn.it/binary/pat_minoranze/minoranze/ladini_mocheni_cimbri_pop_2001_x_comune_e_residenza.1205943234.pdf |title=Tav. I.5 - Appartenenza alla popolazione di lingua ladina, mochena e cimbra, per comune di area di residenza (Censimento 2001) |year=2007 |work=Annuario Statistico 2006 |publisher=Autonomous Province of Trento |language=it |access-date=2011-05-12}}</ref> With this, it is seen that the most thriving variety of Cimbrian is that of Lusern with most of the community able to speak Cimbrian, whereas in Giazza and Roana only a few elderly speakers remain.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|title=Minority Language Planning and Micronationalism in Italy: An Analysis Of Friulian, Cimbrian, and Western Lombard With Reference To Spanish Minority Languages|last=Coluzzi|first=Paolo|publisher=PeterLang|year=2007|isbn=978-3-03911-041-4|location=Oxford, Bern, Berlin, Bruxelles, Frankfurt am Main, New York, Wien|pages=224, 226, 227}}</ref>

Cimbrian is officially recognised in Trentino by provincial and national law. Beginning in the 1990s, various laws and regulations have been passed by the Italian parliament and provincial assembly that put the Cimbrian language and culture under protection. School curricula were adapted in order to teach in Cimbrian, and bilingual street signs are being developed. A cultural institute (Istituto Cimbro/Kulturinstitut Lusérn) was founded by decree in 1987, whose purpose is to "...safeguard, promote and exploit the ethnographic and cultural heritage of the German speaking minority of the municipality of Luserna while paying special attention to historic and linguistic expressions, to the protection of the environment, and to the economic-cultural development of the Cimbrian community territory."<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.kulturinstitut.it/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1&lang=en|title=Kulturinstitut Lusérn|website=www.kulturinstitut.it|access-date=2016-04-14}}</ref> The cultural institute hosts literature competitions for children as well as immersion summer camps.<ref name=":1" />