Abstract
The blogpost discusses the linguistic and cultural peculiarities of Piedmont and the Aosta Valley, two regions that have historically straddled France and Italy. It provides a brief historical linguistic overview of the development of Gallo-Romance languages (French, Franco-Provençal, and Occitan) in these regions. The piece describes the Francophile and Francophone orientation of Piedmont throughout its history, as well as the belated introduction of Tuscan (Italian). It stresses the singularity of Piedmontese, and its close linguistic relation to neighbouring Gallo-Romance languages. Against this background, the text assesses the current state and vitality of Franco- and Gallo-Romance peripheries within the borders of Italy, and explains how such identities have evolved, been reshaped or become politicized. Primordialist and constructivist perspectives on national (and minority) identities are combined to better understand the development, decay, and reconfiguration of linguistic and cultural identities in Piedmont and the Aosta Valley.