Alton was the first Ladin to research his mother tongue at university level using modern methods of Romance studies. Through his tireless efforts, he made a significant contribution to the establishment of Ladin as a written language and thus strengthened awareness of his own culture and identity. He worked with passion and dedication to preserve the Ladin heritage and to find new ways to express and recognise it.<\/p>\n
Alton was born in Colfosco in Val Badia in 1845. After his education in Brixen and Trento, he continued his studies in Innsbruck and at the Sorbonne in Paris, where he specialised in classical languages and French. His professional career took him to Prague, Vienna and Rovereto as a teacher. From 1885, he taught as a private lecturer at the University of Vienna. Despite the disappointment of not being appointed to the newly created Chair of Romance Philology in Innsbruck in 1899, Alton remained a highly esteemed academic.<\/p>\n
His academic legacy includes groundbreaking work on the Ladin language, literature and regional studies. His dissertation \u2018Die ladinischen Idiome in Ladinien, Gr\u00f6den, Fassa, Buchenstein, Ampezzo\u2019 and \u2018Beitr\u00e4ge zur Ethnologie von Ostladinien\u2019 are particularly noteworthy. With works such as \u2018Proverbi, tradizioni ed anneddoti delle valli Ladine\u2019, \u2018Rimes ladines\u2019 and \u2018Stories y cianties ladines\u2019, he made a decisive contribution to the preservation of the Ladin language and cultural traditions.<\/p>\n
However, Alton’s life was not only characterised by scientific work: In 1900, he and his niece Maria, who supported him as a housekeeper, were the victims of a brutal robbery in their home in the centre of Rovereto. This incident not only made headlines, but also inspired literature: Robert Musil used it to create the character of Christian Moosbrugger in his novel \u2018Der Mann ohne Eigenschaften\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u2018To mark the 125th anniversary of his death, we would like to honour this extraordinary personality and focus on his lasting life’s work,\u2019 explains Katharina Moling, Director of Museum Ladin. According to Moling, Alton’s tireless efforts and his services to research into the Ladin language and culture have had a lasting impact and continue to shape the consciousness of the region to this day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Alton was the first Ladin to research his mother tongue at university level using modern methods of Romance studies. Through his tireless efforts, he made a significant contribution to the establishment of Ladin as a written language and thus strengthened awareness of his own culture and identity. He worked with passion and dedication to preserve […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[137],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6529","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-en"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n