BY Sandro Camillo and Phoebe Morgan
LAST Friday, September 13 saw a wonderful gathering of local Italians from the associations of the Vicentini and Trevisani nel Mondo as they hosted a Venetian delegation from Italy and Melbourne, at Club Savoy in Myrtleford.
Delegation member and vice president of the Veneto Club in Melbourne, Sonia Velo, said she loved being a part of the tour this year.
"I've loved going to all of these events," she said.
"Two of my remits are to keep our culture and our language going and to promote and share it with others."
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Myrtleford was the guests' fourth stop on their tour through Victoria and the day began with a visit to the local museum of Myrtleford and District Historic Society, led by the very knowledgeable John Taylor in his explanations of the astounding memorabilia contained within.
The visitors were able to get a first-hand overview of the lives and struggles of the early settlers and Italian immigrants who built a life of their own and contributed to the social and economic growth of the area, dating back from the late 1800s.
This was followed by the main event which took place after a tasty smorgasbord dinner at Club Savoy.
The presentation covered the origins of the Veneto language, (or Venetian language), which is spoken throughout the Veneto region in Italy and is a common means of conversation among the many Veneto emigrants scattered around the world and in particular, here in North East Victoria.
The workshop was conducted by Professor Alessandro Mocellin who is a university lecturer of the Veneto language and president of the Academia della Buona Creansa in Treviso and was sponsored by the Federation of the Veneto Associations in Victoria, represented by Fabio Sandona'.
"This is our 2024 cultural project, funded by Regione Del Veneto," Mr Sandona' said.
"Every year we have an opening event and this year we thought to feature our Veneto language; what it is all about and why it is what it is.
"So we asked Professore Alessandro Mocellin, who is very knowledgeable of the language, to come to Australia for this specific reason.
"He’s one of the best teachers of the Veneto language, in the region of Veneto, but also all over the world."
With Masters degrees in Law, Linguistics and a prospective Masters degree in History, Professor Mocellin said he would seize the opportunity to speak with regional 'Veneti' to learn how the features of the language have changed over time and through the generations.
"During the presentation, I aim to also let people have their voice and I’ll ask them if they do employ still some words which are, of course, Venetian," Professor Mocellin said.
"The aim is to spark interest and to let them know that this language is not just spoken here, or only by people aged 80 in the Veneto region, but also by people who are all over the world.
"It is a small language, but it is incredibly widespread, particularly due to immigration in the late 19th and 20th centuries.
"If you study Venetian, you’ll discover that it has something in common, for example, with English and not with Italian.
"Some features are shared with English, French, German and not with Italian, even though one would say that since it is called a 'Venetian dialect', one would say it is a spin-off of Italian.
"It isn’t: it is another language, a separate language with a long history.
"If you've ever studied Italian, you would know that you have to be very precise with the language; like you are a sculptor.
"Venetian is more like painting; you're conveying an impression of the words.
"A great number of famous Italian people were actually Venetian and did speak Venetian.
"Marco Polo, Canova, Palladio, Tiziano (Titian), Casanova, Vivaldi and many others who were so important in European and world culture, spoke this language."
Paired with Professor Mocellin's presentation, an exhibition of 22 panels entitled: 'History of the Language of the Veneti', was displayed around the Club Savoy function room which encapsulated a period of over 3200 years and traced the Veneti's origins back to Homer's Iliad.
The panels followed the geography of the Veneti through historic events and outlined key historical figures who contributed to the establishment of the Veneto language throughout the centuries and throughout the world.
"The information on each panel is written in Italian, in Venetian, in English, as well as in Portugese," Mr Sandona' said.
"They are interactive panels with a QR code on the top right-hand side, so if you point to the QR code with your mobile phone, you’ll have an app or a website that will read out the actual panel.
"The work was done by Alessandro Mocellin and his collaborators at the Academia della Buona Creansa.
"We also presented this interactive project to Xavier College and the Dante Alighieri Society in Melbourne as well as the CO.AS.IT Italian Association centre.
"And tomorrow, if we leave on time," Mr Sandona' laughed, "we will go to the Veneto Club, which is the home of the Veneto community in Bulleen."
This last stop concluded Professor Mocellin's whirlwind tour of the country, as he flew back to Italy on Monday, September 16.
