The Friulian minority. Language and rights up and down like a roller coaster

In the framework of linguistic or national minorities in Europe, the Friulian case can be considered, from several points of view, an exemplary one. This applies not only to the historical development of its minoritisation and to the steadiness of its claims to recognition and protection but also to the way, during the last decades, that the community has been trying to promote its language and concretely affirm those fundamental rights related to the use of the language itself, through laws and actions of language policy and planning. The contribution aims to present the Friulian case, illustrating the evolution of legislation and policies and identifying their impact on the language itself, its formal and informal use, its social presence, the community’s legitimation, self-representation and delimitation, and the establishment of language rights. It is an interesting path with noteworthy results. It is also a discontinuous itinerary, with ups and downs, in which most of the protection rules (Law 482/1999 and the Regional ones 15/1996 and 29/2007) have not found real application. Therefore, the language is still excluded from several fundamental contexts and, despite some encouraging data coming from the most recent sociolinguistic research, its public use and its presence in education and in the media are still victims of old prejudices, which inspire the contradictory choices of political and institutional decision-makers. Friulian is at the same time a resistant and emerging language and a strongly minoritized one.