Fornes dialects

As the two villages are 9 km (over 5 miles) from each other and there was traditionally poor communication in the snowy months of the year, these villages' dialects diverged and are still markedly different both from each other and from the language spoken further down the mountains (Friulian). According to studies by some institutions which study Ladin languages these two dialects moved away from Friulian to become 'Raetic-Dolomitic-Ladin' similar to Ladin languages spoken in Grisons, Switzerland, while keeping Friulian characteristics..

To give one example, the word sheep (plural) translates as las minas in Forni di Sopra, lis fedis in Forni di Sotto, and lis pioris in Friuli. For comparison, the Italian is le pecore.