Ravascletto

Ravascletto has two names: the official one and the one they use in the village, Monai, written Monajo in old documents and once given to the whole valley, the Canale di Monaio; in some archaic varieties of Friulian monai still means a plot of meadow. Ravasclêt, on the other hand, comes from the Latin robusculetum, the place where a small bramble grows — and some link it to Ruscletto, which derives from butcher's broom, the only trouble being that butcher's broom does not grow at Ravascletto. The comune was created under Napoleonic law in 1806, and since 1815 it has also included Zovello, which before belonged to Cercivento.

In a comune of a few hundred people two different dialects are spoken. In the main village and at Salars there is monean, which says la cjasa and las cjases, jeir and brout; at Zovello there is zovelan, which says las cjasas and yet, in its vowels, agrees with central Friulian. Of a still older stage of monean, in which words ended in -o, there remain the nineteenth-century prose writings of don Leonardo Morassi: that way of speaking survives today only at Rigolato and Forni Avoltri. The village now lives on tourism: from here the cable car climbs to the runs of Monte Zoncolan.