From policy to public space. Language allocation in the multilingual landscape of the German-speaking language island of Sauris/Zahre in Northern Italy

This article examines the allocation of multilingual resources in the public spaces of a small Alpine minority community shaped by a multilayered language policy environment. Based on a systematic linguistic landscape survey with 888 signs collected in Sauris/Zahre (northern Italy), a German-speaking language island, the study analyses the distribution of Saurian, Friulian, Italian and Standard German across socio-pragmatic domains, authorship and multilingual configurations. The results indicate that Saurian exhibits substantial visibility, yet this visibility is functionally selective rather than indicative of generalised bilingualism. While Italian dominates informational and regulatory communication, Saurian is primarily concentrated in locally anchored domains such as folklore, tourism, and naming practices. Standard German appears only marginally, and does not systematically co-occur with Saurian. Friulian, despite its strong regional policy support, is rare. These findings suggest that the public presence of minority languages is structured through domain-specific allocation. In Sauris/Zahre, overlapping policy frameworks create conditions that enable the visibility of the minority language without producing its consistent use across communicative domains. This study contributes to language policy and planning, as well as linguistic landscape research by illustrating how public multilingualism emerges through the interaction of policy frameworks and local practices in a language-island context.