Rhaeto-Romance languages
Encyclopedia : R : RH : RHA : Rhaeto-Romance languages
Rhaeto-Romance languages are a Romance language sub-family which includes a few languages spoken in Switzerland and North-Eastern Italy. The family is most closely related to its nearest neighbors: Gallo-Romance (French, Franco-Provençal, Occitan), Gallo-Italian (Piedmontese, Liguro, Lombardo, Emigliano-Romagnol), Venetian, and Istriote. A number of lexical items are shared with Ibero-Romance due to the similar date of latinization for both regions. Another significant lexical similarity is shared with Eastern Romance (Rumanian, Dalmatian).
The varieties are:
- Friulian - Friuli-Venezia Giulia region, Italy
- Ladin - Dolomite mountains in Italy (in Trentino-Alto Adige region and in Veneto region)
- Romansh - Switzerland
Features
Rhaeto-Romance is distinguished by a number of features which separate it from its neighbors.
- diphthongization of Vulgar Latin closed e into ei
- *fieste "party, feast"
- occasional change of stressed a to e, particularly after a palatalized velar
- rounding of long u into ü (mainly Swiss)
- fall of final vowels save -a, which often weakens into -e (in Friulian there is also a feminine plural in -is)
- *Friul sere "night"
- *Friul fieste
- *Friul pie 'pia (pious, f.)' "press"
- general palatalization of the ca and ga groups
- *ciampanis "bells" [tSampanis]
- conservation of cl-, pl-, fl-; conservation of Germanic w
- *Friul plui "more"
- *Friul vuere "war"
- voicing of intervocalic unvoiced consonants
- fall of intervocalic voiced consonants
- conservation of final -s, lead to single case based on acc (oblique); formerly a double case system
- *SwRom sunàis "to ring, 2ndp.sing.)"
- *SwRom culinis "hills"
- *SwRom bels ölgs "beautiful eyes"
See also
- Rhaetian language, an unrelated language spoke in ancient times around the area where Rhaeto-Romance is now spoken.
External links
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