Romansh
Encyclopedia : R : RO : ROM : Romansh
Romansh (also spelled Rumantsch, Romansch or Romanche) is one of the four national languages of Switzerland, along with German, Italian and French. It is one of the three Rhaeto-Romance languages, believed to have descended from the Vulgar Latin variety spoken by Roman era occupiers of the region, and, as such, somewhat resembles Italian, French and Catalan. It is spoken by about 50,000-70,000 people in the canton of Graubünden (Grisons), of which about 35,000 speak it as their first language. Spoken by fewer than 1% of Switzerland's 7.4 million inhabitants, it is the smallest of Switzerland's national languages in terms of number of speakers, about half the size of Switzerland's largest community of speakers of a non-official language, Serbo-Croatian with some 111,000 speakers.
Sociolinguistics
Romansh is not a single language but a group of closely-related dialects, all belonging to the family of the Rhaeto-Romance languages. Romansh is specifically the group of similar Rheto-Romance dialects spoken in southern Switzerland. The other members of this language family are from northern Italy: Ladin, with which Romansh is more closely related, is spoken by some 20,000 in the Dolomite mountains of the Italian Tyrol, and Friulian is spoken by around 500,000-600,000 people in the northeast.The five largest dialects in the Romansh family are:
- The Rhine Dialects
- *Sursilvan - in the Vorderrhein (Rain anteriur), including Lumnezia, Foppa, Cadi (Surselva)
- *Sutsilvan - in the Hinterrhein (Rain posteriur), including Plaun, Tumliasco, Schons (Sutselva)
- *Surmiran - in the Julier and Albula valleys, including Surses, Sutses (Surmeira)
- The Engadine or Ladin Dialects
- *Puter - the upper Engadine valley (Engiadin' Ota)
- *Vallader - the lower Engadine valley (Engiadina Bassa) and the Mustair valley (Val Mustair)
rm and roh.Standardisation
Romansh was standardised in 1982 by Zürich-based linguist Heinrich Schmid. The standardised language, called Rumantsch Grischun, has not been very well accepted, and speakers of the different dialects tend to address one another in German. This is leading to an acceleration of the decline of the language. On the orthographic level, Schmid sought to avoid all "odd-looking" spellings, in order to increase general acceptability of the new idiom and its spelling. Therefore, words with /tɕ/ followed by /a/, /o/, /u/ haveThe Lia Rumantscha is the umbrella organization for all Romansh associations. Its web site provides further background information.
Literature
- ''See Swiss literature#Romansch and Ladin branch
Phonology
Consonants
The consonant phonemes of Romansh (Rumantsch Grischun) are set out in the following chart:
| Bilabial | Labio- dental | Dental and alveolar | Alveolo- palatal | Post- alveolar | Palatal | Velar | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stop | p b | t d | k g | ||||
| Affricate | ts | tɕ dʑ | tʃ | ||||
| Nasal | m | n | ɲ | ŋ | |||
| Fricative | f v | s z | ʃ ʒ | ||||
| Approximant | r | j | |||||
| Lateral approximant | l | ʎ |
Vowels
The vowel phonemes of Romansh are shown in the table below:
| Monophthongs | Front | Back |
|---|---|---|
| Close | i | u |
| Mid | ə | |
| Open-mid | ɛ | ɔ |
| Open | a | |
| Diphthongs | Closer component is front | Closer component is back |
|---|---|---|
| Closing | ai | au |
| Opening | ie |
Schwa /ə/ occurs only in unstressed syllables. Vowel length is predictable:
- Unstressed vowels are short.
- Stressed vowels in closed syllables (those with a coda) are:
- :long before /r/
- :short elsewhere
- Stressed vowels in open syllables are:
- :short before voiceless consonants
- :long elsewhere
Some common expressions
allegra - hello
co vai? - how are you?
fa plaschair - pleased to meet you
bun di - good morning
buna saira - good evening
buna notg - good night
a revair - goodbye
a pli tard - see you later
perstgisai - I beg your pardon
i ma displascha - I'm sorry
perdunai - excuse me
per plaschair - please
grazia fitg - thank you very much
anzi - you're welcome
gratulazions - congratulations
bun cletg - good luck
ils quants è oz? - what's the date today?
quants onns has ti? - how old are you?
External links
- [Radio Televisiun Rumantscha]
- [Information about the Romansh language]
- [Ethnologue report for Romansch]
- [Website of the Lia Rumantscha organization]
- [Romansch - English Dictionary]
- [Romansch - English Dictionary, different Romansch dialects]
- [Official Romansch-German/German-Romansh Dictionary]
- [An Account of the Romansh Language originally published in the 1776 Philosophical Transactions]
- [Google Romantsch]
- [Google Directory - Romansh language]
Further information
- [de]: German Wikipedia on the linguist whose work on standardisation of the language resulted in Rumantsch Grischun.
| Romance languages | ||
|---|---|---|
| Aragonese | Aranese | Aromanian | Arpitan | Astur Leonese | Burgundian | Catalan | Corsican | Champenois | Dalmatian | Dgèrnésiais | Franc-Comtois | French | Friulian | Galician | Gallo | Istriot | Istro Romanian | Italian | Jèrriais | Ladin | Ladino | Ligurian | Lorrain | Megleno Romanian | Mirandese | Neapolitan | Norman | Occitan | Picard | Piedmontese | Poitevin-Saintongeais | Portuguese | Romanian | Romansh | Sardian | Sicilian | Spanish | Venetian | Walloon | ||
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