Romansh language
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{{Infobox Language |name=Romansh |nativename=Rumantsch |familycolor=Indo-European |states=Switzerland, Austria, Italy |region=Graubünden |speakers=50,000–70,000 |fam2=Italic |fam3=Romance |fam4=Italo-Western |fam5=Western Romance |fam6=Gallo-Iberian |fam7=Gallo-Romance |fam8=Gallo-Rhaetian |nation=Switzerland |iso1=rm|iso2=roh|iso3=roh }} Romansh (also spelled Rumantsch, Romansch or Romanche) is one of the four national languages of Switzerland, along with German, Italian and French. It is a Romance language, believed to have descended from the vulgar Latin spoken by Roman era occupiers of the region, and, as such, somewhat resembles Italian and French. It is spoken by around 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.
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Sociolinguistics
Romansh is not a single language but a group of closely-related languages or dialects, all belonging to the family of the Rhaeto-Romance languages. The group of various Rhaetian languages spoken in Switzerland is termed Romansh; the other members of the group are from northern Italy: Friulian, spoken by around 500,000-600,000 people in the northeast, and Ladin, spoken by some 20,000 in the Dolomite mountains of the Italian Tyrol.
The five largest languages in the Romansh family are Sursilvan, Sutsilvan, Surmiran, Puter and Vallader. Puter and Vallader are sometimes considered one language: Ladin. Ladin is sometimes associated with the language in Italy's Dolomite mountains also known as Ladin. The ISO 639 language codes are 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 Template:IPA followed by Template:IPA, Template:IPA, Template:IPA have <ch> (for example chalanda) as both speakers of Engadin (chalanda) and the Rhine territory (calanda) expect a spelling with <c>. However, <che> and <chi> are pronounced Template:IPA and Template:IPA, <k> being a grapheme deemed unfit for a Romance language such as Romansh; therefore, words with Template:IPA plus Template:IPA or Template:IPA have <tg> (for example tgirar) instead of <ch>. The use of <sch> for both Template:IPA and Template:IPA, and of <tsch> for Template:IPA is taken over from German, making Romansh spelling a compromise between Romance (Italian, French) and German spelling.
The Lia Rumantscha is the umbrella organization for all Romansh associations. Its web site provides further background information.
Literature
The emergence of Romansh as a literary language is generally dated to the mid-16th century.
Phonology
Consonants
The consonant phonemes of Romansh (Rumantsch Grischun) are set out in the following chart:
Vowels
The vowel phonemes of Romansh are shown in the table below:
| Monophthongs | Front | Back |
|---|---|---|
| Close | Template:IPA | Template:IPA |
| Mid | Template:IPA | |
| Open-mid | Template:IPA | Template:IPA |
| Open | Template:IPA | |
| Diphthongs | Closer component is front | Closer component is back |
|---|---|---|
| Closing | Template:IPA | Template:IPA |
| Opening | Template:IPA |
Schwa Template:IPA 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 Template:IPA
- 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
- An Account of the Romansh Language originally published in the 1776 Philosophical Transactions
- Google Romantsch
- Google Directory - Romansh language
Further information
- de:Heinrich Schmid: German Wikipedia on the linguist whose work on standardisation of the language resulted in Rumantsch Grischun.af:Romansch
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