Romansh
Encyclopedia
Romansh is one of the four national languages of Switzerland
, along with German, Italian
and French
. It is one of the Rhaeto-Romance languages
, believed to have descended from the Vulgar Latin
variety spoken by Roman era occupiers of the region, and, as such, is closely related to French
, Occitan and Lombard, as well as other Romance languages to a lesser extent.
As of the 2000 Swiss Census, it is spoken by 35,095 residents of the canton of Graubünden
(Grisons) as the language of "best command", and 61,815 in the "best command" plus "most spoken" categories. Spoken now by around 0.9% of Switzerland's 7.7 million inhabitants, it is Switzerland's least-used national language in terms of number of speakers.
covering a group of closely related dialect
s spoken in southern Switzerland and all belonging to the Rhaeto-Romance
language family. The other members of this language family are spoken in northern Italy
. Ladin
, to which Romansh is more closely related, is spoken by some 22,550 in the Dolomite mountains
of Trentino, South Tyrol
and the province of Belluno
, and Friulian is spoken by between 550,000 and 595,000 people in northeastern Italy.
The five largest dialects in the Romansh family are:
Puter and Vallader are sometimes referred to as one specific variety known as ladin, as they have retained this word to mean Romansh. However, ladin is primarily associated with the closely related language in Italy's Dolomite mountains also known as Ladin.
As Chur
was once the centre of Romansh, Germans once called this language Chur-Wälsch, "foreign speech of Chur". (The word "Welsh
" had the same etymon: Walh
.) This is a possible origin of the term Kauderwelsch, meaning "gibberish
". However, Chur and even its cross-river suburb of Welschdörfli ("little foreign-language-speaking village"), now speak German; Romansh survives only in the upper valleys of the Rhine and the Inn.
-based linguist Heinrich Schmid
. The standardised language, called Rumantsch Grischun ("Romansh of Grisons") is promoted by the Lia Rumantscha
, the umbrella organization
for all Romansh associations.
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/ have (for example chalanda) as both speakers of Engadin (chalanda) and the Rhine territory (calanda) expect a spelling with . However, and are pronounced /ke/ and /ki/, being a grapheme deemed unfit for a Romance language such as Romansh; therefore, words with /tɕ/ plus /e/ or /i/ have (for example tgirar) instead of . The use of for both /ʃ/ and /ʒ/, and of for /tʃ/ is taken from German
, making Romansh spelling a compromise between Romance (Italian
, French
) and German spelling.
Rumantsch Grischun has been slow to find acceptance in Grisons. The cantonal and national government have adopted it for government texts and since 2003 for schoolbooks, and the local media use it alongside the traditional spelling. But the opposition to what traditionalists consider a "bastard language", lacking the emotional appeal of the older dialects, remains substantial. Many municipalities, who are responsible for choosing the language of instruction in the public schools, continue to use the local spelling. In 2011, a group, Pro Idioms, was founded to lobby for the reintroduction of schoolbooks in the traditional dialects.
since 1938. It was also declared an "official language" of the Confederation in 1996, meaning that Romansh speakers may use Romansh for correspondence with the federal government and expect to receive a response in Rumantsch Grischun, because the federal authorities use only the standardised dialect. However, the Constitution specifies that only native Romansh speakers can claim this privilege.
In what the Federal Culture Office itself admits is "more a placatory and symbolic use" of Romansh, the federal authorities occasionally translate some official texts into Romansh. In general, though, demand for Romansh-language services is low because, according to the Federal Culture Office, Romansh speakers may either dislike the official Rumantsch Grischun idiom or prefer to use German in the first place, as most are perfectly bilingual.
On the cantonal level, Romansh is an official language only in the trilingual canton of Graubünden, where the municipalities in turn are free to specify their own official languages.
The first verse of a three verse poem by Peider Lansel (1863–1943), translated by M.E. Maxfield:
Translated by Jachiam Bifrun:
First (surviving) complete Bible. The citation is of a self-described 2nd edition, augmented by Nott da Porta and others on the basis of an earlier, no longer surviving translation by Jacob Anton Vulpius and others going back to at least 1660, when a partial Old Testament was published.
Published in Scuol in the Lower Engadine, 1743. [Exemplar located at SILS/E-Biblioteca Engiadinaisa, Kasten. Sign.: BES 22].
phoneme
s of Romansh (Rumantsch Grischun) are set out in the following chart:
Schwa
[ə] occurs only in unstressed
syllable
s. Vowel length
is predictable:
The letters k (ka), w (ve dubel), and y (ipsilon or i grec) are used only in words borrowed from foreign languages, such as: kilogram, ski, kino, kiosc, kilo, kilowat, Washington, western, stewardess, whisky, happy, or hockey.
Because most Romansh-speaking people are familiar with German spelling, Romansh orthography borrows from German: The "sh" sound, for example, is written in the German fashion, "sch" (see "rumantsch"), not "sc" as in Italian, and ö and ü are used.
Billigmeier, Robert H.: A Crisis in Swiss Pluralism: The Romansh and their Relations with German- and Italian Swiss in the Perspective of a Millenium. The Hague: Mouton 1979
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
, along with German, Italian
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
and French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
. It is one of the Rhaeto-Romance languages
Rhaeto-Romance languages
Rhaeto-Romance languages are a Romance language sub-family which includes multiple languages spoken in north and north-eastern Italy, and Switzerland...
, believed to have descended from the Vulgar Latin
Vulgar Latin
Vulgar Latin is any of the nonstandard forms of Latin from which the Romance languages developed. Because of its nonstandard nature, it had no official orthography. All written works used Classical Latin, with very few exceptions...
variety spoken by Roman era occupiers of the region, and, as such, is closely related to French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
, Occitan and Lombard, as well as other Romance languages to a lesser extent.
As of the 2000 Swiss Census, it is spoken by 35,095 residents of the canton of Graubünden
Graubünden
Graubünden or Grisons is the largest and easternmost canton of Switzerland. The canton shares borders with the cantons of Ticino, Uri, Glarus and St. Gallen and international borders with Italy, Austria and Liechtenstein...
(Grisons) as the language of "best command", and 61,815 in the "best command" plus "most spoken" categories. Spoken now by around 0.9% of Switzerland's 7.7 million inhabitants, it is Switzerland's least-used national language in terms of number of speakers.
Dialects
Romansh is an umbrella termUmbrella term
An umbrella term is a word that provides a superset or grouping of concepts that all fall under a single common category. Umbrella term is also called a hypernym. For example, cryptology is an umbrella term that encompasses cryptography and cryptanalysis, among other fields...
covering a group of closely related dialect
Dialect
The term dialect is used in two distinct ways, even by linguists. One usage refers to a variety of a language that is a characteristic of a particular group of the language's speakers. The term is applied most often to regional speech patterns, but a dialect may also be defined by other factors,...
s spoken in southern Switzerland and all belonging to the Rhaeto-Romance
Rhaeto-Romance languages
Rhaeto-Romance languages are a Romance language sub-family which includes multiple languages spoken in north and north-eastern Italy, and Switzerland...
language family. The other members of this language family are spoken in northern Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
. Ladin
Ladin
Ladin is a language consisting of a group of dialects spoken in the Dolomite Mountains in Northern Italy in the border regions of the provinces Trentino, South Tyrol and Belluno...
, to which Romansh is more closely related, is spoken by some 22,550 in the Dolomite mountains
Dolomites
The Dolomites are a mountain range located in north-eastern Italy. It is a part of Southern Limestone Alps and extends from the River Adige in the west to the Piave Valley in the east. The northern and southern borders are defined by the Puster Valley and the Sugana Valley...
of Trentino, South Tyrol
South Tyrol
South Tyrol , also known by its Italian name Alto Adige, is an autonomous province in northern Italy. It is one of the two autonomous provinces that make up the autonomous region of Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol. The province has an area of and a total population of more than 500,000 inhabitants...
and the province of Belluno
Province of Belluno
TheThe Province of Belluno is a province in the Veneto region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Belluno.It has an area of 3,678 km², and a total population of 214,026 .-Geography:...
, and Friulian is spoken by between 550,000 and 595,000 people in northeastern Italy.
The five largest dialects in the Romansh family are:
- The Rhine Dialects
- SursilvanSursilvanSursilvan is a group of dialects of the Romansh language spoken in the Surselva, on the western bank of the Rhine. The most closely related variety is Sutsilvan, which is spoken in the area located to the east.- Example :...
– in the Vorderrhein (Rain anteriur) valley, including Lumnezia, FoppaFoppaFoppa is a given name or surname, and may refer to:*The nickname of Peter Forsberg, a Swedish ice hockey player*Vincenzo Foppa, an influential 15th century Italian painter....
, Cadi (Surselva) - SutsilvanSutsilvanSutsilvan is a group of dialects of the Romansh language. It is spoken on the eastern bank of the Rhine....
– in the HinterrheinHinterrhein (district)Hinterrhein District is an administrative district in the canton of Graubünden, Switzerland. It has an area of and has a population of .Hinterrhein District consists of five Kreise and twenty-eight municipalities...
(Rain posteriur) valley, including Plaun, Tumliasco, Schons (Sutselva) - SurmiranSurmiranSursilvan is a group of dialects of the Romansh language. It is spoken in Surmeira and in the Albula Valley in Switzerland.-The "Hail Mary" in Surmiran:...
– in the JuliaJulia RiverJulia is a river in the Grisons canton, eastern Switzerland. It is a tributary of the Albula river, which it meets in Tiefencastel. The road to the Julier Pass runs through the Julia valley....
and Albula valleys, including Surses, Sutses (Surmeira)
- Sursilvan
- The Engadine or Ladin Dialects
- Puter – the upper Engadine valley (Engiadin' Ota)
- Vallader – the lower Engadine valley (Engiadina Bassa) and the Val MüstairVal MüstairVal Müstair is a municipality in the district of Inn in the Swiss canton of Graubünden. It was formed on 1 January 2009 through the merger of Tschierv, Fuldera, Lü, Valchava, Santa Maria Val Müstair and Müstair.-Demographics:...
Puter and Vallader are sometimes referred to as one specific variety known as ladin, as they have retained this word to mean Romansh. However, ladin is primarily associated with the closely related language in Italy's Dolomite mountains also known as Ladin.
As Chur
Chur
Chur or Coire is the capital of the Swiss canton of Graubünden and lies in the northern part of the canton.-History:The name "chur" derives perhaps from the Celtic kora or koria, meaning "tribe", or from the Latin curia....
was once the centre of Romansh, Germans once called this language Chur-Wälsch, "foreign speech of Chur". (The word "Welsh
Welsh language
Welsh is a member of the Brythonic branch of the Celtic languages spoken natively in Wales, by some along the Welsh border in England, and in Y Wladfa...
" had the same etymon: Walh
WALH
WALH is a talk/adult standards radio station licensed to Mountain City, Georgia, USA. The station filed to be silent temporarily in April of 2009....
.) This is a possible origin of the term Kauderwelsch, meaning "gibberish
Gibberish
Gibberish is a generic term in English for talking that sounds like speech, but carries no actual meaning. This meaning has also been extended to meaningless text or gobbledygook. The common theme in gibberish statements is a lack of literal sense, which can be described as a presence of nonsense...
". However, Chur and even its cross-river suburb of Welschdörfli ("little foreign-language-speaking village"), now speak German; Romansh survives only in the upper valleys of the Rhine and the Inn.
Standardisation
Romansh was nationally standardised in 1982 by ZürichZürich
Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is located in central Switzerland at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich...
-based linguist Heinrich Schmid
Heinrich Schmid
Heinrich Schmid was a Swiss linguist and "father" of the Rhaeto-Romance Dachsprachen Rumantsch Grischun and Ladin Dolomitan....
. The standardised language, called Rumantsch Grischun ("Romansh of Grisons") is promoted by the Lia Rumantscha
Lia Rumantscha
Lia Rumantscha is an organization that promotes Romansh language usage and study....
, the umbrella organization
Umbrella organization
An umbrella organization is an association of institutions, who work together formally to coordinate activities or pool resources. In business, political, or other environments, one group, the umbrella organization, provides resources and often an identity to the smaller organizations...
for all Romansh associations.
On the orthographic
Orthography
The orthography of a language specifies a standardized way of using a specific writing system to write the language. Where more than one writing system is used for a language, for example Kurdish, Uyghur, Serbian or Inuktitut, there can be more than one orthography...
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/ have
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
, making Romansh spelling a compromise between Romance (Italian
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
, French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
) and German spelling.
Rumantsch Grischun has been slow to find acceptance in Grisons. The cantonal and national government have adopted it for government texts and since 2003 for schoolbooks, and the local media use it alongside the traditional spelling. But the opposition to what traditionalists consider a "bastard language", lacking the emotional appeal of the older dialects, remains substantial. Many municipalities, who are responsible for choosing the language of instruction in the public schools, continue to use the local spelling. In 2011, a group, Pro Idioms, was founded to lobby for the reintroduction of schoolbooks in the traditional dialects.
Official status in Switzerland
Romansh has been recognised as one of four "national languages" by the Swiss Federal ConstitutionSwiss Federal Constitution
The Federal Constitution of 18 April 1999 is the third and current federal constitution of Switzerland. It establishes the Swiss Confederation as a federal republic of 26 cantons , contains a catalogue of individual and popular rights , delineates the responsibilities of the...
since 1938. It was also declared an "official language" of the Confederation in 1996, meaning that Romansh speakers may use Romansh for correspondence with the federal government and expect to receive a response in Rumantsch Grischun, because the federal authorities use only the standardised dialect. However, the Constitution specifies that only native Romansh speakers can claim this privilege.
In what the Federal Culture Office itself admits is "more a placatory and symbolic use" of Romansh, the federal authorities occasionally translate some official texts into Romansh. In general, though, demand for Romansh-language services is low because, according to the Federal Culture Office, Romansh speakers may either dislike the official Rumantsch Grischun idiom or prefer to use German in the first place, as most are perfectly bilingual.
On the cantonal level, Romansh is an official language only in the trilingual canton of Graubünden, where the municipalities in turn are free to specify their own official languages.
Literature
The emergence of Romansh as a literary language is generally dated to the mid-16th century. The Engadine dialect was first printed as early as 1552 in Jacob Bifrun's Christiauna fuorma, a catechism; a translation of the New Testament followed in 1560.The first verse of a three verse poem by Peider Lansel (1863–1943), translated by M.E. Maxfield:
- MASSA BOD! (TOO SOON!)
- O sblacha fluoretta, (O, pale little flow'ret,)
- tu vainsch massa bod! (Too soon thou art here!)
- amo be suletta (Alone in the wildwood)
- at dervasch nil god. (And full of vague fear.)
First printed Romansh Bible
New TestamentTranslated by Jachiam Bifrun:
- L’g Nuof Sainc Testamaint da nos Signer Jesu Christi / prais our delg latin & our d’oters launguax & huossa da noef mis in Arumaunsch tres Jachiam Bifrun d’Agnedina [cited from Kantonsbibliothek Graubünden, Sig. KBG 1007:A:220], Basel, 1560.
First (surviving) complete Bible. The citation is of a self-described 2nd edition, augmented by Nott da Porta and others on the basis of an earlier, no longer surviving translation by Jacob Anton Vulpius and others going back to at least 1660, when a partial Old Testament was published.
- La sacra Biblia : quai ais tuot la Sonchia Scrittüra dal Vegl et Nouf Testamaint cun l’agiunta dall’apocrifa / vert. è stamp. ... in lingua romontscha d’Engiadina bassa tras comün cuost è lavur da Jacobo Antonio Vulpio & Jacob Dorta et ... Men Andrea Wilhelm Rauch, Nuot Nuot Schucan & Men Not Dorta,
Published in Scuol in the Lower Engadine, 1743. [Exemplar located at SILS/E-Biblioteca Engiadinaisa, Kasten. Sign.: BES 22].
Consonants
The consonantConsonant
In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract. Examples are , pronounced with the lips; , pronounced with the front of the tongue; , pronounced with the back of the tongue; , pronounced in the throat; and ,...
phoneme
Phoneme
In a language or dialect, a phoneme is the smallest segmental unit of sound employed to form meaningful contrasts between utterances....
s of Romansh (Rumantsch Grischun) are set out in the following chart:
| Labial Labial consonant Labial consonants are consonants in which one or both lips are the active articulator. This precludes linguolabials, in which the tip of the tongue reaches for the posterior side of the upper lip and which are considered coronals... |
Labio- Labiodental consonant In phonetics, labiodentals are consonants articulated with the lower lip and the upper teeth.-Labiodental consonant in IPA:The labiodental consonants identified by the International Phonetic Alphabet are:... dental Labiodental consonant In phonetics, labiodentals are consonants articulated with the lower lip and the upper teeth.-Labiodental consonant in IPA:The labiodental consonants identified by the International Phonetic Alphabet are:... |
Dental and alveolar Alveolar consonant Alveolar consonants are articulated with the tongue against or close to the superior alveolar ridge, which is called that because it contains the alveoli of the superior teeth... |
Alveolo- Alveolo-palatal consonant In phonetics, alveolo-palatal consonants are palatalized postalveolar sounds, usually fricatives and affricates, articulated with the blade of the tongue behind the alveolar ridge, and the body of the tongue raised toward the palate... palatal Alveolo-palatal consonant In phonetics, alveolo-palatal consonants are palatalized postalveolar sounds, usually fricatives and affricates, articulated with the blade of the tongue behind the alveolar ridge, and the body of the tongue raised toward the palate... |
Post- Postalveolar consonant Postalveolar consonants are consonants articulated with the tongue near or touching the back of the alveolar ridge, further back in the mouth than the alveolar consonants, which are at the ridge itself, but not as far back as the hard palate... alveolar Postalveolar consonant Postalveolar consonants are consonants articulated with the tongue near or touching the back of the alveolar ridge, further back in the mouth than the alveolar consonants, which are at the ridge itself, but not as far back as the hard palate... |
Palatal Palatal consonant Palatal consonants are consonants articulated with the body of the tongue raised against the hard palate... |
Velar Velar consonant Velars are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue against the soft palate, the back part of the roof of the mouth, known also as the velum).... |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal Nasal consonant A nasal consonant is a type of consonant produced with a lowered velum in the mouth, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. Examples of nasal consonants in English are and , in words such as nose and mouth.- Definition :... |
m | n | ɲ | ŋ | |||
| Plosive | p b | t d | k ɡ | ||||
| Affricate Affricate consonant Affricates are consonants that begin as stops but release as a fricative rather than directly into the following vowel.- Samples :... |
ts | tɕ dʑ | tʃ | ||||
| Fricative Fricative consonant Fricatives are consonants produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together. These may be the lower lip against the upper teeth, in the case of ; the back of the tongue against the soft palate, in the case of German , the final consonant of Bach; or... |
f v | s z | ʃ ʒ | ||||
| Approximant Approximant consonant Approximants are speech sounds that involve the articulators approaching each other but not narrowly enough or with enough articulatory precision to create turbulent airflow. Therefore, approximants fall between fricatives, which do produce a turbulent airstream, and vowels, which produce no... |
ɹ | j | |||||
| Lateral Lateral consonant A lateral is an el-like consonant, in which airstream proceeds along the sides of the tongue, but is blocked by the tongue from going through the middle of the mouth.... |
l | ʎ |
Vowels
The vowel phonemes of Romansh are shown in the table below:| Monophthong Monophthong A monophthong is a pure vowel sound, one whose articulation at both beginning and end is relatively fixed, and which does not glide up or down towards a new position of articulation.... s |
Front Front vowel A front vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a front vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far in front as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Front vowels are sometimes also... |
Central Central vowel A central vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a central vowel is that the tongue is positioned halfway between a front vowel and a back vowel... |
Back Back vowel A back vowel is a type of vowel sound used in spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a back vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far back as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Back vowels are sometimes also called dark... |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close Close vowel A close vowel is a type of vowel sound used in many spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a close vowel is that the tongue is positioned as close as possible to the roof of the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant.This term is prescribed by the... |
i | u | |
| Mid Mid vowel A mid vowel is a vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a mid vowel is that the tongue is positioned mid-way between an open vowel and a close vowel... |
ɛ | ə | ɔ |
| Open Open vowel An open vowel is defined as a vowel sound in which the tongue is positioned as far as possible from the roof of the mouth. Open vowels are sometimes also called low vowels in reference to the low position of the tongue... |
a | ||
| Diphthong Diphthong A diphthong , also known as a gliding vowel, refers to two adjacent vowel sounds occurring within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: That is, the tongue moves during the pronunciation of the vowel... s |
Closer component is front |
Closer component is back |
|---|---|---|
| Closing | ai | au |
| Opening | ie |
Schwa
Schwa
In linguistics, specifically phonetics and phonology, schwa can mean the following:*An unstressed and toneless neutral vowel sound in some languages, often but not necessarily a mid-central vowel...
[ə] occurs only in unstressed
Stress (linguistics)
In linguistics, stress is the relative emphasis that may be given to certain syllables in a word, or to certain words in a phrase or sentence. The term is also used for similar patterns of phonetic prominence inside syllables. The word accent is sometimes also used with this sense.The stress placed...
syllable
Syllable
A syllable is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds. For example, the word water is composed of two syllables: wa and ter. A syllable is typically made up of a syllable nucleus with optional initial and final margins .Syllables are often considered the phonological "building...
s. Vowel length
Vowel length
In linguistics, vowel length is the perceived duration of a vowel sound. Often the chroneme, or the "longness", acts like a consonant, and may etymologically be one, such as in Australian English. While not distinctive in most dialects of English, vowel length is an important phonemic factor in...
is predictable:
- Unstressed vowels are short.
- Stressed vowels in closed syllables (those with a codaSyllable codaIn phonology, a syllable coda comprises the consonant sounds of a syllable that follow the nucleus, which is usually a vowel. The combination of a nucleus and a coda is called a rime. Some syllables consist only of a nucleus with no coda...
) are:- long before /r/
- short elsewhere
- Stressed vowels in open syllables are:
- short before voiceless consonants
- long elsewhere
Lexis
Examples of Common Vocabulary:| English English language English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria... |
Surselvisch | Sutselvisch | Surmeirisch | Puter | Vallader | Rumantsch Grischun | Latin | Nones Ladin Ladin is a language consisting of a group of dialects spoken in the Dolomite Mountains in Northern Italy in the border regions of the provinces Trentino, South Tyrol and Belluno... |
Italian Italian language Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia... |
Lombard | French French language French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts... |
Portuguese Portuguese language Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095... |
Spanish Spanish language Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the... |
Romanian Romanian language Romanian Romanian Romanian (or Daco-Romanian; obsolete spellings Rumanian, Roumanian; self-designation: română, limba română ("the Romanian language") or românește (lit. "in Romanian") is a Romance language spoken by around 24 to 28 million people, primarily in Romania and Moldova... |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| gold | aur | or | or | or | or, aur, ar | aur | aurum | or | oro | òr | or | ouro | oro | aur |
| hard | dir | dir | deir | dür | dür | dir | dūrus | dur | duro | dür | dur | duro | duro | dur |
| eye | egl | îl | îgl | ögl | ögl | egl | oculus | ocel | occhio | öcc | œil | olho | ojo | ochi |
| light, easy | lev | leav | lev | liger | leiv | lev | levis | ligér | liève, leggero | legér | léger | leve, ligeiro | leve, ligero | lejer |
| three | treis | tres | treis | trais | trais | trais | trēs | trei | tre | trii | trois | três | tres | trei |
| snow | neiv | nev | neiv | naiv | naiv | naiv | nivem (acc. of nix) | neu | neve | néf | neige | neve | nieve | nea |
| wheel | roda | roda | roda | rouda | rouda | roda | rota | rueda | ruota | röda | roue | roda | rueda | roată |
| cheese | caschiel | caschiel | caschiel | chaschöl | chaschöl | chaschiel | caseolus/fōrmāticum | formai | formaggio | furmàcc | fromage | queijo | queso | caş |
| house | casa | tgeasa | tgesa | chesa | chasa | chasa | casa | ciasa | casa | cà | maison | casa | casa | casă |
| dog | tgaun | tgàn | tgang | chaun | chan | chaun | canis | ciagn | cane | can | chien | cão | perro/can | câine |
| leg | comba | tgomba | tgomma | chamma | chomma | chomma | camba/perna | giamba | gamba | gàmba | jambe | perna | pierna | picior |
| hen | gaglina | gagliegna | gagligna | gillina | giallina | giaglina | gallīna | gialina | gallina | gaìna | poule | galinha | gallina | găină |
| cat | gat | giat | giat | giat | giat | giat | cattus | giat | gatto | gat | chat | gato | gato | pisică |
| all | tut | tut | tot | tuot | tuot | tut | tōtus | tut | tutto | tüt | tout | tudo | todo | tot |
| shape | fuorma | furma | furma | fuorma | fuorma | furma | fōrma | forma | forma | fùrma | forme | forma | forma | formă |
| I | jeu | jou | ja | eau | eu | jau | ego | mi | io | mì | je | eu | yo | eu |
Romansh alphabet
L'alfabet rumantsch| Majuscule Forms (also called uppercase or capital letters) | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| A A A is the first letter and a vowel in the basic modern Latin alphabet. It is similar to the Ancient Greek letter Alpha, from which it derives.- Origins :... |
B B B is the second letter in the basic modern Latin alphabet. It is used to represent a variety of bilabial sounds , most commonly a voiced bilabial plosive.-History:... |
C C Ĉ or ĉ is a consonant in Esperanto orthography, representing the sound .Esperanto orthography uses a diacritic for all four of its postalveolar consonants, as do the Latin-based Slavic alphabets... |
D D D is the fourth letter in the basic modern Latin alphabet.- History :The Semitic letter Dâlet may have developed from the logogram for a fish or a door. There are various Egyptian hieroglyphs that might have inspired this. In Semitic, Ancient Greek, and Latin, the letter represented ; in the... |
E E E is the fifth letter and a vowel in the basic modern Latin alphabet. It is the most commonly used letter in the Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, French, German, Hungarian, Latin, Norwegian, Spanish, and Swedish languages.-History:... |
F F F is the sixth letter in the basic modern Latin alphabet.-History:The origin of ⟨f⟩ is the Semitic letter vâv that represented a sound like or . Graphically, it originally probably depicted either a hook or a club... |
G G G is the seventh letter in the basic modern Latin alphabet.-History:The letter 'G' was introduced in the Old Latin period as a variant of ⟨c⟩ to distinguish voiced, from voiceless, . The recorded originator of ⟨g⟩ is freedman Spurius Carvilius Ruga, the first Roman to open a fee-paying school,... |
H H H .) is the eighth letter in the basic modern Latin alphabet.-History:The Semitic letter ⟨ח⟩ most likely represented the voiceless pharyngeal fricative . The form of the letter probably stood for a fence or posts.... |
I I I is the ninth letter and a vowel in the basic modern Latin alphabet.-History:In Semitic, the letter may have originated in a hieroglyph for an arm that represented a voiced pharyngeal fricative in Egyptian, but was reassigned to by Semites, because their word for "arm" began with that sound... |
J J Ĵ or ĵ is a letter in Esperanto orthography representing the sound .While Esperanto orthography uses a diacritic for its four postalveolar consonants, as do the Latin-based Slavic alphabets, the base letters are Romano-Germanic... |
L L Ł or ł, described in English as L with stroke, is a letter of the Polish, Kashubian, Sorbian, Łacinka , Łatynka , Wilamowicean, Navajo, Dene Suline, Inupiaq, Zuni, Hupa, and Dogrib alphabets, several proposed alphabets for the Venetian language, and the ISO 11940 romanization of the Thai alphabet... |
M M M is the thirteenth letter of the basic modern Latin alphabet.-History:The letter M is derived from the Phoenician Mem, via the Greek Mu . Semitic Mem probably originally pictured water... |
N N N is the fourteenth letter in the basic modern Latin alphabet.- History of the forms :One of the most common hieroglyphs, snake, was used in Egyptian writing to stand for a sound like English ⟨J⟩, because the Egyptian word for "snake" was djet... |
O O O is the fifteenth letter and a vowel in the basic modern Latin alphabet.The letter was derived from the Semitic `Ayin , which represented a consonant, probably , the sound represented by the Arabic letter ع called `Ayn. This Semitic letter in its original form seems to have been inspired by a... |
P P P is the sixteenth letter of the basic modern Latin alphabet.-Usage:In English and most other European languages, P is a voiceless bilabial plosive. Both initial and final Ps can be combined with many other discrete consonants in English words... |
Q Q Q is the seventeenth letter of the basic modern Latin alphabet.- History :The Semitic sound value of Qôp was , a sound common to Semitic languages, but not found in English or most Indo-European ones... |
R R R is the eighteenth letter of the basic modern Latin alphabet.-History:The original Semitic letter may have been inspired by an Egyptian hieroglyph for tp, "head". It was used for by Semites because in their language, the word for "head" was rêš . It developed into Greek Ρ and Latin R... |
S S S is the nineteenth letter in the ISO basic Latin alphabet.-History: Semitic Šîn represented a voiceless postalveolar fricative . Greek did not have this sound, so the Greek sigma came to represent... |
T T T is the 20th letter in the basic modern Latin alphabet. It is the most commonly used consonant and the second most common letter in the English language.- History :Taw was the last letter of the Western Semitic and Hebrew alphabets... |
U U U is the twenty-first letter and a vowel in the basic modern Latin alphabet.-History:The letter U ultimately comes from the Semitic letter Waw by way of the letter Y. See the letter Y for details.... |
V V V is the twenty-second letter in the basic modern Latin alphabet.-Letter:The letter V comes from the Semitic letter Waw, as do the modern letters F, U, W, and Y. See F for details.... |
X X X is the twenty-fourth letter in the basic modern Latin alphabet.-Uses:In mathematics, x is commonly used as the name for an independent variable or unknown value. The usage of x to represent an independent or unknown variable can be traced back to the Arabic word šay شيء = “thing,” used in Arabic... |
Z Z Z is the twenty-sixth and final letter of the basic modern Latin alphabet.-Name and pronunciation:In most dialects of English, the letter's name is zed , reflecting its derivation from the Greek zeta but in American English, its name is zee , deriving from a late 17th century English dialectal... |
|
| Minuscule Forms (also called lowercase or small letters) | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h | i | j | l | m | n | o | p | q | r | s | t | u | v | x | z | |
| Names | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| a | be | tse | de | e | ef | ghe | ha | i | jot/i lung | el | em | en | o | pe | ku | er | es | te | u | ve | iks | tset | |
The letters k (ka), w (ve dubel), and y (ipsilon or i grec) are used only in words borrowed from foreign languages, such as: kilogram, ski, kino, kiosc, kilo, kilowat, Washington, western, stewardess, whisky, happy, or hockey.
Because most Romansh-speaking people are familiar with German spelling, Romansh orthography borrows from German: The "sh" sound, for example, is written in the German fashion, "sch" (see "rumantsch"), not "sc" as in Italian, and ö and ü are used.
Pronunciation
| Orthography | IPA | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| ⟨b⟩ | [b] | Except as below |
| [p] | At the end of a word and before a voiceless consonant | |
| ⟨c⟩ | [k] | Before ⟨a⟩, ⟨o⟩, ⟨u⟩ and consonants |
| [ts] | Before ⟨e⟩ and ⟨i⟩ | |
| ⟨ch⟩ | [tɕ] | Before ⟨a⟩ and ⟨o⟩ |
| [k] | Before ⟨e⟩ and ⟨i⟩ | |
| ⟨d⟩ | [d] | Except as below |
| [t] | At the end of a word and before a voiceless consonant | |
| ⟨f⟩ | [f] | |
| ⟨g⟩ | [ɡ] | Before ⟨a⟩, ⟨o⟩, ⟨u⟩ and voiced consonants |
| [dʑ] | Before ⟨e⟩ and ⟨i⟩; the ⟨i⟩ is silent in ⟨gia⟩, ⟨gio⟩, and ⟨giu⟩ | |
| [k] | At the end of a word and before a voiceless consonant | |
| ⟨gh⟩ | [ɡ] | Before ⟨e⟩ and ⟨i⟩ (appears nowhere else) |
| ⟨gl⟩ | [ɡl] | Before ⟨a⟩, ⟨e⟩, ⟨o⟩, and ⟨u⟩ |
| [ʎ] | Before ⟨i⟩; the ⟨i⟩ is silent in ⟨glia⟩, ⟨glie⟩, ⟨glio⟩, and ⟨gliu⟩ | |
| ⟨gn⟩ | [ɲ] | |
| ⟨h⟩ | (silent) | In most cases; see also ⟨ch⟩, ⟨gh⟩, and ⟨sch⟩ |
| [h] | In some interjections and loanwords | |
| ⟨j⟩ | [j] | |
| ⟨k⟩ | [k] | Occurs only in foreign words |
| ⟨l⟩ | [l] | |
| ⟨m⟩ | [m] | |
| ⟨n⟩ | [n] | Except as below |
| [ŋ] | Before [k] and [ɡ] | |
| ⟨p⟩ | [p] | |
| ⟨qu⟩ | [ku̯] | |
| ⟨r⟩ | [r] | |
| ⟨s⟩ | [s] | Usually at the beginnings of words and after consonants; always in ⟨ss⟩ and always at the end of a word |
| [z] | Usually between vowels; sometimes after ⟨l⟩, ⟨n⟩, or ⟨r⟩; sometimes at the beginning of a word | |
| [ʃ] | Before a voiceless consonant; at the beginning of a word before ⟨m⟩, ⟨n⟩, or ⟨r⟩ | |
| [ʒ] | Before a voiced obstruent | |
| ⟨sch⟩ | [ʃ] | In all positions |
| [ʒ] | In all positions except at the end of a word | |
| ⟨t⟩ | [t] | |
| ⟨tg⟩ | [tɕ] | |
| ⟨tsch⟩ | [tʃ] | |
| ⟨v⟩ | [v] | Except as below |
| [f] | At the end of a word and before a voiceless consonant | |
| ⟨w⟩ | [v] | Occurs only in foreign words |
| ⟨x⟩ | [ks] | |
| ⟨y⟩ | (Depends on pronunciation in original language) | Occurs only in foreign words |
| ⟨z⟩ | [ts] |
| Orthography | IPA | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| ⟨a⟩ | [a] | In stressed syllables |
| [ɐ] | In unstressed syllables | |
| ⟨ai⟩ | [ai̯] | |
| ⟨au⟩ | [au̯] | |
| ⟨e⟩ | [ɛ] | In stressed syllables |
| [ə] | In unstressed syllables | |
| ⟨i⟩ | [i] | But see above for ⟨gi⟩ and ⟨gli⟩ |
| ⟨ie⟩ | [ie̯] | |
| ⟨ieu⟩ | [i̯ɛu̯] | |
| ⟨o⟩ | [ɔ] | |
| ⟨u⟩ | [u] | |
| ⟨uai⟩ | [u̯ai̯] |
Some common expressions
- Allegra. – Hello or welcome
- 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?
- Viva! – Cheers!
See also
- Heinrich SchmidHeinrich SchmidHeinrich Schmid was a Swiss linguist and "father" of the Rhaeto-Romance Dachsprachen Rumantsch Grischun and Ladin Dolomitan....
, the linguist whose work on standardization of the language resulted in Rumantsch Grischun. - Romansh peopleRomansh peopleThe Romansh people are a people and ethnic group of Switzerland, native speakers of the Romansh language. However, nowadays they almost always are multilingual, speaking also German and sometimes Italian, which are the other official language of Graubünden, the canton where they are...
Literature
Arquint, Jachen Curdin, Vierv Ladin: Grammatica Elementara dal Rumantsch d'Engiadina Bassa. Lia Rumantscha, Coira. 1964.Billigmeier, Robert H.: A Crisis in Swiss Pluralism: The Romansh and their Relations with German- and Italian Swiss in the Perspective of a Millenium. The Hague: Mouton 1979
External links
- In Multilingual Switzerland, One Tongue Struggles, NewYorkTimes 28/09/2010
- Romansh language, alphabet and pronunciation
- Grammatica d'instrunziun dal rumantsch grischun
- Information about the Romansh language
- Ethnologue report for Romansch
- Website of the Lia Rumantscha organization
- Dictionaries
- An Account of the Romansh Language by Joseph PlantaJoseph Planta (librarian)Joseph Planta FRS , aka Joseph von Planta, was a librarian of Swiss origin who moved to London and became the Principal Librarian of the British Museum....
FRS, originally published in the 1776 Philosophical Transactions of the Royal SocietyPhilosophical Transactions of the Royal SocietyThe Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society is a scientific journal published by the Royal Society of London. It was established in 1665, making it the first journal in the world exclusively devoted to science, and it has remained in continuous publication ever since, making it the world's...
. This paper was read to the Royal Society on 10 November 1775. - Series of articles about Romansh from swissinfo
- Content
- Radio Televisiun Rumantscha
- Lexicon Istoric Retic (LIR) - Encyclopedia about Switzerland. Partial translation of the Historical Dictionary of SwitzerlandHistorical Dictionary of SwitzerlandThe Historical Dictionary of Switzerland is an encyclopedia on the history of Switzerland that aims to take into account the results of modern historical research in a manner accessible to a broader audience....
in Romansh with additional articles. - Google Rumantsch