Information AboutRomansh |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT ROMANSH | |
| rhaeto-romance languages | |
| languages of switzerland | |
| endangered languages | |
| grisons | |
:''Not to be confused with Romand which is one of the names for the Franco-Provençal language. Romansh (also spelled '''Rumantsch''', '''Romansch''' or '''Romanche''') is one of the four national languages of , with some 101,450 speakers). DIALECTS ''Romansh'' is an , with which Romansh is more closely related, is spoken by some 22,550 in the Dolomite Mountains of Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol , and Friulian is spoken by around 550,000-595,000 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 . The ISO 639 language codes are rm and roh.Romansh is spoken in the Swiss canton of ''Grisons'' or ''Graubünden'', "the Grey League", which preserves the name of the self-defense organization of Romance speakers set up in the 15th century. It became part of Switzerland in 1803. Germans once called this language ''Chur-Wälsch'', "foreign speech of Chur", for Chur was once the center of Romansh. Chur, and even its cross-river suburb of ''Wälschdorfli'' ("foreign 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 Zürich -based linguist Heinrich Schmid . The standardised language, called Rumantsch Grischun, has been slowly accepted. 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 followed by , , have The Lia Rumantscha is the Umbrella Organization for all Romansh associations. OFFICIAL STATUS IN SWITZERLAND Romansh has been recognized as one of four "national languages" by the Swiss Federal Constitution since 1938. It was also declared an "official language" of the Confederation in 1996, meaning that Romansh speakers may use their Romansh idiom for correspondence with the federal government and expect to receive a Romansh response – in Rumantsch Grischun, because the federal authorities use the standardized idiom exclusively. However, the Constitution specifies that only native Romansh speakers can claim this privilege.See art. 4 and 70 of the 1999 Swiss Federal Constitution. On the legal status of Romansh generally, see 1 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 and the official logo of the Confederation features all four languages. 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. (2000), with Romansh areas shown in magenta.]] LITERATURE See Also: Swiss literature#Romansh and Ladin branch 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. ORTHOGRAPHY AND PHONOLOGY Romansh alphabet (l'alfabet rumantsch) The letters k (ka), '''w (ve dubel)''', and '''y (ipsilon''' or '''i grec)''' are only used in foreign loanwords. For example: kilogram, ski, kino, kiosc, kilo, kilowat, washington, western, stewardess, whisky, hockey, happy end. Consonants The Consonant Phoneme s of Romansh (Rumantsch Grischun) are set out in the following chart: Vowels The vowel phonemes of Romansh are shown in the table below: Schwa occurs only in Unstressed Syllable s. Vowel Length is predictable:
LEXIS Examples of Common Vocabulary SOME COMMON EXPRESSIONS
SEE ALSO
EXTERNAL LINKS
FOOTNOTES |
|
|