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 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, somewhat resembles Italian, French, Catalan, Spanish, Portuguese and Romanian. As of the 2000 Swiss Census, it is spoken by 35,095^[1] residents of the canton of Graubünden (Grisons) as the language of "best command", and 60,815 in the "best command" plus "most spoken" categories^[2]. Spoken now by around 0.9% of Switzerland's 7.5 million inhabitants, it is Switzerland's least-used national language in terms of number of speakers, and half as popular as Switzerland's most-used non-official languages (Serbian and Croatian, with some 101,450 speakers). Graubünden or Grisons (German:  ; Italian: Grigioni; Romansh: Grischun, French: Grisons) is the largest and easternmost canton of Switzerland. ... A language family is a group of languages related by descent from a common proto-language. ... For other uses, see Indo-European. ... Hypothetical distribution of languages in Iron Age Italy during the sixth century BC. The Italic subfamily is a member of the Centum branch of the Indo-European language family. ... The Romance languages (sometimes referred to as Romanic languages) are a branch of the Indo-European language family, comprising all the languages that descend from Latin, the language of the Roman Empire. ... Italo-Western redirects here. ... Gallo-Romance languages Gallo-Italian languages Lombard Piedmontese Emilian-Romagnol Venetian Ligurian Gallo-Rhaetian languages Oïl languages(including French) Burgundian Champenois Franc-Comtois French Gallo Lorrain Norman Anglo-Norman Channel Island Norman Auregnais Dgèrnésiais Jèrriais Sercquiais Picard Poitevin-Saintongeais Walloon Rhaetian languages Friulian Ladin Romansh *Franco... The Gallo-Romance branch of Romance languages includes French, Oïl languages, Catalan, and Occitan, among other languages. ... This article or section should be merged with List of Rhaetian languages Rhaetian languages are a Romance language sub-family which includes a few languages spoken in Switzerland and North-Eastern Italy. ... ISO 639-1 is the first part of the ISO 639 international-standard language-code family. ... ISO 639-2 is the second part of the ISO 639 standard, which lists codes for the representation of the names of languages. ... ISO 639-3 is an international standard for language codes. ... The Unicode Standard, Version 5. ... Not to be confused with Provençal which is a dialect of the Occitan language. ... Rhaeto-Romance languages are a Romance language sub-family which includes a few languages spoken in Switzerland and North-Eastern Italy. ... Vulgar Latin, as in this political graffito at Pompeii, was the speech of ordinary people of the Roman Empire — different from the classical Latin used by the Roman elite. ... The Roman Era is a period in Western history, when ancient Rome was the center of power of the world around the Mediterranean Sea, where Latin was the lingua franca. ... Graubünden or Grisons (German:  ; Italian: Grigioni; Romansh: Grischun, French: Grisons) is the largest and easternmost canton of Switzerland. ... ...

Dialects

Romansh is an umbrella term covering a group of closely-related dialects, spoken in southern Switzerland and all belonging to the Rhaeto-Romance language family. The other members of this language family are from northern Italy: Ladin, 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. An umbrella term is a word that provides a superset or grouping of related concepts, also called a hypernym. ... For dialects of programming languages, see Programming language dialect. ... Rhaeto-Romance languages are a Romance language sub-family which includes a few languages spoken in Switzerland and North-Eastern Italy. ... Ladin (Ladino in Italian, Ladin in Ladin, Ladinisch in German) is a Rhaetian language spoken in the Dolomite mountains in Italy, between the regions of Trentino-South Tyrol and Veneto. ... // The Dolomites (Italian: Dolomiti; German: Dolomiten; Friulian: Dolomitis) are a section of the Alps. ... Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol[1] (Italian: Trentino-Alto Adige; German: Trentino-Südtirol; Ladin: Trentin-Adesc Aut, also Trentin-Sudtirol [2][3]) is an autonomous region in Northern Italy. ... Friulian (friulano in Italian, Furlan in Friulian) is a Romance language belonging to the Rhaetian languages family, spoken in the north-east of Italy (Friuli-Venezia Giulia province) by about 600,000 people. ...

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 Julia 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 Müstair)

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. At 1,320 kilometres (820 miles) and an average discharge of more than 2,000 cubic meters per second, the Rhine (German Rhein, French Rhin, Dutch Rijn, Romansch: Rein, Italian: Reno) is one of the longest and most important rivers in Europe. ... Peter Mattias Forsberg   listen? (born July 20, 1973 in Örnsköldsvik, Sweden) is a center/left wing for the Philadelphia Flyers. ... Qadi قاضى is Arabic for judge. In arab countries the Sharia is not the basis for the legal system, the term Qadi means the same as its translation in English: judge. ... Surselva is an administrative district in the canton of Graubünden, Switzerland. ... Hinterrhein is an administrative district in the canton of Graubünden, Switzerland. ... Julia (Romansh: Gelgia) is a river in the Grisons canton, eastern Switzerland. ... Albula is a river of Switzerland, a tributary of Hinterrhein (near Thusis). ... Ladin (Ladino in Italian, Ladin in Ladin, Ladinisch in German) is a Rhaetian language spoken in the Dolomite mountains in Italy, between the regions of Trentino-Alto Adige and Veneto. ... ISO 639 is one of several international standards that lists short codes for language names. ...

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. Chur (French: Coire, German Chur (khoor) [kuːr] (in Graubünden); [xuːr] (elsewhere), Romansh Cuira (KWAY-rah) [ˈkwera] or (KWOI-rah) [ˈkwojra], Italian Coira (KOI-rah) [ˈkojra], Latin: Curia, Curia Rhaetorum and Curia Raetorum), is the capital of the Swiss canton of Graubünden and lies in the northern...

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 /tɕ/ followed by /a/, /o/, /u/ 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 /ke/ and /ki/, <k> being a grapheme deemed unfit for a Romance language such as Romansh; therefore, words with /tɕ/ plus /e/ or /i/ have <tg> (for example tgirar) instead of <ch>. The use of <sch> for both /ʃ/ and /ʒ/, and of <tsch> for /tʃ/ is taken over from German, making Romansh spelling a compromise between Romance (Italian, French) and German spelling. Year 1982 (MCMLXXXII) was a common year starting on Friday (link displays the 1982 Gregorian calendar). ... For other uses of Zurich, see Zurich (disambiguation). ... Heinrich Schmid (6th April, 1921 — 23rd February, 1999) was a Swiss linguist and father of the Romansch language. ... The orthography of a language specifies the correct way of using a specific writing system to write the language. ...

The Lia Rumantscha is the umbrella organization for all Romansh associations. An umbrella organization is an association of (often related, industry-specific) institutions, who work together formally to coordinate activities or pool resources. ...

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 Рin Rumantsch Grischun, because the federal authorities use the standardized idiom exclusively. However, the Constitution specifies that only native Romansh speakers can claim this privilege.^[3] The Swiss Constitution (Bundesverfassung in German, Constitution f̩d̩rale in French, Constituzione federale in Italian and Constituziun federala in Romansh) is at the highest level of Switzerlands judicial system. ...

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.

Distribution of Romansh in canton Graubünden (2000), with Romansh areas shown in magenta.

Image File history File links Size of this preview: 800 × 551 pixelsFull resolution (1500 × 1034 pixel, file size: 167 KB, MIME type: image/png) File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 800 × 551 pixelsFull resolution (1500 × 1034 pixel, file size: 167 KB, MIME type: image/png) File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Graubünden or Grisons (German:  ; Italian: Grigioni; Romansh: Grischun, French: Grisons) is the largest and easternmost canton of Switzerland. ...

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. There is no such thing as a Swiss national vernacular literature properly speaking, this being explained by the diversity between the states of which it is composed, which has not favored any common intellectual life. ...

Phonology

Consonants

The consonant phonemes of Romansh (Rumantsch Grischun) are set out in the following chart: In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a sound in spoken language that is characterized by a closure or stricture of the vocal tract sufficient to cause audible turbulence. ... In human language, a phoneme is the theoretical representation of a sound. ...

In phonetics, a bilabial consonant is a consonant articulated with both lips. ... In phonetics, labiodentals are consonants articulated with the lower lips and the upper teeth, or viceversa. ... In phonetics, labiodentals are consonants articulated with the lower lips and the upper teeth, or viceversa. ... Dentals are consonants such as t, d, n, and l articulated with either the lower or the upper teeth, or both, rather than with the gum ridge as in English. ... Alveolar consonants are articulated with the tongue against or close to the superior alveolar ridge, which is called that because it contains the alveoli (the sockets) of the superior teeth. ... Sagittal section of alveolo-palatal fricative In phonetics, alveolo-palatal (or alveopalatal) consonants are palatalized postalveolar fricatives, articulated with the blade of the tongue behind the alveolar ridge, and the body of the tongue raised toward the palate. ... Sagittal section of alveolo-palatal fricative In phonetics, alveolo-palatal (or alveopalatal) consonants are palatalized postalveolar fricatives, articulated with the blade of the tongue behind the alveolar ridge, and the body of the tongue raised toward the palate. ... Postalveolar (or palato-alveolar) consonants are consonants articulated with the tip of the tongue between the alveolar ridge (the place of articulation for alveolar consonants) and the palate (the place of articulation for palatal consonants). ... Postalveolar (or palato-alveolar) consonants are consonants articulated with the tip of the tongue between the alveolar ridge (the place of articulation for alveolar consonants) and the palate (the place of articulation for palatal consonants). ... Palatal consonants are consonants articulated with the body of the tongue raised against the hard palate (the middle part of the roof of the mouth). ... Velars are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue (the dorsum) against the soft palate (the back part of the roof of the mouth, known also as the velum). ... A stop, plosive, or occlusive is a consonant sound produced by stopping the airflow in the vocal tract. ... Affricate consonants begin as stops (most often an alveolar, such as or ) but release as a fricative (such as or or, in a couple of languages, into a fricative trill) rather than directly into the following vowel. ... A nasal consonant is produced when the velum—that fleshy part of the palate near the back—is lowered, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. ... Fricatives (or spirants) are consonants produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together. ... Approximants are speech sounds that could be regarded as intermediate between vowels and typical consonants. ... Laterals are L-like consonants pronounced with an occlusion made somewhere along the axis of the tongue, while air from the lungs escapes at one side or both sides of the tongue. ...

Vowels

The vowel phonemes of Romansh are shown in the table below:

Schwa /ə/ occurs only in unstressed syllables. Vowel length is predictable: A monophthong (in Greek μονόφθογγος = single note) 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; compare diphthong. ... Vowels Near-close Close-mid Mid Open-mid Near-open Open Where symbols appear in pairs, the one to the right represents a rounded vowel. ... A back vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. ... A close vowel is a type of vowel sound used in many spoken languages. ... A mid vowel is a vowel sound used in some spoken languages. ... The open-mid vowels make a class of vowel sounds used in some spoken languages. ... An open vowel is a vowel sound of a type used in most spoken languages. ... In phonetics, a diphthong (also gliding vowel) (Greek δίφθογγος, diphthongos, literally with two sounds, or with two tones) is a monosyllabic vowel combination involving a quick but smooth movement from one vowel to another, often interpreted by listeners as a single vowel sound or phoneme. ... The IPA symbol for the Schwa In linguistics, specifically phonetics and phonology, schwa can mean: An unstressed and toneless neutral vowel sound in any language, often but not necessarily a mid-central vowel. ... In linguistics, stress is the relative emphasis that may be given to certain syllables in a word. ... For the computer operating system, see Syllable (operating system). ... In linguistics, vowel length is the perceived duration of a vowel sound. ...

• 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

Note: This page contains phonetic information presented in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) using Unicode. ... In phonetics, a voiceless consonant is a consonant that does not have voicing. ...

Lexis

Examples of Common Vocabulary

Latin was the language originally spoken in the region around Rome called Latium. ...

Writing System

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.

Pronunciation

Consonants

Vowels

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

• German Wikipedia entry on Heinrich Schmid, the linguist whose work on standardization of the language resulted in Rumantsch Grischun.

The German Wikipedia is the German-language edition of Wikipedia, a free and publicly editable online encyclopedia. ...

Footnotes

1. ^ ^{a b} Swiss federal census 2000
2. ^ http://www.liarumantscha.ch/Linguistic_geography.352.0.html?&L=2
3. ^ See art. 4 and 70 of the 1999 Swiss Federal Constitution. On the legal status of Romansh generally, see Isobel Leybold-Johnson. "Official Romansh still has some way to go", Swissinfo, September 21, 2006. Retrieved on 2006-09-21. 

SRG SSR idée suisse is the business name of the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation -- in German: Schweizerische Radio- und Fernsehgesellschaft (SRG), in Romansh Societad svizra da radio e televisiun (SSR), in Italian: Società svizzera di radiotelevisione (SSR), in French: Société suisse de radiodiffusion et télévision (SSR). ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 264th day of the year (265th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...

External links

Romansh edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

• Romansh language, alphabet and pronunciation
• Grammatica d'instrunziun dal rumantsch grischun
• 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 by Joseph Planta FRS, originally published in the 1776 Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society
• Google Romantsch
• Google Directory - Romansh language
• Series of articles about Romansh from swissinfo