 Proportion of people declaring Romansh as their "language of best command" in Grisons (municipalities with more than 10% are shown),as of 2000. | |
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| c. 45,000 | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
 Grisons | c. 40,000 (2017)[1] |
 Zurich | c. 5,000 (2017)[1] |
| Languages | |
| Romansh,Swiss German | |
| Religion | |
| Christianity (majorityRoman Catholic,Swiss Reformed) | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| otherSwiss;Friulians,Ladins,Lombards (Insubrians, Orobians) | |
TheRomansh people (also spelledRomansch,Rumantsch, orRomanche; Romansh:rumantschs,rumàntschs,romauntschs orromontschs) are aRomance[2][3]ethnic group, the speakers of theRomansh language, native to theSwiss canton ofGrisons (Graubünden).
The Romansh speaking population is collectively known asRumantschia in Romansh (alternativelyrumantschadad, Vallader:rumantschità, Sursilvan:romontschadad). This term has come to replace the German official legal term of "Gemeinschaft der Bündner Romanen" introduced in 1982.[4]
As of 2017[update], they make up about 45,000 inhabitants of Switzerland, or 0.85% of its population, and about 30,000 inhabitants of the canton of Grisons (14.7% of its population).[5][1]
The territory of Switzerland wasRomanized in the 1st to 3rd centuries AD, and its population spoke a form ofVulgar Latin by the time of thecollapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century. The province ofRaetia prima, established c. 300 (underDiocletian) became known asRaetia Curiensis, ruled by thebishops of Chur throughout the 5th to 12th centuries (albeit nominally part of theDuchy of Swabia from the 10th century). This includedSarganserland (nowCanton of St. Gallen), as far asLake Walen and theLinth River, theIll basin in what is nowVorarlberg, and the upperVinschgau in what is nowSouth Tyrol.
Rhaeto-Romance linguistic unity broke down from the end of theCarolingian period, with the establishment of theimperial counties ofWerdenberg andTyrol to the north and east, and theMarch of Verona to the south. Nominally underFrankish rule from the 6th century, the local bishops of Chur still retainedde facto control. In the mid-8th century a survivingLex Romana Curiensis, a "Roman Law of Chur", was an abbreviated epitome of theBreviary of Alaric. After the lastVictorid bishop,Tello of Chur, died in 765, KingCharlemagne issued a document of protection declaring Tello's successors his vassals. From the 770s onwards, Charlemagne appointed the bishops of Chur himself, increasing Frankish control over the territory. Upon Bishop Remedius's death in 806/7, he legislated a division between episcopal and comital property, ending thede facto secular rule of the Chur bishops. He appointedHunfriding counts, but the ecclesiastical and secular claims to power remained a source of contention. The Hunfriding countBurchard II proclaimed himself aduke of Swabia in 917.
In thehigh medieval period, with the advance ofAlemannic Germans, the linguistic boundary of Latin (Romance) speakers was pushed back to what became Grisons (theThree Leagues).Sargans was part of the county of Werdenberg from the 12th century. The territory of Grisons, the southern part of Raetia Curiensis (in the medieval period known as Upper Raetia,Raetia superior,Oberrätien)[6] remained predominantly Latin-speaking throughout theearly modern period (with the exception of the high pastures settled by theWalser).
When Grisons became part of Switzerland in 1803, it had a population of roughly 73,000, of whom around 36,600 were Romansh speakers—many of them monolingual—living mostly in the Romansh-speaking valleys.[7] The number of Romansh speakers has remained roughly constant since that time (while thepopulation of Switzerland has nearly quintupled).
The language border with German, which had mostly been stable since the 16th century, began moving again as more villages shifted to German. One cause was the admission of Grisons as a Swiss canton, which brought Romansh speakers into more frequent contact with German speakers. Another was the increased power of the central government of Grisons, which used German as its administrative language.[8] Some people even welcomed the disappearance of Romansh, especially progressives. In their eyes, Romansh was an obstacle to the Romansh people's economic and intellectual development.[9]
In 1880, the Romansh-speaking area formed a single continuous geographical unit. But by the end of the century, the so-called "Central-Grisons language bridge" began to disappear.[10] Rumantschia lost its contiguity in the early 20th century, with the weakening ofSutsilvan in thePosterior Rhine valley.
Sutsilvan is now limited to some 1,000 speakers concentrated in a language island on the left bank of the Posterior Rhine, centered onCasti-Wergenstein (the formerSchams subdistrict).
In the mid-to-late 19th century a revival movement began, often called the "Rhaeto-Romansh renaissance". In 1919, theLia Rumantscha was founded as an umbrella organization for the various regional language societies. In 1937, the Swiss government proposed recognizing Romansh as Switzerland's fourth national language (alongside German, French and Italian). The political background for this was theirredentist propaganda byFascist Italy, which claimed Grisons along with theTicino as ethnically Italian territory. In a popular vote on 20 February 1938, a majority of 91.6% voted to recognize Romansh as an official language for use in the canton of Grisons.
In the late 1980s and 1990s, debate about Switzerland's role in what became theEuropean Union prompted a reawakening of "the long-dormant Romansh national movement". Elements within this movement advocated a transfer of sovereignty from the Swiss Confederation to a futureFederal Europe. A 1996 referendum strengthened the status of Romansh in Switzerland, permitting its use at the federal level.[11]
There is no general sense of unity within "Rumantschia" due to regional separation and dialectal variations.Rumantsch Grischun was an attempt launched in the 1980s to introduce a standard version of Rumantsch, but acceptance of this standard has been limited. There are instead five written dialects, each with its own orthography:Sursilvan,Sutsilvan,Surmiran,Putèr andVallader.
As of 2000, areas with a majority of native Rumantsch speakers were separated into four disconnected parts:Surselva (Sursilvan,Tuatschin),Schams (Sutsilvan),Albula/Surmeir (Surmiran) andEngadin withVal Mustair (Putèr, Vallader,Jauer).
A renewed effort to introduce course material in Rumantsch Grischun for primary education was started in 2006.[4] A cantonal law of 2006 aims to preserve the trilingual (Romansh, Italian, German) character of Grisons. It prescribes that primary schools, public signage and correspondence by the municipal authorities are to be exclusively in the historically predominant language as long as this language is spoken by at least 40% of the population.
In cases where the population speaking the historically predominant language numbers between 20% and 40%, municipal authorities are obliged to offer official communication and primary education in this language alongside the majority language.
In cases where the fraction of Romansh or Italian speakers is between 10% and 20%, authorities are obliged as a minimum to offer Romansh or Italian as a subject in primary education.[12]
Romance (Latin) nations... Romansh
