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| Rhaeto-Romance | |
|---|---|
| Rhaeto-Italian Rhaetian | |
| (debated) | |
| Geographic distribution | Italy,Switzerland |
| Linguistic classification | Indo-European
|
Early forms | |
| Subdivisions | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | – |
| Glottolog | None |
 Distribution areas of the Romansh languages, where the proportion of speakers is at least 30% | |
Rhaeto-Romance,Rheto-Romance,Rhaeto-Italian, orRhaetian, is a purportedsubfamily of theRomance languages that is spoken in south-easternSwitzerland and north-easternItaly. The name "Rhaeto-Romance" refers to the formerRoman province ofRaetia. The question of whether these languages actually form a subfamily is called theQuestione Ladina. The Italian linguistGraziadio Ascoli, writing in 1873, found them to share a number of intricacies and believed they formed a linguistic group.[1] The Rhaeto-Romance languages differ from Italian in their evolution from Latin by having passed through a stage with phonemic vowel length, undergone certain consonant developments, and possibly developed a pair of central rounded vowels (now lost everywhere).[2] If the subfamily is genuine, three languages would belong to it:Romansh in Switzerland, andLadin andFriulian in Italy. Their combined number of speakers is about 660,000; the large majority of these (about 500,000) speakFriulian.[3]
Before the Roman conquest, the Alps wereCeltic-speaking in the north andRhaetian-speaking in the south. The area was incorporated into theRoman Empire during the reign ofAugustus. The Rhaeto-Romance languages originated as a dialect of the provincialLatin of the central Alps.
By the end of the Roman Empire, there was an unbroken region of distinctive Romance speech here, which was gradually fragmented into secluded areas in the high valleys by the encroachment ofGerman dialects from the north and ofGallo-Italic languages from the south.
Rhaeto-Romance was spoken over a much wider area duringCharlemagne's rule, stretching north into the present-day cantons ofGlarus andSt. Gallen,Walensee in the northwest, andRüthi and theAlpine Rhine Valley in the northeast. In the east, parts of modern-dayVorarlberg were Romance speaking, as were parts ofAustrian Tyrol. The northern areas of what is currentlySwitzerland, called "Lower Raetia" at that time, became German-speaking by the 12th century;[4] and by the 15th century, the Rhine Valley of St. Gallen and the areas around the Walensee were entirely German-speaking.[5]
This language shift was a long, drawn-out process, with larger, central towns adopting German first, while the more peripheral areas around them remained Romansh-speaking longer. The shift to German was caused in particular by the influence of the local German-speaking elites and by German-speaking immigrants from the north, with the lower and rural classes retaining Romansh longer.
The family is most closely related to its nearest neighbors:French,Franco-Provençal,Occitan,Venetian,Istriot andLombard.[6]
A number of lexical items are shared with Ibero-Romance due to the similar date of Latinization for both regions, although it can also be explained by means of Bartoli's areal linguistics theory, Ibero-Romance being a peripheral area, as are Balkano-Romance, Southern-Italian and Rhaeto-Romance, whereas Gallo-Romance and Italo-Romance are the central area. The Rhaeto-Romance languages were linked to other Romance languages that existed in bordering areas but have later disappeared, like theMoselle Romance and theAustrian Romance.
While the areas that now speakFriulian were originally inhabited by speakers ofVenetic (likelyItalic) and Celtic languages, the areas of Northeastern Italy that now speak Ladin initially spoke a non-Indo-European language calledRaetic. Ladin and Romansh originate from theVulgar Latin spoken by Roman soldiers during the conquests ofRaetia.
By the mid-9th century, Romansh was spoken over a far wider area. However, with the migration of many elite German land owners, Romansh dissipated across Northern Italy. The oldest literary text in the Romansh language is theChianzun dalla guerra dagl Chiaste da Müs, which details theMusso War.
By 1803, the state ofGrisons, which was 50% Romansh and 50% German-speaking, became a part of Switzerland. The strength of the central government of Grisons, whose official language was German, began to impose on the Romansh-speaking people, which resulted in many Romansh speakers adopting German. With the 20th century came a rise in tourism, which took the focus away from the region's agricultural focus and resulted in German becoming the more practical language to learn. Many in the intellectual class found this to be beneficial to the local population as Romansh appeared to hinder their intellectual development. As Heinrich Bansi, a notable priest in 1897, noted:The biggest obstacle to the moral and economical improvement of these regions is the language of the people. This viewpoint was countered with the belief that the Romansh language was a hybrid of both Italian and German, allowing the Romansh speakers to have a moderate understanding of the other two more widely used languages.
By the mid-19th century, amidst a dwindling Romansh-speaking population, a renaissance of sorts appeared. This culminated in the 1885 creation of an association of all Romansh regions known asSocietà Retorumantscha. In 1919, theLia Rumantscha was created to encompass all of the regional Romansh-speaking societies. In addition, more schools began to teach Romansh by the mid-19th century. In 1860, Romansh became a subject in a teachers' college and an officially recognized language in 1880.
Despite these efforts, with more and more of the surrounding area speaking German, the Lia Rumantscha created Romansh-speaking daycare schools in the 1940s. Unfortunately, this effort failed to deliver, and the last school was closed by 1979.
Friulian traces its roots back to the Latin Aquileia. Prior to Roman contact in 181 BC the region of northeastern Italy was of Raetian, Italic and Celtic origins and used a form of eitherRaetian,Venetic orCeltic. The transition from Vulgar Latin to Friulian occurred in the 6th century CE.[citation needed] The first official use of Friulian can be traced back to the 13th century and by the 15th century a majority of the population spoke the language, while the noble classes continued to use Latin or German. In 1420, the area of Friuli transitioned under Venetian rule, and the Venetian dialect became the dominant language. As the influence of Venetian and Italian increased over the years, the Friulian language waned.[7] Accelerating this decline currently is the ongoing loss of Friulian language teaching in higher education.
An exception to this decline occurred in the mid 20th century when a devastating earthquake struck the local region. In the aftermath, many found solace in sharing their local Friulian language, thus renewing interest in it. The imprint of the language also remains on the local geography as many of the local towns and geographical landmarks (mountains, woods, animals, plants) were given Celtic names that survive to this day.
Ladin was initially a vulgar Latin language from the Alps of northern Italy. Beginning in the 6th century, the Ladin language began to shrink due to the encroachment ofBavarian andGallo-Italic languages, surviving in only the isolated mountainous areas. In the early Middle Ages, the Ladin region came underHouse of Habsburg andRepublic of Venice rule. From these two influences, the Ladin area underwent the process ofGermanisation.
By the end ofWorld War I Italy had annexed the region that encompassed the Ladin language. With thenationalism of the 20th century, Ladin was considered by many Italians to be an Italian dialect.Benito Mussolini later pushed forward anItalianization of the region which further dwindled the Ladin language user base. Despite the small number of Ladin speakers, in 1972 the Italian government afforded Ladin the status of a secondary language.
Spoken in the Swiss canton of Graubünden by 60,561 people – 0.83% of the Swiss population – but this number is rapidly dropping.
Spoken in Italy, most notably the provinces ofUdine andPordenone, by about 600,000 people.
Spoken in northeastern Italy, inTrentino-Alto Adige and theProvince of Belluno inVeneto, by about 41,000 people.[8][9][10][11]
The first Swiss constitution of 1848 along with its revision of 1872 neglected to mention the Romansh language; however, it was translated into two Romansh dialects after the first revision. In 1938 Romansh became a national language, though a delineation was made between "national" and "official" languages. National languages were largely symbolic while official languages (French, German, and Italian) were used in an official capacity by the government. One notable disadvantage of being a national, rather than official language was that parents would have to register their children's names under one of the official languages.
By 1996 Romansh was recognized as an official language beside French, German and Italian, and Rhaeto-Romansh is now the official correspondence used when communicating with Romansh people.
At this time the Canton of Grison is the only place where Romansh is the official language. This allows for any citizen to request official documents from the local government in the Romansh language.
An official language of the autonomous region of Friuli, it has protected status, and is used in all forms of education in the region. Still used at popular levels for daily conversation.
Ladin is recognized by both provincial and national law in Italy. In the early 1990s Italy signedEuropean Charter for Regional or Minority Languages which is meant to protect and promote minority languages such as Ladin.
The area where Rhaeto-Romance languages (also called Ladin languages in a wider sense, not to be confused with Ladino orJudaeo-Spanish) were spoken during theMiddle Ages stretched fromSwitzerland to theJulian Alps (in modern-day westernSlovenia).
The Rhaeto-Romance languages can be distinguished into the following varieties:[12]
A phylogenetic classification[13] using basic lexicon identifies a primary split between Romansh in Switzerland and Ladin in Italy. One secondary split distinguishes Engadinic from the other Romansh varieties in Switzerland. In Italy, another secondary split is evidently caused by the Dolomite mountain range that divides Ladin into a northern and a southern subbranch, with Friulian being grouped closest to the southern branch.
In this study, the divergence of the Rhaeto-Romance languages from their reconstructed lexical ancestor is about 7% on average. This would correspond to a time depth of about 500 years if theglottochronological replacement rate of 14% per millennium for Romance were trustworthy. However, the earliest available Romance text from the Alpine area is somewhat older and dates to AD 1200.[14]
The Romansh language has up to 26 consonant phonemes. Word stress occurs either on the last or second to last syllable.
In Romansh word order directs the grammar rather than the noun being inflected. Additionally, similar to most other Romance languages there are two genders in addition tos being used to indicate a plural word.
Similar to Italian and Spanish, most Friulian nouns end in a vowel based on the gender, with feminine nouns ending ine while masculine nouns end ini.
The general word order issubject-verb-object, however this can change at times where the verb can come before the subject.
Many place names in Romansh date back before Roman contact stemming from Raetic and Celtic origins.
Most words in Friulian are of the Romance variety due to its Latin roots; however, it still has many place names and flora that trace back to Raetic, Venetic and Celtic origins.
