Rhaeto-Romance languages

Raeto-Romance
Geographic distribution:	Italy, Switzerland
Linguistic classification:	Indo-European Italic Romance Western Gallo-Iberian Gallo-Romance Raeto-Romance
Subdivisions:	—

Rhaeto-Romance languages are a Romance language sub-family which includes multiple languages spoken in north and north-eastern Italy, and Switzerland. The name "Rhaeto-Romance" refers to the former Roman province of Rhaetia.

Varieties

The area where Rhaeto-Romance languages (also called Ladin languages, not to be confused with Judaeo-Spanish) were spoken during the Middle Ages stretched from Switzerland to the Julian Alps (in modern-day western Slovenia).

Today some of the spoken varieties are:

• Friulian: Friuli region, Italy
• Ladin: Dolomite mountains in Italy (in Trentino, South Tyrol and the province of Belluno)
• Romansh: Switzerland. Romansh has status in Switzerland as a national language with three other national languages; however, its usage is rather limited to the canton of Graubünden (Romansh: Grischun). It is composed of the following dialects:
  • Puter
  • Surmiran
  • Sursilvan
  • Sutsilvan
  • Vallader
  • Rumantsch Grischun, the standardized literary language, constructed by the Swiss linguist Heinrich Schmid in 1982.

The inclusion of the following two dialects in the Rhaeto-Romance languages is still debated (the so-called "Questione Ladina")

• Nones: Dolomite mountains in Italy (centered around the Val di Non (Non Valley) in Trentino)
• Solandro: Dolomite mountains in Italy (centered around the Val di Sole (Sole Valley) in Trentino)

Related languages

The family is most closely related to its nearest neighbors: French, Franco-Provençal, Occitan, Gallo-Italian (Piedmontese, Ligurian, Lombard, Emiliano-Romagnolo, Venetian), and Istriote. A number of lexical items are shared with Ibero-Romance due to the similar date of latinization for both regions.

Origin

The Rhaeto-Romance languages originated as a dialect of the provincial Latin of the central Alps, which were incorporated into the Roman Empire during the reign of Augustus. Before the Roman conquest, this area was Celtic-speaking in the north and Rhaetian-speaking in the south. 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 of German from the north and of Italian from the south.

Features

Rhaeto-Romance is distinguished by a number of features which separate it from its neighbors.

• diphthongization of Vulgar Latin closed e into ei
  • pei "foot"
  • fieste "party, feast"

• occasional change of stressed a to e, particularly after a palatalized velar

• fronting of long u into ü (mainly Swiss)
  • Lad plü "more"

• loss of final vowels except -a, which often weakens to -e (in Friulian there is also a feminine plural in -is)
  • Lad sëra, Friul sere "evening"
  • Lad festa, Friul fieste "party"
  • Friul pie 'pia (pious, f.)' "press"

• general palatalization of the ca and ga groups
  • cjampanis "bells" [tʃampanis]

• conservation of cl-, pl-, fl-; conservation of Germanic w
  • SwRom clav/clev "key"
  • Friul plui "more"
  • SwRom flad, Lad fle, Friul flât "breath"
  • Lad vera, Friul vuere "war"

• voicing of intervocalic unvoiced consonants

• loss of intervocalic voiced consonants

• conservation of final -s leading to a single case based on the accusative (oblique); formerly a double case system
  • SwRom sunàis "to ring" [2nd p. sing.]
  • SwRom culinis "hills"
  • SwRom bels ölgs "beautiful eyes"

Examples

English	Surselvan	Sutselvan	Surmeiran	Puter	Vallader	Rumantsch Grischun	Friulian	Nones (ladin)	Latin	Italian
gold	aur	or	or	or	or, aur, ar	aur	aur	or	aurum	oro
hard	dir	dir	deir	dür	dür	dir	dûr	dur	durus	duro
eye	egl	îl	îgl	ögl	ögl	egl	voli	ocel	oculus	occhio
light, easy	lev	leav	lev	liger	leiv	lev	lizêr	lizer	levis	lieve
three	treis	tres	treis	trais	trais	trais	trê	trei	tres	tre
snow	neiv	nev	neiv	naiv	naiv	naiv	nêf	neu	nix (acc.: nivem)	neve
wheel	roda	roda	roda	rouda	rouda	roda	ruede	rueda	rota	ruota
cheese	caschiel	caschiel	caschiel	chaschöl	chaschöl	chaschiel	formadi	formai (ciasolet)	caseolus (formaticus)	cacio (formaggio)
house	casa	tgeasa	tgesa	chesa	chasa	chasa	cjase	ciasa	casa	casa
dog	tgaun	tgàn	tgang	chaun	chan	chaun	cjan	ciagn	canis	cane
leg	comba	tgomba	tgomma	chamma	chomma	chomma	gjambe	giamba	gamba	gamba
chicken	gaglina	gagliegna	gagligna	gillina	giallina	giaglina	gjaline	gialina	gallina	gallina
cat	gat	giat	giat	giat	giat	giat	gjat	giat	catus	gatto
all	tut	tut	tot	tuot	tuot	tut	dut	tut	totus	tutto
shape	fuorma	furma	furma	fuorma	fuorma	furma	forme	forma	forma	forma
I	jeu	jou	ja	eau	eu	jau	jo	mi	ego	io

See also

• Rhaetian language, an unrelated language spoken in ancient times around the area where Rhaeto-Romance is now spoken.
• Western Romance languages

External links

• Ethnologue report for Rhaetian languages