Rhaeto-Romance languages

Rhaeto-Romance
Rhaetian
Geographic distribution:	Italy, Switzerland
Linguistic classification:	Indo-European Italic Romance Western Gallo-Romance Rhaeto-Romance
Subdivisions:	—
Ethnologue code:	17-1708

Rhaeto-Romance, or Rhaetian, is 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. The linguistic basis of the sub-family is discussed in the so-called Questione Ladina.

Varieties

The area where Rhaeto-Romance languages (also called Ladin languages in a wider sense, 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).

The Rhaeto-Romance languages can be distinguished into the following varieties:

• Friulian: Friuli region, Italy
• Ladin:
  • Bellunese Ladin in Italy (in Agordo, Cadore and Comelico, province of Belluno)
  • Dolomitic Ladin in Italy (in Trentino, South Tyrol and the province of Belluno)
  • Anaunic Ladin in Italy (especially in Non Valley, Trentino)
• 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.

Other classifications are possible, especially as far as Ladin language is concerned.

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, although it can also be explained by means of Bartoli's areal linguistics theory, being Ibero-romance a lateral area, as it is Balkano-romance, Southern-Italian and Rhaeto-romance, while Gallo-romance and Italo-romance are central area.

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 dialects from the north and of Gallo-Italic languages from the south.

Features

Rhaeto-Romance is distinguished by a number of features which separate it from its neighbors, some of which it shares with French:

• diphthongization of Vulgar Latin open e into ei, closed e into ie
  • Latin pede → Rom. (Surselvan) pei "foot", Lad pl. piesc "feet"
  • Latin festa → Rom. (Surselvan) fiasta, Friul fieste "party, feast"

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

• fronting of long ū in all stages ui → ü [y] → i
  • Latin plūs "more" → Friul plui : Lad plü, Rom (Engadine) plü : Rom (other dialects) pli

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

• general palatalization of the ca and ga groups
  • Lad ciampana [tʃampana], Friul čhampane "bell" [tʃampane]

• preserved cl-, pl-, fl-; preserved Germanic w
  • Latin clāvem → Rom clav/clev, Lad (Fascian, Fodom) kle(f), Friul clâf "key"
  • Lat plēbs → Rom plaiv "parish", Lad plief "parish", Friul plêf "parish church"
  • Lat flātus → Rom flad, Lad fle, fla, Friul flât "breath"
  • Gothic werra → Rom (Surselvan) uiara, (Sutselvan) veara, Lad vera, Friul vuere "war"

• voicing of intervocalic unvoiced consonants

• loss of intervocalic voiced consonants

• preserved final -s leading to a single case based on an obsolete oblique which combined different endings from non-nominative cases; formerly a double case system.
  • Rom sunàis, Friul "sunàis" "you ring" [2nd person singular] (< sonās)
  • Rom culinis, Friul "culinis" "hills" (< *collinīs, dative)
  • Rom bels ölgs "beautiful eyes" (< *bellos oculos, accusative)

Examples

English	Surselvan	Sutselvan	Surmeiran	Puter	Vallader	Rumantsch Grischun	Friulian	Ladin (Gherdëina)	Latin	Italian	French
gold	aur	or	or	or	or, aur, ar	aur	aur	or	aurum	oro	or
hard	dir	dir	deir	dür	dür	dir	dûr	rie	durus	duro	dur
eye	egl	îl	îgl	ögl	ögl	egl	voli	uedl	oculus	occhio	oeil
light, easy	lev	leav	lev	liger	leiv	lev	lizêr	lesier	levis	lieve/leggero	léger
three	treis	tres	treis	trais	trais	trais	trê	trei	tres	tre	trois
snow	neiv	nev	neiv	naiv	naiv	naiv	nêf	nëif	nix (acc.: nivem)	neve	neige
wheel	roda	roda	roda	rouda	rouda	roda	ruede	roda	rota	ruota	roue
cheese	caschiel	caschiel	caschiel	chaschöl	chaschöl	chaschiel	formadi	ciajuel	caseolus (formaticus)	formaggio	fromage
house	casa	tgeasa	tgesa	chesa	chasa	chasa	cjase	cësa	casa	casa	(maison)
dog	tgaun	tgàn	tgang	chaun	chan	chaun	cjan	cian	canis	cane	chien
leg	comba	tgomba	tgomma	chamma	chomma	chomma	gjambe	giama	gamba	gamba	jambe
chicken	gaglina	gagliegna	gagligna	gillina	giallina	giaglina	gjaline	gialina	gallina	gallina	(poulet)
cat	gat	giat	giat	giat	giat	giat	gjat	giat	catus	gatto	chat
all	tut	tut	tot	tuot	tuot	tut	dut	dut	totus	tutto	tout
shape	fuorma	furma	furma	fuorma	fuorma	furma	forme	forma	forma	forma	forme
I	jeu	jou	ja	eau	eu	jau	jo	ie	ego	io	je

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