|
Romansh (also spelled Romansch, Rumantsch, or Romanche; Romansh: , , ) is a Romance language spoken predominantly in the southeastern Swiss canton of Grisons (Graubünden), where it has official status alongside German and Italian and is used as the medium of instruction of schools in Romansh-speaking areas. Romansh has also been recognized as a national language of Switzerland since 1938 and as an official language along with German, French and Italian since 1996. It is sometimes grouped with Ladin and Friulian as a Rhaeto-Romance language, though this is disputed. Romansh is a descendant of the spoken Latin language of the Roman Empire, which by the 5th century AD replaced the Celtic and Raetic languages previously spoken in the area, although Romansh retains a small number of words from these languages. Romansh has also been heavily influenced by German in vocabulary and morphosyntax. The language gradually retreated to its current area over the centuries, being replaced by Alemannic and Bavarian dialects. The earliest writing identified as Romansh dates from the 10th or 11th century, although major works do not appear until the 16th century when several regional written varieties began to develop. The 19th century saw a further shrinkage of the language area but also a literary revival and the start of a language movement dedicated to halting the decline of the language. In the 2000 Swiss census, 35,095 people (of whom 27,038 live in the canton of Grisons) indicated Romansh as the language of "best command", and 61,815 as a "regularly spoken" language. In 2010, Switzerland switched to a yearly system which uses a combination of municipal citizen records and a limited number of surveys.〔(Swiss Federal Statistical Office - ''Die neue Volkszählung - Das System'' ) accessed 14 August 2014〕 Based on this yearly system, the number of people aged 15 and above reporting Romansh as their main language was 36,622 in 2012.〔 Spoken by around 0.9% of Switzerland's 7.7 million inhabitants, Romansh is Switzerland's least-used national language in terms of number of speakers and the eleventh most spoken language in Switzerland overall.〔Gross 2004. p. 35〕 The language area and number of speakers of Romansh has been continually shrinking over the past, though language use remains vigorous in certain regions. Romansh is divided into five different regional dialects (Sursilvan, Sutsilvan, Surmiran, Putèr, and Vallader), each with its own standardized written language. In addition, a pan-regional variety called Rumantsch Grischun was introduced in 1982, which is controversial among Romansh speakers. == Linguistic classification == Romansh is a Romance language descending from Vulgar Latin, the spoken language of the Roman Empire. Within the Romance languages, Romansh stands out because of its peripheral location, which manifests itself through several archaic features. Another distinguishing feature is the centuries-long language contact with German, which is most noticeable in the vocabulary and to a lesser extent the syntax of Romansh. Romansh belongs to the Gallo-Romance branch of the Romance languages, which includes languages such as French, Occitan, and Lombard. The main feature placing Romansh within the Gallo-Romance languages is the fronting of Latin // to [] or [], as seen in Latin ''muru(m)'' 'wall', which is or in Romansh. The main features distinguishing Romansh from the Gallo-Italic languages to the south are: *Palatalization of Latin K and G in front of A, as in Latin ''canem'' 'dog', which is in Sursilvan, ''tgang'' in Surmiran, and in Putèr and Vallader (the difference between and being purely orthographic, as both represent /tɕ/). This sound change is partially absent in some varieties of Romansh, however, especially in Sursilvan, where it may have been reversed at some point: Sursilvan and Vallader 'house'. *Retention of word-final -s as in ''buns chavals'' 'good horses' as opposed to Italian ''buoni cavalli''. *Retention of L following : Latin ''clavem'' 'key' > ''clav'' as opposed to Italian ''chiave''.〔Liver in Schläpfer & Bickel 2000. pp. 215–216〕 Whether or not Romansh, Friulan and Ladin should compose a separate "Rhaeto-Romance" subgroup within Gallo-Romance is an unresolved issue, known as the ''Questione ladina''. Some linguists posit that these languages are descended from a common language, which was then fractured geographically through the spread of German and Italian. This position goes back to the Italian linguist Graziadio Ascoli, who first made the claim in 1873.〔Liver (1999). p. 16〕 The other position holds that any similarities between these three languages can be explained through their relative geographic isolation, which shielded them from certain linguistic changes, whereas the Gallo-Italic varieties of Northern Italy were more open to linguistic influences from the South. Linguists who take this position often point out that the similarities between the languages are comparatively few.〔Liver (1999). pp. 23–24〕 This position was first introduced by the Italian dialectologist Carlo Battisti. This linguistic dispute became politically relevant for the Italian irredentist movement. Italian nationalists interpreted Battisti's hypothesis as implying that Romansh, Friulan and Ladin were not separate languages but rather Italian dialects. They used this as an argument to claim the territories where these languages were spoken for Italy.〔Liver (1999). p. 18〕 From a sociolinguistic perspective, however, this question is largely irrelevant, since the speakers of Romansh have always identified as speaking a language distinct from both Italian and other Romance varieties.〔Liver (1999). p. 22〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Romansh language」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|