Rhaeto-Romance languages

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Rhaeto-Romance languages are a Romance language sub-family which includes multiple languages spoken in North-Eastern Italy and Switzerland.

Some of the varieties are:

Friulian: Friuli-Venezia Giulia region, Italy
Ladin: Dolomite mountains in Italy (in the regions of Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol and Veneto)
Nones: Dolomite mountains in Italy (centered around the Val di Non (Non Valley) in the region of Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol)
Romansh: Switzerland
Solandro: Dolomite mountains in Italy (centered around the Val di Sole (Sun Valley or Valley of the Sun) in the region of Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol)

1 Related languages
2 Origin
3 Features
4 Examples
5 See also
6 External links

[edit] Related languages

The family is most closely related to its nearest neighbors: Gallo-Romance (French, Franco-Provençal, Occitan), Gallo-Italian (Piedmontese, Ligurian, Lombard, Emilian-Romagnan), Venetian, and Istriote. A number of lexical items are shared with Ibero-Romance due to the similar date of latinization for both regions. Another significant lexical similarity is shared with Eastern Romance (Romanian, Dalmatian). Actually it is very easy for romanians to understand and learn any rhaeto-romance language, as they have many words that are the same and similar.

[edit] Origin

Its origin is 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, gradually secluded into the high valleys by the encroachment of German from the north and of Italian from the south. Indeed, the Germanized zone north and south of the watershed of the Central Alps was formerly an old Romance-speaking area linking Swiss Romansh with the Dolomites until the close of the 17th century.

[edit] 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

rounding of long u into ü (mainly Swiss)
- Lad plü "more"

fall of final vowels save -a, which often weakens into -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" [tSampanis]

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

fall of intervocalic voiced consonants

conservation of final -s, lead to single case based on acc (oblique); formerly a double case system
- SwRom sunàis "to ring, 2ndp.sing.)"
- SwRom culinis "hills"
- SwRom bels ölgs "beautiful eyes"

[edit] Examples

English	Surselvisch	Sutselvisch	Surmeirisch	Puter	Vallader	Rumantsch Grischun	Latin
gold	aur	or	or	or	or,aur,ar	aur	aurum
hard	dir	dir	deir	dür	dür	dir	dur
eye	egl	îl	îgl	ögl	ögl	egl	oculus
light, easy	lev	leav	lev	liger	leiv	lev	levis
three	treis	tres	treis	trais	trais	trais	tres
snow	neiv	nev	neiv	naiv	naiv	naiv	niveus
wheel	roda	roda	roda	rouda	rouda	roda	rota
cheese	caschiel	caschiel	caschiel	chaschöl	chaschöl	chaschiel	caseus
house	casa	tgeasa	tgesa	chesa	chasa	chasa	casa
dog	tgaun	tgàn	tgang	chaun	chan	chaun	canis
leg	comba	tgomba	tgomma	chamma	chomma	chomma	gamba
chicken	gaglina	gagliegna	gagligna	gillina	giallina	giaglina	gallus
cat	gat	giat	giat	giat	giat	giat	cattus
all	tut	tut	tot	tuot	tuot	tut	totus
shape	fuorma	furma	furma	fuorma	fuorma	furma	forma
I	jeu	jou	ja	eau	eu	jau	ego