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:

Contents

[edit] Related languages

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

[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.[citation needed]

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

[edit] See also

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

[edit] External links

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Romance languages
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Western
Italo-
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Gallo-
Rhaetian
other
† denotes Extinct ♦ bolded denotes languages with more than 5 million speakers