Rhaeto-Romance languages

Raeto-Romance
Geographic
distribution:
Italy, Switzerland
Linguistic classification: Indo-European
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.

Contents

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:

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

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.

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

External links