From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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)
  • 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)
• Romansh: Switzerland

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

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.

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]}

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"

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

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

• Ethnologue report for Rhaetian languages

v • d • e Romance languages
Southern Romance languages: Corsican (Gallurese)  · Sassarese  · Sardinian (Campidanese, Logudorese)
Eastern Romance languages: Romanian (Moldovan, Vlach) · Aromanian · Megleno-Romanian · Istro-Romanian
Italo-Dalmatian Romance languages: Italian (Central Italian, Florentine, Tuscan, Romanesco, Judeo-Italian) · Calabrian · Dalmatian† · Istriot · Neapolitan · Sicilian
Western Romance languages main: Catalan (Balearic, Valencian) · French (incl. Zarphatic†) · Portuguese-Galician (Fala, Galician, Portuguese) · Spanish (Castilian) (incl. Ladino) other Western Aragonese (Mozarabic†) · Franco-Provençal (Bressan, Dauphinois, Forézien, Franc-Comtois, Genevois, Jurassien, Lyonnais, Savoyard, Vaudois) · Astur-Leonese (Asturian, Cantabrian, Extremaduran, Leonese, Mirandese) · Burgundian (Franc-Comtois) · Emiliano-Romagnolo · Francien · Gallo · Ligurian (Genoese, Monégasque) · Lombard (Eastern, Western) · Lorrain · Norman · Occitan (Auvergnat, Aupenc, Gascon (Aranese, Béarnais), Languedocien, Limousin, Provençal (Mentonasque, Niçard)) · Picard (Champenois, Chti/Chtimi, Rouchi) · Piedmontese · Poitevin-Saintongeais · Rhaeto-Romance (Friulian, Ladin, Romansh) · Venetian  · Walloon
denotes Extinct (†); bolded denotes languages with more than 5 million speakers