I think that the Romansh people need to do like Ireland is doing and create a passion to save the language. It would be so sad to see this language disappear.
@@TomBartram-b1c im not sure if fluent speakers are going down. However speakers in areas where its the main language are dropping. Theyre are many fluent speakers of irish just not living in the gaeltacht(irish speaking area) Theres a lot of fluent speakers in dublin and belfast where the language is growing. However, its declining in the heartland. I believe its similar inWales, however not as sharp a decline and the heartland is stronger.
My grandmother's first language! Her last name was Lutz and she was from Sagogn. Thank you for the Romansh break down: it was wonderful. There is a significant focus on preserving the language and it is used as the first language in early school (elementary in US). Once my grandmother was at a bus stop in Los Angeles (1930's) sitting quietly with my grandfather next to another couple. After about 10 minutes the lady said something to her husband in Romansh, and then my grandmother spoke to her in Romansh: it was like a family reunion, only when you never met that family member! They sat there speaking for about 2 hours and let all the buses pass.
As a German Brit, I don't speak either Romanian or Romansh but they sound similar to me. But counting up to ten reveals that that's by chance, I compared my Romanian 1 to 10 (such as it is) with a teacher I met on a local train speaking Romansh, 1 to 10 in Romansh is definitely closer to French than Romanian.
This video was pretty good at explaining romansch, and had a nice balance of going into detail and simplifying things so the video doesn’t get boring. As a romansch speaker I’m essentially satisfied
Hi! So I might be 3 years late (sorry about that :D) but I just wanted to say that I am in fact speaking Romansh natively and I thought this video was very nice and it's good to see people still being interested in our language. I just wanted to clear up some stuff. It is actually 5 "idioms" in which Romansh is split up, the reason you may have heared 7 is because that is the amount of "dialects/idioms" that were used to create Rumantsch Grischun, basically they simply wanted to recognize a wider spectrum of our language, it is very common for individual villages to have individual dialects. Also The 5 Idioms (Vallader, Puter, Surmiran, Sutsilvan & Sursilvan) Are quiet different. For the majority of Romansh speakers, it is very hard to understand more than 2-3 of them. For the reason as in why Romansh has become the 4th National language of switzerland, is that it was a statement. As you've said correctly Hitler wanted to "reunite" all germans. Similarly so did Mussolini try to gather the italians. To prevent this threat we decided to officially give Romansh the lable as a national language ( just so nobody could confuse us for an italian dialect) And since you asked about the language dying, all I can say is that this is probably the most discussed topic in any school that teaches Romansh. The problem we are having is that it's hardly sustainable paying for so many ressources (School books, official letters etc.) for such few people, specially when you would have to split it into another 5 seperate idioms as kids for sure can not understand all 5 of them. This is basically the reason for the introduction of "Rumantsch Grischun". A combined language everyone could at very least understand. The only problem here tho, is that we are too patriotic about our idioms, that we would never want to give it up for Rumantsch Grischun, especially since it's very hates among us speakers (me included) just because most of us think it sounds ugly, or that "it's not the same".
hi, can you help me with learning romansh? maybe you can give some links to the discord servers to study it or other sites, groups, social networks? thank you 🙏🏻🙏🏻
Great info. thank you. My family are from the Misox, Gr - and although they are Italian speakers, info on Romansh is still very interesting to me. Cheers
Wow! I've been searching for a long time for a channel like this, which introduces more niche languages from both a linguistics and language-learning perspective. Thanks so much for being here.
As a Swiss, it's nice to see a video about Romansh. Good work 😊 Up until the 11th century, a variety of Romansh was the main language in the Swiss Rhine Valley, the Principality of Liechtenstein and around Bregenz in Austria. In some city and village names the reminiscence is still there. In this names, the second syllable is stressed, not the first one like you would expect in German, e.g. Sargans (CH), Vaduz (FL), Damüls (AT).
I am Cuban American and live in Sweden , I feel in my heart that this beautiful off shoot of the Latin the mighty Romans spoke should not only survive , but also flourish and grow ,increase in popularity and be teach to children future generations ,as a Spanish speaker I would adore to be emerged in the learning of this jewel of a language .plvs- vltra.
A friend of mine's grandparents were Romansh speaking but moved to Bern for work and 2 generations later their grandchildren only speak a little. I visited their beautiful village near Italian border and was happy to hear people greet me in Romansh. I think tourism also makes it less useful
@@roesi1985 So true. I am from Québec and even though I knew people said "septante", "huitante" and "nonante" the first time I went to Genève at age 15, I actually blurted out "Ooohhhh!" because it was cute to hear in real life!!!
@@roesi1985 My husband (American) thinks that Swiss-German sounds like one is constantly coughing and clearing one's throat. :C @Carpe Linguae The first time i hear quatrevingt etc, i thought this is too complicated, let's go back to suisse-romande. :)
It is surprisingly easy to learn Romansh for any Spanish speaker who has learned French or Italian before. In fact, I am sure that Romansh may be the second foreign language to be learned more easily by a Spanish speaker with average knowledge of another Romance language.
Great video! My grandfather was Swiss-Romansh. Surprisingly, after he immigrated to the US he found Romansh useful sometimes. Thanks to the Latin roots, a Romansh speaker can understand many other languages pretty easily. He was able to roughly communicate with Spanish speakers.
I had a climbing partner who was Romansch. International guiding community in Interlaken where he was considered somewhat hillbilly because only 6000 people spoke his dialect. His High German wasn’t great but he also spoke decent Italian and English. He said French was easy for him and he was hilarious when he’d imitate different Swiss German accents. It was so exciting to be with such interesting and multilingual people. Thanks for the cool video.
As an Australian with English as 1st language with father from Gandria(TI) and mother from Tende (F) and speak GE Fr IT, I have travelled Switzerland extensively whenever visiting relatives from the opposite end of the earth ... my favourite canton is GR. I particularly enjoyed staying in Sent, Samnaun and Scuol Tarasp. Listening to RTR.TV has also been fun. Your video was great and I very much would love to hear phrases comparing each of the dialects by native speakers. Hopefully you tube exposure can help educate other Swiss and help preserve this important cultural heritage of CH for future generations. Thank you
Comme Louisianais-français aux États-Unis, votre émotion en ce qui concerne le déclin de la langue m'a touché. Je n'ai pas de réponse, mais j'aime les langues et les traditions du monde.
My great aunt's family was from a Romansh speaking part of Switzerland. She spoke it fluently. I remember when some distant relatives came over in the 1980's them talking about how beautiful her Romansh was and that it was a form from around the turn of the 20th Century. She was born in the Eureka, CA area in the 19 teens and lived there into her early adulthood with a number of other Romansh speaking immigrants. She was a hearty woman and lived to 95, fairly sound of mind and body right up to almost the end.
Hi Will. Very interesting. My Romansch speaking great grandparents emigrated to Eureka, California area too! My father was born there. In fact, my grandfather was taught the language at home. It was just inherited from my great grandfather. I thought there were no other people of like nationality in the region. Was happy to find this out!
@@jjauger96 Hi Jeremy, according to my great aunt, there was a small community of Romansch speakers there where she grew up. If I remember correctly, it was out in the woods towards Ferndale. This would have been in the 1910s and into the 1940s, when my great aunt lived in that area. She married my biological great uncle before the war and moved away from the region after WWII, when he returned, and they built their home in South Lake Tahoe.
@@willremy5142 Thanks for commenting! Yes, they lived there around that time too. Came to the US in the 20s It's a small community. They probably knew each other. My last name is Romansch from Val Lumnezia. Great grandfather served in WW2 for the US . And lived the rest of his and his wife's life in Humboldt county afterwards. Most of the descendents live in different parts of California still. Unfortunately, they kept "hush" about the languages they spoke, (Romansch, Italien,-grandmother, and some Latin) because of the war. But I am hoping to re-learn my heritage languages.
@@jjauger96 I am sure that my great aunt and your great grandmother probably knew each other. My great aunt was probably born there in 1913 or 1914. I know my great uncle was born at the end of 1912 because he was 4 years older than my Nana and I think my great aunt was a year or so younger than him. I don't know what her maiden name was, but it would have been Romansh. She lived until 96 and of sound mind and body up until the end as well. I wish you luck in finding your heritage. I know when my great aunt and uncle went to Switzerland to visit distant relatives in the 1980's they told her that she spoke beautiful Romansch. They said that the language was changing because so much of the youth were watching Italian TV/Movies and listening to Italian music.
Thanks for the video! My father's grandmother was Romansh Swiss and he remembers his great-aunt in Minnesota was able to speak Romansh. It's interesting to know more about the language.
There is another root of Romansh: The Raetic. Nobody really knows what kind of people they were and even if their language was Indoeuropen or not. They are mentioned by the Romans as living in and around the Alps. Some words in Romansh as well as many names of places and rivers are of this origin.
I believe that they had a huge influence in Roman culture, in fact the RAETORIC, an school of speaking studied and used by many senators and public figures of Rome like Cicaero, must have been nothing else than the way of speaking of the Raeti.
Non-terrestrial beings (in human bodies) and their huge egos - due to their low level of consciousness - they all wanted a language of their own, envy being probably the most important characteristic of their and what caused their collapse.... which is imminent and very, very close!!!!
I was in a pub in the north of England and I met some Swiss people who were in England to buy sheep. They told me they were Romansch speakers and even taught me a few phrases.
Travelling as a child with my parents in the 1950s, we came into a village where the locals only spoke Romansh -- my father tried to communicate in Latin (not very successfully as I recall).
Wow! From your explanation I see there are a few phonetic similarities between Romansh and Portuguese (European accent). We also "reduce" unstressed vowels, turning an unstressed 'e' into something like a schwa (some describe it as "e caduc", of "fallen e"). (Unstressed 'a' is also reduced, but it does not become a schwa, it become something like the English indefinite article "a".) And our "s" can also be pronounced as 's'. 'z', 'sh" and "zh", though on different situations (and with some regional and personal variations).
I've heard it spoken by two ladies in a grocery store in Graubunden. Fortunately, I knew already about the existence of Romansch, so I was not surprised to hear it. What did surprise me, though, was how different it sounded to, say, Italian or German. I felt privileged to hear it coming from native speakers.
I've always been fascinated by the less known romance languages. What about Occitan? Sicilian? 🤔 Is sad that Romansh is dying. I love your videos, please upload more often :) subs will come eventually. Keep this good quality 👌 God bless 🇨🇴
Well we do have a television station here and i know the guy at 4:04 personally , I’m in school and we get taught romansch as a subject for the „matura“ (like a diploma)
A few years back I was sitting in a German S-Bahn and a whole school class got in, filled up the car. I was completely confused by the language they were speaking. My first guess was Romanian, I know what Romanian sounds like and this had the same kind of rhythm if that makes sense. I got the courage to ask the teacher. Indeed that's the first and unfortunately the last time I heard Romansh.
Thanks for these videos, Julie. What I really appreciate is not just the research you obviously put in, and the time to record and edit these, but also that you appear to travel to some, if not all, of these places to show us the countries as well. That is dedication!
I am an American student of the Romance languages who can read severai of the Swiss Romansh idioms (the major divisions are caiied idioms, within which there are local variants known as dialects). Your video is by and large quite accurate, although I would hesitate to say that Romansh is necessarily easy to understand if you know another Romance language, I say this because even speakers at opposite ends of the idiom continuum have difficulties in cimmunicating, During my visit ro Scuol in the east of the Griaons, I heaed a radio program in the western idiom of Surselvan. When I asked the native speaker of the Vallader idiom how much of the program he had understood, he estimated 60%,
My great-grandmother was a Romansh speaker from Poschiavo, in the south of Switzerland. I never knew much about the language since her daughter, my nonna, was born in England and didn't speak the language. Thank you for giving me back part of my family history.
I'm from Poschiavo, we speak Pusciavin (or Brüsasc in the low valley), not Romansh 😊 it is officially a Italian dialect and not one of the Romansh variant. Fun fact, my great-grandfather worked for some years in his youth in England before returning and get a family in Switzerland 😊
I love the fact that you focus on less spoken languages because most of us have heard of them at some point but don't know anything about them really. And your way of presenting is awesome. You give just the right amount of information in all fields with interesting inside looks. Great work!
It really looks like german in a first sight but when I started to read I could understand quite immediatly what was written. As a native speaker of portuguese and also an italian speaker, I can tell it really makes sense as a romance language! And congratulations, by the way. You make it easier to understand some technical details about languages without make it annoying (quite opposite, actually). It's a really good job.
As a native German speaker, I am always amazed why everybody else says Romansh "sounds like German". It doesn't sound like German at all. It doesn't look like German at all. For me as a German it vaguely sounds like Portuguese.
@@maximilianmustermann5763 I agree it sounds like Portuguese but I also heard people (maybe a different dialect from what we hear in this video) whose Romansh sounded more like German. In the spelling, the only German-looking thing is the "sch"...
@@maximilianmustermann5763 I could undestand that for a native german speaker romanche does not sound german, because for you the difference are obvious, but for a non-native speaker, the similariies are obvious
I lived in Switzerland (Lausanne) for three years. I have been to Graubuenden and heard Romatsch/Romansch/Romanch, Since I also speak fluent French, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese (I was born in the US but German is my first and best language), I understand a great deal of this language. If the Swiss let this language die, it is only due to their hedonistic life style based on Calvinism. If I were Swiss from any of the other three languages, I would learn Romansch Grischun and propagate it as THE national language. It is a kind of Swiss Esperanto and would be a fantastic language for all the other Swiss to use for communal discussions. On top of that, being that Romansch Grischun is indeed free from the hegemony of any one Romansch speaking valley, it, like Esperanto, is free to develop new forms for daily life, commerce, education, and, above all, as a marker of Swiss identity - much as Afrikaans is in South Africa.
Hi, it was a very good video. I do acgually speek rumantsch surmiran. I know the video is 4 years old but i was looking for content on my native language, and am now very happy to have found a good video. I am not an expert but i think the grammar an pronaunciation was well and corectly explaint. Somthing interesting about our language, there are, as you said, big differences in the different idioms (dialects). Even more extrem, in the neighbouring villiges around me rumantsch is spoken slightly different. With other vovels or even completly different words. I think its very cool you dedicatet a video to rumantsch and i want to thank you for that. Grazia fitg, ed fo en bel taimp. ( Thanks a lot, and have a great time)
Romance is a historic country. Its effect is still on the modern days of this area. Yesterday my wife talked about touring in Switzerland and wonder what language people over there speak. I immediately think of four languages spoken in this country like no others. I have ever learnt the Romansh for the first time in your video. Thank you for your video.
One other reason the Romash languages became a national language in Switzerland was Italy`s claim over all Italian speaking regions which included the canton of Ticino and parts of Grisons.
Romansh, it's unbelievable that the language originated in Switzerland where the most speaker of a German-based languages are. It would be nice if the language had a future and it's a shame for every single language that disappears
@HJ bangerter Thank you for your long answer. But I would like to correct you in some points. German does not only exist in my head, but it is my native language. Germanen (with one N) are not a tribe, but a collection of tribes like the ones you mentioned. So the saxons, franks, angles, langobards, alemans etc. were all germannic tribes. Hochdeutsch (standard german) is not based on the dialect in Bonn (which is in fact very different from standard german), but on the dialect Martin Luther spoke and translated the bible into. Later the dialect of the area Hannover and Braunschweig was defined by linguists as „standard German“.
7:07 That passage is exactly what i experienced with overhearing someone talk Romansh. As a Romanian speaker, for me it is a mix of recognizing it as an European language one minute (due to some common word forms as in the first sentence), followed by being convinced that they are speaking Romanian the next (first half of second sentence sounds like slightly slurred Romanian), followed by complete bewilderment as to what language they're actually speaking (second half of second sentence). It's very weird sounding for me. It swings from alien to completely familiar in the span of a few words.
I can read and understand that text until I have to squint at "agir tenter per in uin" I can probably learn Romansh in 1 month. I'm English, Spanish, Romanian speaker.
Thanks, Julie, for your video. Very accurate. I’m an Australian living in one of those “lost” villages … not so lost, actually, only 90 mins, from Zurich. I speak Romontsch-Sursilvan, easy to learn because I already spoke French. Romontsch will survive if the Romontsch stop being so “helpful”. My Romontsch is quite serviceable, but at my slightest hesitation or mistake my interlocutors will switch to German, to “help” me. Happens all the time, even after I tell them, for the 100th time, I don’t speak German. Just getting some of them to say “bien di” rather than “Greutzi” as we pass in the street is difficult. One small correction I can make to your video - Romontsch does not have “dialects”. That word is seen by some as demeaning. “Idioms” is the word. Thanks.
Tuna sumegliont sco cun ils tudestgs che vivan en svizra. Capeschan Schwiizer Tütsch tip top, denton suenter era mo in plaid vegn ei lu enavos il pli mitgiert e sfurzau hoochtüütsch enstagl da semplamein Schwiizer Düütsch. Jeu sesentess lu semplamein buc propi priu serius. Ed en tia situaziun lu aunc pli tup, sche ti gnanc tschontschas tudestg buc.
I went skiing to St. Moritz for many years and discovered that I could understand most of spoken Romansh, myself speaking fluent French, Italian and Spanish. Some relief for me since I felt rather awkward when speaking in German, which all the Swiss understood, not so all of their replies, some in dialect, of which I missed a few bits rather frequently. I think Romansch is more threatened by intermarriage and emigration than by internet, television and world globalisation. If hebrew came back to life after 2,000 years I guess there is still hope for a myriad of very nice minor languages!
As a Brazilian living in Switzerland, it sounds like Swiss German spoken by an old Portuguese from the countryside. Some of the phonemes are similar to Portuguese ones that we don't use in Brazil.
Many Swiss people are quad-lingual, those 4 languages she mentioned... German, French, Italian & Rhaeto-Romance at 0:37... many people think they can speak or understand " Swedish " as it starts with the letters SW... while they can't...
I really enjoyed this video. I had only heard about Romansh in the last 2 or 3 years, and have been curious about it. To answer your question: I hope that Romansh has a future amongst even a small region of Switzerland., but that really is dependent upon the existing native speakers and how much they pass it on. I hope that they continue to and speak it regularly!
fellow language nerd here. I grew up in Grisons and some of my grandparents spoke Rumantsch and my parents both are able to speak it. Sadly my love for languages only blossomed in my teenage years and so I am only barely able to understand it. Knowing French, Italian and some Spanish, it's actually not that hard to understand at least some of it. An example: "Guarda sin l'ura!" (look at the watch!). The decline will inevitably continue. For now, Rumantsch culture is heavily subsidized by the local government in an effort to keep it alive.
There is one notion that I don't think is much talked about. The Rumantsch language had a very big impact on the German dialect of the region and is one reason it is actually quite liked by the rest of Switzerland. In comparison with other Swiss dialects the Bündnerdialekt sounds softer, especially in its plosives and the vowels are more open - maybe similar to Italian.
Thanks a lot, your lesson is of great interest for me, because I´m living in Galtür/Tirol, and in former times this part of Tirol also had the "Rumantsch" language, similiar to Ardez. Go on with your lessons, please !!!!
Thanks! Excellent video. Let me make a small suggestion, please leave the grammar tables and stuff on screen for longer because it's hard to pause on them when they disappear so quickly.
Thank you for your explanations about the Romansh language !! Romansh is a living language: there are many singers who sing in Romansh: Pascal Gamboni, Taratuga, Corin Curshellas, La Grisch, Gianni Tschenett (the Justin Bieber of the Engadine), Curdin Nicolay, Liricas Analas, Bibi Vaplan., Giganto, Mattiu Defuns , Rebels and Benetto Vigne: songs with with a great poetry !!
Sono nata a Lugano, aber mini Muetter chond os Lozärn. J'ai fait mes études (bilingues) à Fribourg, ed uossa imprend a discuorrer Rumantsch (Vallader)! Let's keep our national languages alive! ;)
Da Lügan anca mi, aber mier hei immer Bärndütsch da heime gredet. Et le français je l'ai apris à l'école. And now i live in USA, but my heart never left Switzerland.
Hi Julingo! How to save romansh? In Luxembourg, we do have a similar problem. Luxembourg counts only 600k inhabitants, of which 35% are of a foreign origin (French, Belgians, Dutch, Germans, a large Portuguese community, ...). The national language, Luxembourgish, is in danger of extinguishing because of this large proportion of people having another native language. But, happily, Luxembourgish is tought to the children from kindergarten on and further during the school years. So, little children of all origins now speak Lux with each others and they continue during their adult life, without forgetting their mother tong of course. We are now 20 Feb 2021 and I wish you all the best. Take care ans stay healthy in your fantastic canton.
@@JuLingo You should consider Catalan in the future! I remember my first exposure to it at the Barcelona airport, where multi-lingual signs were 1.(turned out to be Catalan), 2. English, 3. French, 4. German, 5. Italian, 6. Russian, and 7. Spanish. And there was a department store downtown that had 10-language signs.., again, Spanish last ( ;) )
Thank you for talking about Romansh. My grandmother was born in a Romansh speaking village but the family moved to Lucerne when she was young, so I don't think she spoke much Romansh but her father would have spoken it fluently as his first language. Her mother was from a German speaking village in Graubunden, but maybe they spoke Romansh in the past too. I don't understand Romansh at all but the sound and feel of it is strong and emotional, and much more Latin than Germanic. It makes me so mad when people lump the Swiss and Germans together, lol. Nothing against Germans though.
Thank you for sharing your linguistic knowledge. Having spent half a year in Georgia I stumbled over you while looking for georgian stuff on youtube and learned a lot about the language. And here you are again, me, living in Grisons, watching you while you again talk with great confidence about another interesting language I am close to but am not able to speak. Thank you again.
The similarities with the Portuguese phonology are striking; specially concerning the multiple assimilations of the letter , which are identical in the two languages and also the differentiation between stressed and unstressed vowels, which also works the same way in Portuguese (although, of course, with different phonemes).
Wow this is the first ever time I’ve officially heard Swiss Romansh in my life and it is such an honour hearing it at first. And I bursted in laughter when I read bap for father in the language as “baap” is also the Indian informal/rude or serious way to address one’s father in Indian languages 😂😂😅!! It’s mind blowing how languages share lineage and roots 🙂
found I have strong Romansh heritage through 23 and Me and Ancestry - now doing so much research - feels like I am coming home learning and listening - cant think you enough!
As far as I know, there has been a movement in Graubunden to save the Romansh and the local patriot intellectuals see it as a must to learn it though they even might come from a foreign family.
"did I like the video?" Yes, I like the quality summary of the language subject you present us about so rare and uncommon languages, and I like you too, Julie. Please issue more videos like these, Thank you.
That was a wonderful video! I had never heard about the Romansh language before today and your video was greatly informative. I think Romansh is a beautiful language that should definitely be preserved and continued to be passed down. I would love to learn it! If only someone could teach me...
to me, romansh sounds like romanian and italian with german accent. we both love mountains. maybe borowed some words from french... dalmatian was spoken till 19th century. historians would put conections in light if there was the case... have u see the colours they use? blue yellow red Habsbourgs are from Svizra pattern so clear!
Most languages will start to die when there are no monolingual speakers left over the course of multiple generations. An exception to this rule is if a language is used as a "secret language" among members of an insular religious group, such as Yiddish among Orthodox Jews and Pennsylvania Dutch among the Amish. I assume it would be nearly impossible to be monolingual in Romansch in the modern world, and it is not a "secret language" used by members of a religious sect.
Then what about languages such as Dutch and Norwegian that have relatively few monolingual speakers and will have less and less in the future? Do you think two major European languages such as these could go extinct in a few centuries, if current trends continue?
@@serenissimarespublicavenet3945 Possibly, but Dutch, Norwegian, Danish and Swedish are all official, national languages. The school system and government are conducted in these languages. People could be monolingual in any of these languages and still be completely functional, as long as they do not travel to another country. Romasch is not a national language, and it would be nearly impossible to function in Switzerland without knowing Italian, German or French.
Romanian here. To me Romansh sounds a lot more closer to archaic Romanian. Now out of all the big Romance languages, Italian is the closest to Romanian. What is interesting, however, is that north-eastern italian dialects or languages sound most similar to Romanian such as Friulian and Venetian but less Lombardian. Friulian specifically also has other similarities for example there is a similar traditiona to calusarii and the folk costumes are most similar to Romanian. There is also a much older language that died out Dalmatian which is like half Romanian and half Venetian almost the missing link. To me this seems to suggest there used to be a romance language continuum all the way into the east that kinda slowly died out as slavs settled in the region cutting us Romanian off from the rest of romance speakers.
Thanks for this great video. I've heard quite a few young people speaking Romansch in Switzerland and northeastern Italy, usually on trains and in train stations especially. So I guess they are still keeping it alive.
Very very interesting! I love all of your videos. It's great the way you do research to relate and connect languages. You are a genuine educator. I always learn a lot. Thank you!
Here in Wisconsin, USA (the center of Swiss immigration to the New World.) there was for a time a small group of Romansh speakers but I think that is all gone. The use of Swiss-German itself largely disappeared after WWII.
I was born in Switzerland and moved to Wisconsin, but this place is nothing like Switzerland. RAW DAIRY IS ILLEGAL!!! Such blasphemy. I clandestinely purchase raw milk from the Amish (which BTW i speak Swiss-German with). Distances are huge, and there are no mountains, no public transportation, and no cows out in the pastures. Only endless fields of mais, soy and wheat. Homesickness is killing me. The grass was not greener on the other side of the pond!
There were also a number of Romansh Swiss that settled in Minnesota. www.minnpost.com/mnopedia/2018/08/romansh-weren-t-minnesota-s-largest-immigrant-group-they-made-big-impact/
@Sphere723 - " Here in Wisconsin, USA (the center of Swiss immigration to the New World.) " ... ? | Your " New World " of multi-lingual USA didn't get very far... all those languages died minus 1. Claims of the E.U. to " preserve language as a matter of importance " was said in USA in the times you're speaking of. In essence, practicality is garbage..
Romansh is my native language. Thanks you explained it perfectly. I am very touched by the great effort you made with these great video. Grazia fich per tia gronda lavur. Jau sun fich superbi da tai. 😃
Young people everywhere leave their hometowns for the so-called sophistication of the outside world. Your canton is a paradise! Your language is a treasure. Because you and people like you are concerned that it should survive the times, the likelihood is that it will. If you have not done so already I suggest finding a public relations company of some stature to donate it's time to your cause. Many things today require getting the message out. It's not out of the question that people who love languages and already speak any of the other languages in Switzerland might want to relocate specifically to keep Romansch alive and growing. I've been a musician all my life and most of my associations have been with musicians from all over the world. Music in any language has its own power, much is the cuisine of different countries is a powerful cultural phenomenon. We all love the different restaurants in the different musical compositions. One thing I suggest is to reach all of the musicians who speak this beautiful language and start bringing songs with those lyrics to the attention of the world. There were lots of songs in the history of modern music that are known as "one hit wonders." If that moniker is not self-explanatory, it means that the artist basically is known for that particular one hit, which became number one in the charts and remains known to everybody to this day. Find people to write some beautiful songs in Romanch, and ones that are upbeat or funny or very memorable "catchy" and lovable for that reason. Music has gravitas and magnetism, two distinct but related forces. I'll bet you could find mentors at ECM as well as whoever becomes your public relations gurus. All you have to do is make and initial mark with your purpose stated and people will fall in place to uplift you. It's such a noble cause! Along the same lines, you can explore publishing a cookbook and even making a movie. I would like you to look at three movies to get some ideas. (1) ' 'Jonah Who Will Be 25 In The Year 2000' [Switzerland]; 'Local Hero' [Scotland]; and 'My life as a dog' [Sweden]. The films are certainly about these countries and I'm only telling you from memory where I think they were produced. The first one might be French -Swiss. They make you fall in love with the region and the people and the customs. I think you need somebody to make a film about this little Shangri-La region and Switzerland where you live. And why not get everybody to start speaking it much more than they do? It could start a trend that would be fun for everybody. It's a good idea to dream because you can't have a dream come true unless you dream it first. you're a good spokesperson because you are sincere and not arrogant, which is refreshing 20% of the way into the 21st-century. May you prevail! I've done some interesting public relations over the years and if you get something going I'll always chat with you or whomever is helping in your effort.
Interestingly the plural form of Romanch is close to Sardinian. The point is that Romanch and Ladin are very close to Lombard and Trentin spoken before Italian/Florentin was introduced as a national language. As a Po valley born, which was exposed to Ladin as a kid from time to time, I can understand this language, at least in part. Grammar is not a problem but some words are variation or entirely different to what is used in the Lombard and Emiliano Romagnol,
I believe most of your examples were from sursilvan, which is not the idiom I studied (puter). In Sursilvan there is one very archaic trait: an adjective can preserve the latin nominative ending -s (masc. sing.) when used as predicative. Almost all idioms preserve the latin verb intellegere (in puter it's incleger), a verb that is not present in other romance languages, tmk.
manegias per exempel: "ti eis gronds", ni "el ei sperts" e predicativ munta... ch'il adjectiv fa part dil predicat? (resp. descriva gliez) dil reminent (tgei che ti savevas matei era gia) per sursilvan dat ei aunc adina (ni forsa puspei) il au, per exempel "taur" ed "aur" enstagl da "tor" ed "or".
As a French native speaker, I had a look at texts in Romansh (especially Wikipedia articles), and there's a number of words that I couldn't understand. I searched for them in a dictionary and they became clearer but the way words are written make certain words impossible to identify even though they have cognates in other Romance languages. But it's a very interesting language. I'd like to learn more about it. Looks like most books about it are in German unfortunately (I don't have enough vocabulary in German...).
When I started watching this video I had only a vague notion that Romansh was a language of the Alps. Interesting to see how it was formed historically, and it's really impressive that it has survived even in small groups as long as it has.
Grazia pella bella survista. Tü hast invlidà da dir cha rumantsch es la plü bella lingua ;-) e ... chi chi sa rumantsch sa daplü. Means it's a perfect bridge to many languages in Europe.
Aloha from the big Island, I used to live in Switzerland and I speak Swiss German. And a little bit of high German LOL I am fascinated by Romanch I wish I could learn to speak it! Thank you for your video, much aloha PS it seems like your language is very similar to the Hawaiian language
💚💛❤️💙💜 I am totally surprised to know this nice language Romansh!! Even though I speak Spanish and I know french italian portuguese and rumanian ! I am so happy to know this romance language . I can't believe it! ,😱 I love German! 😍 Too!! Haha!😄
The Romansh dialect, Romansh, the Friulian dialect from northern Italy, the Sardinian language, is very similar to the Romanian language, they have many Romanian words that are not found in Latin or Italian. The explanation is not the Romanization from the Romans, but the ancient origin from antiquity of these populations who kept the ancient speech from Europe, with a Latin sound, Vulgar Latin or the Prisca or language, before the Romans. The population of Italy also spoke it, that is, the people. Classical Latin is a laboratory language, polished and spoken by the aristocracy and in the Roman administration. These Romance languages or dialects above and the Romanian language are the oldest and keepers of the common language spoken by the populations in antiquity. Romanshs are the ancient Retae and Romanians are the ancient Dacians.
Hi Julie, thanks for your video. I found it looking up the Romansh language, doing some research about the languages in Switzerland. I speak Italian, French, Spanish, a bit of German, and also have a little bit of Portuguese and have also studied Latin at school, and studied Arabic, so I'm interested to learn about new languages. I've also learnt different dialects of Italy so it was interesting for me to watch this video. I'm interested in particular in the way in which in the modern era there are various theories about how Latin should be pronounced however my own personal theory is that it's likely that Latin was not necessarily standardised until the modern era and also that there were probably different pronounciations at different times depending on the different cultural periods of invasion, for example invaders acquiring Latin as a language but then speaking it with their own dialect whereas the original native Latin that founded the Romance languages might probably have been different. Learning about the Romansh language therefore is pretty interesting to me. I've listened to a few different videos which showed native speakers and also now I've just watched your video which talks about the history. In reply to your questions at the end about how people feel about it listening to it, whether the language has a future. I can say that I can pretty much understand everything that the Romansh speakers are saying, based on the fact that the vocab and grammar combines a different root system of the different languages that are derivatives that I speak. If the Swiss decided to make this their language as their national language as opposed to German then I would say if I lived in Switzerland, then it would definitely be an easy language for me to pick up with my own various linguistic roots. PS FYI this is the other video I watched about Romansh where I can say I understand pretty much everything they are saying. :-) th-cam.com/video/n7fJBUH1JCE/w-d-xo.html
I think that the Romansh people need to do like Ireland is doing and create a passion to save the language. It would be so sad to see this language disappear.
maybe wales would be a better example than Ireland
They actually did so
Do you know how many ppl in Ireland speak Irish fluently and use it as their preferred language?
No even 1%
And it's going down.
@@TomBartram-b1c im not sure if fluent speakers are going down. However speakers in areas where its the main language are dropping.
Theyre are many fluent speakers of irish just not living in the gaeltacht(irish speaking area)
Theres a lot of fluent speakers in dublin and belfast where the language is growing.
However, its declining in the heartland.
I believe its similar inWales, however not as sharp a decline and the heartland is stronger.
Ireland is a really shit example lmao
My grandmother's first language! Her last name was Lutz and she was from Sagogn. Thank you for the Romansh break down: it was wonderful. There is a significant focus on preserving the language and it is used as the first language in early school (elementary in US).
Once my grandmother was at a bus stop in Los Angeles (1930's) sitting quietly with my grandfather next to another couple. After about 10 minutes the lady said something to her husband in Romansh, and then my grandmother spoke to her in Romansh: it was like a family reunion, only when you never met that family member! They sat there speaking for about 2 hours and let all the buses pass.
I live in Waltensburg. 15minutes from sagogn. Time has changed, sagogn aswell 😉
I know someone with that name from Transylvania, Romania. Currently lives in Dresden, married to a German girl, has a child.
that is so beautiful. it’s like when i started speaking french with my uber driver and we got so distracted he missed my exit on the highway
Romansh is argued to be a Northern Italian dialect by some people.
That bus story was very emotionally moving. 💌
As a Romanian,Romansh sounds like Portuguese language combined with Italian and a spice of French.Many words are similar to Romanian words.
Very interesting ☺️🤔
As a German Brit, I don't speak either Romanian or Romansh but they sound similar to me. But counting up to ten reveals that that's by chance, I compared my Romanian 1 to 10 (such as it is) with a teacher I met on a local train speaking Romansh, 1 to 10 in Romansh is definitely closer to French than Romanian.
I speake English and Spanish and some words look same to Spanish or French I don't know. But reading was so clear
I’m Portuguese and for me it sounded a bit like German with romance words, but I get the similarities to my language. Very cool
I have thought that a Romanian and a Rumantsch could understand each other.
This video was pretty good at explaining romansch, and had a nice balance of going into detail and simplifying things so the video doesn’t get boring. As a romansch speaker I’m essentially satisfied
Hi! So I might be 3 years late (sorry about that :D) but I just wanted to say that I am in fact speaking Romansh natively and I thought this video was very nice and it's good to see people still being interested in our language. I just wanted to clear up some stuff.
It is actually 5 "idioms" in which Romansh is split up, the reason you may have heared 7 is because that is the amount of "dialects/idioms" that were used to create Rumantsch Grischun, basically they simply wanted to recognize a wider spectrum of our language, it is very common for individual villages to have individual dialects. Also The 5 Idioms (Vallader, Puter, Surmiran, Sutsilvan & Sursilvan) Are quiet different. For the majority of Romansh speakers, it is very hard to understand more than 2-3 of them.
For the reason as in why Romansh has become the 4th National language of switzerland, is that it was a statement. As you've said correctly Hitler wanted to "reunite" all germans. Similarly so did Mussolini try to gather the italians. To prevent this threat we decided to officially give Romansh the lable as a national language ( just so nobody could confuse us for an italian dialect)
And since you asked about the language dying, all I can say is that this is probably the most discussed topic in any school that teaches Romansh. The problem we are having is that it's hardly sustainable paying for so many ressources (School books, official letters etc.) for such few people, specially when you would have to split it into another 5 seperate idioms as kids for sure can not understand all 5 of them. This is basically the reason for the introduction of "Rumantsch Grischun". A combined language everyone could at very least understand. The only problem here tho, is that we are too patriotic about our idioms, that we would never want to give it up for Rumantsch Grischun, especially since it's very hates among us speakers (me included) just because most of us think it sounds ugly, or that "it's not the same".
Thanks very much for your input, that's super interesting and valuable!
hi, can you help me with learning romansh? maybe you can give some links to the discord servers to study it or other sites, groups, social networks? thank you 🙏🏻🙏🏻
Great info. thank you. My family are from the Misox, Gr - and although they are Italian speakers, info on Romansh is still very interesting to me. Cheers
Wow! I've been searching for a long time for a channel like this, which introduces more niche languages from both a linguistics and language-learning perspective. Thanks so much for being here.
As a Swiss, it's nice to see a video about Romansh. Good work 😊
Up until the 11th century, a variety of Romansh was the main language in the Swiss Rhine Valley, the Principality of Liechtenstein and around Bregenz in Austria. In some city and village names the reminiscence is still there. In this names, the second syllable is stressed, not the first one like you would expect in German, e.g. Sargans (CH), Vaduz (FL), Damüls (AT).
I am Cuban American and live in Sweden , I feel in my heart that this beautiful off shoot of the Latin the mighty Romans spoke should not only survive , but also flourish and grow ,increase in popularity and be teach to children future generations ,as a Spanish speaker I would adore to be emerged in the learning of this jewel of a language .plvs- vltra.
A friend of mine's grandparents were Romansh speaking but moved to Bern for work and 2 generations later their grandchildren only speak a little. I visited their beautiful village near Italian border and was happy to hear people greet me in Romansh. I think tourism also makes it less useful
Very informative & the young lady is very easy to listen to.
When I heard speaking Romansch for the first time, I was completely captured by it. For an Italian, it sounds so... cute!
For a French-Canadian, too!!!
Same with Swiss German for a German. I guess the Swiss are just cute for everybody
@@roesi1985 So true. I am from Québec and even though I knew people said "septante", "huitante" and "nonante" the first time I went to Genève at age 15, I actually blurted out "Ooohhhh!" because it was cute to hear in real life!!!
Pia levas paterlar empau romontsch? Ti eis cordialmein envidaus ella muntogna. Jeu fetgel capuns sche ti das part bauld avunda😉🥰.
@@roesi1985 My husband (American) thinks that Swiss-German sounds like one is constantly coughing and clearing one's throat. :C
@Carpe Linguae The first time i hear quatrevingt etc, i thought this is too complicated, let's go back to suisse-romande. :)
It is surprisingly easy to learn Romansh for any Spanish speaker who has learned French or Italian before. In fact, I am sure that Romansh may be the second foreign language to be learned more easily by a Spanish speaker with average knowledge of another Romance language.
Great video! My grandfather was Swiss-Romansh. Surprisingly, after he immigrated to the US he found Romansh useful sometimes. Thanks to the Latin roots, a Romansh speaker can understand many other languages pretty easily. He was able to roughly communicate with Spanish speakers.
So true!!!
I had a climbing partner who was Romansch. International guiding community in Interlaken where he was considered somewhat hillbilly because only 6000 people spoke his dialect. His High German wasn’t great but he also spoke decent Italian and English. He said French was easy for him and he was hilarious when he’d imitate different Swiss German accents.
It was so exciting to be with such interesting and multilingual people. Thanks for the cool video.
As an Australian with English as 1st language with father from Gandria(TI) and mother from Tende (F) and speak GE Fr IT, I have travelled Switzerland extensively whenever visiting relatives from the opposite end of the earth ... my favourite canton is GR. I particularly enjoyed staying in Sent, Samnaun and Scuol Tarasp. Listening to RTR.TV has also been fun. Your video was great and I very much would love to hear phrases comparing each of the dialects by native speakers. Hopefully you tube exposure can help educate other Swiss and help preserve this important cultural heritage of CH for future generations. Thank you
Comme Louisianais-français aux États-Unis, votre émotion en ce qui concerne le déclin de la langue m'a touché. Je n'ai pas de réponse, mais j'aime les langues et les traditions du monde.
My great aunt's family was from a Romansh speaking part of Switzerland. She spoke it fluently. I remember when some distant relatives came over in the 1980's them talking about how beautiful her Romansh was and that it was a form from around the turn of the 20th Century. She was born in the Eureka, CA area in the 19 teens and lived there into her early adulthood with a number of other Romansh speaking immigrants. She was a hearty woman and lived to 95, fairly sound of mind and body right up to almost the end.
Hi Will. Very interesting. My Romansch speaking great grandparents emigrated to Eureka, California area too! My father was born there.
In fact, my grandfather was taught the language at home. It was just inherited from my great grandfather.
I thought there were no other people of like nationality in the region. Was happy to find this out!
@@jjauger96 Hi Jeremy, according to my great aunt, there was a small community of Romansch speakers there where she grew up. If I remember correctly, it was out in the woods towards Ferndale. This would have been in the 1910s and into the 1940s, when my great aunt lived in that area. She married my biological great uncle before the war and moved away from the region after WWII, when he returned, and they built their home in South Lake Tahoe.
@@willremy5142 Thanks for commenting!
Yes, they lived there around that time too. Came to the US in the 20s
It's a small community. They probably knew each other. My last name is Romansch from Val Lumnezia.
Great grandfather served in WW2 for the US . And lived the rest of his and his wife's life in Humboldt county afterwards. Most of the descendents live in different parts of California still. Unfortunately, they kept "hush" about the languages they spoke, (Romansch, Italien,-grandmother, and some Latin) because of the war. But I am hoping to re-learn my heritage languages.
@@jjauger96 I am sure that my great aunt and your great grandmother probably knew each other. My great aunt was probably born there in 1913 or 1914. I know my great uncle was born at the end of 1912 because he was 4 years older than my Nana and I think my great aunt was a year or so younger than him. I don't know what her maiden name was, but it would have been Romansh. She lived until 96 and of sound mind and body up until the end as well. I wish you luck in finding your heritage. I know when my great aunt and uncle went to Switzerland to visit distant relatives in the 1980's they told her that she spoke beautiful Romansch. They said that the language was changing because so much of the youth were watching Italian TV/Movies and listening to Italian music.
Thanks for the video! My father's grandmother was Romansh Swiss and he remembers his great-aunt in Minnesota was able to speak Romansh. It's interesting to know more about the language.
I have Romansh heritage, too - Indiana - North Dakota!
Interesting!
I am descended from the Weisz family of Central Minnesota. Romansh speaking family.
There is another root of Romansh: The Raetic. Nobody really knows what kind of people they were and even if their language was Indoeuropen or not. They are mentioned by the Romans as living in and around the Alps. Some words in Romansh as well as many names of places and rivers are of this origin.
they probably were of etruscan origin
The last language you expect to be Swiss.
I believe that they had a huge influence in Roman culture, in fact the RAETORIC, an school of speaking studied and used by many senators and public figures of Rome like Cicaero, must have been nothing else than the way of speaking of the Raeti.
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhaetic
Non-terrestrial beings (in human bodies) and their huge egos - due to their low level of consciousness - they all wanted a language of their own, envy being probably the most important characteristic of their and what caused their collapse.... which is imminent and very, very close!!!!
Thank you for a very informative description!
I was in a pub in the north of England and I met some Swiss people who were in England to buy sheep. They told me they were Romansch speakers and even taught me a few phrases.
Travelling as a child with my parents in the 1950s, we came into a village where the locals only spoke Romansh -- my father tried to communicate in Latin (not very successfully as I recall).
Wow! From your explanation I see there are a few phonetic similarities between Romansh and Portuguese (European accent).
We also "reduce" unstressed vowels, turning an unstressed 'e' into something like a schwa (some describe it as "e caduc", of "fallen e"). (Unstressed 'a' is also reduced, but it does not become a schwa, it become something like the English indefinite article "a".)
And our "s" can also be pronounced as 's'. 'z', 'sh" and "zh", though on different situations (and with some regional and personal variations).
I've heard it spoken by two ladies in a grocery store in Graubunden. Fortunately, I knew already about the existence of Romansch, so I was not surprised to hear it. What did surprise me, though, was how different it sounded to, say, Italian or German. I felt privileged to hear it coming from native speakers.
I've always been fascinated by the less known romance languages. What about Occitan? Sicilian? 🤔 Is sad that Romansh is dying.
I love your videos, please upload more often :) subs will come eventually. Keep this good quality 👌 God bless
🇨🇴
As a romansch speaker I’m happy to see people talk about our small and slowly dying language!
@@cseblivestreaming that sounds a bit pessimistic :( should update us if there's any effort in promoting it 😁
Well we do have a television station here and i know the guy at 4:04 personally , I’m in school and we get taught romansch as a subject for the „matura“ (like a diploma)
@@cseblivestreaming I'm glad to hear that 😌
Sicilian is my great grandparents native tongue!
A few years back I was sitting in a German S-Bahn and a whole school class got in, filled up the car. I was completely confused by the language they were speaking. My first guess was Romanian, I know what Romanian sounds like and this had the same kind of rhythm if that makes sense. I got the courage to ask the teacher. Indeed that's the first and unfortunately the last time I heard Romansh.
I had a similar experience on a local train in Switzerland. At first sounded German but definitely was not and then I didn't understand a word of it.
When was it because i think it was our class but I’m not sure people often look at us when we are talking
@@cristinabazzell8399 I can't tell you when exactly, maybe 2013-2014, but it was on the S-Bahn from Leipzig to Halle.
Thanks for these videos, Julie. What I really appreciate is not just the research you obviously put in, and the time to record and edit these, but also that you appear to travel to some, if not all, of these places to show us the countries as well. That is dedication!
I am an American student of the Romance languages who can read severai of the Swiss Romansh idioms (the major divisions are caiied idioms, within which there are local variants known as dialects). Your video is by and large quite accurate, although I would hesitate to say that Romansh is necessarily easy to understand if you know another Romance language, I say this because even speakers at opposite ends of the idiom continuum have difficulties in cimmunicating, During my visit ro Scuol in the east of the Griaons, I heaed a radio program in the western idiom of Surselvan. When I asked the native speaker of the Vallader idiom how much of the program he had understood, he estimated 60%,
I love that you examine such obscure languages
My great-grandmother was a Romansh speaker from Poschiavo, in the south of Switzerland. I never knew much about the language since her daughter, my nonna, was born in England and didn't speak the language. Thank you for giving me back part of my family history.
I'm from Poschiavo, we speak Pusciavin (or Brüsasc in the low valley), not Romansh 😊 it is officially a Italian dialect and not one of the Romansh variant. Fun fact, my great-grandfather worked for some years in his youth in England before returning and get a family in Switzerland 😊
I love the fact that you focus on less spoken languages because most of us have heard of them at some point but don't know anything about them really. And your way of presenting is awesome. You give just the right amount of information in all fields with interesting inside looks. Great work!
It really looks like german in a first sight but when I started to read I could understand quite immediatly what was written. As a native speaker of portuguese and also an italian speaker, I can tell it really makes sense as a romance language!
And congratulations, by the way. You make it easier to understand some technical details about languages without make it annoying (quite opposite, actually). It's a really good job.
As a native German speaker, I am always amazed why everybody else says Romansh "sounds like German". It doesn't sound like German at all. It doesn't look like German at all. For me as a German it vaguely sounds like Portuguese.
@@maximilianmustermann5763 I agree it sounds like Portuguese but I also heard people (maybe a different dialect from what we hear in this video) whose Romansh sounded more like German.
In the spelling, the only German-looking thing is the "sch"...
@@maximilianmustermann5763 I could undestand that for a native german speaker romanche does not sound german, because for you the difference are obvious, but for a non-native speaker, the similariies are obvious
to me it sounds like italian & french
As a Spanish and Portuguese speaker, I understood absolutely nothing lol
Thanks so much for the video! I speak French, Italian, Spanish and Romanian, but have always been interested in Romansh. Very clearly expressed!
Donna Radu thank you so much for your comment! I’m happy you enjoyed the video ☺️
Salut. Incearca sa citesti textul de pe Wikipedia pe limba rumantsch. O sa intelegi aproape tot
I lived in Switzerland (Lausanne) for three years. I have been to Graubuenden and heard Romatsch/Romansch/Romanch, Since I also speak fluent French, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese (I was born in the US but German is my first and best language), I understand a great deal of this language. If the Swiss let this language die, it is only due to their hedonistic life style based on Calvinism. If I were Swiss from any of the other three languages, I would learn Romansch Grischun and propagate it as THE national language. It is a kind of Swiss Esperanto and would be a fantastic language for all the other Swiss to use for communal discussions. On top of that, being that Romansch Grischun is indeed free from the hegemony of any one Romansch speaking valley, it, like Esperanto, is free to develop new forms for daily life, commerce, education, and, above all, as a marker of Swiss identity - much as Afrikaans is in South Africa.
Hi, it was a very good video. I do acgually speek rumantsch surmiran. I know the video is 4 years old but i was looking for content on my native language, and am now very happy to have found a good video. I am not an expert but i think the grammar an pronaunciation was well and corectly explaint. Somthing interesting about our language, there are, as you said, big differences in the different idioms (dialects). Even more extrem, in the neighbouring villiges around me rumantsch is spoken slightly different. With other vovels or even completly different words. I think its very cool you dedicatet a video to rumantsch and i want to thank you for that. Grazia fitg, ed fo en bel taimp. ( Thanks a lot, and have a great time)
Romance is a historic country. Its effect is still on the modern days of this area. Yesterday my wife talked about touring in Switzerland and wonder what language people over there speak. I immediately think of four languages spoken in this country like no others. I have ever learnt the Romansh for the first time in your video. Thank you for your video.
I personally know the guy at 4:04, I’ve worked with him in romansch too
One other reason the Romash languages became a national language in Switzerland was Italy`s claim over all Italian speaking regions which included the canton of Ticino and parts of Grisons.
I speak it constantly, and I‘m very proud of it
Every person should love and preserve their native language.
Romansh, it's unbelievable that the language originated in Switzerland where the most speaker of a German-based languages are. It would be nice if the language had a future and it's a shame for every single language that disappears
Alemanic is a part of the germanic languae family.
@HJ bangerter thx :)
@HJ bangerter in Spanish Germany is called Alemania
@HJ bangerter Alemanic is not a language. All the alemannic dialects like swiss german, swabian or alsatian are west upper german dialects.
@HJ bangerter Thank you for your long answer. But I would like to correct you in some points. German does not only exist in my head, but it is my native language. Germanen (with one N) are not a tribe, but a collection of tribes like the ones you mentioned. So the saxons, franks, angles, langobards, alemans etc. were all germannic tribes. Hochdeutsch (standard german) is not based on the dialect in Bonn (which is in fact very different from standard german), but on the dialect Martin Luther spoke and translated the bible into. Later the dialect of the area Hannover and Braunschweig was defined by linguists as „standard German“.
7:07 That passage is exactly what i experienced with overhearing someone talk Romansh. As a Romanian speaker, for me it is a mix of recognizing it as an European language one minute (due to some common word forms as in the first sentence), followed by being convinced that they are speaking Romanian the next (first half of second sentence sounds like slightly slurred Romanian), followed by complete bewilderment as to what language they're actually speaking (second half of second sentence). It's very weird sounding for me. It swings from alien to completely familiar in the span of a few words.
Haha very interesting, thanks for sharing 😄😉
I can read and understand that text until I have to squint at "agir tenter per in uin" I can probably learn Romansh in 1 month.
I'm English, Spanish, Romanian speaker.
Thanks, Julie, for your video. Very accurate. I’m an Australian living in one of those “lost” villages … not so lost, actually, only 90 mins, from Zurich. I speak Romontsch-Sursilvan, easy to learn because I already spoke French.
Romontsch will survive if the Romontsch stop being so “helpful”. My Romontsch is quite serviceable, but at my slightest hesitation or mistake my interlocutors will switch to German, to “help” me. Happens all the time, even after I tell them, for the 100th time, I don’t speak German. Just getting some of them to say “bien di” rather than “Greutzi” as we pass in the street is difficult.
One small correction I can make to your video - Romontsch does not have “dialects”. That word is seen by some as demeaning. “Idioms” is the word. Thanks.
Tuna sumegliont sco cun ils tudestgs che vivan en svizra. Capeschan Schwiizer Tütsch tip top, denton suenter era mo in plaid vegn ei lu enavos il pli mitgiert e sfurzau hoochtüütsch enstagl da semplamein Schwiizer Düütsch. Jeu sesentess lu semplamein buc propi priu serius.
Ed en tia situaziun lu aunc pli tup, sche ti gnanc tschontschas tudestg buc.
I went skiing to St. Moritz for many years and discovered that I could understand most of spoken Romansh, myself speaking fluent French, Italian and Spanish. Some relief for me since I felt rather awkward when speaking in German, which all the Swiss understood, not so all of their replies, some in dialect, of which I missed a few bits rather frequently. I think Romansch is more threatened by intermarriage and emigration than by internet, television and world globalisation. If hebrew came back to life after 2,000 years I guess there is still hope for a myriad of very nice minor languages!
As a Brazilian living in Switzerland, it sounds like Swiss German spoken by an old Portuguese from the countryside. Some of the phonemes are similar to Portuguese ones that we don't use in Brazil.
Many Swiss people are quad-lingual, those 4 languages she mentioned... German, French, Italian & Rhaeto-Romance at 0:37... many people think they can speak or understand " Swedish " as it starts with the letters SW... while they can't...
I really enjoyed this video. I had only heard about Romansh in the last 2 or 3 years, and have been curious about it. To answer your question: I hope that Romansh has a future amongst even a small region of Switzerland., but that really is dependent upon the existing native speakers and how much they pass it on. I hope that they continue to and speak it regularly!
Thank you ☺️ Yeah that's true, it all depends on the native speaker's effort now
A little correction here: the ´schwa´ sound is present in the Portuguese (european) and Catalan languages.
As well as French and maybe Romanian.
@@chitlitlah yes, in Romanian we have a special letter which is literally the schwa sound: ă
In northern Italy too!
fellow language nerd here. I grew up in Grisons and some of my grandparents spoke Rumantsch and my parents both are able to speak it. Sadly my love for languages only blossomed in my teenage years and so I am only barely able to understand it. Knowing French, Italian and some Spanish, it's actually not that hard to understand at least some of it. An example: "Guarda sin l'ura!" (look at the watch!). The decline will inevitably continue. For now, Rumantsch culture is heavily subsidized by the local government in an effort to keep it alive.
There is one notion that I don't think is much talked about. The Rumantsch language had a very big impact on the German dialect of the region and is one reason it is actually quite liked by the rest of Switzerland. In comparison with other Swiss dialects the Bündnerdialekt sounds softer, especially in its plosives and the vowels are more open - maybe similar to Italian.
@@obsoquasi Ladin Questione argues that Romansch is a Northern Italian dialect.
Thanks a lot, your lesson is of great interest for me, because I´m living in Galtür/Tirol, and in former times this part of Tirol also had the "Rumantsch" language, similiar to Ardez. Go on with your lessons, please !!!!
Thanks! Excellent video. Let me make a small suggestion, please leave the grammar tables and stuff on screen for longer because it's hard to pause on them when they disappear so quickly.
I speak French and Italian and while I cannot understand a word of spoken Romansh, it is surprisingly lucid to read! Great video
Thank you for your explanations about the Romansh language !!
Romansh is a living language: there are many singers who sing in Romansh: Pascal Gamboni, Taratuga, Corin Curshellas, La Grisch, Gianni Tschenett (the Justin Bieber of the Engadine), Curdin Nicolay, Liricas Analas, Bibi Vaplan., Giganto, Mattiu Defuns , Rebels and Benetto Vigne: songs with with a great poetry !!
Sono nata a Lugano, aber mini Muetter chond os Lozärn. J'ai fait mes études (bilingues) à Fribourg, ed uossa imprend a discuorrer Rumantsch (Vallader)! Let's keep our national languages alive! ;)
Logano is in such a cool part of the world. I climbed in Belinzona on a few trips and had a really good experience
Da Lügan anca mi, aber mier hei immer Bärndütsch da heime gredet. Et le français je l'ai apris à l'école. And now i live in USA, but my heart never left Switzerland.
Hi Julingo! How to save romansh? In Luxembourg, we do have a similar problem. Luxembourg counts only 600k inhabitants, of which 35% are of a foreign origin (French, Belgians, Dutch, Germans, a large Portuguese community, ...). The national language, Luxembourgish, is in danger of extinguishing because of this large proportion of people having another native language. But, happily, Luxembourgish is tought to the children from kindergarten on and further during the school years. So, little children of all origins now speak Lux with each others and they continue during their adult life, without forgetting their mother tong of course. We are now 20 Feb 2021 and I wish you all the best. Take care ans stay healthy in your fantastic canton.
I'm from Barcelona (Catalonia) and Romansh it's like a Mix between Catalan and Italian. I ♥ it! 😍
Interesting! Thanks for sharing :)
@@JuLingo You should consider Catalan in the future! I remember my first exposure to it at the Barcelona airport, where multi-lingual signs were 1.(turned out to be Catalan), 2. English, 3. French, 4. German, 5. Italian, 6. Russian, and 7. Spanish. And there was a department store downtown that had 10-language signs.., again, Spanish last ( ;) )
Thank you for talking about Romansh. My grandmother was born in a Romansh speaking village but the family moved to Lucerne when she was young, so I don't think she spoke much Romansh but her father would have spoken it fluently as his first language. Her mother was from a German speaking village in Graubunden, but maybe they spoke Romansh in the past too. I don't understand Romansh at all but the sound and feel of it is strong and emotional, and much more Latin than Germanic. It makes me so mad when people lump the Swiss and Germans together, lol. Nothing against Germans though.
Thank you for sharing your linguistic knowledge. Having spent half a year in Georgia I stumbled over you while looking for georgian stuff on youtube and learned a lot about the language. And here you are again, me, living in Grisons, watching you while you again talk with great confidence about another interesting language I am close to but am not able to speak.
Thank you again.
Wow what a coincidence 😄 and thank you!
The similarities with the Portuguese phonology are striking; specially concerning the multiple assimilations of the letter , which are identical in the two languages and also the differentiation between stressed and unstressed vowels, which also works the same way in Portuguese (although, of course, with different phonemes).
Since you asked, yes I did like the video! I like that you kept it fairly simple. And of course your home is very scenic, which also helps!
Thank you, so happy you liked it ☺️
Wow this is the first ever time I’ve officially heard Swiss Romansh in my life and it is such an honour hearing it at first. And I bursted in laughter when I read bap for father in the language as “baap” is also the Indian informal/rude or serious way to address one’s father in Indian languages 😂😂😅!! It’s mind blowing how languages share lineage and roots 🙂
found I have strong Romansh heritage through 23 and Me and Ancestry - now doing so much research - feels like I am coming home learning and listening - cant think you enough!
awesome story ☺️ happy you found the video useful!
2022, and im still speaking romansh sursilvan😌
Good work tho👍
As far as I know, there has been a movement in Graubunden to save the Romansh and the local patriot intellectuals see it as a must to learn it though they even might come from a foreign family.
Of course I loved your video Julie, your videos are a labour of love, I appreciate them.
Just today I've read a job advertisement in the biggest Swiss Sunday newspaper in rumantsch.
"did I like the video?" Yes, I like the quality summary of the language subject you present us about so rare and uncommon languages, and I like you too, Julie. Please issue more videos like these, Thank you.
ayy, very nice video! I'm a native romansh speaker. Tgi cheu tschontscha romontsch?
cheu!
eu
Eau
I would love to learn more - recently learned much of my ancestry is Romansh, but we have no living memory in the family
@@kimwengerhall6303 do you live in one of the large cities in switzerland? they usually have some courses there
Thanks for posting.
That was a wonderful video! I had never heard about the Romansh language before today and your video was greatly informative. I think Romansh is a beautiful language that should definitely be preserved and continued to be passed down. I would love to learn it! If only someone could teach me...
Happy you enjoyed it! And yes it is a beautiful and interesting language, but not that many teachers of it are left unfortunately
to me, romansh sounds like romanian and italian with german accent. we both love mountains. maybe borowed some words from french... dalmatian was spoken till 19th century. historians would put conections in light if there was the case... have u see the colours they use? blue yellow red Habsbourgs are from Svizra pattern so clear!
Most languages will start to die when there are no monolingual speakers left over the course of multiple generations. An exception to this rule is if a language is used as a "secret language" among members of an insular religious group, such as Yiddish among Orthodox Jews and Pennsylvania Dutch among the Amish. I assume it would be nearly impossible to be monolingual in Romansch in the modern world, and it is not a "secret language" used by members of a religious sect.
Then what about languages such as Dutch and Norwegian that have relatively few monolingual speakers and will have less and less in the future? Do you think two major European languages such as these could go extinct in a few centuries, if current trends continue?
@@serenissimarespublicavenet3945 Possibly, but Dutch, Norwegian, Danish and Swedish are all official, national languages. The school system and government are conducted in these languages. People could be monolingual in any of these languages and still be completely functional, as long as they do not travel to another country. Romasch is not a national language, and it would be nearly impossible to function in Switzerland without knowing Italian, German or French.
@@vonratt Romansch is a national languageof Switzerland.
@@Alternatives_Universum Yes! That's what JuLingo said.
Very interesting and worthwhile video. Many thanks.
Romanian here. To me Romansh sounds a lot more closer to archaic Romanian. Now out of all the big Romance languages, Italian is the closest to Romanian. What is interesting, however, is that north-eastern italian dialects or languages sound most similar to Romanian such as Friulian and Venetian but less Lombardian. Friulian specifically also has other similarities for example there is a similar traditiona to calusarii and the folk costumes are most similar to Romanian. There is also a much older language that died out Dalmatian which is like half Romanian and half Venetian almost the missing link. To me this seems to suggest there used to be a romance language continuum all the way into the east that kinda slowly died out as slavs settled in the region cutting us Romanian off from the rest of romance speakers.
I have a Romansh speaking friend. It is such a lovely part if the world, especially in winter. In all my travels I've never met another.
Very interesting, as a Portuguese speaker, I can easily see some similarities. We do also put an S in the plural forms.
Thanks for this great video. I've heard quite a few young people speaking Romansch in Switzerland and northeastern Italy, usually on trains and in train stations especially. So I guess they are still keeping it alive.
Very very interesting! I love all of your videos. It's great the way you do research to relate and connect languages. You are a genuine educator. I always learn a lot. Thank you!
Here in Wisconsin, USA (the center of Swiss immigration to the New World.) there was for a time a small group of Romansh speakers but I think that is all gone. The use of Swiss-German itself largely disappeared after WWII.
I was born in Switzerland and moved to Wisconsin, but this place is nothing like Switzerland. RAW DAIRY IS ILLEGAL!!! Such blasphemy. I clandestinely purchase raw milk from the Amish (which BTW i speak Swiss-German with). Distances are huge, and there are no mountains, no public transportation, and no cows out in the pastures. Only endless fields of mais, soy and wheat. Homesickness is killing me. The grass was not greener on the other side of the pond!
There were also a number of Romansh Swiss that settled in Minnesota.
www.minnpost.com/mnopedia/2018/08/romansh-weren-t-minnesota-s-largest-immigrant-group-they-made-big-impact/
@Sphere723 - " Here in Wisconsin, USA (the center of Swiss immigration to the New World.) " ... ? | Your " New World " of multi-lingual USA didn't get very far... all those languages died minus 1. Claims of the E.U. to " preserve language as a matter of importance " was said in USA in the times you're speaking of. In essence, practicality is garbage..
Romansh is my native language. Thanks you explained it perfectly. I am very touched by the great effort you made with these great video. Grazia fich per tia gronda lavur. Jau sun fich superbi da tai. 😃
I found your video on Romansh to be absolutely fascinating. Thank-you.
Young people everywhere leave their hometowns for the so-called sophistication of the outside world. Your canton is a paradise! Your language is a treasure. Because you and people like you are concerned that it should survive the times, the likelihood is that it will. If you have not done so already I suggest finding a public relations company of some stature to donate it's time to your cause. Many things today require getting the message out. It's not out of the question that people who love languages and already speak any of the other languages in Switzerland might want to relocate specifically to keep Romansch alive and growing. I've been a musician all my life and most of my associations have been with musicians from all over the world. Music in any language has its own power, much is the cuisine of different countries is a powerful cultural phenomenon. We all love the different restaurants in the different musical compositions. One thing I suggest is to reach all of the musicians who speak this beautiful language and start bringing songs with those lyrics to the attention of the world. There were lots of songs in the history of modern music that are known as "one hit wonders." If that moniker is not self-explanatory, it means that the artist basically is known for that particular one hit, which became number one in the charts and remains known to everybody to this day. Find people to write some beautiful songs in Romanch, and ones that are upbeat or funny or very memorable "catchy" and lovable for that reason. Music has gravitas and magnetism, two distinct but related forces. I'll bet you could find mentors at ECM as well as whoever becomes your public relations gurus. All you have to do is make and initial mark with your purpose stated and people will fall in place to uplift you. It's such a noble cause! Along the same lines, you can explore publishing a cookbook and even making a movie. I would like you to look at three movies to get some ideas. (1) ' 'Jonah Who Will Be 25 In The Year 2000' [Switzerland]; 'Local Hero' [Scotland]; and 'My life as a dog' [Sweden]. The films are certainly about these countries and I'm only telling you from memory where I think they were produced. The first one might be French -Swiss. They make you fall in love with the region and the people and the customs. I think you need somebody to make a film about this little Shangri-La region and Switzerland where you live. And why not get everybody to start speaking it much more than they do? It could start a trend that would be fun for everybody. It's a good idea to dream because you can't have a dream come true unless you dream it first. you're a good spokesperson because you are sincere and not arrogant, which is refreshing 20% of the way into the 21st-century. May you prevail! I've done some interesting public relations over the years and if you get something going I'll always chat with you or whomever is helping in your effort.
Interestingly the plural form of Romanch is close to Sardinian. The point is that Romanch and Ladin are very close to Lombard and Trentin spoken before Italian/Florentin was introduced as a national language.
As a Po valley born, which was exposed to Ladin as a kid from time to time, I can understand this language, at least in part. Grammar is not a problem but some words are variation or entirely different to what is used in the Lombard and Emiliano Romagnol,
Thank you for your very informative and beautifully produced video
The people need to revive & preserve their language. It’s their identity. It needs to be preserved.
I believe most of your examples were from sursilvan, which is not the idiom I studied (puter). In Sursilvan there is one very archaic trait: an adjective can preserve the latin nominative ending -s (masc. sing.) when used as predicative. Almost all idioms preserve the latin verb intellegere (in puter it's incleger), a verb that is not present in other romance languages, tmk.
manegias per exempel: "ti eis gronds", ni "el ei sperts"
e predicativ munta... ch'il adjectiv fa part dil predicat? (resp. descriva gliez)
dil reminent (tgei che ti savevas matei era gia) per sursilvan dat ei aunc adina (ni forsa puspei) il au, per exempel "taur" ed "aur" enstagl da "tor" ed "or".
As a French native speaker, I had a look at texts in Romansh (especially Wikipedia articles), and there's a number of words that I couldn't understand. I searched for them in a dictionary and they became clearer but the way words are written make certain words impossible to identify even though they have cognates in other Romance languages.
But it's a very interesting language. I'd like to learn more about it. Looks like most books about it are in German unfortunately (I don't have enough vocabulary in German...).
Yeah it may look more foreign that it actually is ☺️
Liked, subscribed, and left a comment. Loved the video.
When I started watching this video I had only a vague notion that Romansh was a language of the Alps. Interesting to see how it was formed historically, and it's really impressive that it has survived even in small groups as long as it has.
Grazia pella bella survista. Tü hast invlidà da dir cha rumantsch es la plü bella lingua ;-) e ... chi chi sa rumantsch sa daplü. Means it's a perfect bridge to many languages in Europe.
Interesting language but I'm totally captivated by your beauty! You're a gorgeous woman!!!
Thank you for a very informative presentation. I'm a Texan who did doctoral work in beautiful Switzerland.
thank you for your comment, I'm happy you liked the video :)
Underrated channel. Thanks for the work.
The Canton of Grisons or Graubunden is unique in Switzerland. There are 3 languages: German, Romancio and Italian.
I found this video fascinating. This is the kind of TH-cam I like.
We waited for so long for you to make a video and it was worth it!
Aloha from the big Island, I used to live in Switzerland and I speak Swiss German. And a little bit of high German LOL I am fascinated by Romanch I wish I could learn to speak it! Thank you for your video, much aloha PS it seems like your language is very similar to the Hawaiian language
zu miina liablings "Romanischa" wörter körend "il bustab" (buachstab), "il uham" (umhang) und "lustig" (uusgsprocha, "Luuschtig")
💚💛❤️💙💜
I am totally surprised to know this nice language Romansh!!
Even though I speak Spanish and I know french italian portuguese and rumanian ! I am so happy to know this romance language . I can't believe it! ,😱
I love German! 😍 Too!! Haha!😄
The Romansh dialect, Romansh, the Friulian dialect from northern Italy, the Sardinian language, is very similar to the Romanian language, they have many Romanian words that are not found in Latin or Italian. The explanation is not the Romanization from the Romans, but the ancient origin from antiquity of these populations who kept the ancient speech from Europe, with a Latin sound, Vulgar Latin or the Prisca or language, before the Romans. The population of Italy also spoke it, that is, the people. Classical Latin is a laboratory language, polished and spoken by the aristocracy and in the Roman administration. These Romance languages or dialects above and the Romanian language are the oldest and keepers of the common language spoken by the populations in antiquity. Romanshs are the ancient Retae and Romanians are the ancient Dacians.
Hi Julie, thanks for your video. I found it looking up the Romansh language, doing some research about the languages in Switzerland. I speak Italian, French, Spanish, a bit of German, and also have a little bit of Portuguese and have also studied Latin at school, and studied Arabic, so I'm interested to learn about new languages. I've also learnt different dialects of Italy so it was interesting for me to watch this video. I'm interested in particular in the way in which in the modern era there are various theories about how Latin should be pronounced however my own personal theory is that it's likely that Latin was not necessarily standardised until the modern era and also that there were probably different pronounciations at different times depending on the different cultural periods of invasion, for example invaders acquiring Latin as a language but then speaking it with their own dialect whereas the original native Latin that founded the Romance languages might probably have been different. Learning about the Romansh language therefore is pretty interesting to me. I've listened to a few different videos which showed native speakers and also now I've just watched your video which talks about the history. In reply to your questions at the end about how people feel about it listening to it, whether the language has a future. I can say that I can pretty much understand everything that the Romansh speakers are saying, based on the fact that the vocab and grammar combines a different root system of the different languages that are derivatives that I speak. If the Swiss decided to make this their language as their national language as opposed to German then I would say if I lived in Switzerland, then it would definitely be an easy language for me to pick up with my own various linguistic roots.
PS FYI this is the other video I watched about Romansh where I can say I understand pretty much everything they are saying. :-)
th-cam.com/video/n7fJBUH1JCE/w-d-xo.html