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Trailblazers: Virtual Tours
History's Hinge - 'Ain Jalut

[Solomon]

I have long heard that lost in the Swiss Alps is a people who speak the language of the long-gone Roman Empire.

We know that latin continues - it is still taught in many schools - and that the Romance languages such as French, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese thrive. But these are very much derivative of the original language as used by everyday citizens of the Roman Empire.


Roman remains can still be seen in Chur.

Indestructible Romansh survives centuries
A mysterious people, Roman imperialism, German colonisation and the forging of an identity is how Romansh history can best be summed up.

A small cultural microcosm, based in the Alps, Romansh has survived for hundreds of years at the crossroads of the great European civilisations.

 
The Romans' legacy to the Mediterranean world was their network of roads and aqueducts. And in much of western Europe, they also left behind their language.

Vulgar Latin, as spoken by Roman soldiers, officials and merchants, merged with other languages of the Roman empire, forming several new variants.

These can be divided into several linguistic groups: Gallo-Romance (French), Occitano-Romance (Occitan, Proven?al, Catalan), Ibero-Romance (Spanish, Portuguese, Galician), Italo-Romance (Italian, Corsican) and Balkan Romance (Romanian, Dalmatian).

Dolomitic Ladin and Friulian, used in northern Italy, and Romansh, which is spoken exclusively in Switzerland's southeastern canton of Graub?nden, are known as the Rhaeto-Romance languages.

 
Mystery
 
The origins of the Rhaetian people are still unclear, as not much is known about the tribe, which is thought to have arrived in the Alps at around 500 BC.

Experts do not think they were Celtic, but either Etruscans, from the Balkans or Semitic.

The Romans conquered the Rhaetian territory, which stretched between the Rhaetian Alps and the River Danube, in 15 BC. Known as Rhaetia, the region underwent intense Romanisation until 400 AD.

A regional variant of Vulgar Latin - Romansh - developed. The spread of Christianity from the fourth century onwards also played a part.

In 806 Charlemagne, King of the Franks, introduced the Franconian system of administration into Rhaetia. A German count took over in Chur bringing with him many German-speaking officials and nobles.

Around 40 years later, the Diocese of Chur was detached from the Archdiocese of Milan and became part of the Archdiocese of Mainz, another step towards the northern German-speaking world.


Switzerland and its four languages
Switzerland is a nation that is the result of the expression of political will. By way of contrast to its neighbours, the fundamental element of Swiss identity is neither a single common national language nor a uniform cultural or even ethnic tradition. The Swiss perception of statehood is based on shared political convictions ascribed to by all Swiss citizens, notwithstanding their different linguistic and cultural traditions. These shared convictions include adhesion to a federal form of government, direct democracy and linguistic/ cultural diversity. Switzerland is a confederation, and its 26 member cantons (twenty full cantons and six half-cantons) have an extensive measure of sovereignty. Seventeen of these cantons are German-speaking, four French-speaking (Jura, Neuch?tel, Vaud and Geneva), one Italian-speaking (Ticino) and four have more than one language (Berne, Fribourg, Valais and Graub?nden). Three of these are bilingual (French/German), whilst the fourth, Graub?nden1, is trilingual (German, Romansh and Italian). In addition, numerous other languages that are not Swiss national languages are spoken by migrant workers and other immigrants.

ROMANSH BASICS
Where are the Romansh located?

    The Romansh are found in two contexts: the first is in the traditional homeland as defined as areas with current or recent Romansh majorities, and the second context could be called diasporic, where they are both dispersed and integrated into other language communities. Both contexts are found in the Swiss Canton of Grisons (Graub?nden is the Swiss-German name for the Canton and Grischun is the standardized Romansh name) where the majority of Romansh speakers live.
    Demographic variations exist between rural areas with near-homogenous and aging populations and urban conglomerations with diverse culture groups. Areas with high percentages (above 50%) of Romansh speakers only exist in small and medium sized villages with two strong concentrations: the upper Rhine valley known as Surselva (Vorderrheintal in German) and the lower Engadine valley along the Inn River. In the traditional rural areas, cheese/milk agriculture, alpine tourism and other services are the predominant activities.
    The diasporic context is found in both Graub?nden/Grischun and in Switzerland as a whole especially Z?rich, and even some other countries. The pattern here is integration with other languages, predominately German, and participation in the Swiss/global economy. Except for those areas adjacent to traditional areas or in Chur, these Romansh have only minimal access to Romansh education.

Who are the Romansh?

    This is even more complex than where, but a simple answer is those who speak the Romansh language by virtue of how the tabulation of statistics is conducted i.e. "what language do you speak" on the national census. The not so simple answer is a mixture of overlapping identities that include Swiss (a unique nationalism), B?ndner/Grischun/Rhaetian regionalism, and fragmented sub-groups based on linguistic and confessional differences.
    Other names for the Romansh are more a matter of perspective and language of the observer. Interestingly, none of the five Romansh dialects historically called themselves "Romansh." The German term R?toromanisch is probably the most important because German has been the predominant contact, displacement, and research language. The hyphen "Rhaeto-" refers to both the pre Roman peoples which was used by the Romans as the provincial name, and the persistence of the term in a geographical sense to imply location.
    The five dialects of Romansh are Sursilvan, Sutsilvan, Surmeiran, Puter, and Vallader. The first 3 are in the drainage basin of the Rhine River, and the later two also known collectively as Ladin are in the Inn River valley (Engadine). Romansh as a whole is classified with two other languages (Ladin in the Dolomites of South Tyrol, and Friulian in Northeast Italy) as the "Rhaeto-Romance" language on par with other Romance languages such as French and Italian.

Solomon

[Bart]

   The Romance languages are a group of closely related vernaculars descended from the LATIN LANGUAGE, a member of the Italic branch of INDO-EUROPEAN LANGUAGES. The designation Romance is derived from the Latin phrase romanica loqui, "to speak in Roman fashion," which attests to the popular, rather than literary, origins of the languages.

   The Romance languages that have acquired national standing as the official tongues of their countries are French, with approximately 98 million speakers living principally in France, Belgium, Switzerland, Canada, and parts of Africa; Italian, with 65 million speakers in Italy, Switzerland, and parts of Africa; Portuguese, with 137 million speakers in Portugal, Brazil, and parts of Africa and Asia; Spanish, with 231 million speakers in Spain, Latin America, and parts of the Caribbean; and Romanian, with 25 million speakers in Romania and other parts of the Balkans.

   In strict geographical terms, these languages are even more widespread, for there are large pockets of Spanish speakers in the United States, Italian speakers in Argentina, Romanian speakers in Yugoslavia, and so on.

Nonnational Languages

   Several distinct Romance languages function as nonnational, regional vernaculars. Among these are Rheto-Romance, or Rhaetian, which consists of a group of related languages spoken in Switzerland, where they are called Romansch, and in northern Italy, where they are called Ladin or Friulian. In southern France, Provencal, or Occitan, is spoken by about 12 million people. Formerly more unified as a literary language, Provencal now consists of a series of local dialects.

   Catalan, with about 5 million speakers, is used alongside Spanish as the language of Catalonia on the Spanish Mediterranean coast from the French border to Valencia. It is also spoken in Alghero, Sardinia, in the Balearic Islands, and in the Pyrenean valley of Aran, the French region of Rousillon, and the semiprincipality of Andorra. During the Middle Ages, Catalan was closely related to the southern French dialects.

   Sardinian is the collective name for a group of Romance languages spoken on the island of Sardinia by nearly 1 million people. It is of particular interest to Romance scholars because of the archaic features of its dialects, such as the retention of the Latin sound k that other Romance languages have palatalized (compare Sardinian kelu with French ciel, Italian and Spanish cielo, and Romanian cer).

   Ladino, also called Judaeo-Romance or Sephardic, is spoken by Sephardic Jews in Istanbul, Salonika, and elsewhere around the Mediterranean. It is based on 15th-century Spanish, reflecting the time when the Jews were expelled from Spain by royal edict. The language also contains Turkish, Greek, and Hebrew elements.

   Romance creoles, whose origins are found in PIDGINS or simplified trade languages, have also sprung up around the world. Haitian and Louisiana French are such languages, as are the varieties of Portuguese found in Macao and Goa.

   At least one recorded Romance language, Dalmatian, has become extinct. Formerly spoken along the eastern coast of the Adriatic, Dalmatian consisted of at least two dialects: Ragusan, known only from a few medieval documents, and Veglian, which disappeared in 1898 when its last speaker was blown up by a land mine.

Vulgar Latin

   From the evidence of Latin grammarians, popular playwrights, and inscriptions, it is apparent that in Republican Rome the spoken language of the lower classes was undergoing modifications in pronunciation and grammar that ultimately were to differentiate it from the written language and the language of the privileged. During the period of empire and Roman expansion, it was this Latin of the people, so-called Vulgar Latin, that was carried to the far-flung provinces by soldiers, merchants, and colonists.

   Not all provinces were Romanized at the same time, however. Sicily and Sardinia were colonized as early as 238 BC, while Dacia--modern Romania--did not come under Roman occupation until about AD 100. In the provinces, Vulgar Latin underwent further modification by the subjugated peoples, who brought to it their own speech habits and pronunciation influenced by their own indigenous languages. The Iberians, for example, pronounced Latin one way, whereas the Gauls pronounced it another.

   The collapse of the empire's frontiers during the 5th century under the thrust of Germanic tribes left Rome cut off from the provinces, and the outer regions drifted apart as each modified its form of spoken Latin in unique ways. In every region of the former Latin-speaking world, the emerging Romance languages then in turn began to break up among themselves.

French and Provencal

   In Gallo-Roman France, a split occurred between north and south, assisted by incursions of Germanic-speaking Franks--whence the name "France"--into the north. Here, too, further dialectalization occurred throughout the Middle Ages, resulting in a multitude of speech forms such as Francien, Picard, Norman, Lorrain, and Walloon. Southern French, or Provencal, split into Languedocien, Auvergnat, and many other dialects. The dialect of Paris gradually became the national language, however, because of the political prestige of the capital and today is accepted as the model for the French language.

Italian

   Dialectal varieties of the emerging Italian language revolved around Gallo-Italian in the northwest; a northeastern or Venetian group; a central dialectal group that included the speech of Tuscany, Umbria, northern Latium (the province of Rome), and Corsica; and clusters of dialects to the south, including Abruzzese-Neapolitan and Calabrian-Sicilian. The ultimate predominance of Tuscan as the standard was a result more of the cultural than of any political prestige of Florence. Although the speech of Tuscany has long been considered the most prestigious form of Italian, however, that of Rome is fast becoming the standard language.

Spanish and Portuguese

   On the Iberian peninsula, two languages developed, each with its own dialects. Galician-Portuguese broke into northwestern, central, and southern dialects; Spanish came to embrace Leonese and Castilian in the center of the peninsula, Aragonese further to the east, and Andalusian in the south. The dialect of Lisbon vies with that of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil as the standard form of Portuguese taught in North American schools and as the model for the language.

   Castilian Spanish, spoken in central Spain, including the capital Madrid, is generally thought of as the most prestigious form of Spanish, although Mexican Spanish is often taught in North American classrooms.

Romanian

    Romanian has broken into several dialects, such as Macedo-Romanian, spoken in southern Macedonia, and Isto-Romanian, the language of a few thousand people in northwestern Croatia. The dialect of Bucharest serves as the standard language.

LINGUISTIC FEATURES

   Similarities and differences among the Romance languages and their relation to Latin may be seen in the following sentences, which mean "The poet loves the girl":

Latin
Poeta puellam amat

French
Le poete aime la jeune fille

Italian
Il poeta ama la ragazza

Portuguese
O poeta ama a menina

Spanish
El poeta ama a la muchacha

Romanian
Poetul iubeste fata

   The word poet was borrowed from Greek by Latin, underscoring the fact that not all Romance words, even when derived from Latin, were originally Italic. Some vocabulary may differ from one Romance language to another because words were taken from different Latin forms with similar meanings, or were borrowed from the local native languages. Sometimes words were incorporated into one or the other of the Romance languages from neighboring tongues; Spanish izquierdo, "left," for example, comes from Basque, and Romanian sticla, "drinking glass," comes from Slavic. It was also often the case that new words entered Romance languages from the vocabulary of conquering peoples: Spanish aceite and Portuguese azeite, "oil," come from Arabic, and French danser, "to dance," and gagner, "to harvest," were borrowed from Germanic.

The Case System

   Broadly speaking, the trend or direction of change in the Romance languages has been to reduce the Latin case system through elimination of the distinctive endings. The Latin word porta, "door," for instance, had three singular forms: nominative, vocative, and ablative porta; accusative portam; and genitive and dative portae. Modern Romance languages, however, use only one singular form: French porte, Italian and Portuguese porta, Spanish puerta, and Romanian poarta. Other modern Romance linguistic features include the elimination of neuter gender, the development of the definite article, greater use of prepositions, stricter word order, and the emergence of auxiliary verbs to express tense.

Verb Paradigms

   French leveled the verb paradigms to such an extent that subject pronouns became mandatory (contrast French je chante, "I sing," with Italian canto); but in general the Latin paradigm has remained intact.
   Notable in phonology was the loss of opposition between Latin long and short vowels, the voicing of intervocalic voiceless consonants, and in some languages the loss of syllable- and word-final s. The emergence of accentual patterns led to the reduction or loss of many unstressed vowels in the more heavily accented languages such as Gallo-Roman and Old French, and to the diphthongization of some stressed vowels in most of the Romance languages. Only in French and Portuguese, however, did vowels before a nasal consonant undergo nasalization--compare French main, "hand," with Portuguese mao and Spanish and Italian mano.

HISTORICAL IMPORTANCE

   Latin continued to be the only medium of written expression during the early Middle Ages, and the first extant text of substantial length in Romance--the so-called Oaths of Strasbourg, a treaty of alliance sworn by two of Charlemagne's descendants--dates as late as 842.

   No other group of languages, however, provides such extensive documentation of both the mother tongue, Latin, and the descendant Romance languages. This invaluable legacy has allowed greater insight into the causes and effects of language change, and offers a unique opportunity for historical linguists to test many of their hypotheses.

James M. Anderson

   Bibliography: Anderson, James M., and Rochet, Bernard, Historical Romance Morphology (1978); Auerbach, Erich, Introduction to Romance Languages and Literature (1961); Elcock, W. D., The Romance Languages (1960); Grandgent, C. H., An Introduction to Vulgar Latin (1907); Hall, Robert, External History of the Romance Languages (1974); Harris, M., and Vincent N., eds., The Romance Languages (1990); Heatwole, O. W., A Comparative Practical Grammar of French, Spanish, and Italian (1956); Iordan, Iorgu, and Orr, John, An Introduction to Romance Linguistics, Its Schools and Scholars, 2d ed. (1970); Posner, R., The Romance Languages: A Linguistic Introduction (1970); Pountain, C. J., Structures and Transformations: The Romance Verb (1983).

http://ancienthistory.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?zi=1/XJ/Ya&sdn=ancienthistory&cdn=education&tm=105&gps=93_308_1020_610&f=00&tt=14&bt=1&bts=1&zu=http%3A//www.angelfire.com/md/Orastie/Romance.html

[Solomon]

Vulgar Latin, as in this political graffiti at Pompeii, was the way that ordinary people of the Roman Empire spoke, which was different from the Classical Latin used by the Roman elite.

The point to emphasise here is, I think, not Latin so much as Vulgar Latin:

Vulgar Latin (in Latin, sermo vulgaris, "common speech") is a blanket term covering the vernacular dialects and sociolects of the Latin language until those dialects, diverging still further, evolved into the early Romance languages ? a distinction usually made around the ninth century. It includes late Latin and the terms are often used synonymously. However, Vulgar Latin is also used to refer to vernacular speech from other time periods including the Classical period.

This spoken Latin came to differ from Classical Latin in its pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammar. Some features of Vulgar Latin did not appear until the late Empire. Other features are likely to have been in place in spoken Latin, in at least its basilectal forms, much earlier.

It means the spoken Latin of the Roman Empire. Classical Latin represents the literary register of Latin. It represented a selection from a variety of available spoken forms. The Latin brought by Roman soldiers to Gaul, Iberia or Dacia was not identical to the Latin of Cicero, and differed from it in vocabulary, syntax, and grammar.[1] By this definition, Vulgar Latin was a spoken language and "late" Latin was used for writing, its general style being slightly different from earlier "classic" standards.

It means the hypothetical ancestor of the Romance languages ("Proto-Romance"). This is a language which cannot be directly known apart from through a few graffiti inscriptions; it was Latin that had undergone a number of important sound shifts and changes, which can be reconstructed from the changes that are evident in its descendants, the Romance vernaculars.

Solomon

[Bart]

 One of the other remains of the Roman Empire is still extant today. Most travelers are daunted by the prospect of driving in countries which drive on opposite sides of the road from their own. The Romans set the original standard by driving and riding on the left, which was adopted throughout their vast Empire until the 1800s when Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte decreed it should be done on the right. French colonial influence in North America resulted in its introduction there and that's why Americans and Canadians now drive on the right.

Bart