Origins and development until modern times Romansh originates from the
spoken Latin brought to the region by Roman soldiers, merchants, and officials following the
conquest of the modern-day Grisons area by the Romans in 15 BC. Before that, the inhabitants spoke
Celtic and
Raetic languages, with Raetic apparently being spoken mainly in the
Lower Engadine valley. Traces of these languages survive mainly in
toponyms, including village names such as
Tschlin,
Scuol,
Savognin,
Glion,
Breil/Brigels,
Brienz/Brinzauls,
Purtenza, and
Trun. Additionally, a small number of pre-Latin words have survived in Romansh, mainly concerning animals, plants, and geological features unique to the
Alps, such as
camutsch "
chamois" and
grava "
scree". It is unknown how rapidly the Celtic and Raetic inhabitants were
Romanized following the conquest of Raetia. Some linguists assume that the area was rapidly Romanized following the Roman conquest, whereas others think that this process did not end until the 4th or 5th century, when more thoroughly Romanized Celts from farther north fled south to avoid
invasions by Germanic tribes. The process was certainly complete and the pre-Roman languages extinct by the 5th–6th century, when Raetia became part of the
Ostrogothic Kingdom. Around 537 AD, the Ostrogoths handed over the province of
Raetia Prima to the
Frankish Empire, which continued to have local rulers administering the so-called Duchy of
Chur. However, after the death of the last
Victorid ruler, Bishop
Tello, around 765 AD,
Charlemagne assigned a Germanic duke to administer the region. Additionally, the
Diocese of Chur was transferred by the (pre-
Schism) Roman Catholic Church from the
Archdiocese of Milan to the
Diocese of Mainz in 843 AD. The combined effect was a cultural reorientation towards the German-speaking north, especially as the ruling élite now comprised almost entirely speakers of German. At the time, Romansh was spoken over a much wider area, stretching north into the present-day cantons of
Glarus and
St. Gallen, to the
Walensee in the northwest, and
Rüthi and the
Alpine Rhine Valley in the northeast. In the east, parts of modern-day
Vorarlberg were Romansh-speaking, as were parts of
Tyrol. The northern areas, called Lower Raetia, became German-speaking by the 12th century; and by the 15th century, the Rhine Valley of St. Gallen and the areas around the Walensee were entirely German-speaking. This language shift was a long, drawn-out process, with larger, central towns adopting German first, while the more peripheral areas around them remained Romansh-speaking longer. The shift to German was caused in particular by the influence of the local German-speaking élites and by German-speaking immigrants from the north, with the lower and rural classes retaining Romansh longer. In addition, beginning around 1270, the German-speaking
Walser began settling in sparsely populated or uninhabited areas within the Romansh-speaking heartland. The Walser sometimes expanded into Romansh-speaking areas from their original settlements, which then often became German-speaking, such as
Davos,
Schanfigg, the
Prättigau,
Schams, and
Valendas, which became German-speaking by the 14th century. In rare cases, these Walser settlements were eventually assimilated by their Romansh-speaking neighbors; for instance,
Surses,
Medel, and
Tujetsch in the Surselva region. The Germanization of
Chur had particularly long-term consequences. Even though the city had long before ceased to be a cultural center of Romansh, the spoken language of the capital of the Diocese of Chur continued to be Romansh until the 15th century. After a fire in 1465 which virtually destroyed the city, many German-speaking artisans who had been called in to help repair the damage settled there, causing German to become the majority language. In a chronicle written in 1571–72, Durich Chiampell mentions that Romansh was still spoken in Chur roughly a hundred years before, but had since then rapidly given way to German and was now not much appreciated by the inhabitants of the city. Many linguists regard the loss of Chur to German as a crucial event. According to Sylvia Osswald, for example, it occurred precisely at a time when the introduction of the printing press could have led to the adoption of the Romansh dialect of the capital as a common written language for all Romansh speakers. Other linguists such as Jachen Curdin Arquint remain skeptical of this view, however, and assume that the various Romansh-speaking regions would still have developed their own separate written standards. Instead, several regional written varieties of Romansh began appearing during the 16th century.
Gian Travers wrote the first surviving work in Romansh, the
Chianzun dalla guerra dagl Chiaste da Müs, in the Putèr dialect. This epic poem, written in 1527, describes the
first Musso war, in which Travers himself had taken part. Travers also translated numerous biblical plays into Romansh, though only the titles survive for many of them. Another early writer,
Giachem Bifrun, who also wrote in Putèr, penned the first printed book in Romansh, a catechism published in 1552. In 1560 he published a translation of the
New Testament: ''L'g Nuof Sainc Testamaint da nos Signer Jesu Christ''. Two years later, in 1562, another writer from the Engadine,
Durich Chiampel, published the
Cudesch da Psalms, a collection of church songs in the Vallader dialect. These early works are generally well written and show that the authors had a large amount of Romansh vocabulary at their disposal, contrary to what one might expect of the first pieces of writing in a language. Because of this, the linguist Ricarda Liver assumes that these written works built on an earlier, pre-literature tradition of using Romansh in administrative and legal situations, of which no evidence survives. In their prefaces, the authors themselves often mention the novelty of writing Romansh, and discuss an apparently common prejudice that Romansh was a language that could not be written. The first writing in the Sursilvan and Sutsilvan dialects appears in the 17th century. As in the Engadine, these early works usually focused on religious themes, in particular the struggles between Protestants and Counter-Reformers.
Daniel Bonifaci produced the first surviving work in this category, the catechism
Curt mussameint dels principals punctgs della Christianevla Religiun, published in 1601 in the Sutsilvan dialect. A second edition, published in 1615, is closer to Sursilvan, however, and writings in Sutsilvan do not appear again until the 20th century. In 1611, ("The true joys of young people"), a series of religious instructions for Protestant youths, was published by
Steffan Gabriel. Four years later, in 1615, a Catholic catechism,
Curt Mussament, was published in response, written by
Gion Antoni Calvenzano. The first translation of the New Testament into Sursilvan was published in 1648 by the son of Steffan Gabriel,
Luci Gabriel. The first complete translation of the Bible, the
Bibla da Cuera, was published between 1717 and 1719. The Sursilvan dialect thus had two separate written varieties, one used by the Protestants with its cultural center around
Ilanz, and a Catholic variety with the
Disentis Abbey as its center. The Engadine dialect was also written in two varieties: Putèr in the Upper Valley and Vallader in the Lower Valley. The Sutsilvan areas either used the Protestant variety of Sursilvan, or simply used German as their main written language. The Surmiran region began developing its own variety in the early 18th century, with a catechism being published in 1703, though either the Catholic variety of Sursilvan or Putèr was more commonly used there until the 20th century. In the 16th century, the language border between Romansh and German largely stabilized, and it remained almost unchanged until the late 19th century. During this period, only isolated areas became German-speaking, mainly a few villages around
Thusis and the village of
Samnaun. In the case of Samnaun, the inhabitants adopted the Bavarian dialect of neighboring Tyrol, making Samnaun the only municipality of Switzerland where a Bavarian dialect is spoken. The
Vinschgau in South Tyrol was still Romansh-speaking in the 17th century, after which it became entirely German-speaking because of the
Counter-Reformation denunciation of Romansh as a "Protestant language". Others, however, saw Romansh as an economic asset, since it gave the Romansh an advantage when learning other Romance languages. In 1807, for example, the priest Mattli Conrad wrote an article listing the advantages and disadvantages of Romansh: In response, the editor of the newspaper added that: According to the testimony of experienced and vigilant language teachers, while the one who is born Romansh can easily learn to understand these languages and make himself understood in them, he has great difficulties in learning them properly, since precisely because of the similarity, he mixes them so easily with his own bastardized language. [...] in any case, the conveniences named should hold no weight against all the disadvantages that come from such an isolated and uneducated language. According to Mathias Kundert, this quote is a good example of the attitude of many German-speakers towards Romansh at the time. According to Mathias Kundert, while there was never a plan to Germanize the Romansh areas of Grisons, many German-speaking groups wished that the entire canton would become German-speaking. They were careful, however, to avoid any drastic measures to that extent, in order not to antagonize the influential Romansh minority. The decline of Romansh over the 20th century can be seen through the results of the Swiss censuses. The decline in percentages is only partially due to the Germanization of Romansh areas, since the Romansh-speaking valleys always had a lower overall population growth than other parts of the canton. Starting in the mid-19th century, however, a revival movement began, often called the "Rhaeto-Romansh renaissance". This movement involved an increased cultural activity, as well as the foundation of several organizations dedicated to protecting the Romansh language. In 1863, the first of several attempts was made to found an association for all Romansh regions, which eventually led to the foundation of the in 1885. In 1919, the
Lia Rumantscha was founded to serve as an umbrella organization for the various regional language societies. Additionally, the role of Romansh in schooling was strengthened, with the first Romansh school books being published in the 1830s and 1840s. Initially, these were merely translations of the German editions, but by the end of the 19th century teaching materials were introduced which took the local Romansh culture into consideration. Additionally, Romansh was introduced as a subject in teacher's college in 1860 and was recognized as an official language by the canton in 1880. Around the same time, grammar and spelling guidelines began to be developed for the regional written dialects. One of the earliest was the by
Zaccaria Pallioppi, published in 1857. For Sursilvan, a first attempt to standardize the written language was the by Baseli Carigiet, published in 1858, followed by a Sursilvan-German dictionary in 1882, and the
Normas ortografias by Giachen Caspar Muoth in 1888. Neither of these guidelines managed to gather much support. At the same time, the Canton published school books in its own variety. Sursilvan was then definitely standardized through the works of
Gion Cahannes, who published
Grammatica Romontscha per Surselva e Sutselva in 1924, followed by
Entruidament devart nossa ortografia in 1927. The Surmiran dialect had its own norms established in 1903, when the Canton agreed to finance the school book
Codesch da lectura per las scolas primaras de Surmeir, though a definite guideline, the
Normas ortograficas per igl rumantsch da Surmeir, was not published until 1939. In the meantime, the norms of Pallioppi had come under criticism in the Engadine due to the strong influence of Italian in them. This led to an orthographic reform which was concluded by 1928, when the by Cristoffel Bardola was published. A separate written variety for Sutsilvan was developed in 1944 by
Giuseppe Gangale. Around 1880, the entire Romansh-speaking area still formed a continuous geographical unit. But by the end of the century, the so-called "Central-Grisons language bridge" began to disappear. From
Thusis, which had become German-speaking in the 16th/17th century, the
Heinzenberg and
Domleschg valleys were gradually Germanized over the next decades. Around the turn of the century, the inner Heinzenberg and
Cazis became German-speaking, followed by
Rothenbrunnen,
Rodels,
Almens, and
Pratval, splitting the Romansh area into two geographically non-connected parts. In the 1920s and 1930s the rest of the villages in the valley became mainly German-speaking, sealing the split. In order to halt the decline of Romansh, the Lia Rumantscha began establishing Romansh day care schools, called , beginning in the 1940s with the aim of reintroducing Romansh to children. Although the had some success – of the ten villages where Scoletas were established, the children began speaking Romansh amongst themselves in four, with the children in four others acquiring at least some knowledge of Romansh – the program ultimately failed to preserve the language in the valley. A key factor was the disinterest of the parents, whose main motivation for sending their children to the Scoletas appears to have been that they were looked after for a few hours and given a meal every day, rather than an interest in preserving Romansh. The other factor was that after entering primary school, the children received a few hours a week of Romansh instruction at best. As a result, the last Scoletas were closed in the 1960s with the exception of
Präz, where the Scoleta remained open until 1979. In other areas, such as the Engadine and the Surselva, where the pressure of German was equally strong, Romansh was maintained much better and remained a commonly spoken language. According to the linguist Mathias Kundert, one important factor was the different social prestige of Romansh. In the Heinzenberg and Domleschg valleys, the elite had been German-speaking for centuries, so that German was associated with power and education, even though most people did not speak it, whereas Romansh was associated with peasant life. In the Engadine and the Surselva by contrast, the elite was itself Romansh-speaking, so that Romansh there was "not only the language spoken to children and cows, but also that of the village notable, the priest, and the teacher." Additionally, Romansh schools had been common for several years before German had become a necessity, so that Romansh was firmly established as a medium of education. Likewise, in the Upper Engadine, where factors such as increased mobility and immigration by German speakers were even stronger, Romansh was more firmly established as a language of education and administration, so that the language was maintained to a much greater extent. In the Central Grisons, by contrast, German had been a central part of schooling since the beginning, and virtually all schools switched entirely to German as the language of instruction by 1900, with children in many schools being punished for speaking Romansh well into the 1930s.
Rumantsch Grischun Early attempts to create a unified written language for Romansh include the
Romonsch fusionau of Gion Antoni Bühler in 1867 and the
Interrumantsch by Leza Uffer in 1958. Neither was able to gain much support, and their creators were largely the only ones actively using them. In the meantime, the Romansh movement sought to promote the different regional varieties while promoting a gradual convergence of the five varieties, called the "
avischinaziun". In 1982, however, the then secretary of the Lia Rumantscha, a sociolinguist named , launched a project for designing a pan-regional variety. The linguist
Heinrich Schmid presented to the Lia Rumantscha the same year the rules and directives for this standard language under the name Rumantsch Grischun (Rumantsch Grischun:
rumantsch grischun). Schmid's approach consisted of creating a language as equally acceptable as possible to speakers of the different dialects, by choosing those forms which were found in a majority of the three strongest varieties: Sursilvan, Vallader, and Surmiran (Puter has more speakers than Surmiran but is spoken by a lower percentage of the population in its area). The elaboration of the new standard was endorsed by the
Swiss National Fund and carried out by a team of young Romansh linguists under the guidance of Georges Darms and Anna-Alice Dazzi-Gross. The Lia Rumantscha then began introducing Rumantsch Grischun to the public, announcing that it would be chiefly introduced into domains where only German was being used, such as official forms and documents, billboards, and commercials. In 1984, the assembly of delegates of the head organization Lia Rumantscha decided to use the new standard language when addressing all Romansh-speaking areas of the Grisons. From the very start, Rumansh Grischun has been implemented only on the basis of a decision of the particular institutions. In 1986, the federal administration began to use Rumantsch Grischun for single texts. The same year, however, several influential figures began to criticize the introduction of Rumantsch Grischun. Donat Cadruvi, at the time the president of the cantonal government, claimed that the Lia Rumantscha was trying to force the issue. Romansh writer Theo Candinas also called for a public debate on the issue, calling Rumantsch Grischun a "plague" and "death blow" to Romansh and its introduction a "Romansh Kristallnacht", thus launching a highly emotional and bitter debate which would continue for several years. The following year, Candinas published another article titled
Rubadurs Garmadis in which he compared the proponents of Rumantsch Grischun to Nazi thugs raiding a Romansh village and desecrating, destroying, and burning the Romansh cultural heritage. The proponents responded by labeling the opponents as a small group of archconservative and narrow-minded Sursilvans and
CVP politicians among other things. The debate was characterized by a heavy use of metaphors, with opponents describing Rumantsch Grischun as a "test-tube baby" or "castrated language". They argued that it was an artificial and infertile creation which lacked a heart and soul, in contrast to the traditional dialects. On the other side, proponents called on the
Romansh people to nurture the "new-born" to allow it to grow, with Romansh writer Ursicin Derungs calling Rumantsch Grischun a "
lungatg virginal" "virgin language" that now had to be seduced and turned into a blossoming woman. The opposition to Rumantsch Grischun also became clear in the Swiss census of 1990, in which certain municipalities refused to distribute questionnaires in Rumantsch Grischun, requesting the German version instead. Following a survey on the opinion of the Romansh population on the issue, the government of the Grisons decided in 1996 that Rumantsch Grischun would be used when addressing all Romansh speakers, but the regional varieties could continue to be used when addressing a single region or municipality. In schools, Rumantsch Grischun was not to replace the regional dialects but only be taught passively. The compromise was largely accepted by both sides. A further recommendation in 1999, known as the "Haltinger concept", also proposed that the regional varieties should remain the basis of the Romansh schools, with Rumantsch Grischun being introduced in middle school and secondary school. The government of the Grisons then took steps to strengthen the role of Rumantsch Grischun as an official language. Since the cantonal constitution explicitly named Sursilvan and Engadinese as the languages of ballots, a referendum was launched to amend the relevant article. In the referendum, which took place on June 10, 2001, 65% voted in favor of naming Rumantsch Grischun the only official Romansh variety of the Canton. Opponents of Rumantsch Grischun such as Renata Coray and Matthias Grünert argue, however, that if only those municipalities with at least 30% Romansh speakers were considered, the referendum would have been rejected by 51%, with an even larger margin if only those with at least 50% Romansh speakers were considered. They thus interpret the results as the Romansh minority having been overruled by the German-speaking majority of the canton. A major change in policy came in 2003, when the cantonal government proposed a number of spending cuts, including a proposal according to which new Romansh teaching materials would not be published except in Rumantsch Grischun from 2006 onwards, the logical result of which would be to abolish the regional varieties as languages of instruction. The cantonal parliament passed the measure in August 2003, even advancing the deadline to 2005. The decision was met by strong opposition, in particular in the Engadine, where teachers collected over 4,300 signatures opposing the measure, followed by a second petition signed by around 180 Romansh writers and cultural figures, including many who were supportive of Rumantsch Grischun but opposed its introduction as a language of instruction. Opponents argued that Romansh culture and identity was transmitted through the regional varieties and not through Rumantsch Grischun and that Rumantsch Grischun would serve to weaken rather than strengthen Romansh, possibly leading to a switch to German-language schools and a swift Germanization of Romansh areas. The cantonal government refused to debate the issue again, instead deciding on a three-step plan in December 2004 to introduce Rumantsch Grischun as the language of schooling, allowing the municipalities to choose when they would make the switch. The decision not to publish any new teaching materials in the regional varieties was not overturned at this point, however, raising the question of what would happen in those municipalities that refused to introduce Rumantsch Grischun at all, since the language of schooling is decided by the municipalities themselves in the Grisons. The teachers of the Engadine in particular were outraged over the decision, but those in the Surmeir were mostly satisfied. Few opinions were heard from the Surselva, which was interpreted either as support or resignation, depending on the viewpoint of the observer. In 2007–2008, 23 so called "pioneer-municipalities" (
Lantsch/Lenz,
Brienz/Brinzauls,
Tiefencastel,
Alvaschein,
Mon,
Stierva,
Salouf,
Cunter,
Riom-Parsonz,
Savognin,
Tinizong-Rona,
Mulegns,
Sur,
Marmorera,
Falera,
Laax,
Trin,
Müstair,
Santa Maria Val Müstair,
Valchava,
Fuldera,
Tschierv and
Lü) introduced Rumantsch Grischun as the language of instruction in 1st grade, followed by an additional 11 (
Ilanz,
Schnaus,
Flond,
Schluein,
Pitasch,
Riein,
Sevgein,
Castrisch,
Surcuolm,
Luven and
Duvin) the following year and another 6 (
Sagogn,
Rueun,
Siat,
Pigniu,
Waltensburg/Vuorz and
Andiast) in 2009–2010. However, other municipalities, including the entire Engadine valley and most of the Surselva, continued to use their regional variety. The cantonal government aimed to introduce Rumantsch Grischun as the sole language of instruction in Romansh schools by 2020. In early 2011, a group of opponents in the Surselva and the Engadine founded the association
Pro Idioms, demanding the overturning of the government decision of 2003 and launching numerous local initiatives to return to the regional varieties as the language of instruction. In April 2011,
Riein became the first municipality to vote to return to teaching in Sursilvan, followed by an additional 4 in December, and a further 10 in early 2012, including
Val Müstair (returning to Vallader), which had been the first to introduce Rumantsch Grischun. As of September 2013, all those municipalities in the Surselva which had switched to Rumantsch Grischun had decided to return to teaching in Sursilvan, with the exception of
Pitasch, which, followed later. Supporters of Rumantsch Grischun then announced that they would take the issue to the Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland and announced their intention to launch a cantonal referendum to enshrine Rumantsch Grischun as the language of instruction. The Lia Rumantscha opposes these moves and now supports a model of coexistence in which Rumantsch Grischun will supplement but not replace the regional varieties in school. It cites the need for keeping linguistic peace among Romansh speakers, as it says that the decades-long debate over the issue has torn friends and even families apart. The canton's 2003 decision not to finance school books in the regional varieties was overturned in December 2011. Rumantsch Grischun is still a project in progress. At the start of 2014, it was in use as a school language in the central part of the Grisons and in the bilingual classes in the region of Chur. It was taught in upper-secondary schools, in the university of teacher education in Chur and at the universities of Zürich and
Fribourg, along with the Romansh idioms. It remains an official and administrative language in the Swiss Confederation and the Canton of the Grisons as well as in public and private institutions for all kinds of texts intended for the whole Romansh-speaking territory. Until 2021, Surmiran was the only regional variety that was not taught in schools, as all the Surmiran-writing municipalities had switched to Rumantsch Grischun. However, referendums in
Surses,
Lantsch/Lenz and
Albula/Alvra in 2020 led to the return to Surmiran as the language of instruction in the entire Surmiran-writing area, beginning with those pupils who started school in 2021. The only primary schools that will continue teaching in Rumantsch Grischun are the bilingual Romansh/German schools in the cantonal capital of Chur, which is located in a German-speaking area, and in
Trin and
Domat/Ems, where the local dialects are Sutsilvan but Sursilvan has traditionally been used as the written language. Rumantsch Grischun is read in the news of
Radiotelevisiun Svizra Rumantscha and written in the daily newspaper
La Quotidiana, along with the Romansh idioms. Thanks to many new texts in a wide variety of political and social functions, the Romansh vocabulary has been decisively broadened. The "Pledari Grond" German–Rumantsch Grischun dictionary, with more than 215 000 entries, is the most comprehensive collection of Romansh words, which can also be used in the
idioms with the necessary phonetic shifts. The signatories of "Pro Rumantsch" stress that Romansh needs both the idioms and Rumantsch Grischun if it is to improve its chances in today's communication society. There also exist individual dictionaries for each of the different idioms:
Sursilvan,
Vallader,
Puter,
Surmiran, and
Sutsilvan. As well, the "Pledari Grond" dictionary links to several texts on the grammar of Vallader, Puter, and Rumantsch Grischun. == Official status in Switzerland and language politics ==