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 (Graubünden 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 Graubünden/Grischun and in Switzerland as a whole especially Zürich, 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), Bündner/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 Rätoromanisch 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.
 

What are the major issues?

    Cultural survival is the main issue!The activities of the Romansh to preserve and even enhance their language are the most interesting aspects to observe. Three things that stand out are (1) the Swiss support for the Romansh which is both substantial with monetary subsidies and symbolic with democratically achieved "national" language status; (2) the evolving language situation, which is dramatic as a new standardized written language (Rumantsch Grischun) is introduced, the Romansh are geographically mobile, and technology such as the internet are encountered; and (3) landscape changes due to ethnic awareness such as the deliberate modification of signs as well as planning and management of tourism development.
    The significance of the Romansh language survival is more than their own. Their situation is about as ideal as a small language can expect: a supportive democracy & government and relatively high level of development & wealth. Their successes can be used as a model for other endangered languages if we understand the important activities and mindsets of their preservation. Their failures would also indicate the likely demise of the thousands of small languages without equivalent support, or the need for alternative methods of development.

Other Pages associated with this website.

DISSERTATION

Quick References:
    10 references to start your own research.

LINKS: direct links to some of the important and interesting web sites.

MAPS: graphical representation of the Romansh.

STATISTICS: tabular data for numerical perspective.

AUTHORIAL INFO: Erik Prout and communication.

Deep Thoughts: Reflections on the Research.