Romansh: Switzerland's Mountain Language

Oh my Zarli, another video coming out at you. This time about a little spoken Romance Language from the Swiss Alps. Come learn about Romansh's history and how it's doing today. I've been working on this since December so please be nice :) (Making videos is still hard).
SOURCES BELOW:
Video at the end: • Purtret da Zarli Carig...
Official languages of Switzerland: www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/19... (Article 4)
Spiritual Defense and Romansh as an Alpine language books.google.com/books?id=3hD...
www.bfs.admin.ch/bfs/fr/home/... romansh speakers since 1900
Romansh is limited to Grisons hls-dhs-dss.ch/fr/articles/00...
www.prorumantsch.ch/partenza.html
www.swissinfo.ch/eng/official... Partially official language, romansh speakers don’t take advantage of romansh as an official language
www.uh.edu/engines/epi2723.htm
“Most language has no standard form”
www.swissinfo.ch/eng/educatio...
Romansh people are attached to idioms
romontsch.ch/rumantsch-grisch...
www.swissinfo.ch/eng/romansh-...
ecoregions.appspot.com/
Switzerland is mountains and trees
www.swissinfo.ch/eng/romansh-...
www.nzz.ch/sparen_mit_rumants...
www.gr.ch/DE/Medien/Mitteilun...
(Pioneer municipalities)
www.persee.fr/doc/rbph_0035-0...
books.google.com/books?id=zWS...
(probably form a distinct family)
www.cso.ie/en/csolatestnews/p...
data.cso.ie/
digital.march.es/fedora/objec... (batua contemporary)
web.archive.org/web/201808211...
en.eustat.eus/estadisticas/te... (basque school statistics)
Romansh School dates
www.nationalgeographic.com/tr...
blog.lingoda.com/en/the-roman...

[@andreraphael6727]

It sounds like a northern italian language, but spoken with a heavy german accent which makes it incomprehensible to a latin ear. The written form is much easier to understand. That's my take as an italian. Congratulations for your work.

[@iulianzagan779]

Same for me, roumanian here. The Romanch language sounded to me like a weird Italian spoken with a heavy german accent.

[@ToadalChaos]

Having spoken to some rumantsch natives, I can attest to the fact that they can mostly understand and even speak Italian. We (the Italian speakers) on the other hand, understood not a word when they spoke in rumantsch xD

[@andreraphael6727]

@@koschmx That makes sense to me. You see, rumantsch seems to be the perfect meeting point between latin and germanic worlds. I wonder if they find it equally easy to understand italian and german or what. But for me it's hard to tell, though I understand that the vocabulary and grammar are mostly romance while the phonetic is very germanized, with some germanic words popping up very often (like "genau" for istance). Of course I imagine they all speak swiss german as well, but imagining that they only spoke rumantsch it would be very interesting to know how hard they would find it to understand italian (and its dialects) or german (and its dialects).

[@andreraphael6727]

@@koschmx Thank you for your insights. They're very interesting and I agree with you. I'm courious to know if you have italian origins, because Angelone sounds very italian.

[@andreraphael6727]

@@koschmx Very interesting, I find it awesome how you kept in touch with the italian relatives for 100 years. Welcome back to Europe! Bentornato in Europa!

[@buarath9]

When you talked about Venetian, I was moved. However me and some friends of mine are working on a standardization of the language and I hope that one day all Venetians will be able to use it as an official spoken language!

[@Oscopo]

That's amazing! I'm really glad to hear it. You should send me an email, I'd love to know more about your project. (you can find it in the about section on my channel)

[@Giovis968]

Venetian is different don't confuse ladino maybe some parts of Nord Friuli , venetian in fact is italo dalmata, not Gallo italico , true linguistics confirm, . That.

[@karlmakhwa4182]

You should send me an email too! I love language revitalisation and already have a project of my own that's just getting off the ground. I already speak Italian to about B1 level and I'd be very happy to learn more about your project and learn some Venetian

[@giorgiocecchini9742]

sì, non accadrà

[@just1frosty516]

That’s amazing, I wish only the best for you and the future of the Venetian language

[@scorpio6071]

Something too add that I think is very interesting: there has been an influx of portugese immigrants to Grisons, who mainly work in construction and the tourism sector. They, as it turns out, pick up rumansh relatively quickly, and gave the language a small „bump“ in recent years

[@gunther4150]

Wär mir neu... d Baustelleportugiese reden doch alli Italienisch, nid?

[@nemiw4429]

@@gunther4150 baustellp... hesch kei respekt vo de lüt wo dini hüsli boued?

[@gunther4150]

@@nemiw4429 Moll sicher, ich bin schliesslich selber glernte Murer. 😄 Wege dem sinds glich Baustelleportugiese, das isch ja nüt schlimms...

[@nemiw4429]

@@gunther4150 isch guet bureschwizer..

[@gunther4150]

@@nemiw4429 Ich han kei Problem mit minere bäuerliche Herkunft, im Gegeteil, ich bin stolz druf.

[@yumisanwich8714]

My grandparents are native Sursilvan Romansch speakers. I’ve been with them to more distant parts of the country where they speak a different dialect and it’s crazy how different they can sound- so wild!! I totally support different regions sustaining their own dialect but I’d also love to see the language grow as a whole.

[@Oscopo]

Thank you for the anecdote

[@MagnaMater2]

It's mountain-valley fate. Extremely small in-groups, and if kids watch too much TV or listen too much to the radio the language is gone. In Mathons was taught by a bunch of allegedly german children (whom I failed to understand) that capricorn is called 'Gâzzele'. And some twenty yars ago two elderly men entered the regional train shortly north of the Brenner-Pass - locals, allegedly german speakers, probably from Vals or Padaun, but whatever they spoke was not intellegible for outsiders. They left the train the next station, and another local from a valley on the western side looked at me perplexed if I had understood any of this, he had for a moment wondered what that was. He told me, that whatever those two men had spoken had been weird, he had last heard his grandmother talking to his grandfather somewhat like that, but had even failed to grasp what this was about, though he had priorily been exposed to some similar sounding micro-idiom. He concluded it's some insider-speak, probably only used by a handful of families on neighbouring farmsteads, or men working in the same trade, probably woodcutters, when they wish to discuss 'insider-buisiness' in the public.

[@robju6054]

@@MagnaMater2 that is so familiar and interesting to me. I do not understand much but would often speak Nones to my mom when we did not want others to understand.

[@Ggdivhjkjl]

Would your grandparents be willing to record a text in Romansh? If so, how can I email you (or them) please?

[@rickgold4854]

would you say more similar to Italian or German?

[@marchetnesa6851]

Very nice video. As a rumantsch speaker, I can agree to all of what you said. I find it great covered my native language, because it's part of my identity. It's sad that this language is almost extinct but I and 50'000 others will keep fighting till the end :). Great work, you have a new subscriber.

[@Themagiciandu62]

Do you know it is possible to find correapondant in Rumantsch? I live in french switzerland

[@davidetoffoletto9981]

Romansh is also "living" in Italy amd will not die, thanks to your brother languages of Friulan and Ladin of Dolomites...

[@Elibuwu]

Rumantsch-high five

[@jdlc903]

How many languages do you speak ?

[@Ghfvhvfg]

@@jdlc903 probably 4 english,italian,rumanch,german

[@Horus633]

This is hands down the best and funniest linguistics-tube format. I'm Swiss and I enjoyed this a lot.

[@jeremiahcapeder1088]

Wow! Thanks for sharing! My great grandfather came from the Romansh speaking regions of the Grisons. I think the fact that it has survived this long gives reason to not let it die. Even though I cannot speak it, I can speak German and a little French, and seem to understand a little of Romansh. I would love to study one day and even help keep it alive👍🏻

[@Oscopo]

Thank you for the anecdote

[@mysterioanonymous3206]

Cool man. Coming from a Swiss person: Im sure you already know just how typical "Grisons" your last name is. Capeder 😅 So cool man. I get all sentimental when I hear it. We Swiss have a special place in our hearts for everything Rumansch. And btw, the govt. is very actively involved in preserving the language, although the amount of native speakers unfortunately is decreasing...

[@mirrorengine]

graziel per tia contribuziun... sursilvan here... we are loosing words and grammar every day, but such is the way of life... still a good and strong community though and a lots of interest and help from the outside... corona has made a lot of people move up into the mountains which is really revitalizing the region a bit 😊

[@monicabello3527]

Grazie par el to contribüt, ValMarchirolo (Varese Italy) here, definitely we can undestand each other😅

[@its_just_seb]

i'm swiss (grew up in the canton of Aargau, deep in the swiss german speaking part of the country) and i learned none of this in school. all we were ever taught is that romansh... exists. so this was really interesting to watch! also i think it's fascinating that at 9:00, the speaker in that tv clip *sounds* like they're speaking swiss german. as in the pronounciation is similar, like an accent (which makes sense). just fascinating that there can be an accent of a dialect in another language altogether.

[@helboy1999]

same im from the bern region and never learned this either

[@martillito_]

from the zurich region here and yeah that’s exactly how it felt

[@lemonmapping]

As Native Austrian from Vorarlberg i really hope that this language will continue to exist in the future

[@Oscopo]

Good news is: I’d be very surprised if we saw Romansh leave us anytime soon. Thank you for watching and commenting!

[@LunarPenguin42]

@@Oscopo as one of the few people who speak it, its dying out.

[@Lay-Man]

@@LunarPenguin42 Is there any way I could learn it?

[@megabrothers320]

Hey man I am swiss and i speak Sursilvan :) I can tell, this video is so accurate and i like this video alot :) Keep up the work dude.

[@eb.3764]

ALSO important note, the reason why Swiss German (NOT Swiss High German) isn't unified into a single language is the exact same reason why Romansh struggles to have one standard. Each canton of Swiss (German) speaks their own variety, thus this emotional connection is very strong.

[@bratwurststattsucuk4517]

Its simply not practical and pure nonsense to cut ourselves off from the german speaking world.

[@uliwehner]

having instruction (school) in Standard German, however, which is a real language, makes it so that the schwyzerdütsch speakers have a common language for instruction, which also opens up job prospects in tourism for example, while still allowing them to speak as they please at home. Bavarian, swabian, and alemannisch have the same benefit. We learn standard german in school, so we can talk to the tourists, but we speak fraenkisch, or alemannisch at home.

[@darkkestrel1]

I'm french-speaking swiss and I really wished Rumantsch had more educational support outside its borders. One we could maybe use to communicate with each other better instead of English lol. But I admit that's impractical. Still, it needs more support

[@davidetoffoletto9981]

The "brother-languages" of Romansh are quite widely spoken in Northern-East Italy (Friulan and Ladin of the Dolomites Mountains). Both known by at least 80% of local populatin.

[@quimiqenglish1922]

Кожная мова ў свеце - гэта як дыямант у скарбонцы нашага агульнага багацця. Няхай квітнее прыгожая рэтараманская мова! З любоўю і паразуменнем ад носьбіта іншай цікавай мовы - беларускай. ❤❤❤

[@riccardacruzer2797]

As a native "bargaiot" speaker (a lombard-romantsch dialect) I can confirm we are very pround in speaking our own dialect, I consider my dialect part of rumantsch as it's very similar to vallader and puter, much more so they are similar to sur- and sutsilvan Great video! You capture perfectly the language!

[@Ghfvhvfg]

Wie lernsch Bregaliot is han nur Bahnhof verstande im berell btw chan kei rumanch/Italieisch

[@martillito_]

@@Ghfvhvfgsie hät gseit dass es ihri muettersprooch isch, die häts wahrschinlich als baby vo ihri eltere ghört

[@youtubeyoutube936]

Don't forget that the Italian language of Switzerland are Lombard dialects as in the adjacent Lombard provinces. So the Italian dialects are close to Romansh _ give me a couple of months and I'd be pretty fluent as I'm from an adjoing territory

[@theonyawnneedshelp7779]

This channel is very high quality and does not get enough subscribers

[@Oscopo]

Thank you very much!

[@shawheenwingrove829]

Love it, was just thinking the other day when you would make a new video. Always very educational.

[@swissgirl0362]

Grazcha fich! Native speaker of Puter here 🙋🏼‍♀️ What a great researched video, loved it 🤍

[@Erling01]

In Norway, we're also struggling with the fact that everyone thinks we're speaking the same language but rather "struggle" with huge dialectal (rather linguistic) variaties. I actually sent you an email about it, Oscopo if you're more interested! Would love it if you peaked into it 😄. Realistic example of 2 languages; My own from "Klepp" and the one from "Oslo": Klepp: "Æg hette Ærling å sjæme ifrå Klepp. Kæ får någe språg snakke du? Om døu hæ lyst te å eda mad mæ'åkke?" Oslo: "Jæ heter Æ'ling og kommer fra Oshlo. Hvilke språk snakker'ru? Har'ru lyst til å spise mat me oss?" Æ = M(a)ster, Bl(a)st (American pronunciation) Å = Gr(o)wth, M(o)nkey (American pronunciation, "Ø" with British pronunciation)

[@Ozzianman]

Ahh yes, Jærdialekt. Peak Jærsk is found at the farms and the elderly. Then there are the two official written languages: Bokmål/Book Tounge and Nynorsk/New Norwegian, on top of that there are unofficial varieties such as Høgnorsk/High Norwegian and Riksmål/Country(?) Tounge which are more conservative versions of our official written languages (and only a handful actually writes in these languages). Bokmål is heavily based on written Danish while New Norwegian is based on the different dialects in Norway. A long time ago there was plans to eventually merge the two languages into Samnorsk and progress was made by making changes to the two languages to be closer to eachother, but that did not pan out so we are now stuck with the majority writing Bokmål (most of East, South and North Norway), while a still very significant minority writes Nynorsk (West Norway and parts of South Norway).

[@missa2855]

We USED to have those struggles down here (in denmark), lots of people still do with older people. Out west sounds so much different than the danish everyone knows from copenhagen. in copenhagen someone would probably say. "jei hedder Ærling, ouw kommer fra Københaun, Hvilke sprou tahler du? Jej synes det ville være rart hvis du kom og spiste aftensmad med os?" and out west someone would say "Ah hejer Ærling, ah kommer ujj' fra ringkøwing omegn. wha'fornoon spou snakker'u? ah tøwst til a det will' wær dejlig twis'a du kom å spisst næt'er (or "auwtensmaj") mæj å." but due to only eastern dialects having been highlighted in media, and the fact that you are percieved as stupid if you have a dialect, has left made the dialects mostly die out.

[@uliwehner]

@@missa2855 growing up in germany, all the way through the 70s the northerners made fun of how we spoke in the south, like we were all stupid because they couldn't understand us, and also because people struggled with Standard German spelling and grammar, which is quite different from how we speak, and how bavarian grammar works. Starting in the 80s there was a strong revival of southern dialekts possibly due to radio and TV hosts from bavaria, also TV shows promoting the somewhat easier to understand Munich variety of bavarian. Now, bavarians, swabians, and fraenks are very proud of their local dialect. It is part of our cultural identity. Nobody calls bavarians stupid anymore.

[@missa2855]

@@uliwehner according to the stats, having a dialect is perceived as being unintelligent, both by those in the capital and those speaking dialects, but! Having a dialect also makes you seem more trustworthy, especially the jutlandic dialects. These days the only ones who really hold on tightly to dialects and the southerners we got back from Germany after WW1 And those like me who were somewhat raised on them. It's a shame as it says a lot about who we are, were and where we come from. My dialect at least lives on through the TV Christmas calendar "The Julekalender"

[@morriskaller3549]

The Oslo example is way close to Stockholm Swedish than kalpp

[@NotNonamelol]

I did not expect to get this recommended, thank you for your work Grazia fetg!

[@freckles9857]

The subjects and format of your videos are so good keep at it man your gonna be huge

[@Oscopo]

I appreciate it, keep up the great comments!

[@LinaSalzgeber]

I'm a romansh speaker and come from the ,,Engiadina,,. I'm speaking the puter and vallader, and I wouldn't say that we do not understand ourselves by Romansh. It gives difference between words but I would say that we can understand ourselves. It's really cool that you do also videos about languages who aren't really known. The pronunciation was not always right, but well done! Thank you for the video!

[@robju6054]

Have you ever heard Nones?

[@Lanval_de_Lai]

Very good video! I love it. I didn't know a lot about the Romansh and you also give me another perspective about the standarization of languages that's useful for my own situation (I'm a speaker of Asturleonese). Good job!!

[@devchinnu]

Truly educational. Fascinating video!

[@Zestieee]

Your videos are very interesting and exhaustive! I really hope to see more.

[@Tanargue0]

My great grandma's native tongue was Arpitan, she learnt to properly speak French only past 18 years old. My grandma knew only a few sentences and expressions. My mom doesn't speak it at all. Crazy how fast a language can be lost. I really wish Arpitan had been more preserved but people back then really didn't care, my great grandma didn't care at all about "loosing" her native language because it was socially depreciated

[@muggsHD]

founds this channel purely by chance via YT algorithm and binge watched all your videos, you've got a new subscriber, looking for to more language content :D

[@aaronmarks9366]

Excellent video! Can't wait to see more linguistics content from you, it looks like you're just starting your channel, but you already have better-quality content than linguistics channels with hundreds of thousands of subscribers. Excited to see what's next!

[@rbvp45]

Lovely video! I went to the area a few years ago to learn about the language, and this was a nice reminder of everything :)

[@musigbier3656]

From a Swiss that is a language nerd, I'm very positively surprised by the quality (accuracy) of this video. Really, well done, thanks!

[@thomassinonet5313]

Very cool video thanks for giving rumantsch a bit of exposure!! Also great pronounciation well done! Love from Grischun

[@cseblivestreaming8073]

Yep, we do be speaking Romansh op in here. I'm actually doing my finals in Romansh this year so it's kinda cool to be part of such a tiny exclusive language. BTW, this is a great video, very thourougly researched. and pretty much sums up the situation well

[@ZZMJo]

Allegra! And keep your Rumantsch Radio alive. I love to listen to it when I'm driving home!💯

[@brandoncota8132]

That’s so cool! Hope your exams went well. Not a Romanche speaker, but learned of your language many years ago living in Geneva. I wish I’d gotten to hear it spoken when I was there. Friends would tell me, “it’s the closest language to Latin still spoken today.” I don’t know if that’s correct, but it’s a good story. It’s excellent that the Swiss government finally allows the language to be used in public, or governmental settings. It’s also heartening to see many speakers championing its usage and proliferation. I don’t think Romanche will die-out anytime soon.

[@cseblivestreaming8073]

@@brandoncota8132 it shouldn’t die out, and thanks for the luck, i graduated yesterday! It is pretty close to latin

[@benbrokke1165]

Just discovered your channel - great video, keep up the good work! Subbed.

[@deleted56758]

Love this channel

[@CaptHollister]

I was born to Piedmontese and Lombard parents and I fully understand those two languages in addition to Italian and French. Perhaps as a result of this, I find that I can understand the gist of what is being said when I read Romansh, but when I hear it being spoken it's more difficult because of what sounds like a strong German accent.

[@skeptigal4626]

Yeah, I speak Spanish and Italian and was thinking I might be able to catch a word, but no.

[@widmawod]

I know almost nothing about Romansch but I wonder why people resort to German to speak to people that don't use the same dialect (maybe low prestige?). This isn't always the case in minority languages, Irish native speakers (mostly) understand each other's dialects because they are exposed to enough dialect-diverse media to do so, so they speak their own Irish to each other and it's fine.

[@widmawod]

Btw the video was great! Looking forward to more videos like these 😊

[@Oscopo]

That's a great question. I didn't cover this in the video but speaker count between idioms actually varies a lot. For example: Sursilvan has around 18,000 speakers while Sutsilvan only has around 1,000. Furthermore, the language of business and media is still most overwhelmingly German. So, I'm sure you can understand why exposure to other idioms is not so common; considering also that kids in different regions will have all their romansh education in their region-specific idiom.

[@widmawod]

@@Oscopo Yeah Irish does actually have a written standard, though it's only written, so that can be a centripetal force so to speak. Schools do teach through the local dialect in the Gaeltacht, but I don't think that's the case when writing is involved. From what I gathered in the video, Romansch Grischun is a spoken standard too, so I guess it doesn't help with exposure if the news/scripted content is in a dialect that isn't native to any region. This hardly happens in Irish-speaking TV/radio

[@marchetnesa6851]

@@widmawod As a Rumansh speaker it is simply too difficult to understand all these different idioms. They all have very different words for the same things. For example: shoes-> chalzers, s-charpas, calzar, calzer. But it gets even more complicated. Every village has its own dialect. For example: cup-> Scuol: tazza, Ftan: majoula or carrot: Scuol-carotta, Ftan: angriöbla. It is complicated

[@JMThought]

Fascinating thank you for doing this video.

[@RTREuropeada]

00:04:57 is actualy Sursilvan and not Rumantsch Grischun … even though my children pretend it sometimes is Sursilvan "enriched" with Rumantsch Grischun. Cheers and thank you for the video. @rtrfilms880

[@scherzkeks7524]

As far as I know, the vallader dialect is spoken in daily life and is by far the dominant language in the region (lower Engadine). The problem they have is not the language not being passed on to the next generation, but people moving to bigger cities. The only somewhat bigger City in the grisons is Chur, which is german speaking. My guess is that the Surselva dialect has the same problem, while the remaining dialects are heavily in decline.

[@Ghfvhvfg]

In working circles its still spoken comunal forstry and indeginous speak rumanch

[@nova-vv4kv]

in vorarlberg (austria) there are still some Romansh speakers left, mainly in the montafon Valley

[@johnthompson4156]

Great job!

[@charleswhite5884]

Quite amazingly informative...

[@carlosagelvis1267]

Nice video! :D

[@matthewj0429]

I love your videos! I'm learning Irish due to family history and I live in Seattle. It's been really hard finding Irish speakers.

[@rachelchoy6222]

I never thought Switzerland’s languages could be so complicated. Why does this hurt my brain

[@brezzainvernale]

HI, I'm Swiss... it sounds complicated, but not everyone speaks all 4! We HAVE TO learn German: When you are from the Italian part of Graubünden and reach age 15-16, you leave for the German part, for school and apprenticeship. So usually Italian speakers also speak German. The French speaking and the German speaking, as majority, don't really need to learn German, French or Italian. English is spoken by almost everyone, especially the youngest. Where are you from, what's your language?

[@irishakita]

@@brezzainvernale that's interesting, in Catalunya we learn Catalan and Spanish, and maybe French, it's cool how being in a "middle region" can bring so much linguistic diversity

[@nivellen1168]

@@brezzainvernale I'm from the German part. I have French class for four years now. I still don't know how to conjugate -er verbs 💀

[@royfischer482]

@@brezzainvernale well i learned Italian for 10 years at school and i think i speak it relatively well- and the experiences i made with ppl from the Ticino when i was in the Military (half the Unit were from there) kind of contradict with what you say. Almost none of those guys spoke understandable German. We always had to communicate in Italian or if that was not possible (because many recruits were from Cantons where Italian is not taught at school) in english or french. 😂

[@kriss581]

@@nivellen1168 I'm from the french part... Despite the years of learning German, we can't form a grammatically correct sentence 🥲 I don't know who must be blame: students or school

[@philfichtinger3009]

Very, very well researched and explained. Thanks for putting in so much effort!

[@ChristianJiang]

Omg I was talking about Romansh with a friend yesterday!! And now it appears in my recommended…

[@LisaHerger]

Very interesting! I hope you do a Basque video, too. Your video made me curious!

[@Oscopo]

Definitely coming in the future

[@jlugoholt]

I wish they get the agreement to keep it alive and increase the numbers of Romansh speakers like Euskadi did.

[@bboyonit96]

Very interesting video on the current situation of Romansh. Could you do a similar one on Lombard?

[@jamesmcelwain342]

Great video

[@ctwentysevenj6531]

Interesting video.

[@Bas_Brand]

I'm happy to see people reporting on this shrinking language. And at least something is being done here to keep it alive. Not too long ago, a horror videogame was released that was entirely in Rumantsch (with subtitles). It's called "Mundaun" for those interested

[@thequantumcat184]

As a Basque I think that you're right, but with the small counter arguments that some dialects are facing extinction, and that it's generally better suited for formal as opposed to casual speach.

[@MrMikkyn]

I love learning about obscure romance languages. Rumansch, Sardinian, Rhaeto Romance, Ladino, Ladin, Venetian, Friulian,

[@upsaya3202]

great vid

[@drBaenz]

As a Swiss-speaking Swiss dialect, the sound of Grischun is familiar to me, but I only understand a few words. Linguistic diversity is learned as part of our identity and goes deep. I'm always amazed that no matter where I travel, sooner or later I'll be confronted with Romansh. Whether in Morocco, India, Russia or Bali, someone knows about the 50,000 Swiss who speak a language with 5 variants. A Moroccan acquaintance even wrote a doctoral thesis about it. Swiss propaganda, or rather self-portrayal, obviously attaches great importance to this detail, so that even our banknotes are inscribed in four languages. To prove this, a Swiss purse is pulled out again and again around the world and the achievement is presented (with a kind of pride)…..🪬🇨🇭

[@YanickSP]

Bitte mach meh Videos! Si sind würkli super! Grüsse eines Schweizers 🇨🇭

[@WaechterDerNacht]

Great work! Good job on the research too! As far as I can tell everything correct (not saying an average Swiss from a different area is the expert ^^ - but found nothing that would be totally off). At the end wondered if you are Swiss or Liechtensteiner yourself... Cheers!

[@Jokkkkke]

I gotta do some research now on the place of Romansch in the construction of Swiss national identity now cause that was so interesting to hear about (as well as everything else)! Do you have any further readings on this?

[@jonaspfister682]

Its sooo interesting and I too need to look into it!

[@hijodeputa5450]

i'm basque and i was thinking hey this sounds familiar lol

[@marlonbryanmunoznunez3179]

It's great to hear that Basque is growing. I was curious about the language after reading some Pio Baroja novels, sounds really nice.

[@masehoart7569]

It’s very interesting to receive such information about a European minority language. People forget we do have neglected languages worldwide. We boast about our many languages, but forget that languages (or the last speakers of it) are dying daily. Other languages are in the same situation as Romansh. Lack of educational material, brushed off as „dialects“, lack of standardisation or educational materials, difficult circumstances of reviving the language. I hope Romansh will not disappear and will receive the support it deserves to be maintained. Thank you for this video.

[@Lanval_de_Lai]

0:02 I use so much that interactive map. It's really good to know places in distant parts of the world. If anyone is wondering it's the map of the WWF terrestrial ecoregions, and you have the interactive version if you search "2017 Ecoregions". Even if you are not very interested in Biology it's very useful for geography and history. Ever wondered what was the original natural landscape of your favorite culture or civilisation?

[@Oscopo]

Yes, it’s super cool, I have everything in the description as well (but it’s pretty disorganized) ecoregions.appspot.com

[@Lanval_de_Lai]

@@Oscopo Oh yes I see it I didn't scrolled down!

[@azariahisrael5632]

My recent dna test said much of my DNA is from this area of Switzerland 🇨🇭. I had never heard of this language before watching this video. Thanks.

[@zibaa]

YES

[@DAILARNER]

Excellent, I learned a lot, interesting comparison to Welsh dialect differences

[@t.a.k.palfrey3882]

A similar situation exists with Cymraeg/Welsh. There are significant differences between Welsh spoken in North, Mid-Coastal, and Southern Wales. For writing, however, the differences are fewer and there has been much standardisation. Schools teach both a standardised, somewhat simplified Welsh, and older pupils who opt to take Welsh as a high school subject (as opposed to just as the medium by which everything is taught - as is the case for about 30 percent of schools nationally) also learn the more complicated classical form of Welsh, including Welsh poetic forms. Of course, with every school pupil in Wales being obliged to study Welsh for a minumum of three years, and with about a million people being at least somewhat fluent, of whom about half use it as their daily spoken tongue at home, Welsh has the advantages of scale which Romansch doesn't.

[@poncut5074]

You think you could do videos covering Occitan and Arpitan?

[@Oscopo]

Of course, will happen in the future!

[@balak1]

Do they have a strong Romanche/Rumantsch identity, or do they have several zonal identities? In the Basque country they both have a strong Basque identity and several local identifies, which may have helped them to accept better the Batua (unified language)

[@fiude]

Nice vídeo quality

[@tasshznoclue1006]

As a romansh speaker I have to correct you about romansh grischun. The problem is that there are almost 2 groups of romansh idioms which are veryyy different. A Vallader speaker has no trouble understanding puter, but begins to struggle understanding Sursilvan. Also the construction of the language is bad and artificial made by some german guy. great video btw

[@davidetoffoletto9981]

As Romansh are you able to better understand Italian (let's say Northern Italy dialects) or you have no clue when speaking with Italians?

[@tasshznoclue1006]

@@davidetoffoletto9981 There are a lot of words which are similar to italian or straight up the same. Dialects like lombard are very similar to romansh. I also speak some italian so its possible to understand most of the time.

[@davidetoffoletto9981]

@@tasshznoclue1006 nice, I'm Venetian and we literally live in the middle of the other two Rhaeti-speaking comunities, the Furlan people and Ladins of the Dolomites. During the uni years I've also had one of my flatemates from the Italian Grisuns, but because of the father she was also able to speak decent Rumansh

[@Lay-Man]

Is there any way I can learn Romansh? I found a grammar book in both French and German and newspapers in Romansh, I haven't found a dictionary to French though, and I don't speak German, unfortunately.

[@JanBadertscher]

when designing maps please think about color vision deficiency for your color palette. Up to 1 in 10 male viewers can be affected by CVD. I for example can't differentiate your romansch from the italian map color. Several solutions are available: you can use a CVD color palette, or even generate your own, you can use symbols additional to colors or you can use labels pointing to the region additionally to color. The video content itself is really cool.

[@Oscopo]

Thank you for the advice and the reminder. I’ll try to incorporate that.

[@SmashingCapital]

Great advice!

[@bastiwen]

I'm from the French speaking part of the country and I would have loved to learn more about Romansh in school. Preserving a language like that, the only real "Swiss" language, would be really cool.

[@roejogan2693]

Where did you get that map at 0:51 (Romance languages) from? An are there similar maps for other language families?

[@AWormsPurpose]

I'm hardly Italian but something about that flash of a future Greater Italy awoken an almost imperialistic nationalism in me

[@fynngachter7758]

YES YOU PICKED THE RIGHT SUPERMARKET CHAIN

[@p.michael9266]

Greetings from Grigioni!!

[@Anthony70099]

Sounds like a mix of German with Italian.

[@Zerschnetzler]

Im swiss (i speak german, english and a bit of french) and i have never really heard anyone speak romansh, but i really hope it gets more attention

[@Zerschnetzler]

@dejuren yeah i live between bern and thun

[@Zerschnetzler]

@dejuren same for me about your dialect 😅

[@larrywave]

Very intresting 🤔

[@Oscopo]

Thank you my favorite Finnish friend

[@larrywave]

@@Oscopo whats next 😄

[@fritzlang3472]

It seems to me that the most efficient way to keep a language alive is for it to be used in schools. Your example with the Basque is significant; if Romansch is only taught for a few years in primary school, and there exists no course in higher education in the language, it will have a hard time surviving.

[@hussar6347]

Irish (Gaelic)was suppressed for centuries, but saved through the educational system by Irish patriots after gaining independence from the British in 1922.

[@photelegy]

0:26 You missed a letter (u). It's Graubünden.

[@marcusmosimann]

Great video, the only thing I find an issue with is that I would distinguish between German used as an “official language” in Switzerland and the spoken Swiss-German which is its own language and very different from German.

[@Krenni98]

But it is german and is not an own language. It is alleman dialect.

[@eb.3764]

Here's how I would go about solving the issue of Romansh and their standards. If we look at the case of Catalan, there are 2 written standards (Catalan and Valencian) and they are for the most part almost identical with some regional spellings and vocabs supported in one area. HOWEVER that doesn't stop people from using words that aren't "official" to the standards from Barcelona and Valencia respectively. The standard is used in official writing, but the variety in different ways to say a simple word such as: Nosaltres (we, standard) can also be Natros, Moatros etc. Even in the Balearic islands where they conserved an older form of Catalan can at least still communicate by using the standard Catalan but people will still switch to spoken Mallorquí, Menorquí etc.

[@DestinationTravel]

Greetings from Pakistan which has at least 74 languages. In my city we have 4 - Punjabi, Pashto, Potwari and Urdu. Everyone speaks 3 languages at least. 'Community languages' are for people of that community and often they don't like others knowing it. When they speak with others they usually do so in Urdu the national language. Most people are illiterate in their own mother tongue Community language and just read and write in Urdu or English. Maybe Romansch speakers are like that - maybe they don't actually want or expect outsiders to know their language and like to keep it for themselves.

[@xolang]

thank you for the video! İ understand Romanian, French, Spanish, and to a large extent Valencian, Portuguese (especially when it's written) and İtalian (more when it's spoken). and yet Romansh is like a whole different world. İ've listened to it several times and İ'm ashamed to admit that İ barely understood anything. İ'm not sure why.

[@stefanschneider3681]

That‘s interesting! It seems like you would have everything to easily understand it? Did you find out more? Is it the pronounciation? People living in mountains tend to swallow parts of words they think are unnecessary - it‘s high up, it‘s often cold, you know, conserving energy is crucial 🤷🏻‍♂️🤣. I am Swiss and sometimes hear it on the radio but me too, speaking french and italian quite well, only pick up some words.

[@monicabello3527]

I do understand it quite well. I'm from Lombardy, in my village we speak a mountain version of lombard. Lombard of the Alpine region is pretty different from the classic Milanese, the pronunciation is different, we have more german like sounds. Probably that's the reason.

[@xolang]

@@monicabello3527 that's possible indeed. your languages are geographically pretty close as wel after all.

[@xolang]

@@stefanschneider3681 I guess it's the pronunciation and vocab. there's quite a few words which are pretty different from other major Romance languages.

[@liiu.thee.]

I'm swiss and I'd love to learn some Romansh language. Is there something that can be done to help the language in it's battle?

[@voices_vary]

In Switzerland, they speak Swiss-German which is different from German. However, business people revert to German in official discussions. It's weird, but it's part of the culture.

[@Sealdrop]

as a swiss i just subbed

[@smi9646]

Its so fun to watch this video as person who speaks this at home 😂

[@Normal_user_coniven]

0:23 When you ask for Corwason to eat, but the waiter didn't understand you, so you keep changing your accent until he understand.

[@DonSanchoPanza]

Interesting. It is a quite common assumption that Romanians are descending from a population of mountain dwellers, of sheppards. Southern Romania, though mostly a plane, is called Muntenia, meaning the mountain country, because its ancestors used to be mountain dwellers. Throughout the Balkans there is a strong association between Latinity and mountain dwelling. I did not know the Romansh were also mountain dwellers. I suspect this is more than a coincidence.

[@schnitzel6852]

I think you could talk about the bavarian language as its quite interesting, in a strict linguistic sense its not even a language or a dialect, technically its a creole and evolved differently as languages normally form, while some languages take a thousand years to fully for maway from another language, be it through isolation or assimilation, bavarian in its early form only took ~200-300 years to go from non existant to being marked on a map, before the roman empire the region today was very sparsely inhabited by only a few celtic and germanic tribes, but with the roman empire many settlers came into the place, often from many different places of the roman empire, be it from northern italy or as far as the levant, with the warlike and slave nature of the romans slaves from the empire itself and regions beyond like mesopotamia came int othe region, mainly due to the rhine legions. after the fall of the Limes many germanic tribes from outside of the empire crossed inside and settled there as well, later even some rus' came by and settled around the Isar river, all of those peoples and languages living in the same small space essentially mixed togetehr into early bavarian

[@nullexpessions6565]

You should do a video on Mexican languages, it's very interesting seeing the survival of many indigenous languages in today's age.

[@toranshaw4029]

It was interesting to see Liechtenstein as part of the historically spoken area...

[@robju6054]

I find this very interesting. My family spoke Nones. We have no recognition for our language and it is slowly dying.

[@leodecarlo5427]

It literally sounds like a mix between German and Italian- how crazy

[@giuliofalconio9345]

hi, huge work, love it! Are you planning a video on esperanto?

[@hussar6347]

No synthetic, non-organic languages plz.! We have enough problems understanding each other with the languages that are alive and represent real and historic cultures.

[@hankwilliams150]

I bought a Romansch dictionary and phrase book and as a French speaker I find it very interesting and fairly easy. I wonder, however, if it is RG or a particular dialect. It doesn't say in the book.