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<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;">===========================================<br>
L O W L A N D S - L - 29 August 2008 - Volume 02<span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);"><br>
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<span style="color: black;">From: R. F. Hahn <<a href="mailto:sassisch@yahoo.com">sassisch@yahoo.com</a>><br>
Subject: Language politics <br>
<br>
Dear Lowlanders,<br>
<br>
Many, if not most, of you are interested in minority language issues, in language
planning and in education. Therefore, I'd like to draw your attention to a very
interesting non-Lowlands piece of information that is food for thought in our
own area:<br>
<br>
A program presented by Radio e Televisiun Rumantsch of Switzerland:<br>
"In A è in A – in onn rumantsch grischun en scola" <br>
(An A is an A - A year of Rumantsch Grischun in school)<br>
<a href="http://www.rtr.ch/xobix_media/rtr/podcast/cunt/2008/cunt_07062008.m4v">http://www.rtr.ch/xobix_media/rtr/podcast/cunt/2008/cunt_07062008.m4v</a><br>
<br>
It is a pretty large file but very much worth downloading if you are interested
and can at least read German.<br>
<br>
This program is almost entirely in Romansch (mostly <i>Rumantsch Grischun</i>)
with a little bit of Alemanic ("Swiss German") toward the end, and
there are Standard German subtitles throughout (yes, also for the Alemannic
bits). I wish this were available in English as well.<br>
<br>
Setup:<br>
<br>
The Romansh language (an officially recognized Romance language of Switzerland,
which is most closely related to Ladin and Friulian) has a good number of
"dialects" that some might consider "languages" (not unlike
the case of Frisian). The predominant "dialect" has been that of Canton
Grischun ([gri</span></span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: "Arial Unicode MS"; color: black;">ˈʒ</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: black;">un], Italian <i>Grigione</i>, French <i>Grissons</i>, German <i>Graubünden</i>).
It is what you might want to call a "generalized" variety whose
status in interdialectical communication is being strengthened. So it is a
partly "tweaked" variety for the whole of Grischun and its three
dialect groups: Sursilvan, Surtsilvan and Surmiran (also known as the Rhenish
groups). It is now being farther strengthened by covering the Engadine Valley
(<i>Engiadina</i>, or "Ladin") groups as well: Puter and Vallader.<br>
<br>
In order to strengthen the survival chances of this, the "smallest"
language of Switzerland,
unification efforts are underway. Part and parcel of this is the introduction
of <i>Rumantsch (dal) Grischun</i> as a <i>de facto</i> standard variety, or
perhaps rather as a lingua franca in the Romansh-speaking world which until now
has had no lingua franca. <br>
<br>
Teaching Romansh in schools is seen as very important, but dialect fragmentation
has prevented cohesion so far. Hence, <i>Rumantsch (dal) Grischun</i> is being
shown as an educational language in two elementary schools, one in Trin and one
in Müstair (formerly Münster), both in Grischun. <br>
<br>
The native type of Romansh of Trin is a Surselvan (and thus a Rhenish) one, and
that of Müstair is a Vallader dialect and thus belongs to the Lower Engadine Valley
(<i>Engiadina Bassa</i>) branch. There are considerable differences between the
two. Both use the <i>de facto</i> variety in school but approach it from their
own varieties. You will hear the teachers point out the differences, mentioning
a word in the local variety and its <i>Rumantsch (dal) Grischun</i> equivalent
if it is very different. Children are interviewed and say things like
"There are some really funny words in RG. I like it." and they give
examples. One child from each school is shown returning home and doing homework
with their parents. One child has a Romansh-speaking parent and a
"German"-speaking parent and uses both languages well. The
Romansh-speaking parent speaks to the reporter in Alemannic, which leads me to
believe that she and the reporter find it more convenient, but the reporter
speaks Romansh with all other interviewees. One of the teachers and all the
parents supports the language policy, although she speaks a different variety
at home. The other teacher anbd one parent are still sceptical but consider
language survival most important. One of the parents took a <i>Rumantsch (dal)
Grischun</i> immersion course himself.<br>
<br>
Early results seem to show that children learn to use and enjoy the lingua
franca but retain their home varieties in everyday life. The only change is
that because of the policy and a plethora of new teaching materials new
learners -- namely German-speaking inhabitants that are now learning Romansh --
tend to learn and use <i>Rumantsch (dal) Grischun</i> rather than the local
variety.<br>
<br>
This may not be such a stretch for the people of those parts. They also speak
Alemannic ("Swiss German") and learn Swiss Standard German as well,
which is very much like knowing both Low Saxon and German, or both Scots and
English. The case of <i>Rumantsch (dal) Grischun</i> as well as their local
varieties of Romansh is very similar, probably not as "extreme".</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;"><br>
<span style="color: black;"><br>
This situation reminds me of that of Low Saxon of Northern Germany and the
popular resistence to the introduction of not only a generalized bridge variety
but even of a generalized system of spelling individual varieties. In the case
of Romansh, it seems that people want to retain their home varieties but at the
same time realize that a "native lingua franca" will strengthen the
language as a whole.<br>
<br>
Regards,<br>
Reinhard/Ron<br style="">
<br style="">
</span></span></p>
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