Editing Romansh language (section)

=== Origins and development until modern times ===
Romansh originates from the [[Languages of the Roman Empire|spoken Latin]] brought to the region by Roman soldiers, merchants, and officials following the [[Switzerland in the Roman era|conquest of the modern-day Grisons area by the Romans]] in 15 BCE. Before that, the inhabitants spoke [[Celtic languages|Celtic]] and [[Raetic language|Raetic]] languages, with Raetic apparently being spoken mainly in the [[Lower Engadine|Lower Engadine valley]]. Traces of these languages survive mainly in [[Toponymy|toponyms]], including village names such as [[Tschlin]], [[Scuol]], [[Savognin]], [[Glion]], [[Breil/Brigels]], [[Brienz/Brinzauls]], [[Prättigau|Purtenza]], and [[Trun, Switzerland|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]]".

[[File:Rätoromanisches Sprachgebiet im Frühmittelalter.PNG|thumb|Romansh during the [[Early Middle Ages]]<br />
{{Legend|#FF8000|lost to German and Lombard, 700–1100}}
{{Legend|#FFFF80|Romansh-speaking area, {{circa|1100}}}}]]

It is unknown how rapidly the Celtic and Raetic inhabitants were [[Romanization (cultural)|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 [[Germanic invasions|invasions by Germanic tribes]].{{sfn|Liver|1999|p=74}} 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 [[Victorids|Victorid]] ruler, Bishop [[Tello, Bishop of Chur|Tello]], around 765 AD, [[Charlemagne]] assigned a Germanic duke to administer the region. Additionally, the [[Diocese of Chur]] was transferred by the (pre-[[Great Schism of 1054|Schism]]) Roman Catholic Church from the [[Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Milan|Archdiocese of Milan]] to the [[Roman Catholic Diocese of Mainz|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.{{sfn|Coray|2008|p=78}}

At the time, Romansh was spoken over a much wider area, stretching north into the present-day cantons of [[Canton of Glarus|Glarus]] and [[Canton of St. Gallen|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 [[County of Tyrol|Tyrol]]. The northern areas, called Lower Raetia, became German-speaking by the 12th century;{{sfn|Liver|1999|p=76}} and by the 15th century, the Rhine Valley of St. Gallen and the areas around the Walensee were entirely German-speaking.{{sfn|Coray|2008|p=78}} 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.<ref>Kraas (1992) pp. 132–34</ref>

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.{{sfn|Liver|1999|p=77}} In rare cases, these Walser settlements were eventually assimilated by their Romansh-speaking neighbors; for instance, [[Oberhalbstein]], [[Medel (Lucmagn)|Medel]], and [[Tujetsch]] in the Surselva region.<ref>Krass (1992) p. 138</ref>

[[File:La mort da Benedetg Fontana.jpg|thumb|upright=0.45|"La mort da Benedetg Fontana", a Romansh passage in a Latin chronicle by Durich Chiampel]]

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.{{sfn|Liver|1999|p=76}} 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.{{sfn|Coray|2008|p=78}} 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.<ref>Osswald 1988 in Kraas 1992. p. 133</ref> 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.<ref>in Schläpfer & Bickel 2000, p. 243</ref>

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 [[Musso war|first Musso war]], in which Travers himself had taken part.{{sfn|Liver|1999|p=95}} 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.{{sfn|Liver|1999|p=101}} 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.{{sfn|Liver|1999|p=105}}

[[File:Igl ver sulaz.JPG|thumb|upright=0.45|Front page of ''Ilg Vêr Sulaz da pievel giuvan'']]

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, {{lang|rm|Igl Vêr Sulaz da pievel giuvan}} ("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.{{sfn|Kundert|2007|p=11}} 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.<ref>Jachen Curdin Arquint in Schläpfer & Bickel 2000, pp. 258–259</ref>

In the 16th century, the language border between Romansh and German largely stabilized, and it remained almost unchanged until the late 19th century.{{sfn|Furer|2005|p=23}} 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".<ref name="ReferenceA" />