BANAT-L Archives

Archiver > BANAT > 1998-12 > 0912705102


From: Carsten Laekamp <>
Subject: Re: [BANAT-L] Re: Romansch
Date: 03 Dec 1998 18:11:42 +0100


"Robert Goetz" <> writes:

> Some info:
>
> >From Ethnologue (http://www.sil.org/ethnologue/countries/Swit.html):

Be careful with information from the Ethnologue Database, it isn't
always correct, although they're constantly improving it...

> 78%
> lexical similarity with Italian and French, 76% with Catalan, 74% with
> Spanish,
> Sardinian, and Portuguese, 72% with Rumanian. National language. Bible
> 1679-1953. NT 1560-1954. Bible portions 1562-1964.
>
> Has anyone considered that this might be a local variation of Rumanisch
> (Romanian)? Looking at the 1910 census map there were quite a few Romanians
> in Banat, particularly in the east.

Hmmm, look at the statistics you sent yourself ;-) Other languages are
closer to it than Romanian. However, all romanic languages _are_ related
through their common origin.

If we trust the Ethnologue DB, here is its classification or Romance
languages (shortened, for the full version, see
http://www.sil.org/ethnologue/families/subfamily/Indo-European/Italic/Romance
):

Eastern (4)
North (2)
ROMANIAN, ISTRO [RUO] (Croatia)
ROMANIAN [RUM] (Romania)
South (2)
ROMANIAN, MACEDO [RUP] (Greece)
ROMANIAN, MEGLENO [RUQ] (Greece)
Italo-Western (37)
Italo-Romance (9)

Western (28)
Gallo-Romance (9)
Ligurian (1)
LIGURIAN [LIJ] (Italy)
Lombard (1)
LOMBARD [LMO] (Italy)
North (4)
FRANCO-PROVENAL [FRA] (France)
FRENCH, CAJUN [FRC] (USA)
FRENCH [FRN] (France)
ZARPHATIC [ZRP] (France)
Piemontese (1)
PIEMONTESE [PMS] (Italy)
Rheto-Romance (2)
LADIN [LLD] (Italy)
RHETO-ROMANCE [RHE] (Switzerland)
Ibero-Romance (19)

Southern (5)

As for the name, both Rumantsch and Romanian just mean that they're
(based on) the language of the Romans, in a region where other
languages prevail: German in the case of Rumantsch (and Ladin), slavic
languages in that of Romanian. (Guess where "Ladin" comes from :-)
)... and don't forget that "Rumaenisch" is a German word... not a
Romanian one.

--
Carsten Lkamp

This thread: