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Rhaeto-Romance Languages
Rhaeto-Romance, or Rhaetian, is a traditional subfamily of the Romance languages that is spoken in north and north-eastern Italy and in Switzerland. The name "Rhaeto-Romance" refers to the former Roman province of Rhaetia. The Rhaeto-Romance languages ​​form a group of Romance languages ​​in the alps region of northern Italy and Switzerland. Initially studied by Italian Linguist Graziadio Ascoli in 1873, Ascoli found these languages to share a number of intricacies and believed they belonged to a specific linguistic group. What distinguishes Rhaeto-Romance languages from Italian and other Western languages are its phonemic vowel length (long stressed vowels), consonant formation, and a central rounded vowel series. A few notable examples of these languages are Romansh, Friulian and Ladin, which are officially recognized alongside German and Italian, by the Swiss and Italian governments respectively. In total there are about 660,000 speakers of the Rhaeto-Romance languages combined.

History and Classification
While Friulian appears to trace their origins back to Celtic languages areas of Northeastern Italy that now speak Ladin initially spoke a form of Vulgar Latin. Romansh originates from Latin spoken by Roman soldiers during the conquests of Raetia.

Romansh
By the mid-9th century, Romansh was spoken over a far wider area. However, with the migration of many German elite land owners, Romansh dissipated across Northern Italy. The oldest living text of the Romansh language is the Chianzun dalla guerra dagl Chiaste da Müs, which details the Musso War.

By 1803, the state of Grison became a part of Switzerland of which half of the population spoke Romansh. The strength of Grison's central government began to impose on the Romansh speaking people as the official language was German which resulted in many Romansh speakers to adopt German. With the 20th century came a rise in tourism that took the focus away from the regions agricultural focus and German became the more practical language to learn. Many in the intellectual class found this to be beneficial to the local population as Romansh appeared to hinder their intellectual development as noted by Heinrich Bansi, a notable priest in 1897, "The biggest obstacle to the moral and economical improvement of these regions is the language of the people" This viewpoint was countered with the belief that the Romansh language was a hybrid of both Italian and German, allowing the Romansh speaker to have a moderate understanding of the other two more widely used languages.

By the mid 19th century, amidst a dwindling Romansh speaking population a renaissance of sorts appeared. This culminated in the 1885 creation of an association of all Romansh regions known as Società Retorumantscha. Later, in 1919 the Lia Rumantscha was created to encompass all of the regional Romansh speaking societies. Additionally, more school began to teach Romansh by the mid 19th century and by 1860 Romansh became a subject in a teacher's college and an officially recognized language by 1880.

Despite these efforts, with more and more of the surrounding area speaking German the Lia Rumantscha created Romansh speaking daycare schools in the 1940s. This effort failed to deliver and the last school was closed by 1979.

Friulian
Friulian traces its roots back to the Latin Aquileia. Prior to Roman contact in 181 BC the region of northeastern Italy were of Celtic origin and used a form of Vulgar Latin. The transition from Vulgar Latin to Friulian occurred in the 6th century CE. The first official use of Friulian can be traced back to the 13th century and by the 15th century a majority of the population spoke the language, while the noble classes continued to use Latin or German. In 1420 the area of Friuli transitioned under Venetian rule and Venetian dialect became the dominant language. Over the years with the influence of Venetian and Italian becoming more abundant the Friulian language stagnated. In the mid 20th century an earthquake struck that devastated the local region and many found solace in sharing the local language of Friulian. While the teaching of Friulian in higher education is rapidly declining it still has its imprint on the local geography as many of the local towns and geographical landmarks (mountains, woods, animals, plants) were given Celtic names that survive to this day.

Ladin
Ladin was initially a Vulgar Latin language from the Alps of northern Italy. Beginning in the 6th century the Ladin language began to shrink due to the encroachment of Bavarian and Gallo-Italic languages, surviving in only the isolated mountainous areas. In the early middle ages the Ladin region came under House of Habsburg and Republic of Venice rule. From these two influences the Ladin area underwent the process of Germanisation.

By the end of World War I Italy had annexed the region that encompassed the Ladin language. Along with the nationalism of the 20th century, Ladin was considered by many Italians to be an Italian dialect. Benito Mussolini would later push forward an Italianization of the region which further dwindled the Ladin language user base. Despite the small amount of Ladin speakers, by 1972 the Italian government afforded Ladin the status of a secondary language.

Romansh
Spoken in Switzerland by 60,561 .83% of the Swiss population.

Friulian
Spoken in Italy most notably the provinces of Udine and Pordenone by about 600,000 people.

Ladin
Spoken in Italy by about 18,550 people.

Romansh
The first Swiss constitution of 1848 along with its revision of 1872 neglected to mention the Romansh language, however, it was translated into two Romansh dialects after the first revision. In 1938 Romansh became a national language, however a delineation was made between "national" and, "official" languages. National languages were largely symbolic while official languages (French, German, and Italian) were used in an official capacity by the government. One notable disadvantage of being a national, rather than official language was that parents would have to register their children's names under one of the official languages.

By 1996 Romansh was recognized as an official language beside French, German and Italian, and Rhaeto-Romansh is now the official correspondence used when communicating with Romansh people.

At this time the Canton of Grison is the only place where Romansh is the official language. This allows for any citizen to request official documents from the local government in the Romansh language.

Friulian
Many children learn it at a young age, however, it is very rarely used once in schools especially where Venetian is present.

Ladin
Ladin is recognized by both provincial and national law in Italy. In the early 1990s Italy signed European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages which is meant to protect and promote minority languages such as Ladin.

Romansh

 * Sursilvan
 * Putèr
 * Vallader

Friulian

 * Central Friulian, spoken in the Udine province.
 * Northern Friulian, spoken in Carnia.
 * Southeastern Friulian, spoken in areas along the Isonzo river.
 * Western Friulian, spoken in the Pordenone province.

Ladin

 * Athesian group of the Sella, spoken in South Tyrol.
 * Trentinian group of the Sella, spoken in the Fassa Valley.
 * Agordino group of the Sella, spoken most prominently Livinallongo del Col di Lana and Colle Santa Lucia.
 * Ampezzan group, spoken in Cortina d'Ampezzo.
 * Cadorino group, spoken in Cadore and Comelico.
 * Nones and Solando group, spoken in In Western Trentino, in Non Valley, Val di Sole, Val di Peio, Val di Rabbi, and Val Rendena.

Romansh
Redirect to Romansh Phonology

The Romansh language has up to 26 consonant phonemes. Word stress occurs either on the last or second to last syllable.

Friulian
Redirect to Friulian Phonology

Ladin
Redirect to Ladin Phonology

Grammar
Rhaeto-Romance languages, unlike other Romance languages have phonemic vowel length (long stressed vowels), consonant formation, and a central rounded vowel series.

Romansh
Redirect to Romansh morphology

In Romansh word order directs the grammar rather than the noun being inflected. Additionally, similar to most other Romance languages there are two genders in addition to s being used to indicate a plural word.

Friulian
Redirect to Friulian morphology

Similar to French, most Friulian nouns end in a vowel based on the gender, with feminine nouns ending in e while masculine nouns end in i.

Syntax
The general word order is subject-verb-object, however this can change at times where the verb can come before the subject.

Romansh
Many place names in Romansh date back before Roman contact stemming from Celtic origins.

Friulian
Most words in Friulian are of the Romance variety due to its Latin roots, however, it still has many place names and flora that trace back to Celtic origins.