Romance Language & Samedner Culture

The Romans subjugated the Rezia, in 15 BC, and at that time no one would have believed that they were instigating a linguistic revolution. A revolution that spread and developed over several centuries and ultimately took root in our Romansh language of today.

Romansh has a turbulent history. It originated from the Roman conquests. Constantly growing until around 500 AD, it was considered the predominant language from the upper Danube to the Adriatic. Constantly changing and fragmenting into numerous dialects. And finally, it was roughly suppressed by other languages and has now shrunk to an endangered minority language.

Isolated language islands - Islas da lingua isoledas

The disintegration of the Roman Empire and the advancing Germanisation from north to south were the corrosive forces that pushed Rhaeto-Romanic further and further back, reducing it to a few isolated language islands in Graubünden, Friuli and the Dolomites. As the area of influence decreased, so did the importance of the language – until its advocates decided to stand up for it!

Long live Romansh! - Eviva il retorumauntsch!

We in Samedan believe that Romansh – or, to be more precise, our Puter dialect – is as much a part of our lives as snow is of winter and the golden larches of our autumn landscape. But we don't just want to hold on to Romansh because it sounds beautiful or because it is an ancient cultural heritage. Or because it brings us a good deal closer to other neo-Latin languages such as Italian, Spanish, French, etc. And not just because it helps us to understand Latin foreign words. There are other reasons too: