Rhaeto-Romance languages

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 literary text in the Romansh language is the Chianzun dalla guerra dagl Chiaste da Müs, which details the Musso War.

By 1803, the state of Grisons became a part of Switzerland, of whose population half spoke Romansh. The strength of the central government of Grisons 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 region's 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 speakers 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 schools began to teach Romansh by the mid 19th century, and by 1860 Romansh became a subject in a teachers' 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 traces its roots back to the Latin Aquileia. Prior to Roman contact in 181 BC the region of northeastern Italy was of Raetian, Italic and Celtic origins and used a form of either Raetian, Venetic or Celtic. 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.[7] 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 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.

Spoken in the Swiss canton of Graubünden by 60,561 people – 0.83% of the Swiss population – but this number is rapidly dropping.

Bilingual road sign (Italian and Friulian) in Friuli-Venezia Giulia

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

Spoken in northeastern Italy, in Trentino-Alto Adige and the Province of Belluno in Veneto, by about 41,000 people.[8][9][10] [11]

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, though 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.

An official language of the autonomous region of Friuli, it has protected status, and is used in all forms of education in the region. Still used at popular levels for daily conversation.

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.

• Sursilvan
• Putèr
• Vallader
• Surmiran
• Sutsilvan

• 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.

• 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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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 Raetic, Venetic and Celtic origins.