Romansh people Romansh people The Romansh people (also spelled Romansch, Rumantsch, or Romanche; Romansh: , "rumàntsch", or ) are a Romance ethnic group of Switzerland, native speakers of the Romansh language. They are usually multilingual, also speaking German (both the standard variety and the local Swiss German) and sometimes Italian, which are the other official languages of Graubünden, the canton where they are concentrated. They make up about 1% of Switzerland's population and 15% of Graubünden's. The Romansh people began advocating for an end to German dominion over them starting with World War I. In 1937 the Swiss government recognized the Romansh
Romansh language Friulan and Ladin were not separate languages but rather Italian dialects. They used this as an argument to claim the territories for Italy where these languages were spoken. From a sociolinguistic perspective, however, this question is largely irrelevant. The speakers of Romansh have always identified as speaking a language distinct from both Italian and other Romance varieties. Romansh comprises a group of closely related dialects, which are most commonly divided into five different varieties, each of which has developed a standardized form. These standardized regional standards are referred to as "idioms" in Romansh to distinguish them from the local vernaculars,