Romansh language the tertiary level, the University of Fribourg offers Bachelor- and Master programs for Romansh language and literature. The Romansh department there has been in existence since 1991. The University of Zürich also maintains a partial chair for Romansh language and literature together with the ETH Zürich since 1985. Whereas Romansh was spoken as far north as Lake Constance in the early Middle Ages, the language area of Romansh is today limited to parts of the Swiss canton of Grisons; the last areas outside the canton to speak Romansh, the Vinschgau in South Tyrol, became German-speaking in the 17th century. Inside
Romansh language the Romansh area into two geographically non-connected parts. In the 1920s and 1930s the rest of the villages in the valley became mainly German-speaking, sealing the split. In order to halt the decline of Romansh, the Lia Rumantscha began establishing Romansh day care schools, called "Scoletas", beginning in the 1940s with the aim of reintroducing Romansh to children. Although the "Scoletas" had some success – of the ten villages where Scoletas were established, the children began speaking Romansh amongst themselves in four, with the children in four others acquiring at least some knowledge of Romansh – the program ultimately failed