Romansh language Romansh language Romansh (also spelled Romansch, Rumantsch, or Romanche; Romansh: , "rumàntsch", or ) is a Romance language spoken predominantly in the southeastern Swiss canton of Grisons (Graubünden), where it has official status alongside German and Italian. It is used as the medium of instruction in schools in Romansh-speaking areas. Romansh has also been recognized as a national language of Switzerland since 1938, and as an official language since 1996, along with German, French and Italian. It is sometimes grouped by linguists with Ladin and Friulian as a Rhaeto-Romance language, though this is disputed. Romansh is one of the descendant
Romansh language Engadine, many of these Italian words fell out of usage (such as "contadin" 'farmer' instead of "paur", "nepotin" 'nephew' rather than "abiadi", "ogni" 'everyone' instead of "inmincha", "saimper" 'always' instead of "adüna", and "abbastanza" 'enough' instead of "avuonda"), while others persisted as synonyms of more traditional Ladin words (such as "tribunal" 'court' alongside "drettüra", "chapir" alongside "incleger", and "testimoni" 'witness' alongside "perdütta"). Aside from the written language, everyday Romansh was also influenced by Italian through the large number of emigrants, especially from the Engadine, to Italy, the so-called Randulin. These emigrants often returned with their Romansh speech influenced by Italian.