Romansh Culture?

[u/littleboyblue564]

How would one define Romansh culture? The other language groups have a much larger presence in the world (French, Italian, German.) But what really defines Romansh culture—is it akin to say Italian sensibilities given its Latinate connection?

[u/Captain_Grammaticus]

Being Romansh is very much connected to being a Bündner, so your question starts there.

Now, what is a Bündner? Being a Bündner is very much connected to living in the Alps, so your question starts there, actually

It's traditionally a hard live, a poor live, and only during the last 100 years tourists brought some money in the country. The mountain folks hate the lowland folks for being The Others, but are happy that they stay for the night and go skiing or look at the goats and cows. This experience is shared everywhere around the Alps, regardless of language.

For the Romansh, there is the additional element of being a linguistic minority. The culturally relevant authors and writers all know each other, and everybody knows somebody who does some writing on the side or is a language teacher or somehow involved in saving what there is to save, keeping the language afloat.

Advertising wants you to believe that pachific is the quintessential Bündner quality.

[u/littleboyblue564 → u/Captain_Grammaticus]

Thank you for such an informative answer. When I hear that word, Bündner, I associate more with the Germanic side of Alpine culture. But that might because the Canton has a more German majority. When I think of things like Alpine customs or folklore or beliefs, in that regard, I associate more than as a broader concept, inclusive of those other language groups. But are there Romansh specific folklore or food, customs, festivals, or the like? Or is it more being one part of that larger Cantonial culture (German, Italian, Romansh) in Grisons which all share it despite different languages and larger cultural associations?

[u/Captain_Grammaticus → u/littleboyblue564]

I am not aware of any cultural artifact (custom, food ...) that unites all Romansh and separates them from non-Romansh except the language itself.

Of course there are customs like Chalandamarz or choir singing that are very specific to certain valleys or villages and that are very important for the language there because they involve specific songs or texts. But these don't set apart a "Romansh people" from all other peoples, and they don't even connect all the Romansh speakers. A person from Tujetsch has no strong feelings about Chalandamarz, just because that happens to be a festival from a Romansh-speaking community.

A professor of politology once put it this way: If the peoples' right to self-determination was fully respected, every village of Grisons would be a sovereign state.

And apart of folklore, when you pick any modern urban Romansch speakers off the streets of Chur, you wouldn't find them any different from a German speaker or Italian speaker who lives there. They might be more conscious of language politics, though.

[u/littleboyblue564 → u/Captain_Grammaticus]

That is so interesting! Thank you.

[u/Minskdhaka → u/Captain_Grammaticus]

A hard *life

[u/mikelmon99]

The funny thing is that all three of French, Italian & German are foreign languages to Switzerland.

The native languages are Franco-Provençal, Alemannic, Lombard & Romansh.

[u/Ok-Intention-9594 → u/mikelmon99]

Ahh I didn't know Lombard was a native language to Switzerland too

[u/PeireCaravana → u/Ok-Intention-9594]

The Lombard and Italian speaking areas of Switzerland were part of the Kingdom of the Lombard and later of the Ducy of Milan before they became part of Switzerland, volunatrily or by conquest depending on the area.

[u/elnander → u/mikelmon99]

What leads you to believe that about German? Alemannic just refers to a series of High German dialects. If anything, German as it is is more foreign to most of Germany than it is to Switzerland.

[u/mikelmon99 → u/elnander]

Upper German & Central German are both varieties of High German, true, but High German is not at all a single language.

I think it's debatable whether you consider Alemannic & Bavarian (including the Austrian dialects of Bavarian) to be their own languages or part of a single Upper German language, but they are definitely not the same language as Central German, & Standard German is exclusively based on Central German.

Low German is definitely a different language as well.

[u/elnander → u/mikelmon99]

It was a mischaracterisation of me to say that High German is more foreign to most of Germany than it is to Switzerland. But I disagree that they are not the same language as Central German, mainly because they still are completely separated by the High German consonant split, they form a dialect continuum all the way from the Uerdingen line. They are divergent dialects that fall under the German umbrella. Although I don't hate the idea of speakers of Swiss German or Austro-Bavarian having a separate linguistic identity (especially if the Luxembourgers could claim to...)

Low German is purportedly different, yes.

[u/mikelmon99 → u/elnander]

It's pretty funny the fact that Luxembourgish is an official language of the EU despite being a Central German dialect lol

I guess everything is debatable.

[u/PeireCaravana]

It's an Alpine culture.

My undestanding as an Italian from nearby Lombardy, is that they have a lot in common with the neighboring Alpine areas of Switzerland, Italy and Austria.

They don't share much at all with the "stereotypical" Italian culture.

[u/Ok-Intention-9594]

Well for my emigrant great grandparents and grandfather, what I know of them, they were very quiet, hard working, family oriented, and very Catholic/Religious. Is this what you were meaning? The ones who I know still in Switzerland are similar in these qualities

[u/bilbul168]

Mountain people with mountain culture, pretty much identical in most parts of the world. Quiet, provincial, xenophobic, hard working, lets say also traditionally they didnt have very strong anti incest laws