Rhaeto-Romance-Speaking Peoples

Rhaeto-Romance-Speaking Peoples

 

a group of peoples speaking the Rhaeto-Romance languages. The Rhaeto-Romance-speaking peoples include the Romansh-speaking people and the Ladins, who live in the canton of Graubünden in Switzerland, the Ladins of Northern Italy, and the Friulians, who inhabit the Italian province of Udine. They total about 50,000 persons in Switzerland and approximately 400,000 persons (mostly Friulians) in Italy (1970, estimate). Since 1938 the Swiss Rhaeto-Romance language has been recognized as the fourth national language of Switzerland, alongside German, French, and Italian. Books in the Rhaeto-Romansh language of the Friulians are published in the province of Udine in Italy. The Rhaeto-Romance—speaking peoples have gradually been assimilated by the surrounding peoples—the Ladins and the Romansh-speaking people by the Italians and the German Swiss in South Tirol and the Friulians by the Italians.

REFERENCES

Narody zarubezhnoi Evropy, vol. 2. Moscow, 1965.
Dami, A. Les Rhetoromanches. Le Globe, 1960, vol. 100.
Lansel, P. Die Rätoromanen. Leipzig, 1936.