Re: Romanche dash

From: Otto Stolz (Otto.Stolz@uni-konstanz.de)
Date: Tue Mar 06 2001 - 11:20:55 EST


Am 2001-03-04 um 22:50 h UCT hat Patrick Andries geschrieben:
> Could someone confirm the vague memory I have of Romanche using
> a dash (-) to modify the pronunciation of certain words.

I have never seen such a thing, but then I know next to nothing
about Rheto-Romance.

Cf. examples in <http://www.liarumantscha.ch/english/idioms.html>.
Apparently, they use di-, tri-, and tetragraphs to supplement the
Latin alfabet, e. g. in the very term "Rumantsch grischun":
- ch for "ch" as in [en_scots] "loch",
- sch for "sh" as in [en] "fish",
- tsch for "ch" as in [en] "chunk".

> s-charpa (the shoe) is apparently pronounced shtsharpa.

I think, it is pronounced s+ch+a+r+p+a, where "a" is like
"u" in [en] "hut". Cf. infra.

> The same goes apparently for the village La Punt-Chamues-ch pronounced
> "Tshamooeshtsh". http://gastroarena.ch/result_DE.phtml?PLZ=7522

This village has two parts, viz. "La punt" and "Chamues-ch",
cf. <http://www.engadina.ch/deutsch/langlauf/langlauf.html>;
this accounts for the first dash.

I think, the second dash is there to avoid reading "s" plus "ch"
as the trigraph "sch"; consequently, I think the name is pronounced
as Ch+a+m+ue+s+ch (where "ue" is a dipthong, approximately "oe" (as
in [en] "shoe"), followed by "a" (as in [en] "a shoe"). Note that
the dashes in <langlauf.html> only occurr between "s" and "ch".
But again, I know very little about Rheto-Romance, and I have never
heard its Valader variant.

Best wishes,
  Otto Stolz



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