Talk: Romansh language

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On the orthographic level, Heinrich Schmidt sought to avoid all 'odd-looking' spellings, in order to increase general acceptability of the new idiom and its spelling. Therefore, words with /c/ plus /e/ or /i/ have <tg> (tgirar) instead of <ch>. Words with /c/ followed by /a/, /o/, /u/ have <ch> (chalanda) as both speakers of Engadin (chalanda) and the Rhine territory (calanda) except a spelling with <c->.

This sentence complete confuses me on several levels. What is intended by /c/? Do you mean /C/ (real IPA /ç/), as German ich-laut? Or /tS/, as in English "charm"? Or something else? Moreover, how on earth is <tg> not an "odd-looking spelling" of anything other than /tg/ or /tk/?

At the same time, che and chi are - due to this rule, called "Leza Uffers Kompromiss" - pronounced /ke/ and /ki/. <k> on the other hand would be a grapheme deemed unfit for a Romance tongue such as Romansh.

Isn't this just the same as Italian orthography?

On the other hand, the fact that there is no <ü, ö> in Romansh may not only be due to the lack of /y/ and /2/ in most Romansh idioms, but also to the graphic form which is seen as non-Romance. This also shows that it is not always phonetics that leads to the adoption of a new grapheme, but sometimes also the lack of a grapheme that leads to a certain phonetic shape of the standard.

This does not make it at all clear that the lack of the letters is not due to the rarity in Rumantsch of the sounds they represent in German.

Very unclear explanations

I can only guess as to the real sounds behind this rather unorthodox transcription. Please clarify. --Anon

I believe those symbols within the slashes are SAMPA and those letters within the angle brackets are orthography. --Menchi 02:16, 23 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Some [] are SAMPA, some are IPA.

[S] [Z] [tS] are SAMPA.

[ə] [ʃ] [ʒ] [ʧ] [ø] are IPA.

[c] [e] [i] [a] [o] [u] [y] are both SAMPA and IPA. — Monedula 05:40, 23 Sep 2004 (UTC)

I hate SAMPA...a pronunciation guide that nobody is actually familiar with is completely worthless. Plus, it looks ridiculous. john k 02:34, 23 Sep 2004 (UTC)

All SAMPA should be deleted and replaced with correct IPA. Chameleon 22:59, 22 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Assistance

The Romansh section of Romance copula needs some attention. If you can describe how the verb "to be" works, go to it! Chameleon 22:59, 22 Oct 2004 (UTC)