British wordsmith turns Romansh into English
An online dictionary has been launched to help English speakers make sense of Switzerland’s fourth national language, Romansh.
British linguist Mike Evans hopes his virtual database will help more people understand a language spoken by just 35,000 Swiss.
Evans – a translator and interpreter by trade – started to learn Romansh a decade ago while living in Germany.
“As I learnt the language I collected more and more notes and then I started editing them and making improvements and eventually decided that they could be of use to other people,” Evans told swissinfo.
The 52-year-old linguist is now a fluent speaker of Romansh and says the dictionary will give others the opportunity to learn more about a language spoken by just 0.5 per cent of the Swiss population – the vast majority in canton Graubünden.
Double use
“When I started learning, there was nothing available in English. This dictionary is aimed at people who are interested in Romansh – but it can also be used by Romansh speakers who want to look up terms in English,” he says.
A Romansh-English dictionary and phrasebook was published in 1999. But Evans is the first to bring out an online version.
Lia Rumantscha – an umbrella organisation charged with promoting the Romansh language and culture – welcomes the launch of the new online dictionary.
“The main attraction of this project,” says Werner Carigiet, coordinator of Lia Rumantscha, “is the fact that it is also useful for Romansh speakers wanting to learn English. In the past, they always had to learn the language in and through German.”
The database currently contains around 4,300 words, but the dictionary’s author hopes to make more than double that number available online over the coming months.
Why Romansh?
Evans says his passion for Romansh began when he started making regular visits to Graubünden on holiday.
“My own personal fascination with the language was a matter of chance,” recalls Evans.
“My contact with Romansh came about simply when I started to come to Switzerland… and when I found myself more often than not in Romansh-speaking villages.”
Evans – who has recently moved to Switzerland from Germany – says the appeal of the language lies in “the way it sounds, its history, culture and position within the whole family of developing European languages”.
He admits his online dictionary is unlikely to make him any money, but says he never set out to turn a profit.
“I think the project has a worth of its own, but the market is too small to make it financially worthwhile. But it has helped me to improve my own knowledge of Romansh – and there’s still a lot to learn.”
swissinfo
The online dictionary – MyPledari – contains 4,300 entries in English and the various Romansh dialects.
35,000 people speak a version of Romansh, Switzerland’s fourth official language.
The language is mainly spoken in the Graubünden region of eastern Switzerland.
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