s - Wyższa Szkoła Filologiczna we Wrocławiu

Language shift in the Raeto-Romansh community 209
language maintenance and stability continue to be highly problematic. The
problems raised by the territoriality principle with reference to Romansh were
voiced by Richard Watts (1991: 86) in the following way:
The negative side of the Territoriality Principle is felt by native speakers of Romansh.
Census figures led to a decision to count that commune as German-speaking. This has led to
a lack of institutionalized support for the language, particularly in the school system. Thus,
one clear effect of language policies within Switzerland is that Romansh community is
heavily marginalized.
Marginalization of Romansh is strongly believed to have its source in the
extreme dialect fragmentation. Indeed, in the Romansh-speaking areas, it is the
most distinctive language problem classified by Haugen (1980) as one of the six
major language problems worldwide, beside other five which he labeled: conflict
of national norms, foreign pressure, indigenous minorities, immigrant minorities
and sociolectal minorities. The plurality of dialects is perceived as
a critical factor significantly reducing the survival chances of Romansh. Additionally,
the five idioms which are commonly squeezed under one umbrella
name of Romansh are distributed unevenly in percentage: Vallader (74.6), Sursilvan
(52.2), Surmiran (38.8), Puter (23.1) and Sutsilvan (13.8) (see McRae
1983).
The danger of extinction looming over Romansh languages has not been
a novelty for a couple of decades now. As has been mentioned earlier, the bestowal
of Romansh with the national status in 1938, although intended to bring
its marginalization to a halt, did not help much. Probably, it was a case of “too
little too late” (Pap 1990: 139). A further effort to counteract the shift of Romansh
towards German has been the elaboration of one common written standard,
by blending the lexicons of Romansh dialects. In 1982, Heinrich Schmid
developed a compilation language (or Kompromisssprache), a Romansh written
artificial standard called Rumantsch Grischun. It was an orthographic koiné
among the major Romansh dialects (see also Camartin 1987). Naturally, it
would be much better and easier, if the Romansh had one standard language
perpetuated in the literature, but regrettably it does not. In a sense the attempts
to establish Rumansh Grischun can be regarded as a form of resistance. Thus,
the introduction process of this language has to undergo a basic four-point
model for the procedures typical in the establishment of new written languages
as proposed by Haugen (1966, 1972, 1980), namely, (1) selection, (2) codification,
(3) implementation and (4) elaboration. He called it “the extended model”
in which steps (1) and (2) refer to the form, whereas (3) and (4) to the function
of the language. In turn, steps (1) and (3) need to meet with the society’s approval,
while (2) and (4) involve the commitment of individuals who first codify
and later on make use of the language in question. Finally, Haugen (1980: