JÜRG STEINER How does the vocabulary of a minority language spoken by relatively few people stay up to date? Can it evolve quickly enough? “Yes, it can,” says linguist Daniel Telli. “But you need to help it along.” He knows what he is talking about. Telli is head of language at Lia Rumantscha, an organisation that promotes the Romansh language and culture from its headquarters in Chur. Romansh is a minority language composed of various regional dialects and vernaculars. According to the Federal Statistical Office, 40,000 people say that it is the language of which they have the best command. Around 60,000 people speak it. “But it would be a fallacy to think that a language is less effective simply because relatively few people use it,” says Telli. Just like German, French and English, Romansh is a language that covers the entire human condition – from the sexual to the major social, political, economic and scientific issues of today. If it didn’t, it would probably not survive. L’express da linguas The breakneck language Languages are in constant flux, picking up new vocabulary along the way. Switzerland’s minority language, Romansh, is evolving particularly rapidly. Sometimes overnight. A language’s ability to evolve is an important indicator of how future-proof it is. How do you create new words to reflect an ever-changing world? German, spoken as a native language by over 100 million people, relies on a number of authoritative sources in this regard. One of them is the Duden, the standard dictionary and pre-eminent language resource of the German language. Its latest edition, which was published in 2020, included 3,000 new words and expressions in addition to around 145,000 existing entries. The Mannheim-based Leibniz Institute for the German Language (IDS) maintains an online vocabulary information system called OWID that includes a dictionary of neologisms, i.e. newly coined words and expressions. In the past ten years, OWID has taken on around 2,000 new words or new meanings for existing words. The IDS also has its eye on a few hundred potential new entries such as “netflixen”, “Bodypositivity” and “1,5-Grad-Ziel” (1.5°C target), with a view to these terms possibly entering official German usage. Other major languages have a similar procedure. The big dictionary Lia Rumantscha in Chur, on the other hand, favours a more pragmatic and faster approach. Its key resource for updating Romansh vocabulary is the “Pledari Grond”, or Chasa (house), fanestra (window), isch da lain (wooden door), balcun tort (bay window) – local words for this splendid house facade in Grisons. Contemporary, abstract concepts are a little trickier to convey in Romansh. Photo: Keystone 18 Culture
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