Putèr

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puter
Pronunciation
Native to	Engadin in Switzerland
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Writing system	Template:Wikidata
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–
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ELP	Template:Endangered Languages Project
Linguasphere	Template:Infobox language/lingualist
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IETF	Template:Wikidata

Puter (also spelled Putèr; Template:Langx ) is a variety of Romansh spoken in the Engadin valley in Graubünden, which is in the southeastern part of Switzerland. It is spoken in the central northwestern end of the valley between S-chanf and St. Moritz, as well as in the region of the Bernina Pass. Romansh was named by 5,497 people within the upper Engadine valley (30%) as a habitually spoken language in the census of 2000, which probably corresponds roughly to the total number of speakers. The term is probably originally a nickname derived from put 'porridge', meaning 'porridge-eaters'.

File:Samedan Proverbi 1.JPG

Sgraffito on a house in Samedan, translation: A human without love is like a meadow without flowers

Classification

File:Languages and dialects of Grisons.png

Historical distribution of the dialects of Romansh, German, and Italian in Graubünden:

  Sursilvan

  Tuatschin

  Sutsilvan

  Surmiran

  Putèr

  Vallader

  Jauer

Puter and Vallader are sometimes referred to as one specific variety known as Ladin, as they have retained this word to mean Romansh. However, the term Ladin is primarily associated with the closely related language in Italy's Dolomite mountains also known as Ladin. Puter and Vallader are distinguished from the other Romansh dialects among other things by the retention of the rounded front vowels /y/ and /ø/ (written ü and ö), which have been derounded to /i/ and /e/ in the other dialects. Compare Putèr to Sursilvan ‘wall’ and Putèr to Sursilvan 'cheese'.

Each village between S-chanf and St. Moritz has a slightly different accent, although the written form remains the same.

Literary development

Gian Travers wrote the first surviving work in Romansh, the Chianzun dalla guerra dagl Chiaste da Müs, in the Putèr dialect. This epic poem, written in 1527, describes the first Musso war, in which Travers himself had taken part.

There is an individual dictionary for this dialect, as well as texts dealing with its grammar.

Sample

The fable The Fox and the Crow by Jean de La Fontaine in Putèr Romansh, as well as a translation into English, the similar-looking but noticeably different-sounding dialect Vallader, and Rumantsch Grischun.

Vallader	Putèr	Rumantsch Grischun	Translation
			The fox was hungry yet again. There he saw a raven upon a fir holding a piece of cheese in its beak. This I would like, he thought, and shouted at the raven: "You are so beautiful! If your singing is as beautiful as your looks, then you are the most beautiful of all birds.".

References

Bibliography

• Gross, Manfred (2004). Romanisch: Facts & Figures (PDF). Translated by Evans, Mike; Evans, Barbara. Chur: Lia Rumantscha. ISBN 3-03900-037-3. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-11-04. Retrieved 2021-09-23.
• Liver, Ricarda (1999). Rätoromanisch: Eine Einführung in das Bündnerromanische [Romansch: An introduction to Graubünden Romansh] (in Deutsch). Tübingen: Gunter Narr. ISBN 3-8233-4973-2.

External links

• Romansh-English dictionary, with different Romansh dialects including Puter