Sociolinguistics and intercultural communication studies in Rhaeto-Romance languages and cultures in Switzerland

2017 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 15K02750
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Foreign language education
• Research Institution: Osaka University
• Principal Investigator: Nakagawa Hiroyuki 大阪大学, 言語文化研究科(言語社会専攻、日本語・日本文化専攻), 教授 (10275000)
• Project Period (FY): 2015-04-01 – 2018-03-31
• Keywords: スイス地域研究 / 多言語主義 / グラウビュンデン / 言語マイノリティ / レト・ロマン（ロマンシュ）語 / 社会言語学 / 外国語教育 / ドイツ語学文学

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This project, which has gathered and compared data from communities in the south-eastern Swiss canton of Grisons in oder to grasp the situation comprehensively, contributes a accurate description of the dynamics of the linguistic situation of the Romansh-speaking area. Romansh is descended from the spoken Latin and has been influenced by German in vocabulary and syntax. Romansh can be said to be bastardised language; for example, Mussolini believed Romansh to be an Italian dialect and declared that Grisons belonged to Italy. But the Romansh-speaking people did not think of their Italian heritage. And Romansh is endangered because of its fragmentation; thus "Rumantsch Grischun" was artificially developed with the aim of ensuring the survival of Romansh. However, speakers of Romansh are fairly unimpressed. Romansh will be successful if they are willing to use the language, to pursue their identity and with the sociolinguists cooperatively to do research on the language and culture.

Free Research Field

ドイツ語学文学、社会言語学、スイス地域研究、外国語教育