The sound of Romance

[Ibericus]

Romansch sounds like a hybrid between italian and german, but more german than italian.

[alzo zero]

LOL Krauts with Italian names!

[Arthur Scharrenhans]

To me, the phonemes sound German, but the intonation sounds Italian.

However, listening to these people, I find some have a more Italian intonation, some have a more German one, and some have a different one -maybe the properly Romansh one?

[YOUTUBE]uHvxPriXWf4[/YOUTUBE]

Maybe they're Italian- or German speakers respectively, who have learnt Romansh but don't have it as their real native language. For the same reason Occitan is usually spoken with heavy French accents, especially by young people who have learnt it for cultural reasons; and even the phonetics of many Italian dialects are getting more and more influenced by standard Italian, especially in younger speakers.

[Ouistreham]

Romansch sounds like a hybrid between italian and german, but more german than italian.

Romantsch is indeed heavily influenced phonetically by Swiss German. It's one of those minority languages that are in the process of losing their native accent — which is generally the last stage before disappearance.

Similarly,

• Scottish Gaelic sounds like (Scottish) English,
• Frisian sounds like Dutch,
• Modern Breton sounds like French.

Franco-Provençal of Val-d'Aoste tends nowadays to sound like Italian: the old lady on the video stills sounds French, but the announcer's voice and accent are definitely Italian.

[youtube]BQvmdLVQPdM[/youtube]

[alzo zero]

Franco-Provençal of Val-d'Aoste tends nowadays to sound like Italian: the old lady on the video stills sounds French, but the announcer's voice and accent are definitely Italian.

Why is it supposed to sound French? Occitan is equidistant to neighbouring French and Piemontese. As a matter of fact the old lady's accent may as well be Piemontese for all I can tell...

[Comte Arnau]

Why is it supposed to sound French? Occitan is equidistant to neighbouring French and Piemontese. As a matter of fact the old lady's accent may as well be Piemontese for all I can tell...

Arpitan is not Occitan.

[alzo zero]

Arpitan is not Occitan.

Yes, sorry. Arpitan.

It is not French so why should it sound French?

[alzo zero]

Interview with a band from Aosta. Apparently they are native Italian speakers with a Piemonteseish accent:

[YOUTUBE]RmwxZrzZJ0I[/YOUTUBE]

Interesting comparison with "Italians" from Alto Adige / South Tyrol (from 0:55):

[YOUTUBE]aVeS8Y_BWc4[/YOUTUBE]

[Ouistreham]

It is not French so why should it sound French?

Because it's not supposed to sound otherwise!

Franco-Provençal ("arpitan" is one of the most ludicrous words ever coined) is part of the Oïl dialect continuum while morphologies lean towards Occitan — hence its name: phonetically French, philologically Provençal.

I remember that in the 80's there was a very obvious difference between people over fifty and those under thirty. The old ones could speak French without any accent other than the familiar intonations of French Savoyard, while the others sounded definitely like foreigners, even when they had a better command of grammar and a richer vocabulary.

Strangely, it seems a process of phonetical assimilation in the opposite way is taking place in Corsica. More and more Corsicans tend to refrain from rolling their 'r's when speaking in their Italian dialect. Which sounds downright weird.

[alzo zero]

Because it's not supposed to sound otherwise!

Is the patois closer to French than it is to Piemontese? I don't think that the old lady of your previous video had a distinctive French accent, maybe Tribuno who is more familiar with Piemontese can help...

More and more Corsicans tend to refrain from rolling their 'r's when speaking in their Italian dialect. Which sounds downright weird.

For example?