The traditional art of graffiti in the Engadine

Romansh: rumantsch/rumauntsch/romontsch; German: Rätoromanisch; Italian:Romancio is one of the four national languages of Switzerland, along with German, Italian and French. It is one of the Rhaeto-Romance languages, believed to have descended from the Vulgar Latin variety spoken by Roman era occupiers of the region, and, as such, is closely related to French, Occitan and Lombard, as well as other Romance languages to a lesser extent.

As of the 2000 Swiss Census, it is spoken by 35,095 residents of the canton of Graubünden (Grisons) as the language of "best command", and 61,815 in the "best command" plus "most spoken" categories. Spoken now by around 0.9% of Switzerland's 7.7 million inhabitants, it is Switzerland's least-used national language in terms of number of speakers.

Romansh is an umbrella term covering a group of closely related dialects, spoken in southern Switzerland and all belonging to the Rhaeto-Romance language family. The other members of this language family are spoken in northern Italy. Ladin, to which Romansh is more closely related, is spoken by some 22,550 in the Dolomite mountains of Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol, and Friulian is spoken by between 550,000 and 595,000 people in northeastern Italy.

Romansh is spoken in the Swiss canton of Grisons or Graubünden, "the Grey League", which preserves the name of the self-defence organisation of Romance speakers set up in the 15th century. It became part of Switzerland in 1803. Germans once called this language Chur-Wälsch, "foreign speech of Chur" (the English word "Welsh" had the same origin), for Chur was once the centre of Romansh. This is cited as one possible explanation of the origin of the modern term "Kauderwelsch" meaning gibberish. However, most of Grisons, including Chur and even its cross-river suburb of Welschdörfli ("little foreign-language-speaking village"), now speak German; Romansh survives only in the upper valleys of the Rhine and the Inn. Romansh speakers nowadays almost always are multilingual, being able to speak standard German and Italian as well as the local Graubünden dialect of Swiss German.

Lovely literature has been published in Romansh since the mid-16th century. The Engadine dialect was first printed as early as 1552 in Jacob Bifrun's Christiauna fuorma, a catechism; a translation of the New Testament followed in 1560.

Here are the first verse of three verse poem by Peider Lansel (1863–1943), translated by M.E. Maxfield:

MASSA BOD! (TOO SOON!)

O sblacha fluoretta, (O, pale little flow'ret,)

tu vainsch massa bod! (Too soon thou art here!)

amo be suletta (Alone in the wildwood)

at dervasch nil god. (And full of vague fear.)

For further details see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romansh_language

Wall inscriptions in form of the Sgraffito have been popular in the Engadine since the 15th century, most of the traditional Engadine houses have them.

The typical Engadine house style with the massive stone front and small funnel-shaped windows that allowed a maximum of light to enter the interior with a minimum loss of heat.

The word graffiti originates from the Italian and means scratched. Graffiti designs are not painted but scratched into a lime plaster.

For your orientation a map of the Engadine, with the most important locations. Traveling there is curative for all kinds of sorrows and Seelenschmerz....

Texts and following images are examples from the beautiful book by Erna Romeril, Engadiner Lebensweisheiten. Crailsheim 2011 (Baier BPB Verlag). These rare photographic volumes I usually find at my favorite Zurich bookseller, Buchhandlung am Hottingerplatz, Cornelia Schweizer, Hottingerstrasse 35.

You will find this inscription in Samedan. L'umaun sainz'amur es scu ün pro sainza flur. A human being without love is like a meadow without flowers.

From Celerina. Cuorta vzüda granda buocha saun adüna che chi tuocha. Those who are short-sighted but have a big mouth always know how things should be done better.

From Pontresina. Mincha cling da buna glüna maina glüsch illa s-chürdüna. Every well intended tone brings light into the darkness.

From Samedan. Scha la furtüna voust chatter schi vo l'incunter na spetter. If you want to find good fortune, don't wait for it to come to you but take the first step toward it yourself.

From Samedan. Quista chesa nun es tia, tü crajast cha la saja mia, neir quel chi zieva me gnaro co stabla dmura nu varo. The house you see before you is neither your house nor is it mine. Nor will it belong to those who come after us for no one finds a permanent home on this earth.

From Bever. Mincha sapienza cuost'experienza. Mincha sabgentscha cuosta suffrentscha. Every piece of knowledge demands experience, every piece of wisdom demands suffering.

From Bever. Il bun scu il malign suvenz pürmemm `as zoppa sün ün medem s-chelin in quell'istessa schoppa. The good and the bad often end up sitting on the same step and being cooked together in the same soup.

From Madulain. Dür cun dür nu fo bun mür. A good wall must be made of hard stone and soft mortar.

From Zuoz. L'umaun in sieu intern as fo sieu tschêl u sieu iffiern. It is within our own soul that we human beings make a heaven or a hell.

From Zuoz. Traunter her e damaun tia vit' hest in maun. Between yesterday and tomorrow is the time you have your life in your own hands.

From Zuoz. Sine arte sine amore non est vita. Life is not worth living without art and without love.