Romansh on YouTube
Saturday, 25 April 2009 12:54I came across a Romansh-language clip on "youth and beauty" (about what youth think about standards of beauty and brands etc.) on YouTube (part 1, part 2, part 3) and was a bit disappointed to find that I understood next to nothing—I could hardly even pick out a word or two!
Reading it is one thing but picking out continuous speech is obviously a whole nother thing. Though some speakers were easier to understand than others (in the sense that I could pick out a few words here and there, while most others were just a continuous stream of sound); I wonder whether that depends on the dialect they spoke or simply how clearly they enunciated or something.
This documentary on a unicorn in Val Cama seemed to start off a little better; perhaps because the professional announcer was talking for a television audience and was enunciating more clearly.
And finally I watched this short film where I didn't understand anything, but I noticed that they seemed to use a uvular fricative /r/ rather than an alveolar tap or trill as I thought the others had used.