Welche

The welche or welches?

The speeches welches

The welche - or welsche - is a Romance Dialecte spoken in Alsace in the West about the Haut-Rhin - especially in the Arrondissement of Ribeauvillé - and in extreme South-west about the the Low-Rhine. The linguistic Observatory Linguasphere distinguishes five alternatives:

51-AAA-hia : High valley of the Beetle
51-AAA-hib : Valley of City
51-AAA-difficulty : Valley of Lièpvre
51-AAA-hid : Valley of Kaysersberg
51-AAA-tamper : Valley of Orbey

The " term; welche"

Welsch , in German, is a word which means foreign speaking a Latin language , and it sounded and sounds still in a rather pejorative way. The Alsatian ones of Germanic language called Alsatian Romance language thus which lived the high Vosgean valleys. This term, francized in welche, was introduced by Voltaire into literary French. Curiously, the interested parties adopted the term to indicate themselves, like made, with the other end of France, Gavaches of the Nozzle of Number combinations, people of language of oil which their neighbors occitans had called Gabachos, i.e. “wild” approximations.

The welche today

Various initiatives try to keep life with this patois. With Orbey, the welche is taught with the college and is used for the mass; the hamlet of Tannach assembled a comic spectacle in this language. In the Low-Rhine, Neuviller-the-Rock organizes the meetings of the “tables of patois”.

In Swiss, the Welsch is the nickname familiarly given by theGermanic ones to the Romands.

Origins of the speech welche

The valleys welches are it probably for a very long time. Two assumptions exist:

Of the Gallo-Roman tribes come from the Alsatian plain would have fled the Germanic invasions at the 3rd century and the 4th century to take refuge in these isolated valleys. Romance toponyms dating from the Carolingian time seem to confirm this assumption.

Of the Lorraine monasteries and abbeys having of the grounds on the Alsatian slope would have make them clear by peasants from Lorraine. These possessions are attested as of the 12th century.

The two assumptions do not seem contradictory besides insofar as the first would explain why these Alsatian grounds would have interested of the Lorraine ones: one spoke there already a Romance patois, one could thus send the Lorraine ones without fearing to it a too great hostility on behalf of the local population.

External bonds

On the history

the speech " Welsch" in the Alsatian canton of Lapoutroie
History of the commune of Orbey and its language
Article of '' The Guardian '' on the speech welche (in English)
Article of the Swiss newspaper '' time ''

On the language itself

the patois welche
Glossary

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