A Wind From the South
Page 39
***
On other matters: The statue of Diun/Diana found by Mariarta can be seen in the Rätische Museum in Chur. It was a household votive statue, found during excavations of Curia Raetia, the Roman settlement built about 20 BC and now buried beneath the neighborhood of modern Chur called Welschdörfli, near the banks of the river Plessur. Other such statues have been found in the area, though few so well preserved. At least one “roadside” shrine left by a passing Roman legionary has been found near the spot in the neighborhood of Vaz where Mariarta was distracted from the skinning of her chamois.
Romansch, the language spoken in Tschamut in this story, is with its cousin-tongue Romanian the most direct lineal descendant of Latin still being colloquially spoken on earth, and (by enactment of law) is the fourth official language of Switzerland. English-speaking readers can find more about the language in Romontsch Language and Literature by D. B. Gregor, The Oleander Press, 1982 (Oleander Press, 210 5th Avenue
, NY NY 10010). One of the best-known books on the subject in German is the excellent Bien Di, Bien Onn by the poet and scholar S. M. Nay, still used to teach the language in Switzerland. The language (in its five variant forms—Sursilvan, Sutsilvan, Surmiran, Engadinish/Ladin, and Vallader) is now under threat, being spoken by only about 50,000 people: but this small number is a result of the steady departure of Romansch-speaking populations from the alpine areas to the large cities, and not some politically-motivated or sectarian “linguicide” such as was attempted with other European “minority” languages like Basque and Irish. Of all the Romansch dialects, Sursilvan is the form spoken by the largest group, and is most influential in terms of prose and poetic output. However, it is the form of Romansch used in this book not for the above reasons, but because it’s the form predominant between Tschamut, Disentis/Mustér (still home to the great abbey which gave it its name, a notable center of Romansch learning and scholarship), and Chur.
Readers interested in hearing the music of the language for themselves can do so over the World Wide Web. Broadcasts of music (modern Romansch music as well as traditional), news and current affairs in (Sursilvan) Romansch can be heard 24 hours a day via live streaming Web audio from Radio e Televisiun Rumantscha’s service Radio Rumantsch at http://www.rtr.ch. Click on "Novitads" at the top of the page to hear headlines and the most recent news broadcast in Romansch from RTR’s broadcast center in Chur.
A last note: The word föhn has become the official “family” name for all winds of its kind—hot, dry winds, caused by low barometric pressure on one side or the other of a mountain chain. (The Chinook wind of the Rocky Mountains is a föhn: so, to a lesser degree, is the Santa Ana wind of southern California.) The föhn proper is caused by low barometric pressure on the north side of the Alps, and the presence of storm or other unsettled weather on the south side. The clouds dump their rain on the southern side, and the airmass associated with the southern occluded front is either sucked up and over by the low pressure system north of the mountains, or pushed over the peaks by the storm system to the south. In either case, the air moves so quickly that it is able to discharge very little energy, and because of the increase in kinetic energy caused by its plunge down the northern slope, it rapidly becomes a hot, dry, positively ionized wind of devastating speed and power. The föhn melts the snow on the upper pastures early in the year, and extends or creates a growing season for plants that could otherwise not be grown on the near north side of the Alps (grapes, most fruit, most grains). Its massive positive ionization, though, makes it an uncomfortable wind for human beings to live with...conducive to avalanches, forest fires, short tempers, migraines, and murders. In the upper Reuss valley, from about Tschamut to Disentis/Mustér, smoking is often completely forbidden when the föhn is blowing, for the same reasons it’s forbidden in forest country in southern California in the summer. With all this taken into account, the relationship of Alpine people with the föhn is, at best, ambivalent. One Swiss writer claims the föhn has (at least, in the southern parts) become the national excuse not to do something you don’t want to.
Some drugstores in Switzerland now stock an anti-föhn preparation. It is uncertain how well it sells, or works.... Meanwhile, in most German-speaking countries, föhn is also a word for a portable hair dryer.
APPENDIX 1: Maps
Mariarta’s First Journeys
Mariarta’s Eastern Journeys
“The Maiden Between the Lakes”
Northward to Battle