Diachrone Stabilität und synchrone Variation der Verbzweitstellung in den rätoromanischen Varietäten

Raeto-Romance is one of the few languages in the world that are typologically classified as so-called verb-second languages. In this paper, an empirical study based on Bible translations shows that the varieties of Raeto-Romance behave differently with respect to the verb-second property, both diacronically and synchronically. While modern Swiss Raeto-Romance variaties largely show a strict verb-second property, the older varieties of Swiss Raeto-Romance as well as the Dolomitic Ladin varieties are characterized by a «relaxed» verb-second property and Friulian by a «residual» verb-second property.