The Romansh Alphabet

An interesting thing about the Romansh alphabet is that it only contains 23 letters instead of the 26+ we see from other romance languages.

Sample texts in Romansh

English

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with intellect and conscience and can act both in a spirit of brotherhood.

Romansch (Standard)

Tuots umans naschan libers ed eguals in dignità e drets. Els sun dotats cun intellet e conscienza e dessan agir tanter per in uin spiert da fraternità.

Romansch (Grischun)

Tut ils umans naschan libers ed eguals en dignitad ed en dretgs. Els èn dotads cun raschun e conscienza e duain agir in vers l’auter en spiert da fraternitad.

Romansch (Puter)

Tuot ils umauns naschan libers ed eguels in dignited ed in drets. Els sun dotos cun radschun e conscienza e dessan agir ün invers l’oter in spiert da fraternited.

Romansch (Surmiran)

Tot igls carstgangs neschan libers ed eguals an dignitad ed an dretgs. Els èn dotos cun raschung e schientscha e duessan ager l’egn vers l’oter an spiert da fraternitad.

Romansch (Sursilvan)

Tut ils humans neschan libers ed eguals en dignitad ed en dretgs. Els ein dotai cun raschun e cunscienzia e duein agir in viers l’auter en spért da fraternitad.

(Omniglot, Romansh (rumantsch))

Romansh Counting

As stated on languagesandnumbers.com,

• Numbers from zero to ten are specific words, namely nulla [0], in (feminine ina) [1], dus (feminine duas) [2], trais [3], quatter [4], tschintg [5], sis [6], set [7], otg [8], nov [9], and diesch [10].
• From eleven to sixteen, numbers are formed from the root of the digit followed by ten: indesch [11], dudesch [12], tredesch [13], quattordesch [14], quindesch [15], and sedesch [16]. From seventeen to nineteen, the order is reversed, as the unit is put directly after the ten: deschset [17], deschdotg [18], and deschnov [19].
• The tens have specific names based on the matching digit root except for ten and twenty: diesch [10], ventg [20], trenta [30], quaranta [40], tschuncanta [50], sessanta [60], settanta [70], otganta [80], and novanta [90].

(Gross & Stich, Romansh numbers)

What is interesting about this is that they use a root of 10 like English, but have differences in counting before reaching 20. From 11 to 16, the numbers are the digit with the root of 10, but from 17-19, the root and digit get reversed. None of the other roots show this flip of the root and digit besides the 10 root, however another interesting fact is that 10 and 20 have unique names, while the rest of the bases have names that have the digit followed by "-ta" or "-anta". These unique qualities might have been important to how the original Romansh speakers counted, and they also may have been influenced by other languages such as German and Italian.