nus en vacanzas – "Tomorrow, we go on vacation". When an independent clause is placed after the dependent clause: Cura ch'el ei entraus, ein tuts stai sin peis – "When he entered, everyone stood up". As well as in other stylistic variations. These features are in close concord with German syntax, which has likely reinforced them. However, this need not mean that they are due entirely to language contact. In fact, similar tendencies can be observed in Old French. A sentence is negated by adding a negative particle. In Sursilvan, this is buc, placed after the verb, while in other dialects such as Putèr and Vallader, it is nu, placed before the verb: Sursilvan: Jeu hai buc fatg quei – "I didn't do that". Putèr: La vschinauncha nu vegn isoleda da la naiv – "The village does not get cut off by snow". A feature found only in Putèr and Vallader (as it is in Castilian Spanish) is the preposition of a direct object, when that direct object is a person or an animal, with a, as in test vis a Peider? "did you see Peter?", eau d'he mno a spass al chaun "I took the dog out for a walk", but hest vis la baselgia? "did you see the church?". Vocabulary No systematic synchronic description of Romansh vocabulary has been carried out so far. Existing studies usually approach the subject from a historical perspective, taking particular interest in pre-Roman substratum, archaic words preserved only in Romansh, or in loan words from German. A project to compile together all known historic and modern Romansh vocabulary is the Dicziunari Rumantsch Grischun, first published in 1904, with the 13th edition currently in preparation. Raetic and Celtic The influence of the languages (Raetic and Celtic) spoken in Grisons before the arrival of the Romans is most obvious in placenames, which are often pre-Roman. Since very little is known about the Celtic language once spoken in Grisons, and almost nothing about Raetic, words or placenames thought to come from them are usually simply referred to as "pre-Roman". Apart from placenames, such words are found in landscape features, plant and animal names unique to the Alps, and tools and methods related to alpine transhumance. Such words include: Raetic: gnieu (Surs. igniv; Suts. (a)gnieu, ugnieu; Surm. nia; Put., Val. gnieu; Jauer agnieu) 'nest, eyrie', ampauna (Surs. puauna; Suts. omgia, ontga; Surm. omgia; Puter ampa; Val. amp(u)a)