language of the Roman Empire. Among the Romance languages, Romansh stands out because of its peripheral location. This has resulted in several archaic features. Another distinguishing feature is the centuries-long language contact with German, which is most noticeable in the vocabulary and to a lesser extent the syntax of Romansh. Romansh belongs to the Gallo-Romance branch of the Romance languages, which includes languages such as French, Occitan, and Lombard. The main feature placing Romansh within the Gallo-Romance languages is the fronting of Latin to or , as seen in Latin 'wall', which is or in Romansh. The main features distinguishing Romansh from the Gallo-Italic languages to the south, and placing it closer to French, are: Palatalization of Latin K and G in front of A, as in Latin 'dog', which is in Sursilvan, tgang in Surmiran, and in Putèr and Vallader (the difference between and being purely orthographic, as both represent /tɕ/); Lombard , French . This sound change is partially absent in some varieties of Romansh, however, especially in Sursilvan, where it may have been reversed at some point: Sursilvan and Vallader 'house'. Pluralisation with -s suffix, derived from the Latin accusative case (though see ), as in "" 'good horses' as opposed to Lombard ; French . Retention of L following : 'key' from Latin , as opposed to Lombard ; French . Another defining feature of the Romansh language is the use of unstressed vowels. All unstressed vowels except /a/ disappeared. Whether or not Romansh, Friulan, and Ladin should compose a separate "Rhaeto-Romance" subgroup within Gallo-Romance is an unresolved issue, known as the . Some linguists posit that these languages are descended from a common language, which was fractured geographically through the spread of German and Italian. The Italian linguist Graziadio Isaia Ascoli first made the claim in 1873. The other position holds that any similarities between these three languages can be explained through their relative geographic isolation, which shielded them from certain linguistic changes. By contrast, the Gallo-Italic varieties of Northern Italy were more open to linguistic influences from the South. Linguists who take this position often point out that the similarities between the languages are comparatively few. This position was first introduced by the Italian dialectologist Carlo Battisti. This linguistic dispute became politically relevant for the Italian irredentist movement. Italian nationalists interpreted Battisti's hypothesis as implying that Romansh, Friulan, and Ladin were not separate Romance