Franco-Provençal (also called Arpitan) is a language sometimes considered to be halfway between the langue d'oïl (the historical language of northern France and ancestor of French) and Occitan (the langue d'oc, spoken in southern France). Italian-speaking Swiss areas include the canton of Tinico, Gondo valley in Valais, and the southern region of the Graubünden. The Italian language in Switzerland or Swiss Italian (Italian: svizzero italiano) is the variety of the Italian language taught in the Italian-speaking area of Switzerland. [15], To avoid having to translate the name of Switzerland in the four national languages,[note 2] Latin is used on the coins of the Swiss franc (Helvetia or Confoederatio Helvetica) and on Swiss stamps (Helvetia). Switzerlands four officail langugles are french,germany,Romanstch,italian. Today, English is the Lingua Franca of German and French-speaking Swiss in the Business world. By the Middle Ages, a marked difference had developed within the German-speaking part of Switzerland between the rural cantons (Uri, Schwyz, Unterwalden, Glarus, Zug, Appenzell, Schaffhausen) and the city cantons (Lucerne, Berne, Zurich, Solothurn, Fribourg, Basel, St. Gallen), divided by views about trade and commerce. Its native region is the canton of Graubünden ( Grischuns in Rumantsch, Grisons in English) in southeastern Switzerland. Likewise, newspapers, schoolbooks, literature, and political statements needed a common base that everyone could understand. Communication at ETH Zurich. The television channel Télévision Suisse Romande (TSR) serves the Romande community across Switzerland, is syndicated to TV5 and CanalSat Romande. Swiss French is the second most popular language in Switzerland. French (22.5 %) French is spoken in the western part of the country, the "Suisse Romande." [citation needed] Research shows, that individuals with a French-sounding name in the German-speaking part suffer from social discrimination. Switzerland has no common Language. The predominant language varies by regions of the country, called cantons. Romansh speakers remain predominant in the Surselva, the Albula Region, and the Engiadina Bassa/Val Müstair Region. The reformation of the 15th century brought about the need to have a uniformly written German. The dialects on the other hand - Ticinese - can be as different as Schwiizertütsch (Swiss German) from High German. The German-speaking part of Switzerland (German: Deutschschweiz, French: Suisse alémanique, Italian: Svizzera tedesca, Romansh: Svizra tudestga) constitutes about 65% of Switzerland (North Western Switzerland, Eastern Switzerland, Central Switzerland, most of the Swiss Plateau and the greater part of the Swiss Alps). Besides the national languages and the many varieties of Swiss German, several regional Romance languages are spoken natively in Switzerland: Franco-Provençal and Lombard. German is the official language of 17 Swiss cantons, and the population of the speakers is about 4,348,289 accounting for around 63% of the country's total population. For example, like some other regions of the French-speaking world, Swiss people (as well as most Francophone Belgians) use septante (seventy) instead of soixante-dix (literally, "sixty ten") and nonante (ninety) instead of "quatre-vingt-dix" ("four twenties and ten"). It is important to note also that French of France is both the spoken and the written form of French in Switzerland. 339 views View 1 Upvoter 5 Amtssprachen", "Die zehn häufigsten Hauptsprachen der ständigen Wohnbevölkerung - 2014-2017 | Tabelle", "Die zehn häufigsten Hauptsprachen der ständigen Wohnbevölkerung", "SR 101 The Federal Constitution of the Swiss Confederation of 18 April 1999 (Status as of 12 February 2017): Art. Don't expect to understand Swiss German if you understand standard German as it's spoken in Germany. The most-widely spoken language in Switzerland is “ Swiss German.” Spoken by just over 60% of the population, its speakers are concentrated in the northern, central and eastern parts of the … In actual sense, Romandy is not a political term, but a unification system that unites French-speaking citizens of Switzerland. Which Countries Recognize Sign Language As An Official Language? However, the English language is spoken by many Swiss people. While the Swiss-German dialect is very different from High-German, the Italian and the French spoken in Switzerland are close to the standard languages. It is spoken in the cantons of southern Graubünden, Ticino, Lugano, Bellinzona, and Locarno. Unlike the Swiss German which has many dialects, the standard Swiss French and the France French are similar with minor differences. It was also declared an "official language" of the Confederation in 1996, meaning that Romansh speakers may use their language for correspondence with the federal government and expect to receive a Romansh response. In the cantons of Vaud, Valais and Fribourg, speakers use huitante (eighty) instead of the Standard French "quatre-vingts" (four twenties). The majority of Swiss people speak German. However, the Romansh language is officially spoken only in the trilingual Graubünden. All maps, graphics, flags, photos and original descriptions © 2020 worldatlas.com. Romandy (French: Romandie, la Suisse romande, German: Romandie, Welschland, Welschschweiz, or in some contexts: Westschweiz,[note 1] Italian: Svizzera romanda) is the French-speaking part of Switzerland. In seventeen of the Swiss cantons, German is the only official language (Aargau, Appenzell Ausserrhoden, Appenzell Innerrhoden, Basel-Stadt, Basel-Landschaft, Glarus, Luzern, Nidwalden, Obwalden, Schaffhausen, Schwyz, Solothurn, St. Gallen, Thurgau, Uri, Zug, and Zürich).[7]. As liberal as Switzerland is, there are three languages officially spoken. There are some places in Switzerland where it is handy to have some French or Italian, but this is not the case in Zermatt. About 20% of Tinico population is Italian by descent. The main languages of Swiss residents from 1950 to 2015, in percentages, were as follows:[6], In 2012, for the first time, respondents could indicate more than one language, causing the percentages to exceed 100%.[6]. Historically, the vernacular language used by inhabitants of most parts of Romandy was Franco-Provençal. It is spoken mostly in western Switzerland, covering the cantons of Geneva, Vaud, Neuchâtel, and Jura. While the French-speaking Swiss prefer to call themselves Romands and their part of the country is the Romandy, the German-speaking Swiss used to (and, colloquially, still do) refer to the French-speaking Swiss as "Welsche", and to their area as Welschland, which has the same etymology as the English Welsh (see Walha). German is the most spoken language in the country, and is widely spoken in the central region of the country. 4 National languages", "SR 441.1 Bundesgesetz über die Landessprachen und die Verständigung zwischen den Sprachgemeinschaften [Federal Act on the National Languages and Understanding between the Linguistic Communities] (Sprachengesetz, SpG) vom 5. From there, it became the norm for the Swiss dialect to be used in communication and for High German to be used in writing. Language of Lucerne, Switzerland: does anybody know what language is primarily spoken in Lucerne, Switzerland? Among speakers of German and French, English is increasingly being used as the common language of business in Switzerland. The cantons of Fribourg, Bern and Valais are officially bilingual; the canton of Graubünden is officially trilingual. [clarification needed]. Oktober 2007 (Stand am 1. French is the first language for 19% of Swiss citizens, Italian for 8% and Romansh for 1% of Swiss citizens. The Swiss dialect has a slower pace, a unique antique quality, different accent and some variations in words and phrases. Romansch is spoken by fewer than 1 percent of the population, and is one of three official languages in the Canton of Grisons. People in Switzerland should be able to speak all 3 languages. Italian is spoken mostly in canton Ticino, but German is spoken almost everywhere in Switzerland. Unlike many nations in Europe, Switzerland tolerates almost every language spoken by people in the country. 1.9 million people (or 24.4% of the Swiss population) live in Romandy.[11]. German, spoken by more than 60% of the population, is the most widely-spoken language in Switzerland and the first learned in schools. (Swiss) German, French, Italian. 2. In Bern, the capital city of Switzerland, and Zurich, the largest city, the Swiss dialect is the most dominant language. Outside these lingual regions, Zurich has the largest population of Rumantsch-speaking people. Italian is also spoken in the Gondo Valley (leading to the Simplon Pass, on the southern part of the watershed) in Valais. [citation needed] In parts of Jura Franc-Comtois dialects are also spoken; these belong to the same Oïl bloc as Standard French. Because Switzerland is a multicultural country, there are many other languages in use besides the national languages – chiefly English, Spanish, Portuguese, Turkish and the Slavic languages. Switzerland has four official languages; German, Italian, French and Romansh. The linguistic region covers an area approximately 3,500 km² and has a total population of around 350,000 inhabitants,[13] with the number of Italophones residing in Switzerland being 545,274 (about 7% of the Swiss population). There remains a small Romansh-speaking native population in Graubünden in the east. We only ran into a communication block a couple of times in our whole trip, but never in Zermatt. The main language spoken in Switzerland is Swiss German. 561,857 people in Switzerland speak Italian, which is about 8.4% of the population in the country. The majority of the Swiss population speaks German. [3] German, French and Italian maintain equal status as official languages at the national level within the Federal Administration of the Swiss Confederation, while Romansh is used in dealings with people who speak it. [4] In some situations, Latin is used, particularly as a single language to denote the country. Although Romansh is split into several dialects, the federal and cantonal authorities use the standardized version (Romansh Grischun) exclusively. Around 60% of the population speak Swiss-German referred to as Schwiizertütsch . Since immigrants have brought their own language with them in Switzerland, as a whole they have now outnumbered both Rumantsch and Italian. German (with roughly 60% of the country speaking this). Well Switzerland has four national languages (which I must admit baffles me a bit lol). Moreover, they ALL use the SAME script. Switzerland's four official languages, traditionally spoken in different regions of the country, are German, French, Italian and Rumantsch [sometimes also transcribed as Romansh, RomanschRhaeto-Romanic or even Romanceetc. The area covers the cantons of Geneva, Jura, Vaud, and Neuchatel, parts of Bern, and in Valais and Fribourg. These languages are the formal languages spoken in Switzerland. Out of these three, two are in fact from the same family having Latin roots (French and Italian). Romansh is an official language in the trilingual Canton of Grisons, where the municipalities in turn are free to specify their own official languages. Despite the many German dialects that are used in verbal communication, the Swiss use the standard or High German in writing. In each case, all languages are official languages of the respective canton. The four national languages of Switzerland are German, French, Italian and Romansh. 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