German dialects. Marked in red is the
Brünig-Napf-Reuss line. dialects The German-speaking part of Switzerland (, , , ) 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). 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). In the cantons of
Bern,
Fribourg and
Valais, French is co-official; in the trilingual
canton of Graubünden, more than half of the population speaks German, while the rest speak
Romansh or
Italian. In each case, all languages are
official languages of the respective canton. While the French-speaking Swiss prefer to call themselves
Romands and their part of the country is
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). Research shows that individuals with a French-sounding name in the German-speaking part suffer from social discrimination. Nevertheless, in 2017, 11.1%, or about 920,600 of the Swiss residents speak
Standard German ("Hochdeutsch") at home, but this figure likely includes numerous German (and Austrian) immigrants. 's collection. 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. After the
Reformation, all cantons were either Catholic or Protestant, and the denominational influences on culture added to the differences. Even today, when all cantons are somewhat denominationally mixed, the different historical denominations can be seen in the mountain villages, where Roman Catholic Central Switzerland abounds with chapels and statues of saints, and the farmhouses in the very similar landscape of the Protestant Bernese Oberland show Bible verses carved on the housefronts instead. In addition to this more widespread notion of Swiss German dialect, there is also
Walser German, another
Highest Alemannic speech brought by
Walser emigrants from
Valais. Because German is the dominant language in Switzerland, many Swiss people whose first languages are French, Italian, or Romansh move into the German-speaking regions. Consequently, their children, born in these predominantly German-speaking areas, usually grow up speaking German as their primary language.
French language area map with place names in Arpitan and historic political divisions
Romandy (, , ) is the French-speaking part of
Switzerland. It covers the area of the
cantons of
Geneva,
Vaud,
Neuchâtel, and
Jura as well as the French-speaking parts of the cantons of
Bern (German-speaking majority),
Valais (French-speaking majority), and
Fribourg (French-speaking majority). 1.9 million people (or 24.4% of the Swiss population) live in Romandy. . In 2020 around 2 million people, or 22.8% of the population, in Switzerland spoke French as their primary language, and 28% of the population used French most often at work. Standard
Swiss French and the
French of
France are highly mutually intelligible, though some differences exist. For example, like most Francophone Belgians, speakers of Swiss French use
septante (seventy) instead of
soixante-dix (literally, "sixty ten") and
nonante (ninety) instead of "quatre-vingt-dix" ("four twenty ten"). In the cantons of
Vaud,
Valais and
Fribourg, speakers use
huitante (eighty) instead of "quatre-vingts" (four twenties) used in most of the rest of the
French-speaking world; the cantons of Geneva, Bern and Jura use "quatre-vingts". "
Sou" is used throughout Romandy for a
5-centime coin, as is "tune" (or "thune") when referring to a 5-Swiss-franc piece. Swiss French also uses "déjeuner, dîner, souper" for breakfast, lunch and dinner instead of "petit-déjeuner, déjeuner, dîner" used in France. Historically, the vernacular language used by inhabitants of most parts of Romandy was
Franco-Provençal. 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). Standard French and Franco-Provençal/Arpitan, linguistically, are distinct and mutual intelligibility is limited. Increasingly, Franco-Provençal/Arpitan is used only by members of the older generations. In parts of Jura
Franc-Comtois dialects are also spoken; these belong to the same
Oïl bloc as Standard French. The term
Romandy does not formally exist in the political system, but is used to distinguish and unify the French-speaking population of Switzerland. The
television channel
Télévision Suisse Romande (TSR) served the
Romande community across Switzerland and worldwide through
TV5Monde until it was merged with the
Radio Suisse Romande (RSR) and renamed
RTS (Radio Télévision Suisse) in 2010.
Italian Italian Switzerland (, , , ) is the
Italian-speaking part of Switzerland, which includes the canton of
Ticino and
the southern part of Grisons. Italian is also spoken in the
Gondo Valley (leading to the
Simplon Pass, on the southern part of the watershed) in Valais. The traditional vernacular of this region is the
Lombard language, specifically its
Ticinese dialect. The linguistic region covers an area of about 3,500 km2 and has a total population of around 350,000, with the number of Italophones residing in Switzerland being 545,274 (about 7% of the Swiss population). The proportion of Italian-speaking inhabitants had been decreasing since the 1970s, after reaching a high of 12% of the population during the same decade. This was entirely because of the reduced number of immigrants from Italy to Switzerland. However it has increased again during the last decade.
Romansh Romansh is an official language in the trilingual
Canton of Grisons, where the municipalities in turn are free to specify their own official languages. Romansh has been recognized as one of four "national languages" by the
Swiss Federal Constitution since 1938. 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. Although Romansh is split into several dialects, the federal and cantonal authorities use the standardized version (
Romansh Grischun) exclusively. Romansh speakers remain predominant in the
Surselva, the
Albula Region, and the
Engiadina Bassa/Val Müstair Region. == English ==