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Hello everyone. And welcome to the Langfocus channel. My name is Paul
Today, I'm going to talk about the languages of Switzerland.
Switzerland is a fascinating country, known for many things such as:
the Swiss Alps, Swiss chocolate, Swiss watches, Swiss banking,
but it's also known for being a multilingual nation and a model of coexistence.
Located at the crossroads of Germany, Austria, France, Italy and Liechtenstein,
Switzerland has four recognized national languages.
Those are German, French, Italian and Romansh.
Three of those, German, French and Italian are official languages used by the state, but don't assume that everybody can speak four languages.
Switzerland is a federation of 26 Cantons which are like states with a high degree of autonomy.
This federal type of government fits well with Switzerland's multilingualism.
At the national level Switzerland is essentially trilingual in German, French and Italian
That means that, for state purposes, you can use any of those three languages and those three languages are used in Parliament and government offices.
Romansh is recognized as a national language but it's not an official language of administration.
Probably because there just aren't that many speakers of Romansh.
The Swiss Constitution guarantees linguistic freedom for speakers of those four national languages,
meaning that they are free to use any of those languages to communicate with each other or with the government in their respective regions.
Because Switzerland's linguistic communities are connected to specific territories,
the federal government gives each canton the right to choose its own official language
That effects which language is used at school, which language is used at government offices, on radio broadcasts and TV, all of those sorts of things.
And in the cantons that have more than one official language, the canton grants each municipality, the right to choose its own official language.
That means that you sometimes have one town with one official language and the neighboring town with a different one.
And there are even a handful of bilingual municipalities that provide services such as schools in both languages, depending on where you live in that municipality.
Now, let's take a look at each of the four national languages.
The most widely spoken language is German, specifically Swiss German which is spoken by 5 million people or 63.5% of the population.
And it's spoken in the largest area in northern, central and eastern Switzerland, as well as on the Swiss plateau and part of the Swiss Alps.
It is the official language of 17 cantons and it is co-official in 4 more cantons.
Swiss German does not refer to one unified language but rather to a group of related alemannic dialects that are spoken inside Switzerland.
These dialects are not considered inferior to standard German and they are used for all aspects of daily life by basically all German speakers.
Swiss German is generally unintelligible to speakers of standard German
but it isn't eligible to some Germans who live across the border in nearby areas who speak related dialects.
And it's also understood by people in Liechtenstein as well as border areas of Austria.
Aside from spoken Swiss German dialects, there is also standard Swiss German,
which is basically the same as the standard German spoken in Germany.
In Switzerland, it is the written language and all Swiss German speakers learn the standard language in school.
But basically in speech, they almost exclusively use Swiss German dialect.
As I said before, speakers of standard German can't really understand Swiss German.
And that includes Swiss people who learn German as a second language in school.
That causes problems because, when they travel to the German speaking areas,
they find that the German speakers speak to them only in Swiss German dialect and they can't understand it.
Well, why doesn't the german-speaking population make more of an effort to speak standard German?
Well, according to some sources I've read, that was actually happening but then, when World War 2 broke out,
the Swiss German population wanted to be separate from Germany, they wanted to be distinct,
so they started de-emphasizing standard German and relying more on their spoken dialect.
The second most widely spoken language is French with 1.8 million native speakers or 22.5% of the population.
The French-speaking region of Romandie is located in western Switzerland on the border with France.
The French language in Switzerland differs very little from the French language in France.
I've taken lessons with some teachers in Switzerland, I noticed very little difference.
For example the number 70. In France, it's "soixante-dix" (sixty-ten) but in Switzerland its "septante" (seventy)
Also, the number 90. In France, it's "quatre-vingt-dix" ("four-twenty-ten") but in Switzerland is "nonante" ("ninety")
Or the word for "breakfast". In France, it's "petit-déjeuner" but, in Switzerland, it's "déjeuner" which means "lunch" in France
And, in some areas, people use some German loanwords in their French but basically the differences are very minor.
There are also some loanwords from Franco-provençal
Franco-provençal is an unofficial regional language in France
and it is also still to some extent spoken in some of the rural areas in Switzerland but it has mostly become replaced by standard French.
So, unlike the situation of Swiss German and standard German,
French speakers in Switzerland really have no problem communicating with French speakers in France or Belgium or elsewhere.
The third most widely spoken language is Italian with 645,000 native speakers or 8.1% of the population.
It is an official language in only one canton called Ticino.
And it is one of 3 official languages in one other canton called Graubunden.
Both of those cantons are on the southern border with Italy.
Swiss Italian is very similar to standard Italian and there really are no problems communicating
between speakers of those two varieties but there is a different kind of accent or intonation
and there has been some influence of Swiss German and French on the vocabulary, a little bit.
And there's been some influence of the original Italian dialect of that area.
Just like standard French has grown to replace Franco-provençal, standard Italian has grown to replace the original Italian dialect called Ticinese
It is actually quite different from standard Italian and it could be considered its own language.
It is still spoken to some extent especially in rural areas and by elderly people
but it is basically being overtaken by Swiss Italian.
The least widely spoken of the four national languages, by a long shot, is Romansh.
It has only 40,000 native speakers or 0.5% of the population.
There are immigrant languages that have more speakers than Romansh. Serbo-croatian has almost three times as many speakers as Romansh.
It is an official language in only one canton and it's not the only one it's one of three official languages.
It's that Canton Graubünden that I mentioned before.
Romansh is a Romance language that developed from the spoken Latin of the Roman Empire.
But it was also influenced by the local Celtic and Raetic languages of its region in Switzerland.
It seems like a mystery why Romansh is even a national language at all because so few people speak it.
But think about this: in 1939, Romansh was made an official language.
That was right about the time when Hitler wanted to incorporate all ethnic Germans inside Germany
and Mussolini wanted to include all ethnic Italians inside Italy.
So Switzerland might have felt nervous about that and decided to emphasize
that they are a different country, a multilingual, multi-ethnic country and they showed that by making Romansh an official language.
According to some sources I've read, that was the case.
About 10% of the population speak other languages, those people are mostly foreign workers or immigrants.
The largest group is Serbo-croatians with about 100,000 speakers.
Non-swiss people often assume that Swiss people are all quadrilingual, that they can speak 4 languages.
But that's rarely the case.
Language use is highly decentralized and it differs, depending on the region, the canton and even the town.
Of course, Swiss people speak their own native language but then, from the 3rd grade of elementary school, they have to study a different national language.
That's usually French for German speakers and German for everybody else.
They also take English at school and, in high school, they have to study a third national language.
Most people say that they are not fluent in a non-native national language but that they can get by in one
But people aren't always very excited to speak a different national language.
I hear that French speaking Swiss people don't really like to speak German and vice versa.
In the old days, they might have tried to speak the other language but, these days, some people just use English instead.
English is becoming more and more important in Switzerland because of globalization
and because of the presence of more foreign companies in the big cities.
Many Swiss people, these days, speak English better than they speak any of the other national languages.
So some people want to emphasize English education in school instead of other national languages.
And basically make English the lingua franca between the different linguistic communities.
But some people don't like that idea.
They think that that undermines Switzerland's national identity and their multi-linguistic character.
In the absence of a neutral lingua franca like English or some other language, communication can be a tricky issue.
An issue that's different depending on the city and on the region.
There are a handful of bilingual cities, along the Röstigraben in Switzerland.
The Röstigraben is basically the invisible linguistic boundary between French speaking and German-speaking Switzerland.
In some of these bilingual cities, on one side of the river, you have French-speaking zones and, on the other side of the river, you have German-speaking zones.
Cities like this are typically not integrated. The schools are not bilingual. They have separate schools with languages for the different communities.
So, in a city like that, when you meet someone from the other side, which language do you speak? It's always a tricky question.
There are some multilingual cantons but sometimes, they have disputes over linguistic policy or linguistic identity.
And in one case, a whole new canton was created to solve the dispute.
The area of Jura was split off from the canton of Bern in 1977 and became its own canton.
That is because Jura was primarily French-speaking while Bern was primarily German-speaking.
But generally speaking the Swiss attitude towards multilingualism seems to be one of peaceful coexistence
with separate and distinct linguistic communities.
That seems to be at the heart of what it means to be Swiss.
The only problem is everyone wants to speak their own language and wait for the other side to bridge the gap.
But, since all of the official languages are supposed to be equal and no preference is supposed to be shown,
then maybe a neutral lingua franca like English would be the best way to unite the different linguistic communities.
These days some cantons want to stop teaching other national languages as second languages
and focus instead on English and make that the lingua franca.
Do you think that is a good idea?
Let us know in the comments down below and we'll discuss it.
Thank you for watching the Langfocus channel Have a good day.