Languages of Switzerland


The four national languages of Switzerland are German, French, Italian and Romansh. All but Romansh maintain equal status as official languages at the national level within the Federal Administration of the Swiss Confederation. In some situations, Latin is used, particularly as a single language to denote the country.
In 2017, the population of Switzerland was 62.6% native speakers of German ; 22.9% French ; 8.2% Italian ; and 0.5% Romansh. The German region is roughly in the east, north and center; the French part in the west and the Italian area in the south. There remains a small Romansh-speaking native population in Graubünden in the east. The cantons of Fribourg, Bern and Valais are officially bilingual; the canton of Graubünden is officially trilingual.

History

The main languages of Swiss residents from 1950 to 2015, in percentages, were as follows:
YearGermanFrenchItalianRomanshOther
201563.022.78.40.65.3
200063.720.46.50.59.0
199063.619.27.60.68.9
198065.018.49.80.86.0
197064.918.111.90.84.3
196069.418.99.50.91.4
195072.120.35.91.00.7

In 2012, for the first time, respondents could indicate more than one language, causing the percentages to exceed 100%.

National languages and linguistic regions

German

The German-speaking part of Switzerland constitutes about 65% of Switzerland.
In seventeen of the Swiss cantons, German is the only official language.
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 the Romandy, the German-speaking Swiss used to refer to the French-speaking Swiss as "Welsche", and to their area as Welschland, which has the same etymology as the English . In Germany Welsch and Welschland refer to Italy; there, the term is antiquated, rarely used, and somewhat disparaging. 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 at home, but this statistic is probably mainly due to German immigrants.
By the Middle Ages, a marked difference had developed within the German-speaking part of Switzerland between the rural cantons and the city cantons, 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 farm houses 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.

French

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, Valais, and Fribourg. 1.9 million people live in Romandy.
Standard Swiss French and the French of France are the same language, with some differences. For example, like some other regions of the French-speaking world, Swiss people use septante instead of soixante-dix and nonante instead of "quatre-vingt-dix". In the cantons of Vaud, Valais and Fribourg, speakers use huitante instead of the Standard French "quatre-vingts". "Sou" is used throughout Romandy for a 5-centime coin, as is "tune" when referring to a 5-Swiss-franc piece.
Historically, the vernacular language used by inhabitants of most parts of Romandy was Franco-Provençal. Franco-Provençal is a language sometimes considered to be halfway between the langue d'oïl and Occitan. 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.
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 serves the Romande community across Switzerland, is syndicated to TV5 and CanalSat Romande.

Italian

Italian Switzerland is the Italian-speaking part of Switzerland, which includes the canton of Ticino and the southern part of Graubünden. Italian is also spoken in the Gondo Valley in Valais.
The linguistic region covers an area approximately 3,500 km² and has a total population of around 350,000 inhabitants, with the number of Italophones residing in Switzerland being 545,274.
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, but gained again during the last decade.

Romansh

On the cantonal level, Romansh is an official language only in the trilingual canton of Graubünden, where the municipalities in turn are free to specify their own official languages.
Significant communities of Romansh speakers remain in the Surselva, the Sursés/Oberhalbstein, the lower Engadin and the Val Müstair.
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.

Other languages

Besides the national languages and the many varieties of Swiss German, several regional Romance languages are spoken natively in Switzerland: Franco-Provençal and Lombard. About 20,000 Romani speak Sinte, an Indic language. Five sign languages are used: Swiss-German, French, Italian, Austrian, and German.

Neo-Latin

To avoid having to translate the name of Switzerland in the four national languages, Latin is used on the coins of the Swiss franc and on Swiss stamps. The country code top-level domain for Switzerland on the internet is.ch, the abbreviation of the Latin name, Confoederatio Helvetica ; similarly, the International vehicle registration code for Swiss automobiles is "CH". The Federal Palace of Switzerland bears the inscription .
To have a unique name across the country, several Swiss foundations and associations have Latin names, such as Pro Helvetia, Pro Infirmis, Pro Juventute, Pro Natura, Pro Patria, Pro Senectute, Pro Specie Rara, etc.