Has migration changed the Swiss language map?


Switzerland has always been a multilingual country – and is becoming a place of ever more languages. Since 2000, the number of residents who do not speak an official Swiss language as their main language has more than doubled. In fact tripled since 1990, according to the Federal Statistics Office.



The language map has changed dramatically in the last four decades. The proportion of people who speak German, Italian and Romansh as their first language has reduced, while those who speak a non-Swiss language has increased. Is this the result of migration?



Yes and no. The marked rise in foreign tongues also has something to do with the way statistics are compiled. Since 2010, the survey of mother tongues has expanded to include more options to list as a first language. Before then it simply wasn’t possible to record certain languages. This change has exaggerated the statistical trend of more foreign tongues being spoken in Switzerland.


After Italian, which counts as both a national language and the tongue of migrants, the most frequently spoken foreign languages are English and Portuguese. With its status as the international language, English is the most widely distributed foreign tongue throughout Switzerland, followed closely by Albanian. Spanish has lost some ground.



Language of work? High German and English


People who come to Switzerland for jobs are most likely to find themselves - statistically speaking at least - in a Swiss German working environment. That is the case for 42% of Swiss residents.



But the Swiss are adapting to an ever more international workplace. This results in more High German and English being spoken at work. Twice as many people speak High German or English at work than they do at home.



A multilingual country

Grüezi-Adieu - what makes Switzerland a model country for multilingualism

Four languages, no separatism: Switzerland is considered the ideal of a multilingual nation. But how does it come about? Stéphane Dion will talk about this at the Landesmuseum. Canada's ambassador to Germany is an expert on multilingualism.

Just two years ago, separatist nationalism made a comeback in Canada. After a while of quiet around the independence movement in French-speaking Québec, the secessionist party "Bloc queébécois" gained massively in the 2019 elections, bringing the division between a French- and an English-speaking Canada back into political consciousness.

Stéphane Dion, Canadian ambassador to Germany and special envoy for the European Union, has experience with the issue. The political scientist, who after teaching at the University of Montreal went through all kinds of offices in politics, has repeatedly had to deal with national unity in multilingual Canada, including as Minister of Official Languages from 2001 to 2003.

Dion has a clear opinion why there is no separatism of language groups in Switzerland - apart from the internal Swiss Jura question - unlike in Spain, Belgium and his home country. And he mainly sees advantages in the multilingual constellation.

On 2 November, Dion will speak on plurilingualism and cohesion at the Tuesday series of the Landesmuseum in Zurich, along with Liechteinstein's Michel Liès, president of the liberal think tank Avenir Suisse. SWI swissinfo.ch is media partner of the event.

We talked to Stéphan Dion about the "miraculous" cohesion of Switzerland.

SWI swissinfo.ch: The border between German-speaking and French-speaking Switzerland is often referred to as the "Röstigraben", the multilingual constellation is travestied in culinary terms. What does that say about Switzerland?

Stéphane Dion: That Switzerland is a diverse country... and delicious!

Is there a comparable expression in Canada, do you have a maple syrup trench?

I don't think so. Maple syrup can be enjoyed in French as well as in English! On the other hand, we often speak of the "two solitudes" to express that Francophones and Anglophones do not talk enough to each other. But they can't be that isolated, because the percentage of mixed households - meaning francophone-anglophone couples - is high both in Quebec and in other parts of Canada. How can love develop between people who are not allowed to speak to each other? A mystery.

Among multilingual countries, Switzerland is considered an ideal of national cohesion. Unlike Canada, Spain or Belgium, there are no separatist tendencies. Why?

The first reason I see for this is Switzerland's economic success: the Italian-speaking Swiss have little incentive to join Italy, the French-speaking France or the German-speaking Germany.

And then there is the historical fact that religious division did not coincide with linguistic division, there is the demographic stability of the language groups and their relative economic equality, and the absence of a linguistically isolated federal unit such as that represented by French-speaking Québec in Canada. But that's exactly the topic I'll be talking about at the Landesmuseum.

Especially in the last century, Switzerland pursued a mythology which was oblivious to history and still has an impact today. What do you think was its impact on national identity?

A people, a civilization must not forget its history, not even the dark sides that cause a feeling of shame. Canada, too, has dark sides to its past that it is slow to face, particularly with regard to its treatment of indigenous peoples.

A country grows from this and has the best chance of cohesion if it confronts its past mistakes. It is rightly said that history is necessary to inform the present.

But it also means that we should not judge the present by the yardstick of the past alone, and we should not look at the future by the yardstick of the past alone.

I would like to add that we should not judge our ancestors with the values of today. There are too many omissions, but also too many anachronisms in the way we look at the past.

Is there even a need for something like a national idea? Or is cohesion a product of the institutional and democratic level - in Switzerland, of parties that operate across languages and regions, or of political co-determination rights that always result in other factions?

I think we benefit from having multiple identities. I am a proud Québecois and a proud Canadian. Identities add, they do not subtract.

What creates national cohesion in Canada? Is there a common idea of national identity that a separatist in Québec can unreservedly support?

The pride of being Canadian stems from the beautiful vastness of the country as well as the values of openness and respect with which Canada is identified throughout the world. Getting closer to this ideal is what motivates Canadians to work together for the betterment of their country. I believe that many in the independence movement in Québec share this ideal and that they need to be convinced that they can find their home in all of Canada and not just in Québec.

Unlike the French-speaking Swiss, the francophone population in Canada is isolated - and exposed to a globally dominant English language. Can you say that this creates other sensitivities?

Exactly. The North American continent is not multilingual like Europe. English has a great appeal. The need to protect the French language must be a constant concern in Canadian political life, in Québec and elsewhere in the country.

In Switzerland, with its four languages, we observe the phenomenon that English is used as a bridge language, especially by the youth. What are we to make of this? Is this a loss of national identity or a welcome decoupling of the identity from language?

Since English is the world language par excellence, young people clearly have an interest in learning it. I don't think we need to worry about that as long as many young Swiss learn another language besides their mother tongue: French, German, Italian or Romansh.

In your long political career, you have been Minister for Official Languages, among other things. What have you done for Canadian cohesion?

I developed and implemented a plan to revitalize the official languages, which is still being talked about today. This plan focused on the growing phenomenon of the mentioned exogamous French-English couples. The goal was to help these families pass on their bilingual heritage to their children. This remains the biggest challenge for the future of French in Canada.

Do language competences in multilingual states automatically promote national cohesion?

In any case, they contribute to it. We should be more aware of this. However, multilingualism is not only a matter of national cohesion, but also of competitiveness in today's world. Every time I have participated in a discussion about how to improve Canada's economic competitiveness, I have pointed out that the fact that Canada's two official languages are international languages is an economic advantage that we could make better use of. This is shown by several studies.

As for the younger generations, you do them a disservice if you let them become monolingual. They will be at a disadvantage compared to young people their age who have made an effort to learn more than one language.

What political demand can be derived from this?

A fundamental responsibility: multilingual states have a duty to show the world that their linguistic diversity is a wealth of which an entire population can be proud. Canada and Switzerland need to demonstrate this, not only regarding the widely spoken languages - English, French, German, Italian - but also with respect to minority languages such as Romansh or the languages of Canada's indigenous peoples.

We must show that linguistic diversity is not a source of division in a country, but an enviable advantage in today's world.

A model country for multilingualism

A creative spasm: "Bloodbook" challenges translators

Be creative and free, Kim de l'Horizon instructed the translators of his novel "Bloodbook". Rose Labourie took this to heart for her translation of the novel into French.

It was a sensation: In the fall of 2022, the novel "Bloodbook" by the Swiss author Kim de l'Horizon won the German and the Swiss Book Prize. Meanwhile, translators from a wide range of target languages are working on the text - and facing difficult problems.

There is the mother tongue Berndeutsch, over which the main character works himself up in a love-hate relationship. There is an youth language dominated by anglicisms next to cute antiquated words your grandmother would use. And, Kim de L'Horizon consistently uses gender-inclusive language throughout their book.

Above all, however, the standard language is saturated with Helvetisms, some of which are barely recognizable.

How can the dialect as the everyday language of German-speaking Switzerland and the "language of the heart" be transferred to French, for example? Because here, dialects have been practically eradicated as inferior language varieties in the past centuries.

Rose Labourie has already found the answers: Her translation into French will be published this fall. What helped her was a letter from Kim de l'Horizon urging all translators to be as creative and free with the language as they are in the original. Rose Labourie took that seriously.

The novel "Bloodbook" is currently being translated or has been translated into Italian, Dutch, Slovak, Catalan, Danish, French, Czech, Croatian, Norwegian, English and Spanish. In themiddle of May, the eleven translators met at the Übersetzerhaus Looren in Wernetshausen (ZH) for a workshop lasting several days to discuss the most pressing language issues with experts and with Kim de l'Horizon themself. At the Solothurn Literature Days, a final public event was held with contributors to the workshop.

For a lengthy dialect passage in the novel, she searched the almost vanished dialects from French-speaking Switzerland, the so-called Patois Romands. With the help of dictionaries, videos and songs like the famous "Ranz des Vaches" (Patois Fribourgeois), Rose Labourie has created her own imaginary dialect. For French speakers it is still barely understandable:

"La Barbara Züllig ètè dloin la pluch chaj dè tôt lè fam dcha famy." (Hêtre pourpre)

"dBarbara Züllig has probably been the wisest woman in her clan". (Bloodbook)

This free use of language also fits the narrator's ego in the novel. For they want to evade the compulsion of the unambiguous, the "binarity fascism," as it is called, as far as possible. It is language that allows this freedom, "because the element of language is fluidity," as the novel puts it.

Dialect words like "Chrättli" or term of endearment like "Bärli" have an emotional but often ambivalent memory value for the main character. To do justice to the weight of these words in the text, Rose Labourie has specially compiled a "lexicon of the Meersprache" ("Meersprache" in "Bloodbook" stands for mother tongue). For this lexicon, she used terms from French dialects from all over the world, from Old French, from specialized fields and also from her own imagination.

"Chüschele" translates it as "chucheler" (instead of correctly "chuchoter"). And "Grossmeer"'s "Truckli" are called "boîtillons" in the French text. A technical word from the mill craft that can evoke many associations for French speakers.

While reading the novel, Rose Labourie had the feeling of reading a kind of magic formula that expands the boundaries of language. In French, with a lot of effort and creativity, she created her very own magic formula for the "Bloodbook".

Kim de l'Horizon: "Bloodbook". DuMont, 2022. In French: Kim de l'Horizon: "Hêtre pourpre". Edition Juillard, to be published at the end of August 2023. In Spanish: Kim de l'Horizon: "Libro de Sangre". Publisher de Conatus, 2023.

"Blutbuch" challenges translators

English as a common language in Switzerland: a positive or a problem?

It’s not unusual to hear Swiss people from different parts of the country chatting away in English. Not everyone is happy about this, but does using English as a lingua franca – a bridge over the Röstigraben, the country’s main linguistic divide – benefit national cohesion or harm it?

The handling of the Covid-19 pandemic has created communication challenges between the country’s language regions which need to be addressed, according to a top politician.

“I think this has presented an opportunity to discuss multilingualism in the country and that these discussions should include a modernisation of the law to consider English as one of the main languages […],” said Sven Gatz, who described the current situation as “not very future proof”.

He acknowledged, however, that there would be opposition. “There are already many people who say that we should first learn each other’s languages before prioritising English.”

Gatz isn’t Swiss. He’s the Brussels Minister for the Promotion of Multilingualism and was speaking to the Brussels Times on March 16. While the Swiss government has certainly been criticised for its response to the pandemic, no one has yet pointed the blame at Switzerland’s four national languages. However, Gatz’s comments highlight some of the political and social challenges facing officially multilingual countries, such as Switzerland, Belgium and Canada.

Earlier this year a Swiss reporter for German-language Swiss public television, SRF, interviewed Jean-Stéphane Bron, a Swiss film director from French-speaking Lausanne, about his latest documentary. They spoke in English.

“Normally SRF and [news programme] Tagesschau want interviews to be carried out in the respective national language,” explained the journalist, Uta Kenter. However, she had grown up in Germany and felt her French wasn’t up to discussing how to replicate the human brain on a computer. Bron clearly felt the same about his German.

“Very often we ask questions in English and the interview partner answers in their national language. Unfortunately in this case that wasn’t possible,” she said.

Given that Bron’s comments would have been dubbed into German no matter whether he was speaking English, French or any other language, in practice there was no difference for the viewer. In theory, however, it raises interesting questions about the role and status of English in Switzerland. First of all, is the use of English as a linguistic bridge actually increasing?

“Anecdotally, I think we’re all in agreement that people from different Swiss linguistic backgrounds tend to use English as a lingua franca,” said Franz Andres Morrissey, a senior lecturer in English linguistics at the University of Bern.

Morrissey was unaware of any large-scale quantitative study that confirms or rejects the anecdotal evidence. However, he referred to a 2003 study by Mercedes Durham, a sociolinguist now at Cardiff University, who looked at email exchanges between Swiss medical students and found that they started communicating in their mother tongue and ended up switching to English to ensure greater comprehension.

“English appears to be the most readily understood and accepted language in mixed language groups, the main reason for this being that it is a non-native language for all,” Durham wrote. “The Italian speakers on the mailing list were at the forefront of this change, since as nobody else spoke their native language, they experienced first-hand the need to ensure that people be able to understand one another.”

Switzerland has four national languages: German is spoken by about 63% of the population (the vast majority of those people actually speak Swiss German), French by 23%, Italian by 8% and Romansh by 0.5%, about 50,000 people.

Whether chatting to relatives or work colleagues, surfing the internet, reading or watching TV, 68% of over-15s use more than one language at least once a week, according to 2019 data. The remaining 32% said they use only one language, down from 36% in 2014. The older the person, the more likely they are to use only one language. The survey found that 38% regularly use two languages, 21% use three, 6.4% use four and 1.7% use at least five.

English is the most common non-national language and is regularly spoken by 45% of the population in Switzerland. English is more widespread in the German-speaking part of the country than in Italian- and French-speaking regions (46% vs 37% and 43% respectively).

In 2019, almost three-quarters of people aged 15-24 said they spoke, wrote, read or listened to English at least once a week, around ten percentage points more than in 2014.

The Osservatorio linguistico della Svizzera italiana (OLSI), which conducts research on various aspects of Italian in Switzerland, said that, in the workplace, the use of English had been increasing – and the use of national languages decreasing – across the country since at least the 1990s.

However, “English is currently used less overall in Italian-speaking Switzerland than in other language regions”, they said, citing 2019 data from the Federal Statistical Office.

This graph shows how Swiss workers in French- and German-speaking Switzerland are roughly twice as likely to speak English as another national language, but the situation is much more balanced in the Italian-speaking region. Non-Swiss nationals working in Switzerland are even more likely to use English at their workplace.

OLSI said the reduced presence of English at work and the relative importance of the national languages in the Italian-speaking area was “undoubtedly” due to the school system – especially in Ticino, where the other national languages have priority over English in compulsory schooling (first French, then German).

It explained that if you work in a minority language region – and if your work is at a national or interregional level – then the other national languages can’t be ignored.

“For this reason it can be said that in Ticino there is generally little need to use English as a lingua franca and skills in the national languages can be assumed.”

So English is not seen as a disruptive invader? “Even if in Ticino we note a certain importance of English in the professional world, we certainly can’t speak of a problem with English, for example in the sense of a real danger that English might supplant Italian.”

But could English supplant French or German? Durham noted that when the aim is to communicate to a broader, multilingual audience, as the internet makes it easy to do, “neither French nor German is able to serve as the main language in the Swiss context, and it becomes necessary to use English”.

SWI swissinfo.ch has ten language departments and editorial meetings are held in English. It is also not unusual to hear two Swiss colleagues conversing in English. Common languages also exist between specific individuals. I, for example, speak German with two members of the Chinese department, French with another and English with the fourth.

Morrissey, who is a German-speaking Swiss with native-level English, said he too has had personal experience of English as a lingua franca.

“My dissertation was on language choice in bilingual education in Switzerland. And one of the people I had a lot of contact with was a journalist from L'Hebdo [a former Lausanne-based news weekly]. And we both actually felt much more comfortable speaking English to each other because my French is not at all good, and her German – well basically she said she’d been ‘wounded by the school experience’.”

He explained how the standard complaint from French-speaking Swiss is that they learn “good” German (as spoken in Germany) and then their compatriots insist on speaking dialect. “That is, of course, an incentive to say, ‘OK, forget it – we’ll go for the language that basically requires the same effort between us’.”

In 2016 Durham wrote that the main development in the use of English as a lingua franca was who the Swiss spoke English with.

“Initially English was primarily used with tourists, but in the past two decades it has been increasingly used by Swiss speakers with one another as well, making it an intranational lingua franca and making English a de facto Swiss language.”

The Swiss government already publishes many press releases in English, but hearing English described as a Swiss language – de facto or not – is enough to make some Swiss dizzy.

In September 2000 the head of education for canton Zurich (education is a cantonal issue in Switzerland) announced that English, rather than French, would be the first foreign language taught in schools. The following day, the French-language newspaper Le Temps asked whether the inclusion of English in the canton’s school curriculum spelt the “end of Switzerland”. This was also the phrase used by Ticino politician Chiara Simoneschi-Cortesi in 2009, when she was president of the House of Representatives, warning about what she thought would happen if English became the language of communication between the Swiss.

Many people, particularly in the French- and Italian-speaking parts of the country, fear that teaching English ahead of Swiss national languages would weaken or even undo the social glue that holds Switzerland together.

“That English is useful does not mean it is useful for everything,” concluded a study on languages and the economy by the University of Geneva in 2016. “To understand French-speaking Switzerland, one must speak French. To know German-speaking Switzerland, one must speak German and at least understand Swiss-German to some extent.”

In 2017 voters in canton Zurich decided that pupils would continue to learn English from age seven and French from age 11.

When it comes to teaching English or a national language, Morrissey says there are basically two arguments.

“A utilitarian argumentation would be ‘let’s go for English’. And in fact this is how the debate in Zurich and other places has been sorted,” he said. In other words, English is considered more useful for German-speakers than French or Italian.

“The other argument, about national cohesion, is fairly old. To what degree it actually washes, I’m not convinced. I do feel to a large degree that Switzerland has a cohesion which is fairly firm. There’s a nationalistic element to it; there’s an economic element to it. I don’t think language plays that much of a role, but it’s kind of a banner that we like to rally behind,” he said.

“But if people couldn’t speak each other’s national language – Italian and Romansh are cases in point – it’s highly unlikely the country would fall apart.”

So speaking English isn’t a problem? “I don’t know if it’s a problem. If it helps communication, then it’s certainly not a bad thing. It is perhaps a little bit of an impoverishment of the language repertoire that you could have. But I don’t think there’s anything we can do, because people will use whichever channel of communication works,” he said.

“I tell my students that communication is the epitome of the path of least resistance. You communicate in whichever shape or fashion that creates the fewest obstacles.”

English as a common language

Four languages or English for all?

German-speaking students shun universities in French-speaking Switzerland

Julien Furrer

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Students from German-speaking Switzerland are not flocking to universities in French-speaking Switzerland. According to figures compiled this weekend by the Luzerner Zeitung, there are 1,500 fewer than 20 years ago, while the proportion of French-speaking students in the universities in German-speaking Switzerland is increasing.

The proportion of German-speaking students in the faculties of French-speaking Switzerland has dropped by six points since 2001, from 10% to 4%. At the same time, the number of French-speaking students in German-speaking universities has more than doubled.

The Luzerner Zeitung gives the example of the University of Fribourg, which has 23% fewer German-speaking students compared to twenty years ago. There is a drop of 20% at the University of Lausanne and 10% at the University of Geneva. EPFL has only recorded 24 bachelor's registrations this year, a figure that was twice as high five years ago. 

Several reasons have been put forward to explain this desertion of German-speaking students, but the first one is the ever-increasing importance of English, whereas French is clearly no longer in demand in German-speaking Switzerland.

This development is regrettable, but hardly avoidable, comments Maxime Barthassat, co-president of the Swiss Student Union, interviewed in La Matinale: "We live in a world where English is becoming more and more important (...). We need to turn to English while being aware that our multilingualism is a strength and also remaining at the same level as our international colleagues."

At the University of Fribourg, German-speaking students now represent one third of the total number of students, a figure that is decreasing. In response, the university offers many bilingual courses and has undertaken major information efforts in German-speaking Switzerland to attract new students.

However, Rector Astrid Epinay admits that she is somewhat concerned about this development: "I am convinced that the mastery of the partner language, i.e. French for German speakers and German for French speakers, is an essential element for national cohesion."

The economic interest of knowing a second national language is also to be considered: a recent study shows its importance in the labor market, with salaries 8% to 13% higher if you speak two languages.

The cantons must therefore come up with solutions to halt this trend, says Laurent Wehrli, president of Helvetia Latina, which defends the French language in Swiss institutions. For the national councilor (VD), integration is less of a concern for those who belong to the majority, and they don't necessarily realise the need to learn the minority language. "And it's natural that those who are in the minority are more sensitive to it."

Laurent Wehrli also recalls the battles fought and won in several German-speaking cantons that wanted to abolish or delay teaching French in favor of English at school. "Every time, we managed to get a message across. The same now applies at university level. We need to get this message across with the support of the cantons, in particular via the intercantonal conferences."

The Röstigraben of universities

Multilingualism promoted, but there is room for improvement

The 15-million budget, about half of which goes to Ticino and Graubünden, is well spent according to the Swiss Federal Audit Office. However, it lacks an overall strategy.

Claire Micallef

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Laws are obeyed, procedures are appropriate, the cost-benefit ratio is good. The Swiss Federal Audit Office gives high marks both to the Federal Office of Culture in the allocation of funds for the promotion of multilingualism and to the the cantons that benefit from it, especially Ticino and Graubünden. Of the 15 million Swiss francs allocated annually for the promotion of multilingualism in Switzerland, about half goes to the two cantons to promote and preserve Italian and Romansh.

In short, the money is well spent, but - the report continues - it can be done better.... and for a country that makes understanding among its different language communities a truly existential task, this is hardly rhetoric.

Lack of an overall strategy and measurable goals

The most recent audit report by the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin), for example, states that there is a lack of both a concrete overall strategy and the definition of measurable targets to be able to assess the impact of funding.

Ticino, which receives 2.5 million francs a year from Bern (to which must be added another 8 million francs in Swisslos contributions), is characterised by the heterogeneity of the organisations and projects funded, the mechanisms of which are considered appropriate. But it is precisely this great heterogeneity, writes the Swiss Federal Audit Office, that should prompt the Federal Office of Culture to critically rethink the allocation of funds or the calculation of the various contributions, especially in the case of publishing and research contributions. In general, the use of subsidies should be closely monitored, and the accumulation of reserves found in the past makes Ticino a special watchdog.

Finally, the promotion of Italian outside the canton, especially in schools, is good to excellent; the same applies to Romansh outside Graubünden. However, the responsibilities remain with the cantons and, in the opinion of the Swiss Federal Audit Office, it would be appropriate to insist on a broader legal basis.

Promoting multilingualism

Historians and writers have been discussing this issue for decades. As Couleurs locales, the RTS program that dissects French-speaking Switzerland every day, celebrates its 1000th broadcast outside the studio, Infrarouge asks the question: does French-speaking Switzerland exist?

The Historical Dictionary of Switzerland (DHS) explains that French-speaking Switzerland "comprises the cantons of Geneva, Jura, Neuchâtel and Vaud, as well as the French-speaking parts of the cantons of Berne, Fribourg and Valais".

The DHS notes that French "is the glue that holds these regions together". For Mathieu Avanzi, director of the Centre de dialectologie et d'étude du français régional at the University of Neuchâtel, French-speaking Switzerland is made up of "districts where French is spoken in the majority".

If you search the data for a map of French-speaking Switzerland, you won't find anything.

Isabelle Chassot, member of the Fribourg Council of States and former Director of the Federal Office of Culture, disagrees: "La Romandie is a geographical area made up of the French-speaking cantons. I don't limit it to the French-speaking part." Mathieu Avanzi points out that the borders of French-speaking Switzerland are not officially drawn: "If you look for a map of French-speaking Switzerland in the data, you won't find anything."

Swiss President Ignazio Cassis also stresses the importance of language. "Romandie is the culture linked to French," he said on Wednesday's RTS Infrarouge program. "Historically, this is the part of Switzerland that forms a separation from France. Romandie does exist."

The term "Suisse romande" has been used since the early 20th century to emphasize the cultural autonomy of French-speaking Switzerland from France and the German-speaking majority.

"Given its size, German-speaking Switzerland is big enough to have internal differences," says Ignazio Cassis. (...) Their differences are just as great as the differences they have with the Romans and Ticinese."

In 1937, Charles Ferdinand Ramuz wrote in "Besoin de grandeur": "We, the French-speaking Swiss, belong to a small but complex republic whose various states each circulate in their own orbit around an abstract center called the Confederation. We're not 'unified'. France, for centuries, has been deeply unified (...) we are a collection of small, loosely-knit countries, joined together by various kinds of necessity: geographical, military, economic."

I define myself as Fribourgeoise, Romande, but above all Swiss. There's no opposition

"For example, Corsica defines itself in opposition to France," points out Isabelle Chassot, member of the Council of States. "I define myself as Fribourg, Romande, but above all Swiss. There's no opposition. It's a bit like Russian dolls. Each time we open a doll, we reveal different characteristics."

French-speaking Switzerland was seen as a whole at the start of the First World War. Swiss sympathies for the belligerent countries, following the contours of the language border, led to domestic political tensions, the Röstigraben, explains the DHS. "The concept of French-speaking Switzerland, Italian-speaking Switzerland and German-speaking Switzerland was defined in relation to potential enemies from neighboring nations who could have 'torn us apart'," notes historian Philippe Bender.

For comedian Vincent Kucholl, French-speaking Switzerland lacks myths like William Tell. In his view, such symbols would make French-speaking Switzerland more united. He also explains that it's in the army that French-speaking people are identified as such, through the eyes of German-speaking people. What's more, self-deprecation is often what differentiates the French from the Germans.

disgusted-tan-roundworm

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THE MEDIA - THE "FUNDAMENTAL" ROLE OF RTS

Antonio Fumagalli, correspondent in French-speaking Switzerland for the NZZ, believes that German-speaking Switzerland is less in need of "closer ties". So when, in 2012, the "Weltwoche" published an article under the headline "French-speaking people are Switzerland's Greeks", the Romandie put up a united front.

The journalist also explains that in French-speaking Switzerland there is a "willingness to discuss oneself". He takes the example of RTS's 19h30. He observes that the major news event in French-speaking Switzerland focuses more on current affairs in French-speaking Switzerland, unlike its German-language counterpart, "Tagesschau", which focuses more on international issues.

French-speaking Switzerland means all the people who listen to French-speaking Swiss Radio, watch French-speaking Swiss Television or scratch off tickets for the Loterie Romande.

"French-speaking Switzerland is all the people who listen to French-speaking Swiss Radio, or watch French-speaking Swiss Television, or scratch off tickets for the Loterie Romande," says comedian Vincent Kucholl with a smile.

Fribourg State Councillor Isabelle Chassot agrees. "The feeling of belonging is based on a certain number of shared values, debates we have together, issues we share. These shared values are born of the references we have, and Radio Télévision Suisse Romande plays a fundamental role. The fact that the distribution of SSR funds is being called into question should make us wonder. Perhaps this is our common reference point."

Does the "Romandy" exist?

Romansh makes a comeback in the Swiss Parliament

Didier Kottelat

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On Monday, the fourth national language of Switzerland resounded in the chamber of the National Council. Its new president, Martin Candinas, addressed the national councillors in Romansh. Throughout his year as the country's first citizen, he is determined to give Romansh a prominent place.

There has not been a Romansh-speaking President of the National Council for over 35 years. The accession of Martin Candinas to this post is therefore an event for the region and its 60,000 speakers. The 42-year-old centrist has promised to not refrain from speaking his mother tongue during his year in office.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-lang="fr"><p lang="de" dir="ltr">Cordial engraziament! Ich freue mich sehr auf mein Präsidialjahr und bedanke mich bei meinen Ratskolleginnen und -kollegen für ihr Vertrauen. Mein Leitsatz als Nationalratspräsident: «Gemeinsam – Ensemble – Insieme – Ensemen». Nur gemeinsam bringen wir die Schweiz weiter! <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/parlCH?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#parlCH</a> <a href="https://t.co/z0pAVkCQAm">pic.twitter.com/z0pAVkCQAm</a></p>&mdash; Martin Candinas (@martin_candinas) <a href="https://twitter.com/martin_candinas/status/1597314971180101632?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">28 novembre 2022</a></blockquote>
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On 7 December, Martin Candinas will also announce the names of the two new Federal Councillors in Romansh, he said. According to him, this will be an honour and the highlight of his mandate. 

However, not all the debates will be conducted in Romansh: as soon as it's time to get down to business, the Graubünden representative will switch back to German. The reason for this is that there are no interpreters in the other three national languages to provide translations for the rest of the National Council.

Adrian Camartin has been a journalist at Radiotelevisiun Svizra Rumantscha for ten years. For him, this this year of presidency is an opportunity to promote Romansh among politicians: "It will make parliamentarians aware that this language is used in everyday life, at the bakery, at the post office. It's not something exotic or folklore.

For the journalist, Romansh always finds its place when Switzerland seeks to highlight its multilingualism, its attachment to its four languages and its national cohesion, but that's not enough: "You have to remember that there are 60,000 people who speak Romansh".

Often not translated by the administration

Romansh is a language that is often forgotten, even by the federal administration. The latest example was in October, when the Federal Council launched its Instagram account: the government presented itself in French, Italian, German and English, but not in Romansh. A blunder that was eventually corrected by the administration.

However, for Lia Rumantsch, the association responsible for promoting the Romansh language and culture, this oversight is symptomatic. Its vice secretary Andreas Gabriel is therefore counting on this year to reassess the place of Romansh, which is often absent from public services: "The Post, the Swiss Federal Railways, or even other sectors, always communicate in three languages: German, French and Italian - but not in four.

The law requires the federal administration to use Romansh in very specific circumstances. For example, when interacting with Romansh speakers or in "important" texts. For example, documentation on federal votes and elections must be published in Romansh. However, the public service is not obliged to use Romansh.

Andreas Gabriel hopes that this year of presidency will move the issue forward: "It will raise awareness of this issue within the federal administration. The administration is ready to make possible adjustments."

In 1985, Martin Bundi, the last Romansh-speaking president of the National Council, called for a revision of the Federal Act on the National Languages. At the time, it led to a strengthening of the position of Romansh in Switzerland and also in Graubünden.

Romansh in the Swiss Parliament


Five artists from all over Switzerland came together on the Gotthard to reinterpret songs from the various regions and compose a new multilingual song.

Simone Fassora

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Five musicians from all over Switzerland celebrated multilingualism by performing on the Gotthard and reinterpreting various songs from the four language regions. The artists also composed a song combining all the national idioms and Spanish called "Brume, niebla, Nebel, nebla, nebbia". Their project was part of the radio initiative "Die Anderen - Les autres - Gli altri - Ils auters", within the larger project "Chantez-vous Suisse?" and took place from 26 to 30 June.

German-speaking Switzerland was represented by Bernese singer-songwriter Christoph Trummer and French-speaking Switzerland by Valais singer Marc Aymon. Ticino musician Chiara Dubey represented Italian-speaking Switzerland and singer-songwriter, musician and composer "Mattiu" (Mattiu Defuns) represented Romansh-speaking Switzerland. Finally, the Swiss-Dominican rapper and singer-songwriter "La Nefera" (Jennifer Perez) participated on behalf of the population with a migration background.

The project opens a true cultural and musical window on the various language regions, highlighting commonalities and diversities. The three national radio networks broadcast the performance, before which the artists explained the realisation of their musical project.

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Music that celebrates multilingualism

The fact that Romansh is a national language is surprising

This is the first time that Romansh Week has been celebrated in the Congo. The Central African country has five national languages. But more than 380 languages are spoken, according to Swiss ambassador Chasper Sarott.

To mark Romansh Week, the ambassador from Sent (Lower Engadine) visited the University of Kinshasa and explained Switzerland, its direct democracy and federalism, using Romansh as an example.

The fact that a minority has been granted the status of a national language comes as a surprise to many," says Sarott, "especially the political and public acceptance of Romansh as one of Switzerland's national languages. A legal basis for a minority is the exception rather than the rule.

He tried to show that a minority is an asset for a country. And Romansh is a language and a culture that can be used to represent Switzerland well," says the ambassador. As a Romansh speaker, you are an ambassador for the language all year round, not just during Romansh week.

Romansh Week begins every year on 20 February. This is the day Romansh became an official language of Switzerland (20 February 1938).

Several Swiss embassies around the world are organising Romansh-related activities during the week. In Switzerland, too, various campaigns are being organised to raise awareness of Romansh.

The first Romansh Week was held in 2021. The aim of the week is to raise awareness of Romansh. The initiative for the week came from the Department of Foreign Affairs, with the support of the Lia Rumantscha and the canton of Graubünden.

Our fourth national language surprises


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