Editing Languages of Switzerland (section)

==National languages and linguistic regions==

===German===
{{Further|Swiss German|Swiss Standard German|German-speaking Switzerland|Walser German}}
[[File:Brunig-Napf-Reuss-Linie.png|thumb|180px|Distribution of [[High Alemannic]] dialects. Marked in red is the [[Brünig-Napf-Reuss line]].]]
[[File:Hoechstalemannisch.png|thumb|180px|Distribution of [[Highest Alemannic German|Highest Alemannic]] dialects]]

The German-speaking part of Switzerland ({{langx|de|Deutschschweiz}}, {{langx|fr|Suisse alémanique}}, {{langx|it|Svizzera tedesca}}, {{langx|rm|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]]).

In seventeen of the Swiss cantons, German is the only official language ([[Canton of Aargau|Aargau]], [[Canton of Appenzell Ausserrhoden|Appenzell Ausserrhoden]], [[Canton of Appenzell Innerrhoden|Appenzell Innerrhoden]], [[Canton of Basel-Stadt|Basel-Stadt]], [[Canton of Basel-Landschaft|Basel-Landschaft]], [[Canton of Glarus|Glarus]], [[Canton of Lucerne|Luzern]], [[Canton of Nidwalden|Nidwalden]], [[Canton of Obwalden|Obwalden]], [[Canton of Schaffhausen|Schaffhausen]], [[Canton of Schwyz|Schwyz]], [[Canton of Solothurn|Solothurn]], [[Canton of St. Gallen|St. Gallen]], [[Canton of Thurgau|Thurgau]], [[Canton of Uri|Uri]], [[Canton of Zug|Zug]], and [[Canton of Zurich|Zürich]]).<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.admin.ch/ch/e/rs/101/a1.html |title=SR 101 The Federal Constitution of the Swiss Confederation of 18 April 1999 (Status as of 12 February 2017): Art. 1: The Swiss Confederation |date=12 February 2017 |publisher=The Federal Council |location=Berne, Switzerland |website=The portal of the Swiss government |type=Federal Law collection |access-date=13 June 2017 |archive-date=4 October 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141004144901/http://www.admin.ch/ch/e/rs/101/a1.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>

In the cantons of [[Canton of Bern|Bern]], [[Canton of Fribourg|Fribourg]] and [[Canton of Valais|Valais]], French is co-official; in the trilingual [[canton of Graubünden]], more than half of the population speaks German, while the rest speak [[Romansh language|Romansh]] or [[Italian language|Italian]]. In each case, all languages are [[official language]]s 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 [[Wiktionary: Welsh|Welsh]] (see ''[[Walha]]'').<ref>{{cite web
	| url = https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/48ajo6/til_that_the_swiss_german_word_for_a_swiss_french/?rdt=33694	| title = TIL	| website = Reddit	| date = 29 February 2016	| access-date = 7 March 2024}}
</ref> Research shows that individuals with a French-sounding name in the German-speaking part suffer from social discrimination.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Nesseler|first1=Cornel|last2=Carlos|first2=Gomez-Gonzalez|last3=Dietl|first3=Helmut|date=2019|title=What's in a name? Measuring access to social activities with a field experiment|journal=Palgrave Communications|volume=5|pages=1–7|doi=10.1057/s41599-019-0372-0|doi-access=free|hdl=11250/2635691|hdl-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Dietl|first1=Helmut|last2=Carlos|first2=Gomez-Gonzalez|last3=Moretti|first3=Paolo|last4=Nesseler|first4=Cornel|date=2020|title=Does persistence pay off? Accessing social activities with a foreign-sounding name|journal=Applied Economic Letters|volume=28|issue=10|pages=881–885|doi= 10.1080/13504851.2020.1784381|doi-access=free|hdl=11250/2659779|hdl-access=free}}</ref>

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.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfs/de/home/statistiken/kataloge-datenbanken/tabellen.assetdetail.7226746.html|title=Ständige Wohnbevölkerung ab 15 Jahren nach zuhause gesprochenen Sprachen - 2017 {{!}} Tabelle|last=Statistik|first=Bundesamt für|date=29 January 2019|website=Bundesamt für Statistik|language=de|access-date=21 February 2019}}</ref>
[[File:Sprachgebiete der Schweiz im 20. Jahrhundert.jpg|thumb|Geography of languages in Switzerland in the early 20th century. Page from a school atlas, in the [[Jewish Museum of Switzerland]]'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 [[Swiss Reformation|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===
[[File:Arpitan francoprovencal map.jpg|right|thumb|300 px|[[Arpitan]] language area map with place names in Arpitan and historic political divisions]]
{{Main article|Swiss French|Suisse romande}}

[[Romandy]] ({{langx|fr|Romandie, la Suisse romande}}, {{langx|de|Romandie, Welschland, Welschschweiz, or in some contexts: Westschweiz}},{{efn|name=Welsch|"[[Walha|Welsch]]" is an old German word for "Foreign" and is the same word the [[Anglo-Saxons]] used for the original British inhabitants which today are the [[Welsh people]].{{Citation needed|date=January 2009}}}} {{langx|it|Svizzera romanda}}) is the French-speaking part of [[Switzerland]]. It covers the area of the [[cantons of Switzerland|cantons]] of [[Canton of Geneva|Geneva]], [[Canton of Vaud|Vaud]], [[Canton of Neuchâtel|Neuchâtel]], and [[Canton of Jura|Jura]] as well as the French-speaking parts of the cantons of [[Canton of Bern|Bern]] (German-speaking majority), [[Canton of Valais|Valais]] (French-speaking majority), and [[Canton of Fribourg|Fribourg]] (French-speaking majority). 1.9 million people (or 24.4% of the Swiss population) live in Romandy.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfs/portal/fr/index/themen/01/02/blank/data/01.Document.67224.xls |format=XLS |title=Bilan de la population résidante permanente (total) selon les districts et les communes |date=2 January 2015 |publisher=Swiss Federal Statistical Office |location=Neuchâtel, Switzerland |access-date=24 October 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110806213408/http://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfs/portal/fr/index/themen/01/02/blank/data/01.Document.67224.xls |archive-date= 6 August 2011 }}</ref>

Standard [[Swiss French]] and the [[Standard French|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 [[Canton of Fribourg|Fribourg]], speakers use ''huitante'' (eighty) instead of "quatre-vingts" (four twenties) used in most of the rest of the [[Francophonie|French-speaking world]]; the cantons of Geneva, Bern and Jura use "quatre-vingts".<ref>{{cite web |author=Dominique Didier |url=http://monsu.desiderio.free.fr/curiosites/septante.html |title=Septante, octante ou huitante, nonante |publisher=Monsu.desiderio.free.fr |access-date=22 October 2015}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|first=Mathieu|last=Avanzi|url=https://francaisdenosregions.com/2017/03/26/comment-dit-on-80-en-belgique-et-en-suisse/|title=Comment dit-on 80 en Belgique et en Suisse ?|website=francaisdenosregions.com|date=26 March 2017|access-date=12 October 2021}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Thibault|first=André|title=Dictionnaire suisse romand : particularités lexicales du français contemporain|publisher=Zoé|others=Pierre Knecht|year=2004|isbn=978-2-88182-870-6|edition=Nouvelle éd. revue et augmentée|location=Carouge (Geneva)|pages=457|language=French|trans-title=Swiss French Dictionary: lexical particularities of contemporary French|chapter=huitante|oclc=828226325|quote=Local. VD, VS, FR ; les autres cantons emploient ''quatre-vingt(s)'', comme en français de référence.|trans-quote=Local. VD, VS, FR; the other cantons use {{lang|fr|quatre-vingt(s)}} like in Standard French.}}</ref> "[[Sou (coin)|Sou]]" is used throughout Romandy for a [[Coins of the Swiss franc|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 language|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.<ref>{{cite journal |last= Meune|first= Manuel |date= 18 December 2018|title= From Little Fatherlands to Imagined Protonation: The Discourse on Francoprovençal in the Journal de Genève and the Gazette de Lausanne (1826–1998)
|url= https://www.intechopen.com/chapters/64815|journal= Advances in Discourse Analysis|pages= |doi= 10.5772/intechopen.81502|access-date=7 March 2024|doi-access= free|isbn= 978-1-78985-757-3 }}
</ref> 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 [[Radio Télévision Suisse|RTS]] (Radio Télévision Suisse) in 2010.

===Italian===
{{main article|Swiss Italian|Ticino|Italian Graubünden}}
[[File:Suisse italiene.png|thumb|right|250px|[[Swiss Italian|Italian language in Switzerland]]]]
Italian Switzerland ({{langx|it|Svizzera italiana}}, {{langx|rm|Svizra taliana}}, {{langx|fr|Suisse italienne}}, {{langx|de|italienische Schweiz}}) is the [[Swiss Italian|Italian-speaking part of Switzerland]], which includes the canton of [[Ticino]] and [[Italian Graubünden|the southern part of Grisons]]. Italian is also spoken in the [[Zwischbergen|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&nbsp;km<sup>2</sup> and has a total population of around 350,000,<ref>{{in lang|fr}} [http://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfs/portal/fr/index/themen/01/02/blank/data/01.Document.67126.xls Bilan de la population résidante permanente selon les cantons] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090920100559/http://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfs/portal/fr/index/themen/01/02/blank/data/01.Document.67126.xls |date=20 September 2009 }}; calculated adding up the inhabitants in [[Ticino]] and 11% of the inhabitants of [[Grigioni]], Swiss Federal Statistical Office</ref> with the number of Italophones residing in Switzerland being 545,274 (about 7% of the Swiss population).<ref name="CHLangHome2012">{{cite web |title=Bevölkerung, Strukturerhebung der eidgenössischen Volkszählung 2011: Bevölkerung nach Sprache und Religion, Ständige Wohnbevölkerung ab 15 Jahren nach zuhause gesprochenen Sprachen, 2011 |url=http://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfs/portal/de/index/news/04/01.Document.169329.xls |type=Statistics |format=XLS |date=30 May 2013 |publisher=Swiss Federal Statistical Office |location=Neuchâtel, Switzerland |language=de, fr, it |access-date=22 December 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131114071643/http://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfs/portal/de/index/news/04/01.Document.169329.xls |archive-date=14 November 2013  }}</ref>

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.{{when|date=September 2022}}<ref name=FSOML/>

===Romansh===
{{main article|Romansh language|Canton of Grisons}}
[[File:Schulsprachen Romanischbünden 2003.PNG|thumb|Languages of instruction in the traditionally Romansh-speaking areas of Grisons as of 2003<br />
{{Legend|#0000FF|Romansh school}}
{{Legend|#51A8FF|Bilingual Romansh-German school}}
{{Legend|#04D00F|German school, Romansh as a subject}}
{{Legend|#008000|German schooling only}}]]
[[Romansh language|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]].