SWITZERLAND
LANGUAGES
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ALL ABOUT SWITZERLAND |
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POPULATION LANGUAGES |
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Switzerland's four official languages, traditionally spoken in different regions of the country, are German, French, Italian and Rumantsch [sometimes also transcribed as Romansh, Romansch Rhaeto-Romanic or even Romance etc.]). Some statistics showing a fairly high percentage of "other" languages might give a false idea, if not interpreted properly.
| Language | Public Use |
Mother Tongue |
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|---|---|---|---|
| German | 74 % | 63.7 % | |
| French | 21 % | 19.6 % | |
| Italian | 4 % | 6.6 % | |
| Rumantsch | 1 % | 0.5 % | |
| Spanish | n.a. | 1.7 % | |
| Serbo-Croatian | n.a. | 1.4 % | |
| Portugese | n.a. | 1.3 % | |
| Turkish | n.a. | 1.1 % | |
| English | n.a. | 1.0 % | |
| Albanese | n.a. | 0.7 % | |
| Other Languages | n.a. | 2.4 % |
Due to massive immigration (20% of the resident Swiss population are foreigners!), there are many individuals who will not say they speak one of the four official languages of Switzerland when asked for their mother tongue. Nevertheless, in everyday public life (economy, schools, administration, recreation) only one (or two) of the traditional four official, "native Swiss" languages will be used.
There are clearly defined regions for all four official languages
(German in northern and central Switzerland, French in western
Switzerland, Italian in southern Switzerland and Rumantsch in southeastern
Switzerland, see map above). The regions do, however, overlap just a little:
German is being used in parallel to Rumantsch in all Rumantsch areas and in
parallel to French in the bilingual cities of Biel/Bienne, Fribourg/Freiburg
and in some smaller towns and villages along the language border in western
Switzerland.
See also:
What language do they speak in Arbon, Bussnang ...?
Immigrants to Switzerland come from a broad variety of countries with very different cultural and language backgrounds (see table: the six non-official languages shown there are just the top of the iceberg, many more Scandinavian, Slawonian as well as Asian languages make up the last 2.4% summarized as other languages). Therefore none of these languages is understood by more than 2% of the resident population (native Swiss people and immigrants speaking other languages). So the use of the official Swiss language of the region (German, French, Italian) is the only practical way to communicate when talking to native Swiss people or with immigrants from other countries.
Many immigrants do not even know some key words they use in their professional life in their mother tongue since these are related to technologies not used in their native countries. So there are several practical reasons to the fact that immigrants use the official regional language in everyday life. Among friends (insofar as having the same nationality) and within the family, the mother tongue is of course used and you might easily get, for example, a Turkish or Serbian newspaper at almost any Swiss newsstand.
Tourists and foreign business people may express themselves in English, however, and have a good chance to get answered. In some multinational companies' offices in Switzerland English has been declared as corporate language, especially if their customers speak English anyway. Sometimes even native Swiss people with different mother tongues (German vs. French or Italian) will use some English words as a common basis.
In Switzerland's pop music charts English dominates - not only due to U.S. and U.K. acts. Since the charts were first broadcast in 1968 about half of the lyrics of Swiss productions have been in English, too. Today's Swiss charts are a little bit a reflection of the multicultural society in Switzerland: you will find several languages spoken in Switzerland by minorities represented in the charts, and even #1 rankings for minority language tracks were not unusual from the start in the 1960's. Compare this with the U.S.A., where the Spanish speaking minority had to wait for their first #1 hit until 1987 (La Bamba by Los Lobos). Get an earful of Swiss multiculturalism and multilinguism at www.hitparade.ch.
To probe a little deeper into Switzerland's multicultural reality: What is the mother tongue of a child whose mother comes from Peru and the father from Switzerland, of a child whose mother comes from New Zealand and the father from Albania, or of a child whose mother is from the Netherlands and the father from Croatia? And how will they communicate on the schoolyard? These are just a few examples (far from being complete!) from just one primary school in Lucerne where still about half of the children have at least one native Swiss parent (which is a rather high proportion of native Swiss children in a major city).
While some Swiss people think that the high immigration rate and the high proportion of immigrants' children in Swiss schools are a danger to Switzerland's cultural tradition and identity, others see multiculturalism as a desirable enrichment. Regardless of these political preferences one has to acknowledge that it is hard work for these children to master two or even three different languages long before courses in foreign languages start officially. Local Swiss authorities in major cities do try to help them: there are special courses in the mother tongue for several nationalities (in cooperation with the corresponding embassies). Studies show that children attending supplementary courses in their mother tongue will not only develop their personal identity more easily but they also master the official Swiss language of the region better.
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This modern tower of Babylon used to mark the entrance to Lucerne's most multicultural city district called Untergrund [underground] for about one year. More than 80% of schoolchildren in this district come from immigrant families. |
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While the tower itself is colorful and looks nice in the evening sunlight this contrasts quite a bit to the gray reality of the place. |
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The location is squeezed between Switzerland's most frequented double track railway line and six-lane pan-European highway Hamburg - Rome on one side and a steep wall of rock reflecting all the the traffic noise perfectly and providing shadow all day long on the other. Gray tenement-houses with narrow flats stand on both sides of the main local highway connecting Lucerne (57,000 inhabitants) and Emmen (30'000 inhabitants). This is a place most people try to leave as soon as they can - and that's where new immigrants are directed to, because free and relatively cheap flats are easy to find here. The "other side of the multicultural coin" is definitely not the "chocolate side" as the Swiss would call the nice side of things. All this is not specific to Lucerne, of course, you can see that in any other Swiss and generally in any European city. |
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More photos illustrating multiculturality and languages in Switzerland:
 A sign in five languages |
 multicultural fast food |
 Tamil shop |
| photos courtesy flickr member lido_6006 | ||
Switzerland is not and has never been an ethnically homogeneous nation. The first tribes settling in the region today known as Switzerland we have written historic records of were the celtic Helvetians (some 2500 - 2000 years ago), speaking a celtic language and the Rhetians who where not Romans but have adopted the Roman language (Latin) before they left any written traces. While the Rhetians, living in the alpine valleys of southeastern Switzerland, were able to preserve their language (Rumantsch) and culture to our days, the original celtic population has left almost no traces in Switzerland except from a few geographical names.
In 58 B.C. the Helvetians attempted to leave Switzerland and to settle somewhere in southern France, but they were stopped and defeated by the Roman commander Cesar. So they had to return to Switzerland under Roman administration. From the times of Cesar, a Gallo-Roman culture flourished in western Europe (Spain, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, England including western and northern Switzerland). Generally speaking, River Rhine separated the sphere of the Romans and Celts from those of Germanic tribes.
But during the migration of nations around A.D. 400, several Germanic tribes, among them the Francs (hence: France) and the Burgundians (hence: Burgundy, a region in southeastern France) crossed the Rhine border. The Francs settled in northern France (around Paris), the Burgundians in western Switzerland and Burgundy (their capital being Geneva). These tribes negotiated agreements with the Romans and installed themselves as heirs to the Roman administration. So they also adopted their Latin language and culture. Another Germanic tribe, the Lombardians (hence: Lombardia = northern Italy around Milan) settled in Italy and in the valleys of southern Switzerland geographically easily accessible from there. In the course of the centuries since, Latin dialects spoken in France / western Switzerland, Italy / southern Switzerland and Spain have developed into French, Italian and Spanish.
Groups belonging to yet another Germanic tribe, the Alamannen, infiltrated northern Switzerland while a part of the tribe remained in southwestern Germany (Baden-Würtemberg with capital Stuttgart). Contrary to the above mentioned tribes they were neither really interested in Roman towns nor in Roman culture, settled in small villages and stuck to their Germanic language. Within two centuries they had established a clear majority of the population in northern Switzerland, however, while many Celts and Romans retreated and the public use of the Latin language disappeared in northern Switzerland (except, of course, for the use of Latin in church rituals and on documents, as in Germany and generally everywhere in medieval Europe).
So the ethnic origin of the native Swiss population is in
any case some kind of melting pot:
· Celtic - Roman - Burgundian in western Switzerland
· Roman - Lombardian in southern Switzerland
· Alamannic - Celtic - Roman in northern Switzerland
While using dialects is considered to be somewhat uncultered in other countries, German speaking Swiss people are very proud of their regional Swiss German dialects - even business people use them in formal negociations and university professors to discuss scientific theories.
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