The Four Languages of Switzerland

Oct 21
10:59

2015

Lisa Jeeves

Lisa Jeeves

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Booked your Geneva Airport ski transfers for a ski break in Switzerland? You may be interested to learn more about the four official languages of the country.

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Most school-age geography students are taught that Switzerland has three languages: French,The Four Languages of Switzerland  Articles German and Italian. In fact, Switzerland has four distinct official languages, but the position is not quite as clear-cut as it might first appear. Visitors to Switzerland may find it interesting to learn more.

The Four Languages

As well as French, German and Italian, the Swiss themselves include Romansh as an official language. Romansh is a direct descendent of Vulgar Latin and it's only spoken by roughly 0.5% of the population, so if you’ve never heard of it that’s not too surprising.
Some complexities arise because the four languages are only 'official' at the federal level; Switzerland is a highly decentralised state and each individual 'canton' (federal territory) within that state can set its own ‘official language’ policy. The majority of Switzerland’s cantons have their own individual policies and many are officially either German or French speaking.

Distribution

As you might expect, the linguistic distribution matches the surrounding countries.  German is the most commonly spoken language and covers much of central, northern and eastern Switzerland. Italian is common in southeastern regions, and French towards the west. Romansh is now largely confined to small areas of eastern Switzerland.

It’s something of a myth that all Swiss people are fully multi-lingual. Although schools teach the languages spoken in other cantons, these are typically learned as ‘non-native’ languages. Interestingly, the majority of German-speaking cantons now teach English as their major second language rather than French, largely for commercial and scientific reasons.

The French-speaking Cantons teach standard German, although the German (called Alemannic) spoken in many parts of Switzerland has significant differences. The Italian language in Switzerland has been declining for many years. In 1970, around 12% of the population spoke Italian as their mother tongue, but that figure is now down to around 8%. The reasons for this are disputed, although some sources attribute it to a decline in inward migration from Italy over the past 20 years.

French continues to be an important language in western Switzerland, where today most people speak a standardised version of the language.

Even within itself, Romansh has a number of very local dialects. In recent years the Swiss government has tried to shape education to reflect only a standardised version of the language, but this has, predictably, led to confusion and ill-feeling. Like many minority languages, it is under threat and the authorities are making strenuous efforts to preserve it. Interestingly, Switzerland has started to take similar action with Italian out of concern for its decline as well.

Which Language to Use in Switzerland?

For the tourist or business visitor, the linguistic issues mentioned above are largely academic. Alemannic speakers in Switzerland will understand standard tourist or business German and, of course, English is widely understood in the same circles.
In French-speaking cantons, standard French will be fine.

Visiting Switzerland – Getting There

A number of both larger and budget airlines service the country’s airports, but the most popular place to fly in to is Geneva. For the many thousands of ski enthusiasts taking a ski break in the winter months, Geneva airport ski transfers are probably the best-known introduction to the country, given the huge popularity of winter sports available in and around the city.

As well as Geneva airport ski transfers, business and leisure travellers on city centre breaks can enter through the popular ports of Zurich, Basel and Berne.