Today, Switzerland is known for a lot things. Primarily, it is the country’s fierce neutrality, or the Swiss Alps. To most linguists, however, it’s actually the various different languages of Switzerland!
If you were to ask some from Spain or from France, or from Germany, what their national language was, it wouldn’t be too difficult for them. If you were to ask a Swiss person, it would be much more difficult for them…
Official Languages
According to the Swiss Constitution, there are a total of four official languages in Switzerland, which all Swiss citizens need to speak at least two of…
German
Currently, German is the most spoken language in Switzerland, being spoken by an estimated 62.6% of the population. In numerical terms, this is roughly 4.5 million people.
From a historical point of view, German was the language of the common man. Today, German is spoken throughout much of central, northern and eastern Switzerland, mostly on the Austro-Swiss and Germany-Swiss borders.
However, the German they speak in Switzerland is much different to the Standard German you are probably familiar with. Instead, the Swiss speak a variant of German, known as Swiss German, although it’s officially Standard German.
Perhaps the most difference is that Swiss German has a lot of French influence in it. This has mostly seen French words replace German ones. In other cases, the spellings of German words are simplified and/or shortened.
On top of this, Swiss German more often than not, follows French grammar rules (with its German words) rather than German grammar rules. In particular, this is to do with the number of language cases.
French
French is the second largest national language of Switzerland. Historically speaking, French is the language of the Swiss elite, with it being most spoken in the west and southwest, mostly on the Franco-Swiss border.
As of the time of writing, French is by roughly 22.9% of the Swiss population, or roughly 1.6 million people.
However, as with the German, this French is somewhat different from the European French you probably familiar with. Much of the French has both German and Italian vocabulary in it, most often being Germanified French words.
Perhaps the most famous difference between European French and Swiss French is the difference in numbers. In European French, the number seventy is soixant-dix whilst in Swiss French it is septante.
This also continues with huitante (eighty) and nonante (ninety) instead of quatre-vingt and quatre-vingt-dix.
Swiss French has also invented a number of its own tech-related terms, with the most common being natel. This is the Swiss term for a telephone, roughly akin to portable and/or téléphone.
Understandably, this makes it hard to understand for people who speak European French, but are unfamiliar with Swiss French.
Italian
In Switzerland, there are three “main” official languages, those languages most foreigners will have heard of. Italian, is the least spoken of these languages, being spoken by only 8.2% of the population (roughly 600,000 people).
Most Swiss Italian speakers are located in the southeast of the country, a part of the country that used to be owned by Italy. Sadly, over the last 50 years or so, Italian has slowly been dying within Switzerland…
Primarily, this has been due to the type of Italian spoken in Switzerland. Similarly to Swiss French and German, the Swiss also speak a slightly different variant of Italian, known to linguists as Lombard.
In actuality, Lombard is actually easier to learn than Italian for English speakers. Surprisingly, Lombard has a lot more in common with French, which thus makes it easier for Anglophones to learn!
However, for native Italian speakers, it is seen as a rather strange language, which is why many of them don’t learn it, and thus, don’t move to Switzerland, hence why Swiss-Italian is dying…
With that being said, the Italian-speaking cantons of Switzerland are often prime skiing venues. This means that during the on-season, there is a large influx of Italian-speaking tourists, which boosts up these numbers (before they all leave!)
Romansh
Unless you were already familiar with the languages of Switzerland before reading this, chances are that you’ve never heard of Romansh. And I can’t blame you, it’s the one that many Swiss people also forget!
As you can probably imagine, this is due to it being the least spoken of the four official languages of Switzerland. Currently, it is spoken by 0.5% of the population (37,000 people) mostly in the mideast and far east of the country.
Romansh is the newest of the four official languages of Switzerland, having only been made official in 1939.
As with with many other Swiss languages, the language is a romance language, having a lot in common with French and Italian. However, Romansh is linguistically closer to Ladin and Friulian, although this is disputed.
Similarly from a linguistic point of view, Romansh one of the closest romance languages to Latin. Whilst Italian is the closest, Romansh surprisingly isn’t too far behind!
Given its lack of speakers as well as it being a relatively new language, Romansh is naturally the least used of the four official Swiss languages at the federal level. However, it is the most used in the canton of Grisons.
Regional Dialects
Besides just Switzerland’s four national languages, the country also has a number of regional dialects too…
Franco-Provençal
Do remember earlier when I said that French is spoken in Switzerland? Technically, that is true, standard Swiss-French is the official variant of French that’s used in schools and in legal documents etc.
However, many in the more rural areas of French-speaking Switzerland actually speak a language known as Franco-Provençal. This is essentially a combination of Standard French, Latin and Modern Swiss French.
Typically, it is most spoken in the most rural villages, that are often the last to change their ways.
According to the most recent federal statistics, Franco-Provençal is spoken by between 10,000 and 15,0000 people within Switzerland. The government doesn’t really know due to the fact that it is spoken in the most rural areas.
However, the Federal Swiss Government does know that over the last 50 years or so, Franco-Provençal has been slowly dying, having well over 100,000 speakers only half a century ago.
Many believe that Franco-Provençal will effectively become an extinct language, within the next decade or so. The Swiss government currently lists it as an “Endangered language“.
Ticinese
On paper, all Swiss-Italians speak, well, Swiss-Italian, as we mentioned earlier. In reality, however, most speak a dialect of Lombard called Ticinese, which is native to the Italian-speaking parts of Switzerland.
Ticinese is considered by linguists to be easier to speak and understand, when compared with standard Swiss-Italian. In fact, it’s also easier for English to learn too, being closer to both French and German.
Historically speaking, all Swiss-Italian TV was done in standard Swiss-Italian. However, each year, more and more of it is being published in Ticinese, rather than Swiss-Italian.
Today, there are a number of traditionally Swiss-Italian newspapers and radio stations that now publish either partly, or entirely in Ticinese. Most youn Swiss-Italians grow up spekaing Ticinese, rather than standard Swiss-Italian!
According to the most recent surveys done by the Federal Swiss Government, Ticinese is spoken and understood by roughly 200,000 people, or roughly a third of all Swiss-Italian speakers in the country.
International Languages
On top of Switzerland’s national languages and regional dialects, there are a number of international languages spoken in Switzerland too!
English
Starting in the late 1970’s, Switzerland has seen a steady influx of English-speaking immigrants. Often, this has been due to the financial benefits of moving to the country, rather than anything else.
In the late 1970’s, the UK began to raise taxes on the wealthiest 1%, causing many of them to leave the country. Whilst many of them went to tax havens like Monaco, a large number of businessmen went to Switzerland.
At the time many believed that this was in order to hide their vast wealth in the notoriously secretive Swiss banks.
With this move, many of them settled in the large financial city of Zurich, often moving into centuries-old chalets in the country. Over time, a number of American and Canadian businessmen would do the same.
Regardless, they would bring their language, which is the native tongue of roughly 5.5% of the Swiss population, or roughly 375,000 people.
In particular, this number has increased dramatically over the last 15 years or so, and is expected to increase over the next 15 too!
Spanish
In 1995, several countries within the EU formed the Schengen Area, which allowed citizens of member states to move between one another without border checks.
Despite not being an EU, member, Switzerland is a part of the Schengen Area.
Spain is also a member of the Schengen Area, meaning that, if you so desired, you could walk from Madrid to Zurich without a single border check!
Part of the Schengen Area (and EU membership in general!) also allows the free movement of people between member countries.
With this, a large number of Spanish citizens chose to emigrate abroad. Often, this was to the French-speaking parts of Switzerland, where they’d form their own little Spanish communities.
On top of this, Swiss universities are among the bets in the world, which has attracted a large amount of Spanish-speaking students. Most of these are from Spain, but a few are also from Mexico as well.
As of the time of writing, Spanish is the native language of around 2.3% of the Swiss population, or roughly 160,000 people. As with many of the other immigrant languages of Switzerland, Spanish has seen a large increase over the 15 years.
Portuguese
During the 1960’s and 1970’s, Portugal was one of the poorest countries in Europe. With this, many Portuguese people began look to other countries to move to, in order to give their children a better standard of living.
Sadly, Spain was similarly poor. However, other Western European countries like France, Italy and yes, Switzerland, were comparatively rich. Once they had enough, many of the Portuguese migrants packed up and left the country.
A large portion of them chose to move to Switzerland, due to the country’s high standard of living. Today, they are mostly scattered throughout the country, however, are concentrated around large cities like Geneva and Zurich.
On top of this, Switzerland has become a favorite of Brazilian expats, who similarly speak Portuguese. Often, these are Brazilian businessmen who are similarly using the notoriously secretive Swiss banks for business and tax reasons.
Although not that common, Brazil has also become a favorite retirement destination for some Swiss nationals, who often return fom the country fluent in Portuguese. However, this does not count towards Portuguese’s official numbers.
Today, most surveys suggest that around 3.7% of the Swiss population speak Portuguese as their native tongue. This translates to roughly 260,000 people, a number that has similarly increased over the last 15 years or so.
Albanian
During the 1990’s, the Serbians began to persecute the ethnic Albanians who live in the now-semi-recognized state of Kosovo. This persecution was often violent, with hundreds of thousands having been killed.
This led to what is now known as the Kosovo War, fought between the Serbians and the NATO-backed Kosovo. The war began in February 1998, lasting until July 1999.
Whilst the war was short, almost 90% of the Albanian population of Kosovo was displaced, most of whom never returned. Many of them fled Kosovo to other, more stable, European countries, with many choosing Switzerland in particular.
Here, many of them settled in the outskirts of the largest Swiss towns and cities, forming their own Kosovar communities. Whilst the language has no state or federal recognition, Albanian is used as the de facto language here.
As of the time of writing, Albanian is the seventh most spoken language in Switzerland, being spoken by 2.7% of the country’s population. In numerical terms, this is a little over 200,000 people.
Similarly to many of the other immigrant languages of Switzerland, Albanian has seen a rather dramatic increase over the last 15 years or so. Many experts believe that this is likely to increase over the next few years too.
Serbo-Croat
To those unfamiliar with the Balkans, there’s one thing you should know: It’s a powder keg. For better or for worse, there are a lot of ethnic tensions in the region, which people have tried to suppress for hundreds of years.
In part, the Kosovo War was caused by the breakup of Yugoslavia in the early 1990’s. The breakup of Yugoslavia caused several other wars, besides the Kosovo War, often between rival ethnic groups.
As with the Kosovo War, these wars caused hundreds of thousands of civilian causalities, forcing millions to flee their homes. As with their Albanian cousins, they too chose to flee to other European countries.
Here, many of them similarly chose to settle in Switzerland. They too, would form their own Serbo-Croat communities, often within walking distances from the Albanian ones.
Serbo-Croat, however, is not one language. It’s actually four! Today, Modern Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian and Montenegrin are all highly mutually intelligible.
In essence, if you speak Serbian, you can talk to a Croatian and understand them perfectly, the same is also true with Bosnians and Montenegrins too!
As of the time of writing, Serbo-Croat is the native tongue of 2.3% of the Swiss population, or roughly 160,000 people.
Do you speak any of the languages of Switzerland? Tell me in the comments!