Languages in Swit?

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Swiss

There are 4 (FOUR) national languages in Switzerland. It depends on the regions. People mostly know only 3 and they thought so. It's wrong!!! We speak 4 languages it Switzerland. There are:
FRENCH -> west part of Switzerland
ITALIAN -> south part of Switzerland
SCHWYZERDÃœTSCH/ SCHWEIZERDEUTSCH (which is Swiss German) -> north & east of Switzerland
Rhaeto-Romanic -> only about 30.000 speakers in GraubÃ¼nden. It's very interesting language because it's one of Latin language that's still alive till nowadays. It sounds mix between Swiss German & Italian. For foreigners this language does not have a practical meaning, but for the Swiss federalism, it's recognized as one of the official language. Romance is also spoken in northeastern Italy.

On TV, at school or interaction among individuals, we use our own region language. However, we can also watch all channels that speak those languages. A lot of people here, they speak more than one region language, although they are not perfect somehow. So basicly, people choose the channel that they can understand.

At school, everyone has the possibility to learn another region language & for some subjects it's a must to learn one extra region language. Romance isn't really put in educational practice though.

So there's no confusion at all; we get used to it. In contrary, I find it great that we have the opportunity to learn different languages, so it makes us more international. We can use this into practice, when we go to Italia, Canada (French speaking part), Germany, Austria, Rumania and so on.

So what do you think? Isn't it great if you can speak many languages at the same place?

Jean-Paul J

It doesn't bother us. Each language literally has its own region. This divides the country but keeps us happy and safe. Their are 6 television stations (3 for every main language, except Rumantsch). The schools speak in their local languages and schools in so-called "border cantons" (they stand astride two linguistic regions and so are generally bilingual). Almost all the population has some rudimentary idea of what one of the other national languages is (generally the Swiss French and Italians learn German and the Germans French) but that also does'nt bother us either. Even the trains broadcast their announcements in the national languages (generally German and French and sometimes the non-official English)

Hope this has helped as I'm Swiss!

S.O.

doodlebug

When I was working in Switzerland, (in Zurich,in the German
part,) I thought it was pretty cool that my boss would talk
to me in English, his other office staff in German, his cleaning
lady in Italian, and some patients in French. With a perfect
accent in each! I learned German, but almost every time I
spoke it, the person would either smile or laugh, and answer
me in English. I would ask them in German if my German was that bad, and they would usually say, "No, but you speak
it like an American or Canadian..." So I never got the accent
quite right, I was just impressed that I could be understood
despite my accent!

Servette

None.. Swiss people are proud to have different culture and not fighting about it (like in Belgium)

Dr. House

In Switzerland there are 3 official languages : German (in the North and part of the Berner Oberland), French in the West towards lake Geneva, and Italian in the East towards Italy. There is a fourth language spoken by a minority in the far east part of the country: Raeto Romanish. It is a Roman language but has no official status. Please note that whilst in its written form, the German spoken in Switzerland is the official German, in the spoken form in many places it is a special form of German called SwitzerdÃ¼tsch. All official papers are in the 3 official languages; trains and airlines handle the three languages and there are TV and radiostations in all of them. Also almost everybody speaks 2 or 3 of them plus English of course. We try to accomodate our touristic customers! GrÃ¼ze mit einand!!

eviot44

french and German but also Italian

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