
Jean-Paul J
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In my little country we speak (in order of most spoken to least spoken)
*Swiss German (a variation of German, and is VERY different from its original counterpart, as its sound is very different)
*French (almost like French spoken in France, save a few word differences, i.e. one does not say "quatre-vingts" for 80 but "huitante", "septante" for 70, instead of "soixante-dix", "nonante" instead of "quatre-vingts-dix-neuf" for 90 and, last but not least "cornet" instead of sachet which is the word for bag.
*Italian (Basically the same as Italian spoken in Italy)
*Romansh (Very beautiful language. A mix of German, French, Italian and Latin and is a treat to hear being spoken!)
Hope this helps! |

RaulJr
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Difficult to tell because Switzerland is divided in Cantons & they have different influence from Italy, Germany & France and people may speake 3 or more, next list by most spoken language by canton
French (in Bern, Fribourg, Geneva, Jura, Neuchâtel, Valais, and Vaud)
German (in Aargau, Appenzell Ausserrhoden, Appenzell Innerrhoden, Basel-Landschaft, Basel-Stadt, Bern, Fribourg, Glarus, Graubünden, Lucerne, Nidwalden, Obwalden, Saint Gallen, Schaffhausen, Schwyz, Solothurn, Thurgau, Uri, Valais, Zug, and Zürich)
Italian (in Graubünden and Ticino)
Romansh (in Graubünden)
See what i mean:
The German speaking part of Switzerland (German: Deutschschweiz) comprises 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 most Swiss cantons, German is the only official language (Aargau, Appenzell, Basel, Glarus, Lucerne, Nidwalden, Obwalden, Schaffhausen, Schwyz, Solothurn, St. Gallen, Thurgau, Uri, Zug, Zurich).
The canton Bern has a French minority, in Fribourg and Valais, German has minority status. In the canton Grison, more than half of the population speaks German, while the rest prefer Italian and Romansh. In each case, all languages are official languages of the respective canton.
While the French speaking Swiss prefer to call themselves Romands and their part of the country la Romandie, the German speaking Swiss used to refer to (and, colloquially, still do) the French speaking Swiss as "Welsche" and to their area as Welschland, which has the same etymology as the English Welsh. In Germany Welsch and Welschland refer to Italy; there, the term is antiquated, rarely used, and somewhat disparaging.
Contrary to the Italian and French speaking Swiss, the German speaking Swiss do not feel very close to their German neighbours in the north, even though the Alemannic dialects on both sides of the Rhine are similar. The reasons for this are mainly historical, as the German part of Switzerland has factually been separated from the rest of the German speaking areas since the late Middle Ages and officially since the peace of Westphalia. Another factor is the status of the dialect. High German is the official language and is used in writing and to a great part by the media, but the spoken language in Switzerland in all social classes is almost exclusively Swiss German (more precisely one of the Swiss German dialects) - in Germany, people with higher education seldom speak a marked dialect.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_speaking_part_of_Switzerland |