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The ancestors of the modern Swiss were the Gaulish Helvetii and Gallicised Rhaetians, who between the 1st century BCE and the 4th century were Romanised and had become part of the Roman Empire, and the Germanic peoples who settled the area of modern Switzerland in the Migration Period between the 6th and the 7th century, after the collapse of ...
Switzerland lies at the crossroads of several major European cultures. Three of the continent's major languages, German, French and Italian, are national languages of Switzerland, along with Romansh, spoken by a small minority. Therefore, Swiss culture is characterized by diversity, which is reflected in a wide range of traditional customs.
The four national languages of Switzerland are German, French, Italian, and Romansh. [3] German, French, and Italian maintain equal status as official languages at the national level within the federal administration of the Swiss Confederation , while Romansh is used in dealings with people who speak it. [ 4 ]
Because the various populations of Switzerland share language, ethnicity, and religion not with each other but with the major European powers between whom Switzerland during the modern history of Europe found itself positioned, a policy of domestic plurality in conjunction with international neutrality became a matter of self-preservation. [18]
In 1919, the Lia Rumantscha was founded as an umbrella organization for the various regional language societies. In 1937, the Swiss government proposed recognizing Romansh as Switzerland's fourth national language (alongside German, French and Italian).
Geographical distribution of languages in the Grisons as of 2000 Original areas where was spoken the Romansh language since the Middle Ages. The Grisons is the only canton of Switzerland with three official languages: German (74.7%), Romansh (13.9%), and Italian (13.9%) with the remaining 13% speaking another language natively. [39] [40]
In Switzerland, the most influential newspapers include the German-language Tages-Anzeiger and Neue Zürcher Zeitung, as well as the French-language Le Temps. Additionally, almost every city has at least one local newspaper published in the predominant local language.
In 2017, permanent residents who spoke German (mostly Swiss German dialects) as their main language or co-main language numbered about 63% (5.2 million), followed by 22.9% (1.9 million) for French (mostly Swiss French, but including some Franco-Provençal dialects), 8.2% (678,000) for Italian (mostly Swiss Italian, but including Insubric ...