The Swiss Esperanto Rumantsch Grischun
24 January 2022
Seventeen of the twenty-six Swiss cantons are German-speaking, four are French-speaking (Vaud, Geneva, Neuchâtel, and Jura), one is Italian speaking (Ticino), and three are bilingual French and German (Fribourg, Berne, and Valais) and one is trilingual Romansh, Italian and German (Les Grisons or Graubünden).
A multilingual country
Although Switzerland or its territory has always been multilingual, many if not most, citizens are not bilingual, let alone trilingual. There is even a growing (and worrying) tendency to communicate in English between German-, French- or Italian-speaking citizens.
The Romansh language
The only genuinely bilingual community is also the smallest, the Romansh people in Grisons. According to the latest figures, all Romansh-speaking citizens, around 60 000 speak German, and many have at least some understanding of Italian or French.
Bilingual school system.
The world’s oldest and most successful bilingual school system is one neglected accomplishment of this multilingual situation. The use of two languages in schools in Romansh areas came about in the nineteenth century when German became more relevant due to the improved accessibility of the valleys and the immigration of German-speaking citizens (and tourists).
Since 1880, the canton’s constitution recognised three languages, Italian, German and Romansh. The communes determine the use of languages in schools.
The federal constitution (Art. 4, 8, 18, 31, 70 and 188) contains detailed language provisions and the use of languages (including the Federal Supreme Court (Bundesgericht) in Lausanne. The Swiss Supreme Court handed down its first judgment in Romansh in 1996. Romansh was recognised as (the fourth) national language in 1938.
Romansh
Romansh is a language in its own right. The roots go back to Raethian tribes, the Roman Province of Raetia (Prima) and Chur (Curia) as its capital (and later Episcopal) city. (Vulgar) Latin fused with the native language to become gradually Romansh.
The (slow) process of Germanisation gradually isolated the Romansh speaking communities in their valleys. The Alemmani immigrated from the north in the second half of the fifth century. German-speaking Upper Valais immigrants, now known as Walser, settled in the 13th and 14th centuries.
German became the official language of the Three Leagues (Gotteshausbund, Zehngerichtebund, and Graue or Obere Bund) when they formally merged into the canton of Grisons (Graubünden) in 1803 (after a long history of alliances from the fourteenth century onwards and the unity of the Three Leagues (1524).
Every delegate in the canton parliament was entitled to use the Romansh, German or Italian language. Documents were recorded and printed in these three languages. However, the reality was less rosy, and German became the dominant language.
The use of Romansh
The use of Romansh was also complicated by the lack of one Romansh identity and the evolvement of five Romansh idioms over the centuries due to the isolation of the valleys.
The idioms also differ from each other; for example, Surselva/Sutselva/Surmeiran Romansh (Rhein region) differs from Vallader Romansh (Lower Engadine) and Putèr Romansh (Upper Engadine). A recent initiative, Rumantsch Grischun, aims at standardising the Romansh language.
Romansh Renaissance
The so-called Romansh Renaissance in the last decades of the nineteenth century and the creation of private and governmental bodies to promote, educate and use the Romansh language and culture are efforts to stop the decline of this unique language, probably the most direct link with (vulgar) Latin.
Newspapers, radio, television, schools, a chair at Universities, language courses outside Grisons (Basel, Berne, Zurich), the legal (constitutional) framework, literature and the use in cultural-historical publications, theatre, music, and other cultural events give hope for the future, although demographic, economic and technological developments and globalisation are challenging developments.
The discussions about one foreign language (English instead of German/French or Italian) in (primary) schools in the canton (and other cantons) is another indication of the ongoing globalisation and (growing) linguistic division in the country.
Could Romansh become the Esperanto for Switzerland? The Rumantsch Grischun is ready for the sake of Swiss linguistic unity.
(Source, M. Gross, Rätoromanisch, Facts & Figures, Lia Rumantscha, Chur, 2005).