A CONCISE HISTORY OF LANGUAGE IN SWITZERLAND

Compiled by Stephen Hess

Of the four official languages in Switzerland, German, or 'Swiss-German', is the most pervasive -- as of 1990 (sorry as I could not find more recent data) 63% of the population speaks German; 20% French; 8% Italian; 0.5% Romansch; the remaining +/-8% speak other, 'unofficial', languages.

German has also been dominant as the literary language in Switzerland. Like with Austria, it is uncommon to hear of a sovereign literary movement within Switzerland -- these nations are, by most, considered to be German in language and culture. This, especially when considering Switzerland, must be taken with extreme caution -- Genève, for example, is in the French speaking border-region of Switzerland -- the writers of Genève write in French and are considered to be French writers…this is to say that there is, among the Swiss (according to a variety of recourses), no specific national identity...it is impossible to make generalizations as every town and region is wrapped up in a highly specified cultural-geo-political-lingual situation.

Further reading:

• Swiss Literary Culture since 1945: Productive Antagonisms and Conflicting Identities; by Michael Bohler

• Cultural Pluralism and Linguistic Equilibrium in Switzerland; by Kurt Mayer

• Why Switzerland? By Jonathan Steinberg

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