1. ITALIAN
IN
SWITZERLAND
Olatz Oñate Muzás
olatxus@gmail.com

2. Index
1. Introduction
- Where's Switzerland
2. Historical overview: Language policy
3. Languages
3. Italian in Switzerland
- Ticino
-Administration
- Education
- media
-Social life
4. Summary

3. 1. Where's plurilingual Switzerland?
The Swiss franc
Here!

4. Writer Johanna Spyri
Swiss nationality
1901-1955
Bünder
Herschaft

5. 2. Historical overview of language policy
- 19th
C Multingualism acquired a political significance
- 1848' constitution, Cantons got political and cultural autonomy
and provided multilingualism
- The revised 1874 constitution added that 3 national L must be represented in Court
- 1985: Martin Bundi asked for a revision of the constitution to protect minority L.
- 1996 Constitution: measures by the Cantons of Grison and Ticino to maintain and promote
Romansh and Italian L.

6. 3. Languages
The 26 cantons designate their
official languages.
- Monolingual:
German: 17 cantons
French: 4 cantons
Italian: 1 canton (Ticino)
- Bilingual cantons(Gr-Fr):
3 cantons (Bern, Fribourg and
Valais)
-Trilingual cantons (Gr, It and
Rom):
1 canton (Grisons)
LANGUAGE % Absolut values
GERMAN 63.7 4.640.459
FRENCH 20.4 1.485.056
ITALIAN 6.5 470.961
ROMANSH 0.5 35.095
NON-NATIONAL L
Alb., Croat., En Maced.,Port., Serb.,
Spanish, Tur., Ukr.,
9.0 656.539

7. THE SECOND LANGUAGE MORE
SPOKEN

8. 4. Italian in Switzerland
Similar to standard Italian but Swiss Italian presents some differences due to the presence of French
and German from which it assimilates words

9. Ticino and 4
valleys in
Grisons
Outside the
italian-
speaking
area43% 56,6%
MAIN LANGUAGE,
ITALIAN (year 2000)

10. Comparison between the main language
and the L spoken in the family

11. Main language and language spoken in the family according to nationality (year 2000)

12. Canton of Ticino
• Belongs to the italian-speaking area
• The italian cultural area is a essential component
of its identity

13. a) Italian in administration
DISCRIMINATION: An economic issue?
Websites are mostly in German, French and English

14. b) Education
• Medium of instruction: Italian
• The official language at University is Italian.
• INMIGRANTS
– courses in Italian
– classes in the language
and civilization of the country of origin.
Level Hours of Italian per
week
Primary 1 5 h15 min
Primary 2 4 h 30 min
Lower
secondary1
6h
Lower sec 2 5h
Lower sec 3
Lower sec 4
6h
5 h

15. Reinforcement of multilingualism
In 2002 the state council aproved a reform to streghten multilingualism in Ticino. It becomed
general from the 2006/2007 scholar year
language Compulsory beginning Scholar year Minimun numbers of teaching
French Primary 3 7 years
German Secondary 2 3 years
English Secondary 3 1 year

16. Outside the Italian speaking areas
• It's precarious
• Since 1970 courses in Italian for teachers.
It helped to promote compulsory italian education in The canton of Uri.
• The growing importance of English makes harder to promote italian.

17. Ticino in PISA
Switzerland is in the media but Ticino is the last among the
Swiss cantons.

18. Media

19. Economic and social life

20. Summary
• - 3 oficial and 4 national languages
• - 26 Cantons have autonomy
• - Plurilingual Country? 22 monolingual cantons, 3 bilinguals and 1 monilongual
(Ticino)
• - Italian is mainly spoken in Ticino and 3 vallis of Grisons
• - Ticino
– - Italian medium of instruction in education
– - Measures for inmigrants to learn italian and their own Culture
– - Measures for multilingualism
– - Italian outside Ticino is precarious
– - The worst results in Pisa. REFLECTION: monolingual Canton?¿
– - The landscape is mainly in Italian
– There are 4 newspapers and radio and TV only in Italian

21. Olatz Oñate Muzás
olatxus@gmail.com