Suisse romande

• German ( 65.6 % of the population, 73.3 % of the Swiss )
• French ( 22.8 % of the population, 23.4 % of the Swiss )
• Italian (8.4% of the population, 6.1% of the Swiss )
• Romansh ( 0.6 % of the population, 0.7 % of the Swiss )

As Romandie or Suisse Romande ( French-speaking Switzerland and also French Switzerland, Romandie, Welsch Switzerland or Western Switzerland) are referred to the French-speaking areas of Switzerland with a population of around 1.75 million.

The Romandie consists of the cantons of Geneva, Jura, Neuchâtel and Vaud with French as an official language and the Francophone parts of the bilingual cantons of Bern ( Biel / Bienne, Bernese Jura), Freiburg and Wallis ( Valais ).

Since the language regions do not exist in the political system of Switzerland, it is a relatively diffuse cultural "unity ", which is mainly defined by a common language.

The inhabitants of the French-speaking call themselves Suisses romands or (short) Romands. Thus, they border on the one hand explicitly from the rest of the Swiss population, on the other hand by the French.

Language

In the French-speaking standard French is spoken in general. Various regional dialects ( patois ), the Franco - Provençal language are threatened with extinction (1990 spoke only 2 percent of the Francophone population of Switzerland patois ). In the pronunciation and vocabulary are still some differences to the French written noticeable. This falls in daily life especially with the number of the words: Here it is called " septante » (70) « huitante " (80, but only in the cantons of Fribourg, Vaud, Valais and partially Geneva ) and " nonante " (90 ) instead of " soixante - dix "," quatre - vingts "and" quatre - vingt- dix ". In addition to originating from the patois archaisms many Germanisms are known, which are increasingly used in particular along linguistic lines.

Cultural Identity

Although the " Italians " are often regarded equipped by the Swiss German as culturally uniform and with its own mentality that Romands to consider themselves as belonging to more than the French-speaking Switzerland, or their home canton. The latter see them more as an interest group rather than as separate cultural unit. Nevertheless, the existence of a political-cultural Röstigraben is provided as a border to the German Switzerland hardly in question.

Politically, the connection of the Suisses romands to France is small but culturally (in the narrow sense) naturally stronger, while the German Switzerland oriented more to Germany and the Italian Switzerland rather to northern Italy.

Largest cities in the Romandie

Canton capitals are bold.