Swiss people

Swiss is the name given to the citizens of the Central European country of Switzerland. A Swiss has Swiss citizenship, so the Swiss citizenship and the citizenship of at least one community, his hometown. End of December 2007, there were about 6.66 million people with Swiss nationality; about ten percent of whom were Swiss abroad.

The Swiss are divided into four linguistic groups: the German Swiss, who Romands, the Italian-speaking Swiss and Romansh. However, these groups form in Switzerland no political units, and also the cultural differences within a linguistic region can be relatively large. That is why many Swiss identify more strongly with their respective home canton. Special note are the naturalized immigrants and second-generation immigrants: they use either the colloquial language of their region of residence or their respective native languages ​​. There are also smaller minorities such as the Jenischen.

History

In pre-Roman times the area of ​​the present-day Switzerland was populated mainly by the Celtic tribe of the Helvetii, but also by the Rhaetian and Raurikern. Later it became a Roman province. After the collapse of the Roman Empire invaded Alemanni and Burgundians in the area. The Romanized Celtic population, often referred to as Gallo-Romans, went on in these. Noteworthy are also the Lombards, who had settled in Ticino and Northern Italy.

Since the Alemanni maintained their Alemannic language, the Burgundians, however, the Latin (or Vulgar Latin ) of the former occupiers had assumed the Swiss do not speak a common language today. The language barriers have not shifted significantly in spite of population movements within Switzerland from then on. An exception is the Romansh in southeast Switzerland, where the language border was once considerably further to the north.

During the colonization of America by Europeans, numerous Swiss moved, which still bear witness to place names. For religious reasons, many Mennonites emigrated to North America. Traces of Swiss German can be heard to this day in the languages ​​of their descendants, such as the Amish.

Swiss Abroad

End of December 2007 there were 668'107 Swiss nationals ( 10.03 percent of the Swiss ) abroad. 71.5 percent of the Swiss abroad were " dual citizen " as being equipped with an additional citizenship. Lyon is 88'615 Swiss largest consular district and thus Switzerland's largest community outside its mother country, France is the country with most Swiss residents ( 176'723 ), followed by Germany ( 75'008 ) and the USA ( 73'978 ). The neighboring countries of Italy ( 47'953 ) and Austria ( 13'984 ) take hiebei the places 4 and 10.

Trivia

• The average Swiss are also known as Mr. and Mrs. Swiss.
• A petty Spies citizen is entitled in Switzerland often than Bünzli.