World War I
World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
, the term French Switzerland () wa also used ( or , , ) is the
French-speaking
French ( or ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European family. Like all other Romance languages, it descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire. French evolved from Northern Old Gallo-Romance, a descendant of the Latin spoken in ...
historical and cultural region of
Switzerland
Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...
. In 2020, about 2 million people, or 22.8% of the Swiss population, lived in Romandy. The majority of the population lives in the western part of the country, especially the region along Lake Geneva, connecting
Geneva
Geneva ( , ; ) ; ; . is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland and the most populous in French-speaking Romandy. Situated in the southwest of the country, where the Rhône exits Lake Geneva, it is the ca ...
,
Vaud
Vaud ( ; , ), more formally Canton of Vaud, is one of the Cantons of Switzerland, 26 cantons forming the Switzerland, Swiss Confederation. It is composed of Subdivisions of the canton of Vaud, ten districts; its capital city is Lausanne. Its coat ...
Geneva
Geneva ( , ; ) ; ; . is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland and the most populous in French-speaking Romandy. Situated in the southwest of the country, where the Rhône exits Lake Geneva, it is the ca ...
,
Vaud
Vaud ( ; , ), more formally Canton of Vaud, is one of the Cantons of Switzerland, 26 cantons forming the Switzerland, Swiss Confederation. It is composed of Subdivisions of the canton of Vaud, ten districts; its capital city is Lausanne. Its coat ...
The adjective ' (feminine ') is a regional dialectal variant of ' (modern French ', i.e. "Roman"); in
Old French
Old French (, , ; ) was the language spoken in most of the northern half of France approximately between the late 8th
Franco-Provençal
Franco-Provençal (also Francoprovençal, Patois or Arpitan) is a Gallo-Romance languages, Gallo-Romance language that originated and is spoken in eastern France, western Switzerland, and northwestern Italy.
Franco-Provençal has several di ...
dialects can be traced to the 15th century; it is recorded, as ', in a document written in Fribourg in 1424 and becomes current in the 17th and 18th centuries in Vaud and Fribourg; it was adopted in Geneva in the 19th century, but its usage never spread outside of what is now French-speaking Switzerland.
The term ' has become widely used since World War I; before World War I and during the 19th century, the term ' "French Switzerland" was used, reflecting the cultural and political prestige of France (the canton of
Vaud
Vaud ( ; , ), more formally Canton of Vaud, is one of the Cantons of Switzerland, 26 cantons forming the Switzerland, Swiss Confederation. It is composed of Subdivisions of the canton of Vaud, ten districts; its capital city is Lausanne. Its coat ...
having been created Helvetic Republic">by Napoleon out of former Bernese subject territories, while Geneva, Valais and Jura were even briefly joined to France, as the ', ' and ' ', respectively). ' is used in contrast to ' ("Alemannic Switzerland") the term for Alemannic German speaking Switzerland. Formed by analogy is ' ("Italian Switzerland"), which is composed of Ticino and of a part of .
In
Swiss German
Swiss German (Standard German: , ,Because of the many different dialects, and because there is no #Conventions, defined orthography for any of them, many different spellings can be found. and others; ) is any of the Alemannic German, Alemannic ...
, French-speaking Switzerland is known as ' or ', and the French-speaking Swiss as ', using the old Germanic term for non-Germanic speakers also used in English of '' Welsh'' (see '). The terms ' and ' are also used in written Swiss Standard German but in more formal contexts they are sometimes exchanged for ' ("French-speaking Switzerland") or ' ("French Switzerland"). Simple ' "western Switzerland" may also be used as a loose synonym.
Politics
"Romandy" is not an official territorial division of Switzerland any more than there is a clear linguistic boundary. For instance, substantial parts of the canton of Fribourg and the western canton of Bern are traditionally bilingual, most prominently in Seeland around the lakes of Morat, Neuchâtel and Bienne (Biel). French is the sole official language in four Swiss cantons:
Geneva
Geneva ( , ; ) ; ; . is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland and the most populous in French-speaking Romandy. Situated in the southwest of the country, where the Rhône exits Lake Geneva, it is the ca ...
,
Vaud
Vaud ( ; , ), more formally Canton of Vaud, is one of the Cantons of Switzerland, 26 cantons forming the Switzerland, Swiss Confederation. It is composed of Subdivisions of the canton of Vaud, ten districts; its capital city is Lausanne. Its coat ...
, Neuchâtel, and Jura; and the co-official language – along with German – in the cantons of
Valais
Valais ( , ; ), more formally, the Canton of Valais or Wallis, is one of the cantons of Switzerland, 26 cantons forming the Switzerland, Swiss Confederation. It is composed of thirteen districts and its capital and largest city is Sion, Switzer ...
,
Bern
Bern (), or Berne (), ; ; ; . is the ''de facto'' Capital city, capital of Switzerland, referred to as the "federal city".; ; ; . According to the Swiss constitution, the Swiss Confederation intentionally has no "capital", but Bern has gov ...
, and Fribourg, French speakers forming the majority of the population in the regions of Lower Valais, Bernese Jura and Fribourg francophone ("French-speaking Fribourg"). Bernese Jura is an administrative division of the Canton of Bern, whereas the two others are informal denominations.
Geography
The linguistic boundary between French and German is known as ' (lit. "'' rösti'' ditch", adopted in Swiss French as '). The term is humorous in origin and refers both to the geographic division and to perceived cultural differences between the Romandy and the German-speaking Swiss majority. The term can be traced to the WWI period, but it entered mainstream usage in the 1970s in the context of the Jurassic separatism virulent at the time.
The linguistic boundary cuts across Switzerland north-to-south, forming the eastern boundary of the canton of Jura and then encompassing the Bernese Jura, where the boundary frays to include a number of bilingual communities, the largest of which is Biel/Bienne. It then follows the border between Neuchâtel and
Bern
Bern (), or Berne (), ; ; ; . is the ''de facto'' Capital city, capital of Switzerland, referred to as the "federal city".; ; ; . According to the Swiss constitution, the Swiss Confederation intentionally has no "capital", but Bern has gov ...
and turns south towards Morat, again traversing an areal of traditional bilinguism including the communities of Morat and Fribourg. It divides the canton of Fribourg into a western French-speaking majority and an eastern German-speaking minority and then follows the eastern boundary of
Vaud
Vaud ( ; , ), more formally Canton of Vaud, is one of the Cantons of Switzerland, 26 cantons forming the Switzerland, Swiss Confederation. It is composed of Subdivisions of the canton of Vaud, ten districts; its capital city is Lausanne. Its coat ...
Bernese Oberland
The Bernese Oberland (; ; ), sometimes also known as the Bernese Highlands, is the highest and southernmost part of the canton of Bern. It is one of the canton's five administrative regions (in which context it is referred to as ''Oberland'' witho ...
Les Diablerets
Les Diablerets is a village and ski resort located in the municipality of Ormont-Dessus in the canton of Vaud, Switzerland.
The village lies at an altitude of on the north side of the massif of the Diablerets, , in the Swiss Alps. It can be a ...
, the boundary then separates the French-speaking Lower Valais from the Alemannic-speaking Upper Valais beyond Sierre. It then cuts southwards into the High Alps again, separating the Val d'Anniviers from the Mattertal.
Historically, the linguistic boundary in the Swiss Plateau would have more or less followed the Aare during the early medieval period, separating Burgundy (where the
Burgundians
The Burgundians were an early Germanic peoples, Germanic tribe or group of tribes. They appeared east in the middle Rhine region in the third century AD, and were later moved west into the Roman Empire, in Roman Gaul, Gaul. In the first and seco ...
did not impose their Germanic language on the Gallo-Roman population) from Alemannia; in the
High Middle Ages
The High Middle Ages, or High Medieval Period, was the periodization, period of European history between and ; it was preceded by the Early Middle Ages and followed by the Late Middle Ages, which ended according to historiographical convention ...
, the boundary gradually shifted westward and now more or less corresponds to the western boundary of the Zähringer possessions, which fell under Bernese rule in the late medieval period, and does not follow any obvious topographical features. The Valais has a separate linguistic history; here, the entire valley, as far as it was settled, would have been Gallo-Roman speaking until its upper parts were settled by
Highest Alemannic
Highest Alemannic is a branch of Alemannic German and is often considered to be part of the German language, even though mutual intelligibility with Standard German and other non-Alemannic German dialects is very limited.
Highest Alemannic dialect ...
speakers entering from the Bernese Oberland in the high medieval period (see Walser).
Language
Traditionally speaking the Franco-Provençal or ' dialects of Upper Burgundy, the ' population now speak a variety of Standard French.
Today, the differences between Swiss French and Parisian French are minor and mostly lexical, although remnants of dialectal lexicon or phonology may remain more pronounced in rural speakers. In particular, some parts of the Swiss Jura participate in the dialect spoken in the region of France.
Since the 1970s, there has been a limited amount of linguistic revivalism of Franco-Provençal dialects, which are often now called ' (a 1980s neologism derived from the dialectal form of the word ''alpine'') and their area Arpitania.
Cultural identity
The cultural identity of the Romandy is supported by and the universities of
Geneva
Geneva ( , ; ) ; ; . is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland and the most populous in French-speaking Romandy. Situated in the southwest of the country, where the Rhône exits Lake Geneva, it is the ca ...
Lausanne
Lausanne ( , ; ; ) is the capital and largest List of towns in Switzerland, city of the Swiss French-speaking Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Vaud, in Switzerland. It is a hilly city situated on the shores of Lake Geneva, about halfway bet ...
and .
Historically, most of the Romandy has been strongly Protestant, especially
Calvinist
Reformed Christianity, also called Calvinism, is a major branch of Protestantism that began during the 16th-century Protestant Reformation. In the modern day, it is largely represented by the Continental Reformed Protestantism, Continenta ...
;
Geneva
Geneva ( , ; ) ; ; . is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland and the most populous in French-speaking Romandy. Situated in the southwest of the country, where the Rhône exits Lake Geneva, it is the ca ...
was one of the earliest and most important Calvinist centres. However, Roman Catholicism continued to predominate in , , and . In recent decades, due to significant immigration from France and Southern European countries, Catholics can now be found throughout the region.
The Tour de Romandie is an annual cycling event on the UCI World Tour, often considered to be an important race in preparation for the Tour de France.
Library Network
The Library Network of Western Switzerland is in the region of Romandy.
It is a collection of Libraries of Western Switzerland that are based in the region of Romandy.
See also
*
Languages of Switzerland
The four national languages of Switzerland are German language, German, French language, French, Italian language, Italian, and Romansh language, Romansh. German, French, and Italian maintain equal status as official languages at the national ...