Romansh speakers called on to identify themselves

How many Romansh speakers live in Switzerland? No one really knows – estimates vary from as few as 30,000 to up to 100,000. This situation is unacceptable for the umbrella organisation for Switzerland’s least-spoken national language. In order to try to get a more accurate picture, Lia Rumantscha, which works to maintain and promote Romansh, is now calling on people to stand up and be counted by signing a register. The most recent national census was taken 15 years ago and according to that, just under 34,000 people said Romansh was their main language. However, this figure – and most others which float around – is considered controversial, not to say out of date, by the Romansh community. “The census asked people what language they spoke best – and 30,000 said Romansh,” explained Erwin Ardüser from swissinfo.ch’s Romansh-speaking sister organisation, Swiss national television and radio, RTR. “But about 60,000 people will say ‘I am Romansh, but Romansh is not my …
Source
Culture
– SWI swissinfo.ch