Italian in switzerland

ITALIAN IN

SWITZERLAND

Olatz Oñate Muzásolatxus@gmail.com

Index1. Introduction

- Where's Switzerland

2. Historical overview: Language policy

3. Languages

3. Italian in Switzerland

- Ticino

-Administration

- Education

- media

-Social life

4. Summary

1. Where's plurilingual Switzerland?

The Swiss franc

Here!

Writer Johanna Spyri

Swiss nationality 1901-1955

Bünder Herschaft

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.

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 4.640.459FRENCH 20.4 1.485.056ITALIAN 6.5 470.961ROMANSH 0.5 35.095NON-NATIONAL LAlb., Croat., En Maced.,Port., Serb., Spanish, Tur., Ukr.,

9.0 656.539

THE SECOND LANGUAGE MORE SPOKEN

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

Ticino and 4 valleys in Grisons

Outside the italian-speaking area43% 56,6%

MAIN LANGUAGE, ITALIAN (year 2000)

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

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

Canton of Ticino

• Belongs to the italian-speaking area

• The italian cultural area is a essential component

of its identity

a) Italian in administration

DISCRIMINATION: An economic issue?

Websites are mostly in German, French and English

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

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

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.

Ticino in PISASwitzerland is in the media but Ticino is the last among the Swiss cantons.

Media

Economic and social life

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

Olatz Oñate Muzásolatxus@gmail.com