Misplaced Pages

Swiss French (French: français de Suisse or suisse romand) is the variety of French spoken in the French-speaking area of Switzerland known as Romandy. French is one of the four official languages of Switzerland, the others being German, Italian, and Romansch. In 2020 around 2 million people, or 22.8% of the population, in Switzerland spoke French as their primary language, and 28% of the population used French most often at work.

The French spoken in Switzerland is very similar to that of France or Belgium. The differences between the French of Switzerland and of France are mostly lexical, influenced by local substrate languages. While substantial phonological differences exist, as the French of Switzerland preserves many distinctions lost elsewhere, the phonetic qualities are often quite close, such as with the existence of long vowels or the distinction between /ɛ̃/ and /œ̃/. This contrasts with the differences between Standard German and Swiss German, which are largely mutually unintelligible.

Swiss French is characterized by some terms adopted from Arpitan, which was formerly spoken widely across the alpine communities of Romandy, but has far fewer speakers today. In addition, some expressions have been borrowed from both Swiss and Standard German. Although a standard form of French is taught in schools and used in the government, the media and business, there is no uniform vernacular form of French among the different cantons of Switzerland. For example, some German terms in regions bordering German-speaking communities are completely unused in the area around Geneva, a city by France's border with Switzerland.

Phonology

• The nasal vowels are pronounced like in France. /ɑ̃/ → , /ɛ̃/ → , /ɔ̃/ → . Conversely, the nasal vowels /ɛ̃/ and /œ̃/ are kept separate in much Swiss French speech, where much speech in France has merged them. For example, brin (stalk) and brun (brown) are still pronounced differently, like in Quebec and Belgium, unlike in Paris.
• As in Belgium, the distinction between the vowels /ɛ/ and /ɛː/ is maintained in Switzerland, but they have merged in France. For example, mettre (put) and maître (master) are still pronounced differently, unlike in France.
• The distinction between mid vowels /o/ and /ɔ/ has also been maintained in final open syllables, as well as that between /e/ and /ɛ/. For example, peau (skin) and pot (jar) are still pronounced differently, unlike in France and Quebec. For that reason, entré (entered; past participle of the verb entrer) and entrait (third-person singular of entrer in the imperfect indicative) are differentiated, just like in Standard French.
• There is a stronger distinction between long and short vowels in Switzerland:
  • Long vowels are allowed in open syllables, even at the end of a word: ⟨ée⟩, ⟨aie⟩ , ⟨ue⟩ , ⟨ie⟩ , ⟨oue⟩ and ⟨eue⟩ . As a result, almost all feminine adjectives are still phonetically distinct from their masculine counterparts, unlike in France and Quebec.
  • Speakers also differentiate masculine from feminine adjectives phonetically, including in final closed syllables, although the spelling only partially bears out this occurrence, e.g. mental is pronounced /mɑ̃.tal/, whilst the feminine mentale is pronounced /mɑ̃.tɑːl/. Other minimal pairs are similarly differentiated, like amen and amène (third-person singular in the present indicative of amener, to lead).
  • The marginal phoneme /ɑ/ is usually pronounced , meaning pattes (paws) and pâtes (pasta) are differentiated. Similar to the process described above, the circumflex also affects vowel length when used above a vowel, meaning ⟨î⟩ is pronounced , ⟨ê⟩ as , ⟨û⟩ as , ⟨oû⟩ as and ⟨eû⟩ .

Examples of words that differ between Switzerland and France

This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources in this section. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (May 2022) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

See also

• Demographics of Switzerland
• Linguistic geography of Switzerland
• Swiss Standard German
• Swiss German
• Swiss Italian

Notes and references

1. ^ "Languages". Federal Statistical Office. Retrieved 2022-07-07.
2. "L'aire de diffusion de l'arpitan, en France, en Italie et en Suisse". NotreHistoire.ch (in French). Archived from the original on 2013-07-23.
3. ^ Knecht, Pierre (2004). Dictionnaire suisse romand (in French). Éditions Zoé. ISBN 9782881825088.
4. ^ Babbel.com; GmbH, Lesson Nine. "20 Swiss French Expressions To Know Before Visiting Switzerland". Babbel Magazine. Retrieved 2022-04-27.
5. ^ "DÉJEUNER, DÎNER, SOUPER". www.tlfq.org (in French). Retrieved 2022-04-27.
6. ^ "From 'natel' to 'ça joue': The Swiss French words which help you sound like a local". The Local Europe. 2021-09-06. Retrieved 2022-04-26.
7. "From 'natel' to 'ça joue': The Swiss French words which help you sound like a local". The Local Europe. 2021-09-06. Retrieved 2022-04-26.

External links

• French (Swiss) DoReCo corpus compiled by Mathieu Avanzi, Marie-José Béguelin, Gilles Corminboeuf, Federica Diémoz and Laure Anne Johnsen. Audio recordings of narrative texts with transcriptions time-aligned at the phone level, translations, and time-aligned morphological annotations.

v t e Switzerland articles
Major topics
History	Timeline Enlargement Early history Roman era Old Confederacy Federal Charter Rütli Oath Growth Reformation Early Modern era Napoleonic era Restoration Federal state World wars Modern history Military history list of wars Historiography
Geography	Physiographic areas Swiss Alps Swiss Plateau Jura Mountains Subdivisions Cantons AI AG AR BE BL BS FR GE GL GR JU LU NE NW OW SG SH SO SZ TG TI UR VD VS ZG ZH Districts Municipalities list of cities and towns Statistical regions By topic Climate Earthquakes Extreme points Fauna Forests Glaciers Hydrology Islands Lakes Mountain passes Mountains Parks Rivers
Politics	Administrative divisions Constitution Courts Supreme Court Elections Foreign relations Government Federal Council President of the Confederation Federal administration Human rights LGBT Landsgemeinde Law Law enforcement Military National Redoubt Neutrality Parliament National Council Council of States Political parties Popular initiative Voting Federal decree
Economy	Economic history Agriculture Banking Central bank Private banks Companies Energy Franc (currency) Pharmaceutical industry Science and technology Stock exchange Swiss made Taxation Telecommunications Tourism Trade unions Transport air rail road Waste management
Society	Abortion Capital punishment Conscription Corruption Crime Demographics Education Euthanasia Firearms regulation Health Healthcare Homelessness Human trafficking Immigration Pensions Prisons Poverty Prostitution Social security Swiss people Welfare Women Culture Anthem Architecture Cinema Coat of arms Cuisine Flag Folklore Helvetia Languages German French Italian Romansh Röstigraben Literature Media Music Public holidays National Day Religion Sport Symbols Cultural Property of National Significance World Heritage Sites
Outline Index Category Portal

• Switzerland

• French language
• Languages of Switzerland
• French dialects
• National dialects of French