The two municipalities of Surses and Muntogna da Schons in Graubünden will in future no longer be classified as Romansh, but as German-speaking Switzerland. The Federal Bureau of Statistics announced this last week. The reason given was the decrease in the number of Rhaeto-Romance speaking people in the areas.
ensures Behind the name are the former municipalities of Savognin, Bivio, Salouf, Riom-Parsonz, Cunter, Tinizong-Rona, Mulegns, Sur and Marmorera, which merged in 2016.
And they suffer from the reassessment, as the “Südostschweiz” reports: “The communication from the Federal Bureau, which suggests that the Surses community has recently belonged to German-speaking Switzerland, does not correspond to the facts”, share the community and the Lia Rumantscha, the umbrella organization of the Romansh regional associations, in a press release.
Even if the new classification has no political consequences, they do not want to be regarded as German-speaking Swiss.
Rhaeto-Romance remains the school language
The language allocation of the communities is governed by the language law of the canton of Graubünden – and not by the criteria of the Federal Statistical Office, the citizens of Graubünden protest. And since 50.6 percent of people in Surses would list Rhaeto-Romance as their main language, the municipality is clearly considered monolingual Rhaeto-Romance by law, according to Surses. At the same time, however, 61.2 percent of the Sursetter population stated that they spoke German as their main language.
The figures show that several residents stated that German and Rhaeto-Romance were their main languages. According to the BfS, up to three main languages can be named.
Under the Language Act, communities in Graubünden with at least 40 percent members of an ancestral language community are considered “monolingual communities”. In this, the ancestral language is the official language of the municipality. The municipality of Surses therefore continues to see itself as a municipality with Romansh as the official and school language.
De Lia Rumantscha also states that they are in contact with the BfS and are asking for a correct presentation of the statistical data for the Rhaeto-Romance language area. (You)