Switzerland is a European Alpine country covering an area of 41,284 km² (15,940 square miles) and with a population of just over seven million. It is a federal country, with four official languages: German, French, Italian and Romansh. Its constituent parts are not called “states” but “cantons”. There are twenty-six of these.
The canton with the largest surface area is Graubünden in the southeast of the country.

Graubünden covers an area of 7106 km² (2744 square miles) and has a population of around 180,000. Its capital is Chur. Graubünden is often referred to as the “canton of a hundred and fifty valleys”. It is in these Alpine valleys, some of them very remote and difficult to reach until not so long ago, that the Romansh language has been spoken for around two thousand years.

In some older English texts, you will find Graubünden referred to as “Grisons”. Don't let that worry you. Graubünden and Grisons are precisely the same place! The canton has three official languages: German, Romansh and Italian.

In this traditionally isolated mountain world, with little need to travel long distances under normal circumstances, many valley communities developed their own distinctive dialects. Today, there are still around two dozen spoken dialects of Romansh.
 

Romansh was committed to writing at different times in history and by different people in the various parts of Graubünden. This led to divergent written versions of the language, which we call “idioms”. There are five of these. Anyone learning about Romansh will constantly come across these terms:
 
 

Sursilvan in the language of Surselva (Bündner Oberland) in the north of Graubünden.
 

Sutsilvan is spoken a little further south in the districts known as Val Schons (Schams) and Mantogna (Heinzenberg).
 

Surmiran is spoken in different parts of central Graubünden.
 

Putèr is the traditional language of the Upper Engadine
 

Vallader is still strongly represented in the Lower Engadine. It is also the written language of the Val Müstair (Münstertal), although the people there have their own spoken form called Jauer.

It was not until 1982 that a standard written version of Romansh emerged.
It was given the name Rumantsch Grischun.
It is this unified version of the language that you will learn first if you follow our Internet course.
 

By the way, you will find “Romansh” spelt in a variety of different ways in various texts written in English. The spelling we use here seems to be the commonest – and one logical – one, and we urge anyone writing about Romansh to use it.

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