Rumantsch Grischun
Switzerland’s Standard Romansh
When you think of Switzerland, chances are German, French, and maybe Italian come to mind. But Switzerland is famously multilingual, and there’s a fourth national language that often surprises people: Romansh.
What is Romansh?
Romansh is a Romance language – part of the same family as French, Italian, and Spanish. It developed from spoken Latin, brought to the Alps by Roman soldiers and settlers nearly 2,000 years ago. Over time, it absorbed influences from neighboring German dialects, but its roots are unmistakably Latin.
Romansh is spoken in Graubünden (Grisons), a mountainous canton in eastern Switzerland. Fewer than 1% of Swiss people speak it, but it is still recognized as one of the country’s four national languages.
Dialects Everywhere
Here’s where it gets tricky: Romansh isn’t just one language. It has five main regional varieties, each with its own spelling traditions:
Sursilvan (spoken in the Rhine valley around Ilanz and Disentis) Sutsilvan (in the Hinterrhein valley, but now nearly extinct) Surmiran (in the Albula valley) Puter (in the Upper Engadine) Vallader (in the Lower Engadine)
Each community proudly stuck to its own way of speaking and writing. This was beautiful for local identity, but difficult for teaching, publishing, or creating official documents. Imagine if every region of England had its own spelling system for English and none matched up—that’s the challenge Romansh faced.
The Need for a Single Writing System
By the late 20th century, it became clear that Romansh was at risk. With fewer and fewer speakers and a patchwork of dialects, it was hard to promote Romansh in schools, newspapers, or government work. The Swiss government decided that if the language was to survive, it needed a unified written standard.
The Birth of Rumantsch Grischun
In 1982, the government asked linguist Heinrich Schmid, who had already worked on a similar project for the Rhaeto-Romance dialects of northern Italy, to design a new written standard for Romansh.
Schmid studied the five idioms and created a compromise that blended their common elements. The new system was called Rumantsch Grischun (literally “Romansh of Graubünden”). It was never meant to replace local speech. Instead, it was designed to give Romansh a single, neutral written form that all speakers could recognize.
Adoption and Reactions
1990s: Rumantsch Grischun was introduced in some schools and publishing houses.
1996: The Swiss Confederation adopted Rumantsch Grischun as its official written Romansh, meaning federal laws, government forms, and websites use it.
Mixed feelings: Some communities embraced it, but others resisted, preferring their own traditional spelling. In places like the Engadine valley, Puter and Vallader are still strong.
Today, Rumantsch Grischun is used in official settings, by national broadcasters, and in textbooks, while local idioms continue to thrive in daily conversation. Think of it like this: a child might speak Vallader at home with their parents, but read Rumantsch Grischun in a schoolbook.
Why It Matters
Rumantsch Grischun shows how languages adapt to survive. Without a shared written standard, Romansh might have faded away under the pressure of dominant neighbors like German. Instead, it now has a tool to connect its different communities and present itself to the world as a living language.
Asterix in Romansh
Several Asterix albums were published in Romansh variants by the Swiss publisher Lia Rumantscha. The Rumantsch Grischun edition Asterix ed ils Helvets (Asterix in Switzerland) appeared in a run of about 3,000 copies, the Sursilvan Il Foss Grond (Asterix and the Great Divide) in 2,000 copies, and the Vallader Asterix il Legiunari (Asterix the Legionary) in 1,000 copies.
Because these printings were small and some titles are now out of print, the Romansh editions have become relatively scarce. They are therefore sought after by collectors of Asterix as well as those interested in rare or minority-language editions. If you have a spare copy, I’d like to get in touch with you.
The Asterix albums in Romansh are not only rare collector’s items — they also hold a special place in the history of the language. Asterix ed ils Helvets was published in 1984, just two years after Rumantsch Grischun was officially created. This makes it one of the earliest printed works in the new standard language. At the same time, Lia Rumantscha also issued Il Foss Grond in Sursilvan and Asterix il Legiunari in Vallader, showing how publishers balanced tradition with innovation. By translating a world-famous comic into all three forms, they gave Romansh — and especially the brand-new Rumantsch Grischun — a highly visible platform.