Strange Swiss who speak different languages and dislike each other

Switzerland ... For most people, this country is associated with luxury watches, banks and a high standard of living. And the Swiss themselves, for the most part, are perceived as successful Europeans with a high level of culture and education, wealthy and knowledge of the main European languages. But in fact, in every part of Switzerland they speak their own language, and the usual European tolerance disappears when it comes to the inhabitants of the neighboring canton who speak another language. Along with linguistic differences, there are many other contradictions, because of which Swiss society cannot be called uniform. This unusual feature in Europe is noted by many researchers of the country.

Switzerland throughout its history has periodically been influenced by its powerful neighbors: France, Germany and Italy. The proximity of these countries, as well as the peculiarities of the mountainous terrain, formed a peculiar national and religious composition of the country, when a predominance of one or another language is observed in different cantons. For each of these parts of Swiss society, there are even their own names: German Swiss, French Swiss and Italian Swiss. Despite the fact that the country has existed for quite some time now, its population has not become homogeneous in many respects, rather, on the contrary, disagreements on some vital issues have only intensified.

It is noteworthy that linguistic differences formed a lot of contradictions in various aspects of Swiss life, and the greatest disagreements are observed between the German Swiss and the French Swiss. In order to reach agreement, a lot of referenda were held in the country on a wide variety of issues: from the country's entry into the EU, to which Switzerland has not joined, to the ban on the production and use of nuclear weapons and the construction of new minarets in the country.

But if the main confrontation unfolded between speakers of French and German, then the Swiss, for whom the Italian language is native, periodically adjoin one or the other. At the same time, linguists note an interesting feature: the small number of Italians compared with other groups made them bilingual - that is, the vast majority of them are fluent in German as well. But studies show that Italian is gradually discontinued even in those cantons where it has traditionally prevailed, despite its status as one of the official languages.

Another feature of Switzerland is a high level of English proficiency among the country's population, which, however, is not state. If you take a Swiss who lives in the French part of the country, then, as a rule, in addition to his native, he will be fluent in English and understand what the Germans are talking about, but not speak German. The situation is similar with the German Swiss who speak German and English and can understand French.