| Romandy | |
| Native Name: | ,, |
| Settlement Type: | Cultural region of Switzerland |
| Demographics Type1: | Demographics |
| Demographics1 Title1: | Languages |
| Demographics1 Info1: | French (Swiss French) |
| Area Total Km2: | 8284 |
| Population As Of: | 2019 |
| Population Total: | 1,951,187 |
| Population Density Km2: | 235 |
| Seat Type: | Largest city |
| Seat: | Geneva |
| Subdivision Type1: | Country |
| Subdivision Name1: | Switzerland |
| Subdivision Type2: | Entire Cantons |
| Subdivision Name2: | Geneva Jura Neuchâtel Vaud |
| Subdivision Type3: | Parts of Cantons |
| Subdivision Name3: | Bernese Jura (Berne) Western Fribourg (Fribourg) Lower Valais (Valais) |
Romandy (French: Romandie or French: Suisse romande; Arpitan: Romandia)[1] is the French-speaking historical and cultural region part of Switzerland. In 2020, about 2 million people, or 22.8% of the Swiss population, lived in Romandy. The majority of the French: romand population lives in the western part of the country, especially the French: [[Lake Geneva region|Arc Lémanique]] region along Lake Geneva, connecting Geneva, Vaud, and the Lower Valais.
French is the sole official language in four Swiss cantons: Geneva, Vaud, Neuchâtel, and Jura. Additionally, French and German have co-official status in three cantons: Fribourg/Freiburg, Valais/Wallis, and Berne/Bern.
The adjective French: romand (feminine French: romande) is a regional dialectal variant of French: roman (modern French French: romain, i.e. "Roman"); in Old French used as a term for the Gallo-Romance vernaculars. Use of the adjective French: romand (with its unetymological final French: -d) in reference to the Franco-Provençal dialects can be traced to the 15th century; it is recorded, as French: rommant, in a document written in Fribourg in 1424 and becomes current in the 17th and 18th centuries in Vaud and Fribourg; it was adopted in Geneva in the 19th century, but its usage never spread outside of what is now French-speaking Switzerland.
The term French: Suisse romande has become widely used since World War I;[2] before World War I and during the 19th century, the term French: Suisse française "French Switzerland" was used, reflecting the cultural and political prestige of France (the canton of Vaud having been created by Napoleon out of former Bernese subject territories, while Geneva, Valais and Jura were even briefly joined to France, as the French: [[Léman (department)|Léman]], French: [[Simplon (department)|Simplon]] and French: [[Mont-Terrible]] French: départements, respectively). French: Suisse romande is used in contrast to French: Suisse alémanique ("Alemannic Switzerland") the term for Alemannic German speaking Switzerland. Formed by analogy is French: Suisse italienne ("Italian Switzerland"), which is composed of Ticino and of a part of German: [[Grisons]].
In Swiss German, French-speaking Switzerland is known as German: Welschland or German: Welschschweiz, and the French-speaking Swiss as German: Welsche, using the old Germanic term for non-Germanic speakers also used in English of Welsh (see Germanic languages: [[Walhaz]]). The terms German: Welschland and German: Welschschweiz are also used in written Swiss Standard German but in more formal contexts they are sometimes exchanged for German: französischsprachige Schweiz ("French-speaking Switzerland") or German: französische Schweiz ("French Switzerland"). Simple German: Westschweiz "western Switzerland" may also be used as a loose synonym.
"Romandy" is not an official territorial division of Switzerland any more than there is a clear linguistic boundary. For instance, substantial parts of the canton of Fribourg and the western canton of Bern are traditionally bilingual, most prominently in Seeland around the lakes of Morat, Neuchâtel and Bienne (Biel). French is the sole official language in four Swiss cantons: Geneva, Vaud, Neuchâtel, and Jura; and the co-official language – along with German – in the cantons of Valais, Bern,[3] and Fribourg,[4] French speakers forming the majority of the population in the regions of Lower Valais, Bernese Jura and Fribourg francophone ("French-speaking Fribourg"). Bernese Jura is an administrative division of the Canton of Bern,[5] whereas the two others are informal denominations.
| French is the sole official language in the following cantons: | |||||||
| Arms[6] [7] | Canton of | Joined Switzerland | Capital | Population [8] | Area (km) | Density (per km) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vaud | 1803 | Lausanne | NaNVD}} | 247 | |||
| Geneva | 1815 | Geneva | NaNGE}} | 1,756 | |||
| Neuchâtel | 1815/1857 | Neuchâtel | NaNNE}} | 222 | |||
| Jura | 1979 | Delémont | NaNJU}} | 87 | |||
| Three regions located in French-German bilingual cantons have a French-speaking majority: | |||||||
| Region | Canton of | Joined Switzerland | Largest city | Population | Area (km) | Density (per km) | |
| Fribourg francophone[9] | Fribourg/Freiburg | 1481 | Fribourg/Freiburg | 235,069[10] [11] | 1,264[12] | 186 | |
| Lower Valais[13] | Valais/Wallis | 1815 | Martigny | 122,718 | 1,344 | 91 | |
| Bernese Jura[14] | Bern | 1814 | Moutier | 53,721[15] | 541 | 99 | |
| Romandy | Geneva | 1 951 187 | 8 284 | 235 | |||
The linguistic boundary between French and German is known as German: [[Röstigraben]] (lit. "rösti ditch", adopted in Swiss French as French: barrière de rösti). The term is humorous in origin and refers both to the geographic division and to perceived cultural differences between the Romandy and the German-speaking Swiss majority. The term can be traced to the WWI period, but it entered mainstream usage in the 1970s in the context of the Jurassic separatism virulent at the time.
The linguistic boundary cuts across Switzerland north-to-south, forming the eastern boundary of the canton of Jura and then encompassing the Bernese Jura, where the boundary frays to include a number of bilingual communities, the largest of which is Biel/Bienne. It then follows the border between Neuchâtel and Bern and turns south towards Morat, again traversing an areal of traditional bilinguism including the communities of Morat and Fribourg. It divides the canton of Fribourg into a western French-speaking majority and an eastern German-speaking minority and then follows the eastern boundary of Vaud with the upper Saane/Sarine valley of the Bernese Oberland. Cutting across the High Alps at Les Diablerets, the boundary then separates the French-speaking Lower Valais from the Alemannic-speaking Upper Valais beyond Sierre. It then cuts southwards into the High Alps again, separating the Val d'Anniviers from the Mattertal.
Historically, the linguistic boundary in the Swiss Plateau would have more or less followed the Aare during the early medieval period, separating Burgundy (where the Burgundians did not impose their Germanic language on the Gallo-Roman population) from Alemannia; in the High Middle Ages, the boundary gradually shifted westward and now more or less corresponds to the western boundary of the Zähringer possessions, which fell under Bernese rule in the late medieval period, and does not follow any obvious topographical features. The Valais has a separate linguistic history; here, the entire valley, as far as it was settled, would have been Gallo-Roman speaking until its upper parts were settled by Highest Alemannic speakers entering from the Bernese Oberland in the high medieval period (see Walser).
See main article: Swiss French. Traditionally speaking the Franco-Provençal or French: Patois|nocat=y dialects of Upper Burgundy, the French: romand population now speak a variety of Standard French.
Today, the differences between Swiss French and Parisian French are minor and mostly lexical, although remnants of dialectal lexicon or phonology may remain more pronounced in rural speakers. In particular, some parts of the Swiss Jura participate in the French: Frainc-Comtou|nocat=y dialect spoken in the French: [[Franche-Comté]] region of France.
Since the 1970s, there has been a limited amount of linguistic revivalism of Franco-Provençal dialects, which are often now called French: Arpitan (a 1980s neologism derived from the dialectal form of the word alpine) and their area Arpitania.
The cultural identity of the Romandy is supported by French: [[Radio Télévision Suisse]] and the universities of Geneva, Fribourg, Lausanne and French: [[University of Neuchâtel|Neuchâtel]].
Historically, most of the Romandy has been strongly Protestant, especially Calvinist; Geneva was one of the earliest and most important Calvinist centres. However, Roman Catholicism continued to predominate in French: [[Canton of Jura|Jura]], French: [[Valais]], and French: [[Canton of Fribourg|Fribourg]]. In recent decades, due to significant immigration from France and Southern European countries, Catholics can now be found throughout the region.
The Tour de Romandie is an annual cycling event on the UCI World Tour, often considered to be an important race in preparation for the Tour de France.
The Library Network of Western Switzerland is in the region of Romandy.
It is a collection of Libraries of Western Switzerland that are based in the region of Romandy.