(Michael, Lugnez Gegen Vrin 2006)

Speakers

According to the Endangered Languages Project, about 35,000 people in Switzerland reported Romansh as being their primary language in 2000. The same census reported that there are about 60,000 total speakers of the language. Romansh is currently classified as a vulnerable language. "In the 2000 census, 35,095 people (0.5% of Swiss inhabitants, of whom 27,038 live in the canton of Grisons) indicated Romansh as the language of “best command”, and 60,816 (0.8% of the Swiss inhabitants, of whom 40,257 live in the canton of Grisons) as a “regularly spoken” language" (Gross, 2017).

Romansh in Government

Romansh is an official language in the Canton of Graubunden, but has a high rate of competition against French, German, and Italian. Since Romansh is an official language of the Canton of Graubunden, Romansh- speaking citizens can request official documents and ballots in Romansh, it can be used in court and parliament, and since 1991, all official texts of cantonial parliament must be translated into Romansh.

Romansh in Education

In areas where Romansh is spoken, there are Romansh schools, German schools, and bilingual schools. Outside of Areas where Romansh is widely spoken, Romansh is not usually offered as a language subject for students to learn. Even in Romansh-speaking schools, instruction is only taught in Romansh for the first few years of school, with German being the language of instruction in later years of education (Prout, 2001). Because of this, almost all adult Romansh- speakers are bilingual in Romansh and German. " The “Romansh schools” have been effectively bilingual for as long as their history can be traced back" (Gross, 2017).

There are some options for Romansh speakers in higher education as well. "Higher education in Romansh is offered in Switzerland by the University of Zurich, the universities of Fribourg and Geneva, the University of Teacher Education of Grisons and the School of Applied Linguistics (SAL) in Zurich (Gross, 2017). In these institutions there are options to learn how to teach in Romansh, Romansh literature, Romansh as a secondary language, and some linguistics related degrees as well. 

For Adults and children who want to learn how to speak Romansh, there are classes set up by Lia Rumantscha, some private schools, and other organizations. "Every year, summer courses and adult-education courses are held in the Romansh-speaking regions, organised by the language and cultural organisations labelled “Scuntrada e Furmaziun” (= coming together and learn). In addition to this, the Lia Rumantscha (an organisation for the preservation of the Romansh language and culture) also organises and supports integration courses for adults and cultural events in Romansh speaking areas for parents and children. Romansh language courses are also held outside of Grisons by several private schools (Migros-Klub Schools, etc.)" (Gross, 2017).

Language Contact

Since Romansh is one of four national languages of Switzerland, it has a lot of language contact with other languages. The languages that it competes with are German, Italian, and French. In the past, Romansh mainly had language contact with Italian and was heavily influenced by it in the Northern region of Switzerland (Bishop, Interesting Facts About Switzerland's Fourth Language, Romansh 2017). Since the 1800's, Romansh mainly competes with Swiss German and has major language contact with it. "In the wake of the northerly orientation  of Raetia towards the German-speaking world, Romansh has always been heavily influenced by German in vocabulary and morphosyntax There are many similarities between Swiss German and Romansh as a result of this language contact" (Gross, 2017).

Threats to Romansh

In an article about language endangerment typologogis by Grenoble and Whaley, it discusses different types of threats to languages. In this article it identifies that there are macro-variables, which are threats that are often the same across different languages, and micro-variables, which are unique to each language community. Examples of macro-variables are things like education systems, regional attitudes toward multilingualism, and language competition against other regional languages. Examples of micro-variables are things such as literacy within a community, standardization issues, and the nature of an indigenous community (Grenoble & Whaley, 1998). Each type oth threat can occur locally, regionally, nationally, and internationally. Below I will discuss the different types of threats to the Romansh language

There are threats to the Romansh language at the local, regional, national, and international levels. At the local level, the younger generations of Romansh speakers tend to use Romansh less and less in favor of Swiss German. At the regional level, Romansh also has language contact and competition with German and Italian. Regionally, it is thought that learning German will bring more economic opportunities, so people tend to only use Romansh at home, but German in public. Nationally, Romansh has to compete with very large languages like German, French, and Italian. Since Romansh is only an official language of the Canton of Graubunden, it is hard to find other speakers of Romansh in other Cantons of Switzerland. While Switzerland recognizes Romansh as a national language, it is not an official language like it is in Graubunden. This makes it hard to communicate with other Swiss people that live in other regions. Internationally, Romansh is yet another language that is being replaced by "killer" languages such as English, German, Spanish, Russian, etc. Since Romansh is typically only found in one area of Switzerland, there is not much hope of language transmission to other parts of the world.