In Multilingual Switzerland, One Tongue Struggles

[lsanderson]

Asked why many Romansh books she sells are poetry, Elisabeth Maranta says, “When a patient is dying, he writes only poetry.”
By JOHN TAGLIABUE
Published: September 28, 2010

CHUR, Switzerland — The people of this corner of Switzerland are arguing whether language is a matter of the heart or the pocketbook.

Depending on whom you talk to in the steep, alpine enclaves of Graubünden, otherwise known as Grisons, the easternmost wedge of the country, there is either strong support or bitter resistance to Romansh, the local language. “When people talk about the death of Romansh,” said Elisabeth Maranta, who for the last 18 years has run a Romansh bookshop, Il Palantin, which sells books in Romansh and in German, “then I say that there are days when I only sell books in Romansh.” More