The church of Salouf belongs to the community of Surses, now called German-speaking.
The two Graubünden communities of Surses and Muntogna da Schons will in future no longer be assigned to Rhaeto-Romanic but to German-speaking Switzerland. This was announced by the Federal Statistical Office last week. The reason given was the decrease in the number of Romansh-speaking people in the areas.
surses The former municipalities of Savognin, Bivio, Salouf, Riom-Parsonz, Cunter, Tinizong-Rona, Mulegns, Sur and Marmorera, which merged in 2016, hide behind the name.
And they are bothered by the reassessment, as the “Südostschweiz” reports: “The communication from the Federal Office, which suggests that the Surses community has recently belonged to German-speaking Switzerland, does not correspond to the facts,” share the community and the Lia Rumantscha, the umbrella organization of the Romansh regional associations, in a press release.
Even if the new division has no political consequences, they do not want to be considered German-speaking Swiss.
Romansh continues to be the school language
The language assignment of the communities is regulated by the language law of the canton of Graubünden – and not by the criteria of the Federal Statistical Office, the people of Graubünden object. And since 50.6 percent of the people in Surses would state Romansh as their main language, the municipality is clearly considered monolingual Romansh according to the law, according to Surses. At the same time, however, 61.2 percent of the Sursetter population stated that they spoke German as their main language.
The figures show that several residents stated that German and Romansh were their main languages. According to the BfS, up to three main languages can be named.
According to the Languages Act, communities in Graubünden with at least 40 percent members of an ancestral language community are considered to be “monolingual communities”. In these, the ancestral language is the official language of the municipality. The municipality of Surses therefore continues to see itself as a municipality with Romansh as the official and school language.
The Lia Rumantscha also states that they are in contact with the BfS and are requesting a correct presentation of the statistical data for the Romansh language area. (you)