Swiss French (French: Suisse Romand) is the name used for the variety of French spoken in the French-speaking area of Switzerland known as Romandie. Swiss French is not to be confused with Franco-Provençal/Arpitan (also spoken in Romandie) or Romansh (spoken in the Grisons), two other individual Romance languages.
The differences between Swiss French and Parisian French are minor and mostly lexical: a Swiss French speaker would have no trouble understanding a French speaker, while a French speaker would encounter only a few unfamiliar words while listening to a Swiss French speaker. Swiss French, when compared with French of France, has a somewhat "sing-song" effect. Swiss French differs from the French of France to a far lesser extent than Swiss German differs from standard German. This was not always the case, as most of the dialects spoken in the Romandie died out and thus are no longer spoken or used.
There is not a single standardized Swiss French language: different cantons (or even different towns in some cases) will use different vocabulary, often derived from the local regional language or from German, since Switzerland is predominantly German-speaking.
Many Standard French terms are used in certain cantons such as Geneva due to their proximity to the French border.
Read more about Swiss French: Differences Between Swiss French and Standard French, Examples of Words That Differ Between Swiss French and Standard French
Famous quotes containing the words swiss and/or french:
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—Claud Cockburn (1904–1981)
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Is offering too little and asking too much.
The French are with equal advantage content,
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—George Canning (1770–1827)