Swiss French

The French-speaking part of Switzerland is shown in green on this map.

Map of the Arpitan language area, historical language spoken in Romandie, with place names in arpitan and historic political divisions.

Swiss French (French: français de suisse) is the variety of French spoken in the French-speaking area of Switzerland known as Romandy. French is one of the four official languages of Switzerland, the others being German, Italian, and Romansch. As of 2012, around 1.8 million people in the country (22.6% of the population) spoke French as their primary language and around 29.1% of the population has working knowledge of French.^[1]

The French language spoken in Switzerland differs very little from that of France or Belgium, with minor and mostly lexical differences. This is in contrast to differences between Standard German and Swiss German, in which differences create mutual unintelligibility between speakers of the two forms to the point that they are considered different languages.

The Swiss variant of French is characterized by some terms adopted from Franco-Provençal, a language formerly spoken largely across the alpine communities of Romandie and maintained by a minority today, as well as expressions borrowed from Swiss and Standard German. While Standard French is taught in schools and used in government, media, and business, there is no uniform vernacular form of French among the different cantons of Switzerland. This is exemplified by the usage of borrowed terms from German in regions bordering German-speaking communities to their complete absence by the French border area around Geneva.^[2]

Differences between Swiss French and standard French

Many differences between Swiss French and French are due to the different administrative and political systems between Switzerland and France. Some of its distinctive lexical features are shared with Belgian French (and some also with Quebec French), such as:

• The use of the word septante for seventy and nonante for ninety as opposed to soixante-dix (literally 'sixty-ten') and quatre-vingt-dix (literally 'four twenties-ten') of the "vigesimal" French counting system.
• The use of the word déjeuner for "breakfast" ("lunch" in France, which uses petit déjeuner for "breakfast"), and of the words le dîner and le souper for "lunch" and "dinner" respectively (in French of France, déjeuner and dîner respectively), much like the varying uses of dinner and supper throughout the English-speaking world.

Other examples which are not shared with other varieties of French:

• The word huitante is sometimes used for eighty instead of quatre-vingts (literally 'four twenties'), especially in the cantons of Vaud, Valais and Fribourg; the term octante (from the Latin octaginta) is now considered defunct.
• The word canton has a different meaning in each country; in Switzerland, a canton is a constituent state of the Confederation, whereas in France, it is grouping of communes in Belgium, it is a group of municipalities, while in Quebec, it is a township municipality.
• In France, a post office box is called a boite postale (BP),^[3] whereas in Switzerland, it is called a case postale (CP).^[4]

Examples of words that differ between Swiss French and Standard French

Swiss French	Standard French	Translation	Notes
action	promotion	Special Offer
adieu	salut	hey/bye	In French, "adieu" means "farewell" and is generally never used except in cases where two people leave each other for the very last time. In Switzerland it is used as an informal general form of greeting when people meet or leave each other.
attique	dernier étage	last floor
bancomat	guichet automatique bancaire	ATM
biffer	rayer/barrer quelque chose d'écrit	to scratch/delete
bobet	crétin (noun) or bête/stupide (adjective)	idiot (noun) or stupid (adjective)
boguet	mobylette	moped
bonnard	sympa or bien	nice
bonne-main	pourboire	tip (gratuity)	Literally means "good-hand".
borne hydrante	bouche d'incendie	fire hydrant
bourbine	suisse-allemand	Swiss-German
mascogner	tricher aux examens	cheat during exams
carnotzet	cave à vin/cellier/fumoir	Wine cellar	This expression can seldom be found in French places close to Switzerland.
chenis	désordre	mess
chiquelette	chewing-gum	chewing-gum
collège (Genève) or gymnase (Vaud)	lycée	high-school
crousille	tirelire	money
cornet	sac en plastique	plastic bag	In French, "cornet" would typically designate an ice cream cone.
cutips	coton-tige	cotton swab	Antonomasia from the brand Q-tips which phonetically becomes "cutips" when pronounced in French.
cycle	collège	middle-school
déjeuner	petit-déjeuner	breakfast	Meal names are shifted in Swiss French, meaning that the name for lunch is used for breakfast, the one for dinner is used for lunch and the French equivalent of the word "supper" is used for dinner.
dent de lion	pissenlit	dandelion
dîner	déjeuner	lunch	Meal names are shifted in Swiss French, meaning that the name for lunch is used for breakfast, the one for dinner is used for lunch and the French equivalent of the word "supper" is used for dinner.
duvet	couette	blanket	"Duvet" comes from the fact that blankets used to be filled with down feather (duvet).
s'encoubler	se prendre les pieds dans quelque chose/trébucher	to trip over
s'énuquer	se briser la nuque	to break one's neck
étude d'avocats	cabinet d'avocats	law firm
faire la noce	faire la fête	to party	This expression can also be found in Standard French even though it is probably less used or used predominantly by old people.
fœhn	sèche-cheveux	hairdryer	The name "fœhn" comes from the Foehn wind.
frouz	les Français	people from France - French
fonds	terrain or champs	field
fourre	dossier/housse	folder	In French, "fourrer" means "to stuff".
galetas	grenier	attic
giratoire	rond-point	roundabout	Comes from "carrefour à sens giratoire which would translate to "circular crossroads".
gouille	flaque	puddle
huitante	quatre-vingts	eighty	In Swiss French, as opposed to French, the words for seventy, eighty and ninety are similar in construction to the ones used for thirty up to sixty.
linge	serviette	towel	In French, "linge" is a generic word that refers to clothing, bed sheets and towels.
lolette	tétine	pacifier/teat
maman de jour	assistante maternelle	day care assistant
maturité	baccalauréat	high-school final examination
natel	(téléphone) portable	mobile phone
mutr	mère	mother	Comes from the German word for "Mother", "Mutter".
nom de bleu!	nom de dieu!	in the name of god!/god dammit!
nonante	quatre-vingts-dix	ninety	In Swiss French, as opposed to French, the words for seventy, eighty and ninety are similar in construction to the ones used for thirty up to sixty.
panosse	serpillière	floorcloth
papier ménage	papier essuie-tout	paper towel
pive	pomme de pin	conifer cone
poutzer	nettoyer	to clean	Comes from the German word "putzen" which means "to clean".
Procès verbal d'examen (PV)	bulletin de note	report card
réclame	publicité	advertisement	"Réclame" is an older disused word for advertising in French.
régie	agence immobilière	real estate agent
roye	pluie	rain
royer	pleuvoir	to rain
sans autre	sans plus attendre	without further ado
santé	à tes/vos souhaits	bless you (when someone sneezes)
septante	soixante-dix	seventy	In Swiss French, as opposed to French, the words for seventy, eighty and ninety are similar in construction to the ones used for thirty up to sixty.
service	je t'en/vous en prie	you're welcome	Comes from "à votre service" meaning "at your service".
services	couverts	cutlery
signofile/indicateur	clignotant	turn signal
souper	dîner	dinner	Meal names are shifted in Swiss French, meaning that the name for lunch is used for breakfast, the one for dinner is used for lunch and the French equivalent of the word "supper" is used for dinner.
tablard	étagère	shelf
talus	pente	slope
uni (short word for université)	fac (short word for faculté)	university
votations	scrutin	voting
vatr	père	father	Comes from the German word for "Father", "Vater".

See also

• Swiss German
• Swiss Italian
• Linguistic geography of Switzerland

References

1. Swiss census, 2012
2. NotreHistoire.ch: L'aire de diffusion de l'arpitan, en France, en Italie et en Suisse (in French)
3. Ouvrir une boite postale, La Poste
4. Case postale, Swiss Post