Vernon Thomas, age 15, of Bennington, Vt., for his question:
IS THERE A SWISS LANGUAGE?
Four different languages make up the official and national languages of Switzerland: German, French, Italian and Romansh. German is spoken by about 65 percent of the population, French by about,18 percent, Italian by about 12 percent and Romansh by about one percent.
In a majority of the cantons, as the 23 states are called, the most commonly spoken language is Schwyzertutsch, or Swiss German. It is an Allemanic dialect of German differing vastly from both written German and other German dialects.
Newspapers and magazines are written in standard German, however, and German is the language of many theater, motion picture and television productions.
French is the most commonly spoken language in Fribourg, Vaud, Valais, Neuchatel and Geneva and Italian is the predominant language in Ticino. Romanish, which is closely related to Latin, is spoken chiefly in the canton of Graudunden, where German is nevertheless the most widely spoken language.
The Swiss constitution of 1848 provided for free and compulsory education. Under the constitution of 1874, as amended in 1902, the federal government confined its efforts to higher education while the cantons were required to establish free, compulsory elementary schools with subsidies, but without control, from the federal government.
Among the distinguishing features of the Swiss educational system is quadrilinguai instruction in German, French, Italian and Romansh.
Switzerland is in west central Europe. It is bounded on the west and north by France, by West Germany also on the North, by Austria and Liechtenstein on the east and by Italy on the south. The country is very mountainous with more than 70 percent of its area covered by the Alps.
The population of Switzerland consists mainly of persons of German, French and Italian descent. Switzerland has a primarily urban society.
Most cantons provide secondary schools for youths aged 12 to 15, gymnasiums, as college preparatory schools are called, and teacher training institutes, in addition to various institutions of higher learning and special schools.
Illiteracy is negligible in Switzerland.
Swiss culture has contributed notably to literature, art and music. It is an amalgam of the German, French and Italian cultures embodied in the Swiss linguistic regions. However, it is separated from these parent cultures by Swiss dialects and cultural cross pollination.
From early times Switzerland has been exposed to many foreign influences, and as early as the Middle Ages the country has achieved a high cultural level.
Swiss literature comprises Latin Swiss literature and the more important German Swiss and French Swiss literatures, which are closely linked to the literatures of the neighboring countries. Less significant are the Italian Swiss, Romansh and Swiss dialect literatures.