Swiss American Historical Society Newsletter
Keywords
Swiss Pluralism, linguistics, linguistic groups, book reviews
Abstract
The author, Professor of Sociology at the University of California at Santa Barbara, presents a study that is clearly a labor of love, an analytical tour de force, and a toughminded professional diagnosis. It is devoted to the Swiss segment of the once large community of Romansh speakers who resided in the Alpine regions between Italy and Northern Europe. The remnant occupies today a similar position as the Basques in Spain and France, the Flemish in Belgium, or the Lapps in the northern borderlands who are also encircled by more numerous and powerful linguistic groups. Professor Billigmeier views the Romansh, the smallest ethno-linguistic group of quadrilingual Switzerland, "engaged in a mortal struggle against persistent, indeed seemingly inexorable forces which work to obliterate their identity as a distinct cultural group" (vi). They are a people in crisis, and the linguistic shrinkage poses in the author's view a genuine threat to Swiss pluralism, a key force in the nation's tradition.
Recommended Citation
Schelbert, Leo
(1980)
"Robert H. Billigmeier, A Crisis in Swiss Pluralism,"
Swiss American Historical Society Newsletter: Vol. 16:
Iss.
2, Article 5.
Available at:
https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/sahs_newsletter/vol16/iss2/5