Romandy

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Romandy (German Welschschweiz), or la Suisse romande(in French), is the French-speaking part of Switzerland. It covers the area of the cantons of Geneva, Vaud, Neuchâtel, and Jura as well as the French-speaking parts of the cantons of Berne, Valais, and Fribourg. About 1.5 million people (or 20% of the Swiss population) live in Romandy.

Swiss French and the French of France are the same language, with some differences. For example, like some other regions of the French-speaking world, Swiss people use septante (seventy) instead of soixante-dix (literally, sixty ten) and "nonante" (ninety) instead of "quatre-vingt-dix" ("four twenties and ten"). In some parts of Romandy, speakers use "huitante" (eighty) in place of the standard in France and elsewhere of "quatre-vingt" (four-twenty) and "sous" for a 5-centime coin. http://www.langue-fr.net/index/S/septante.htm

The term does not formally exist in the political system but is used to distinguish and unify the French-speaking population of Switzerland. The television channel Télévision Suisse Romande (TSR) serves the Romande community across Switzerland, and is syndicated to TV5.