Romansh language and above reporting Romansh as their main language was 36,622 in 2012. Spoken by around 0.9% of Switzerland's 7.7 million inhabitants, Romansh is Switzerland's least-used national language in terms of number of speakers and ranks eleventh in terms of most spoken languages in Switzerland overall. The language area and number of speakers of Romansh have been continually shrinking, though language use remains vigorous in certain areas. Romansh is divided into five different regional dialects (Sursilvan, Sutsilvan, Surmiran, Putèr, and Vallader), each with its own standardized written language. In addition, a pan-regional variety called Rumantsch Grischun was introduced in 1982, which
Romansh language by 1928, when the "Pitschna introducziun a la nouva ortografia ladina ufficiala" by Cristoffel Bardola was published. A separate written variety for Sutsilvan was developed in 1944 by Giuseppe Gangale. Around 1880, the entire Romansh-speaking area still formed a continuous geographical unit. But by the end of the century, the so-called "Central-Grisons language bridge" began to disappear. From Thusis, which had become German-speaking in the 16th/17th century, the Heinzenberg and Domleschg valleys were gradually Germanized over the next decades. Around the turn of the century, the inner Heinzenberg and Cazis became German-speaking, followed by Rothenbrunnen, Rodels, Almens, and Pratval, splitting