Romansh language of Grisons, and is a working language in various districts and numerous municipalities within the canton. The first Swiss constitution of 1848, as well as the subsequent revision of 1872, make no mention of Romansh, which at the time was not a working language of the Canton of Grisons either. The federal government did finance a translation of the constitution into the two Romansh varieties Sursilvan and Vallader in 1872, noting however that these did not carry the force of law. Romansh became a national language of Switzerland in 1938, following a referendum. However, a distinction was introduced between "national
Romansh language spoken in Chur roughly a hundred years before, but had since then rapidly given way to German and was now not much appreciated by the inhabitants of the city. Many linguists regard the loss of Chur to German as a crucial event. According to Sylvia Osswald, for example, it occurred precisely at a time when the introduction of the printing press could have led to the adoption of the Romansh dialect of the capital as a common written language for all Romansh speakers. Other linguists such as Jachen Curdin Arquint remain skeptical of this view, however, and assume that the