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 objects and ideas were introduced. Romansh speakers often simply adopted the German words, such as "il zug" 'the train' or "il banhof" 'the train station'. Language purists attempted to coin new Romansh words instead, which were occasionally successful in entering popular usage. Whereas "il tren" and "la staziun" managed to replace "il zug" and "il banhof", other German words have become established in Romansh usage, such as "il schalter" 'the switch', "il hebel" 'the lever', "la schlagbohrmaschina" 'the hammer drill', or "in schluc" 'a sip'. Especially noticeable are interjections such as "schon", "aber" or "halt", which have become established in