The Rhaeto-Romance language in the Swiss army: sociolinguistic and terminological issues of plurilinguism

Smirnova Maria

The article theorizes on the possibility of the creation of a military term system in the Rhaeto-Romance language that could permit the fourth official language of the Swiss Confederation to function as a language of the Army. The focus of the study is based on two approaches towards the solving of the mentioned problem: the first is the attempt of forming mountain motorized infantry companies and the second is the work completed by the Terminological office of the Central linguistic office of the Swiss Federal Council. The analysis explains the reasons of the failure of the linguistic experiment and proposes a vision of how to overcome the existing controversies.

Keywords:Romance languages, Rhaeto-Romance language, sociolinguistics, plurilingualism, military discourse, military term system.