In multilingual Switzerland, a dialect struggles

CHUR, Switzerland - The people of this corner of Switzerland are arguing whether language is a matter of the heart or the pocketbook.

Depending on whom you talk to in the steep, alpine enclaves of Graubunden, otherwise known as Grisons, the easternmost wedge of the country, there is either strong support or bitter resistance to Romansh, the local language. "When people talk about the death of Romansh," said Elisabeth Maranta, who for the last 18 years has run a Romansh bookshop, Il Palantin, which sells books in Romansh and in German, "then I say that there are days when I only sell books in Romansh."

A native of Germany, she came to Chur 38 years ago with her husband, but does not speak Romansh. While she is an ardent champion of Romansh, she can be bleak about its future. Asked why most of the books in Romansh she sells are poetry, she muses: "When a patient is dying, he writes only poetry."