Religions and languages in Liechtenstein

The official language of Liechtenstein is German. Statistics show that the principality is the smallest state in Europe, in which the German language prevails. To date, there are no official set out regional languages ​​in Liechtenstein, and no rights in terms of languages have been granted to national minorities. Despite the fact that Liechtenstein converse in German, literary Swiss is the written language. The basic rules of spelling in it are somewhat different from the standard classical German language. Such a confusion of the two linguistic groups was most likely a consequence of Liechtenstein’s territorial location and Switzerland’s influence on its formation as a state.

The media is required to use German in their activities. Also, only this language is employed in the education process in schools, as well as in literature production and issuing public documents and covenants. Representatives of the authorities are also supposed to communicate using the language. The most common local dialect of the German language is the Alemannic dialect. According to statistics, about 90% of all residents of the dwarf state are native speaker of the Alemannic dialect. Also in some regions of the country, one can find a similar dialect called Gorno-Aleman (Gornoalemansky) or Upper Aleman dialect (Verkhnealemannsky). Generally, all these small language units are employed only in Liechtenstein. Hence, world linguists for the sake of convenience classify all these dialects as one single Liechtenstein dialect.

The history of the formation of the national language begins from the 13th century of our era. Before that time, the population of modern Liechtenstein was divided into two equal language groups. One of them was native speakers of the Alemannic dialect, and the second – the Romansh language. Due to the influence of the Kingdom of the Franks, this bilingualism almost completely disappeared and the local population eventually began to converse exclusively in the Alemannic dialect. It is worth noting that at present, there are still residential areas in Liechtenstein whose names were derived from the Celtic language. The reason for this is that before the Romans conquered the territory, the Celts ruled this area and many historical names stuck. Copyright www.orangesmile.com

In addition to the German language, the Italian language is widely spoken in the country. More than 1% of the local population considers it their native language. There are also citizens who speak Portuguese, Turkish, Spanish and Albanian. However, the number of these communities does not exceed 250 people each. Talking about the religious situation in the society, Liechtenstein is also a homogeneous country. Almost all the believing local population consider themselves Christians, but there are different directions of this religious teaching here. The main denomination is Catholicism. It is practiced by about 77% of the population according to data for the previous year.

It is worth noting that as of 6 years ago, Liechtenstein supported the religious activities of the relevant organizations and allocated grants to support this sphere of life. However, since 2011 the government has started to develop a special bill that deprived the church of state support and turned it into an independent structure. The entire Roman Catholic Church, which is operational in the territory of Liechtenstein, is part of the Catholic Universe and is subject to the Pope of Rome. In total, there are 11 parishes in the territory of the dwarf state, in which 19 diocesan priests serve.

All Catholic holidays are celebrated by local believers and they try to adhere to religious traditions. However, modern day youth is increasingly moving away from faith and the number of atheists in the state is gradually increasing. According to statistical data, a rather large percentage of Muslims live in Liechtenstein. They amount to about 1,500 people, which is more than 4% of the total population. Christians put up with Muslims and there have never been any confrontations between the two religious denominations. The next largest religious denomination is Buddhism, but it is practiced by less than 100 people. There is only one Buddhist center on the territory of the country.