Claim: German is a Western Romance Language.

Romansh  -LRB- also spelled Romansch , Rumantsch , or Romanche ; Romansh : , rumàntsch , or -RRB- is a Romance language spoken predominantly in the southeastern Swiss canton of Grisons -LRB- Graubünden -RRB- , where it has official status alongside German and Italian and is used as the medium of instruction in schools in Romansh-speaking areas . Romansh has also been recognized as a national language of Switzerland since 1938 and as an official language along with German , French and Italian since 1996 . It is sometimes grouped with Ladin and Friulian as a Rhaeto-Romance language , though this is disputed .   Romansh is a descendant of the spoken Latin language of the Roman Empire , which by the 5th century CE replaced the Celtic and Raetic languages previously spoken in the area , although Romansh retains a small number of words from these languages . Romansh has also been heavily influenced by German in vocabulary and morphosyntax . The language gradually retreated to its current area over the centuries , being replaced by Alemannic and Bavarian dialects . The earliest writing identified as Romansh dates from the 10th or 11th century , although major works do not appear until the 16th century when several regional written varieties began to develop . The 19th century saw a further shrinkage of the language area but also a literary revival and the start of a language movement dedicated to halting the decline of the language .   In the 2000 Swiss census , 35,095 people -LRB- of whom 27,038 live in the canton of Grisons -RRB- indicated Romansh as the language of `` best command '' , and 61,815 as a `` regularly spoken '' language . In 2010 , Switzerland switched to a yearly system which uses a combination of municipal citizen records and a limited number of surveys . Based on this yearly system , the number of people aged 15 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 the eleventh most spoken language 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 -LRB- Sursilvan , Sutsilvan , Surmiran , Putèr , and Vallader -RRB- , each with its own standardized written language . In addition , a pan-regional variety called Rumantsch Grischun was introduced in 1982 , which is controversial among Romansh speakers .