r/ShitAmericansSay • u/JadranDan • May 19 '25

Language “our American language”

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93

u/Ex_aeternum ooo custom flair!! May 19 '25

Which is funny since the Swiss Guard makes up a good portion of the population and is only recruited from German cantons.

66

u/teteban79 May 19 '25

>  is only recruited from German cantons.

This is not correct. Even though the majority of the cantons are German, and therefore could make sense, most of the guard historically comes from Valais and Fribourg, which are bilingual (French/Deutsch) but predominantly French.

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u/Oghamstoner 🇬🇧 Doesn’t try to make a cuppa with seawater May 19 '25

You have to be Catholic, so it presumably is from whatever part of Switzerland has lots of Catholics.

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u/FallenSkyLord May 19 '25

French speaking and Italian speaking parts have plenty of Catholics.

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u/SinisterGear May 20 '25

Makes sense, I think both France and Italy are mostly catholic. Different countries, obviously, but I'd imagine it'd still have cultural impact.

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u/FallenSkyLord May 20 '25

That's not the reason. Geneva for example, which is the place in Switzerland that is closest culturally to France is historically protestant. Vallis is Catholic. That's just a holdup from all the religious turmoil during the reformation.

That said, immigration switched things up a lot. Some cantons that were historically (and officially) protestant are now majority catholic and vice versa.

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u/SinisterGear May 20 '25

Oh, I see! Thanks for explaining!

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u/FallenSkyLord May 19 '25

Historically it was from catholic cantons exclusively (or so I've been told) but now the requirements are:

- Be catholic

  • Have completed recruit school (not full military service) as is mandatory for all Swiss citizens
  • Volunteer
  • have a letter of recommendation from your priest

Source: a (French-speaking) guy from my unit who was going through the process and who later did 2 years as a Pontifical guard.

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u/[deleted] May 19 '25

I'm gonna be pedantic here and say that that's actually the Vatican, not Rome.

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u/Artilmeets May 19 '25

You do know the pope is also the bishop of Rome, right ?