Languages of Switzerland
| Languages of Switzerland | |
|---|---|
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| Official languages | The blue areas represent bodies of water |
| Main immigrant languages | Albanian, Bosnian, Bulgarian, Croatian, English, Dutch, Greek, Macedonian, Portuguese, Serbian, Slovenian, Spanish, Tamil, Turkish and Ukrainian. |
| Main foreign languages | English |
| Sign languages | Swiss German Sign Language, French Sign Language, Italian Sign Language |
| Common keyboard layouts |
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The four national languages of Switzerland are German, French, Italian and Romansh. All but Romansh maintain equal status as official languages at the national level within the Federal Administration of the Swiss Confederation.
In 2013, native speakers of German (chiefly Swiss German, though Standard German is also understood) number about 5 million (63.5%); French (mostly Swiss French, but including some Arpitan dialects) number 1.8 million (22.5%); Italian (mostly Swiss Italian, but including Lombard dialects), 645,000 (8.1%); and Romansch, 40,000 (0.5%).
The German region (Deutschschweiz) is roughly in the east, north and center; the French part (la Romandie) in the west and the Italian area (Svizzera italiana) in the south. There remains a small Romansh-speaking native population in Graubünden in the east. The cantons of Fribourg, Bern and Valais are officially bilingual; Graubünden is officially trilingual.
The main languages of Swiss residents from 1950 to 2013, in percentages, were as follows:
In 2012, for the first time, respondents could indicate more than one language, causing the percentages to exceed 100%
The German-speaking part of Switzerland (German: Deutschsprachige Schweiz, French: Suisse alémanique, Italian: Svizzera tedesca, Romansh: Svizra tudestga) comprises about 65% of Switzerland (North Western Switzerland, Eastern Switzerland, Central Switzerland, most of the Swiss plateau and the greater part of the Swiss Alps).
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