Multilingualism
Multilingualism is a word describing a situation in which several languages are spoken in a region or state. Switzerland is a multilinguistic state par excellence. There are four national languages: German (63.7% of the population) French (20.4%), Italian (6.5%) and Romansh (0.5%). Nine per cent of the population say their main language is not one of the four. There is multilingualism in a number of cantons. Bern, Fribourg and Valais are bilingual (German and French), while Graubünden is trilingual (German, Romansh and Italian).
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