The four national languages of Switzerland are German, French, Italian, and Romansh.[2] Only three of these languages, however, maintain equal status as official languages at the national level within the Federal Administration of the Swiss Confederation: German, French, and Italian.[3]

Native speakers number about 64 percent (4.6 million) for German (mostly Swiss German dialects), 20 percent (1.5 million) for French (mostly Swiss French, but including some Arpitan dialects), 6.5 percent (0.5 million) for Italian (mostly Swiss Italian, but including Lombardic dialects), and less than 0.5 percent (35,000) for Romansh.[4]

The Swiss German region (Deutschschweiz) is in the north and center, the Swiss French part (Romandie) in the west and the Swiss 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.

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