Switzerland: language neutral?

Le Regard Libre N° 85 - Erica Berazategui

Dossier «Switzerland, definition»

In the midst of its monolingual neighbors, quadrilingual Switzerland is an exception, and one that regularly raises many questions. This unique linguistic situation is, however, the simple fruit of history and of a virtually disinterested (but very real!) policy over many centuries towards the languages spoken on the territory.

While for several centuries—particularly in the 19th century—newly sovereign states have shown a strong tendency toward monolingualism, certain exceptions will always stand out. In Europe, for example, there are ten countries—such as Bosnia and Herzegovina and Malta—that are officially multilingual, out of a total of 46 countries. Among them is Switzerland, which today has three official languages—German, French, and Italian—and four native languages