Switzerland’s reputation as a model of multilingual harmony is being challenged by the growing use of English in the workplace.
Switzerland has four distinct cultural groups, a sort of mini Europe in the Alps. The German, French and Italian languages share official status in the nation, with a minority still speaking the Latin-based Romansh. According to the Census of 1990, 63.7% of the entire Swiss population were German speakers, 19.2% were French speakers and 7.6% were Italian speakers. As the Romansh-speakers represent less than 1% of the national population there are some practical limitations to the application of Romansh as an official language.
In a recent study it was found that English was the language most commonly used at work by almost 22 per cent of the population. Representing an increase of almost a third in 10 years, based on a 2000 census.
In many contact situations in Switzerland, English has become the lingua franca, even though it is not recognised as an official national language.