Oswaldo Royett

If you asked 100 people to list Switzerland’s official languages, most of them would rattle off German, French, and Italian without a second thought. But then they would pause. If they’ve heard of Romansh, it’s not a name that they’ve retained. Switzerland has four national languages: Swiss German, French, Italian and Romansh. 64% of the population speaks German as a first language, with another 23% speaking French. Roughly 8% speak Italian, and less than one percent speak Romansh. (Note: these numbers do not add up to 100%, simply because immigrants often speak other native languages). Romansh is only spoken in a few valleys in the southeastern Alps but is one of four national Swiss languages. It is a national language, but not an official language. In fact, there are five regional dialects of Romansh divided up into Sursvilvan, Sutsilvan, Surmiran, Puter and Vallader and all five dialects are present in Canton Graubünden. When the Romans conquered the area in about 15 B.C.E., they La...

We represent each language within black borders and then provide the numbers of native speakers (in millions) by country. The colour of these countries shows how languages have taken root in many different regions. There are at least 7,102 known languages alive in the world today. Twenty-three of these languages are a mother  tongue for more than 50 million people. The 23 languages make up the native tongue of 4.1 billion people. We represent each language within black borders and then provide the numbers of native speakers (in millions)  by country. The colour of these countries shows how languages have taken root in many different regions. Click to view the full-size infographic in high resolution.