Fribourg - Languages

Languages

Most of the population (as of 2000) speaks French (22,603 or 63.6%) as their first language, German is the second most common (7,520 or 21.2%) and Italian is the third (1,359 or 3.8%). There are 55 people who speak Romansh. Fribourg has two official languages, and French clearly outweighs German.

Fribourg has always been located on the Swiss language border, but at the time of the city's founding in the 12th century, German was the prevailing language. Although German was the official language of the city until 1800, French gradually became more influential. This was aided by industrialization, which led to an influx of French-speaking immigrants. Since the political changes of the late 18th century and early 19th century, the German-speaking population has been a minority. Even in German, the town is often called "Fribourg" instead of the more Germanic "Freiburg", this distinguishes it from Freiburg im Breisgau on the edge of the Black Forest.