Immigrant Languages
The immigrant language with the largest number of native speakers is Serbo-Croatian, with 103,000 speakers (1.4%) in 2000, followed by Albanian with 95,000 (1.3%), Portuguese with 90,000 (1.2%), Spanish with 78,000 (1.1%), English with 73,000 (1.0%), Turkish with 14,000 (0.2%), Dutch with 12,000 (0.2%), Russian with 9,000 (0.1%), Chinese with 8,300 (0.1%), Thai with 7,600 (0.1%), Kurdish with 7,500 (0.1%), and Macedonian with 6,400 (0.1%). Speakers of all other non-official languages totaled 173,000. Altogether, roughly 10 percent of the population has a native language other than the four official languages.
Read more about this topic: Languages Of Switzerland
Famous quotes containing the words immigrant and/or languages:
“Every immigrant who comes here should be required within five years to learn English or leave the country.”
—Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919)
“People in places many of us never heard of, whose names we can’t pronounce or even spell, are speaking up for themselves. They speak in languages we once classified as “exotic” but whose mastery is now essential for our diplomats and businessmen. But what they say is very much the same the world over. They want a decent standard of living. They want human dignity and a voice in their own futures. They want their children to grow up strong and healthy and free.”
—Hubert H. Humphrey (1911–1978)