I’ve seen this in adresses and on the web. Why is the two-letter code CH? Shouldn’t they have had first dibs on SU or SZ or even SW?
You came to the right place: http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mhelvetians.html 
As a country with three and a half official languages, they decided to use the neutral Latin to identify themselves: Confederatio Helvetica, Helvetic Confederation.
Latin: Confoederatio Helvetica (The Swiss Confederation).
By using Latin, they don’t have to favor one of the 4 official languages. A typically Swiss solution.
Actually I think the archives would have been the right place. Thank you, everyone.
Though they do favor the Romance languages. Maybe it’s a little sop to the French and Italian speakers since German is the dominant language in the country. :dubious:
Unlikely. If you’ve ever been to Switzerland, you’ll find that each canton favors its own language even though almost everyone is multilingual. It’s not like Canada where bilingual signs are mandatory. Using Latin is a good solution, and one that dates back to the days when Latin really was used a lingua franca.
Strictly speaking, Switzerland has only three official languages. A Swiss friend once explained to me that Romantsch is a permitted language but not required. Gov’t offices might be able to respond in Romantsch, especially if they are located in the Grisons. But they are not required to. They are required to respond (eventually, anyway) in “German”, French, and Italian. Swiss German (Shwyzertuusch) is sufficiently different from Hochdeutsch that a native German speaking colleague of mine said it took him the better part of year to learn to hear it (and he never attempted to speak it).
When choosing the official name of the country, they chose Latin but when they privatized the PTT and had to choose a name for it, the name they settled on was SwissComm (or maybe SwissCom).
Ja, je sais, signorina. Trying to be a bit tongue in cheek.
As for everyone being multilingual – I read not long ago that there was a major flap (as far as Swiss flaps go) because schools in each canton were – at the parents’ request – devoting more and more attention to English at the expense of other national languages. I think this was especially so in the German speaking cantons; French learning was falling precipitously.
Hmm, I don’t think they are. If you’re talking about road signs, I’ve seen a few bilingual ones, especially in Ottawa, but most are either only in English or only in French. Same thing for commercial signs. There are a few rules here in Quebec about commercial signs having to display French more proeminently, but they don’t apply to other provinces.
In fact, I’d say that Canada is not really a bilingual country since a large proportion of people only speak one of the official languages, and in most places you’ll only be exposed to one of them. New Brunswick is the only officially bilingual province, but I think that even there the French and English-speaking parts don’t overlap that much (although I could be wrong). There are a few cities in Canada with a substantial population of both French and English speakers (Montreal and Ottawa are examples), but in most places a single official language is spoken.
It’s a reminder to buy CHocolate and CHeese.
And watCHes ?
Certainly, esp. by SwatCH.
It’s Weenalicious!
… and chalets.
Those damned Swiss are tricky devils !!!
Watch your vocabulary, wolf_meister. You might hurt some feelings.