# Why is Switzerland abbreviated CH? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 17, 2006, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-switzerland-abbreviated-ch/353077 "2006-04-17T22:49:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![saoirse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@saoirse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saoirse)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2006, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-switzerland-abbreviated-ch/353077/1 "2006-04-17T22:49:36Z")
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? ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2006, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-switzerland-abbreviated-ch/353077/2 "2006-04-17T22:51:11Z")
You came to the right place: [http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mhelvetians.html](http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mhelvetians.html) 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2006, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-switzerland-abbreviated-ch/353077/3 "2006-04-17T22:51:47Z")
As a country with three and a half official languages, they decided to use the neutral Latin to identify themselves: _ **C** onfederatio **H** elvetica_, Helvetic Confederation. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2006, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-switzerland-abbreviated-ch/353077/4 "2006-04-17T22:52:45Z")
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. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![saoirse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@saoirse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saoirse)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2006, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-switzerland-abbreviated-ch/353077/5 "2006-04-17T23:18:33Z")
> [@GorillaMan](#): > > You came to the right place: [http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mhelvetians.html](http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mhelvetians.html) 🙂 Actually I think the archives would have been the right place. Thank you, everyone. ---
**Author:** ![Rodgers01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b19c9b/32.png) [@Rodgers01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rodgers01)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2006, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-switzerland-abbreviated-ch/353077/6 "2006-04-17T23:26:21Z")
> [@John Mace](#): > > 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. 🙂 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: ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2006, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-switzerland-abbreviated-ch/353077/7 "2006-04-18T00:27:20Z")
> [@Rodgers01](#): > > 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_. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2006, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-switzerland-abbreviated-ch/353077/8 "2006-04-18T01:35:29Z")
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). ---
**Author:** ![Rodgers01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b19c9b/32.png) [@Rodgers01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rodgers01)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2006, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-switzerland-abbreviated-ch/353077/9 "2006-04-18T01:58:27Z")
> [@John Mace](#): > > 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_. 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. ---
**Author:** ![Hypnagogic\_Jerk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hypnagogic_jerk/32/4252_2.png) [@Hypnagogic\_Jerk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypnagogic_Jerk)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2006, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-switzerland-abbreviated-ch/353077/10 "2006-04-18T04:07:44Z")
> [@John Mace](#): > > It’s not like Canada where bilingual signs are mandatory. 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. ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2006, 9:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-switzerland-abbreviated-ch/353077/11 "2006-04-18T09:25:05Z")
It’s a reminder to buy **CH** ocolate and **CH** eese. ---
**Author:** ![Gymnopithys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/fbc32d/32.png) [@Gymnopithys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gymnopithys)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2006, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-switzerland-abbreviated-ch/353077/12 "2006-04-18T20:03:46Z")
And wat **CH** es ? ---
**Author:** ![The\_Scrivener](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@The\_Scrivener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Scrivener)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2006, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-switzerland-abbreviated-ch/353077/13 "2006-04-18T21:08:23Z")
Certainly, esp. by SwatCH. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2006, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-switzerland-abbreviated-ch/353077/14 "2006-04-18T21:44:13Z")
> [@Beware of Doug](#): > > It’s a reminder to buy **CH** ocolate and **CH** eese. It’s Weenalicious! ---
**Author:** ![wolf\_meister](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolf_meister/32/15202_2.png) [@wolf\_meister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolf_meister)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2006, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-switzerland-abbreviated-ch/353077/15 "2006-04-19T03:26:27Z")
… and **ch** alets. Those damned Swiss are tricky devils !!! ---
**Author:** ![Gymnopithys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/fbc32d/32.png) [@Gymnopithys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gymnopithys)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2006, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-switzerland-abbreviated-ch/353077/16 "2006-04-19T20:46:30Z")
Watch your vocabulary, **wolf\_meister**. You might hurt some feelings. 🙂