Schweizerisch

Schweizerisch is a German adjective meaning “Swiss” or “relating to Switzerland.” It is used to describe things that originate in Switzerland, refer to Swiss institutions, culture, geography, or the Swiss people in a broad sense. In everyday German, the demonym for a Swiss person is Schweizer, while schweizerisch is used when the author wants to emphasize the Swiss character of a noun rather than the person.

In standard writing, schweizerisch is lowercase when used as a regular adjective: schweizerische Kultur, schweizerische Politik, schweizerische Geografie. When it is part of a proper name or official title, the component is capitalized as Schweizerische or related forms, for example Schweizerische Eidgenossenschaft (Swiss Confederation). The capitalization follows normal German rules for adjectives and proper nouns.

Linguistically, Schweizerisch is distinct from Schweizerdeutsch, the Swiss German language variety, which is usually referred to by that name. Schweizerisch can also be used to discuss Swissness as a cultural or national identity, though terms like Swissness are more common in English-language contexts.

Etymology: the word derives from Schweiz (Switzerland) with the productive suffix -isch, which forms adjectives meaning “pertaining to” or “characteristic of.” This mirrors analogous forms such as französisch (French) or deutsch (German).

See also: Swissness, Schweizerdeutsch, Schweizer Eidgenossenschaft, Swiss design.