The Swiss people (german: die Schweizer, french: les Suisses, it, gli Svizzeri, rm, ils Svizzers) are the citizens of
Switzerland
). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...
or people of
Swiss ancestry.
The number of
Swiss nationals has grown from 1.7 million in 1815 to 8.7 million in 2020. More than 1.5 million Swiss citizens hold
multiple citizenship.
About 11% of citizens
live abroad (0.8 million, of whom 0.6 million hold multiple citizenship).
About 60% of those living abroad reside in the
European Union
The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are located primarily in Europe, Europe. The union has a total area of ...
(0.46 million).
The largest groups of Swiss descendants and nationals outside Europe are found in the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...
, Brazil and
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by to ...
.
Although the
modern state of Switzerland originated in 1848, the period of
romantic nationalism, it is not a
nation-state, and the Swiss are not a single
ethnic group, but rather are a
confederacy (') or ' ("nation of will", "nation by choice", that is, a
consociational state), a term coined in conscious contrast to "
nation
A nation is a community of people formed on the basis of a combination of shared features such as language, history, ethnicity, culture and/or society. A nation is thus the collective identity of a group of people understood as defined by th ...
" in the conventionally linguistic or ethnic sense of the term.
The demonym ''Swiss'' (formerly in English also called ''Switzer'') and the
name of Switzerland, ultimately derive from the toponym ''
Schwyz'', have been in widespread use to refer to the
Old Swiss Confederacy since the 16th century.
Ethno-linguistic composition
The ethno-linguistic composition of the territories of modern Switzerland includes the following components:
*The Swiss Germans (''Deutschschweizer'') are mostly speakers of different varieties of
Alemannic German. They are historically amalgamated from the
Gallo-Roman population and the
Alemanni. Closely related German-speaking peoples are the
Alsatians, the
Swabians and the
Vorarlbergians. Ethnic Germans (including
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
**Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ge ...
and
Austrian immigrants) accounted for 62.3% of the population as of 2020.
**Speakers of
High Alemannic, roughly
divided
Division is one of the four basic operations of arithmetic, the ways that numbers are combined to make new numbers. The other operations are addition, subtraction, and multiplication.
At an elementary level the division of two natural numbe ...
into an Eastern (
Zürich
, neighboring_municipalities = Adliswil, Dübendorf, Fällanden, Kilchberg, Maur, Oberengstringen, Opfikon, Regensdorf, Rümlang, Schlieren, Stallikon, Uitikon, Urdorf, Wallisellen, Zollikon
, twintowns = Kunming, San Francisco
Z ...
,
Lake Lucerne,
Eastern Switzerland) and a Western (
Bernese
Bernese is the adjectival form for the canton of Bern or for Bern.
Bernese may also refer to:
* Bernese German, a Swiss German dialect of Alemannic origin generally spoken in the canton of Bern and its capital, and in some neighbouring regions
* ...
,
Solothurn, Western Aargau,
Basel-Land
Basel-Landschaft or Basel-Country informally known as Baselland or Baselbiet (; german: Kanton Basel-Landschaft ; rm, Chantun Basilea-Champagna; french: Canton de Bâle-Campagne; it, Canton Basilea Campagna), is one of the 26 cantons forming ...
and
Fricktal) subgroup, with most dialects of
Aargau and
Lucerne transitional between the groups.
**Speakers of
Low Alemannic in
Basel
, french: link=no, Bâlois(e), it, Basilese
, neighboring_municipalities= Allschwil (BL), Hégenheim (FR-68), Binningen (BL), Birsfelden (BL), Bottmingen (BL), Huningue (FR-68), Münchenstein (BL), Muttenz (BL), Reinach (BL), Riehen (B ...
and the
Lake Constance area.
**Speakers of
Highest Alemannic in the
Bernese Oberland,
Upper Valais
Valais ( , , ; frp, Valês; german: Wallis ), more formally the Canton of Valais,; german: Kanton Wallis; in other official Swiss languages outside Valais: it, (Canton) Vallese ; rm, (Chantun) Vallais. is one of the 26 cantons forming the S ...
and the
Walser settlements in
Central Switzerland,
Grisons and
Ticino
Ticino (), sometimes Tessin (), officially the Republic and Canton of Ticino or less formally the Canton of Ticino,, informally ''Canton Ticino'' ; lmo, Canton Tesin ; german: Kanton Tessin ; french: Canton du Tessin ; rm, Chantun dal Tessin . ...
.
*The French-speaking Swiss (''Romands''), traditionally speaking
Franco-Provençal dialects (as well as the
Franc-Comtois
Frainc-Comtou (french: franc-comtois) is a Romance language of the ''langues d'oïl'' language family spoken in the Franche-Comté region of France and in the Canton of Jura and Bernese Jura
Bernese Jura (french: Jura bernois, ) is the name f ...
dialect of the
Oïl languages in parts of Jura), today largely assimilated to the standard
French language
French ( or ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European family. It descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire, as did all Romance languages. French evolved from Gallo-Romance, the Latin spoken in Gaul, and more specifically in N ...
(
Swiss French), amalgamated from the Gallo-Roman population and
Burgundians (the historical
Upper Burgundy). Romands are considered a distinct
Romance people.
They are closely related to the
French
French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to France
** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents
** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...
populations of
Franche-Comté and
Rhône-Alpes. They are referred to as ''
Welsche'' (singular ''Welsche'' f./''Welscher'' m.) in Swiss German. French speakers (including
French immigrants) accounted for 22.8% of population as of 2020.
*The Italian-speaking Swiss (''Svizzeri italiani'', see also
Swiss Italian), traditionally speakers of
Lombard language (
Ticinese varieties, as well as the dialects of the
Bregaglia,
Poschiavo
Poschiavo ( it, Poschiavo, lmo, Pusciaaf, german: Puschlav, rm, Puschlav) is a municipality in the Bernina Region in the canton of Grisons in Switzerland.
History
Poschiavo is first mentioned in 824 as ''in Postclave'' though this comes fro ...
and
Mesolcina
The ''Valle Mesolcina'', also known as the ''Val Mesolcina'' or ''Misox'' (German), is an alpine valley of the Grisons, Switzerland, stretching from the San Bernardino Pass to Grono where it joins the Calanca Valley. It is the valley formed by ...
valleys in Grisons) today partly assimilated to the standard
Italian language
Italian (''italiano'' or ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European language family that evolved from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire. Together with Sardinian, Italian is the least divergent language from Latin. Spoken by about 8 ...
, amalgamated from Raetians and
Lombards
The Lombards () or Langobards ( la, Langobardi) were a Germanic people who ruled most of the Italian Peninsula from 568 to 774.
The medieval Lombard historian Paul the Deacon wrote in the ''History of the Lombards'' (written between 787 an ...
. They are closely related to the population of
Northern Italy, especially
Lombards
The Lombards () or Langobards ( la, Langobardi) were a Germanic people who ruled most of the Italian Peninsula from 568 to 774.
The medieval Lombard historian Paul the Deacon wrote in the ''History of the Lombards'' (written between 787 an ...
. Italian-speakers (including
Italian immigrants) accounted for 8% of population as of 2020.
*The
Romansh, speakers of the
Romansh language, settling in parts of the
Grisons, historically of
Raetic
Rhaetic or Raetic (), also known as Rhaetian, was a language spoken in the ancient region of Rhaetia in the eastern Alps in pre-Roman and Roman times. It is documented by around 280 texts dated from the 5th up until the 1st century BC, which wer ...
stock. Romansh speakers accounted for about 0.5% of population as of 2020.
The core
Eight Cantons of the Swiss Confederacy were entirely Alemannic-speaking, and German speakers remain the majority. However, from as early as the 15th century, parts of French-speaking
Vaud and Italian-speaking
Ticino
Ticino (), sometimes Tessin (), officially the Republic and Canton of Ticino or less formally the Canton of Ticino,, informally ''Canton Ticino'' ; lmo, Canton Tesin ; german: Kanton Tessin ; french: Canton du Tessin ; rm, Chantun dal Tessin . ...
were acquired as subject territories by Berne and Uri, respectively. The Swiss ''
Romandie'' was formed by the accession of French-speaking
Geneva
Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevra ; rm, Genevra is the second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich) and the most populous city of Romandy, the French-speaking part of Switzerland. Situa ...
and
Neuchâtel and the partly francophone
Valais and
Bernese Jura (formerly part of the
Prince-Bishopric of Basel) to the
Restored Swiss Confederacy
The periods of Restoration and Regeneration in Swiss history lasted from 1814 to 1847. "Restoration" is the period of 1814 to 1830, the restoration of the ''Ancien Régime'' (federalism), reverting the changes imposed by Napoleon Bonaparte on t ...
in 1815.
Romansh was
formerly considered a group of
Italian dialects, but Switzerland declared Romansh a national language in 1938 in reaction to the
fascist Italian irredentism at the time.
Switzerland experienced significant immigration from Italy in the very late 19th and early 20th century, such that in 1910 that accounted for some 10% of the Swiss population. This immigration was halted by the Great Depression and WWII. It restarted after the war ended. As elsewhere in Western Europe,
immigration to Switzerland has increased dramatically since the 1960s,
so that a large proportion of the resident population of Switzerland are now not descended or only partially descended from the core ethno-linguistic groups listed above.
As of 2011, 37% of total resident population of Switzerland had immigrant background.
As of 2016, the most widely used foreign languages were English,
Portuguese,
Albanian,
Serbo-Croatian and Spanish, all named as a "main language" by more than 2% of total population (respondents could name more than one "main language").
Cultural history and national identity
The Swiss populace historically derives from an amalgamation of
Gallic or
Gallo-Roman,
Alamannic and
Rhaetic stock. Their cultural history is dominated by the
Alps
The Alps () ; german: Alpen ; it, Alpi ; rm, Alps ; sl, Alpe . are the highest and most extensive mountain range system that lies entirely in Europe, stretching approximately across seven Alpine countries (from west to east): France, Sw ...
, and the alpine environment is often cited as an important factor in the formation of the Swiss national character. For example, the "Swiss illness", the condition of
Swiss mercenaries pining for their mountainous native home, became prototypical of the medical condition of ''
nostalgia'' ("homesickness") described in the 17th century.
In
early modern Switzerland, the
Swiss Confederacy was a pact between independent states within the
Holy Roman Empire. The populations of the states of
Central Switzerland considered themselves ethnically or even racially separate:
Martin Zeiller
Martin Zeiler (also ''Zeiller'', born 17 April 1589 in Ranten, died 6 October 1661 in Ulm) was a Baroque era German author.
Zeiler's father was an exile from Upper Styria, forced to emigrate due to his protestant confession.
Zeiler was schoo ...
in ''
Topographia Germaniae
''Topographia Germaniae'' (1642 – c. 1660s) is a multi-volume series of books created by engraver Matthäus Merian and writer Martin Zeiler, and published in Frankfurt in 38 parts. Engravers Wenceslaus Hollar, Caspar Merian, and Matthäus Merian ...
'' (1642) reports a racial division even within the canton of
Unterwalden, the population of
Obwalden being identified as "
Romans", and that of
Nidwalden as "
Cimbri
The Cimbri (Greek Κίμβροι, ''Kímbroi''; Latin ''Cimbri'') were an ancient tribe in Europe. Ancient authors described them variously as a Celtic people (or Gaulish), Germanic people, or even Cimmerian. Several ancient sources indicate ...
" (viz.
Germanic), while the people of
Schwyz were identified as of
Swedish ancestry, and the people of
Uri were identified as "
Huns or
Goths
The Goths ( got, 𐌲𐌿𐍄𐌸𐌹𐌿𐌳𐌰, translit=''Gutþiuda''; la, Gothi, grc-gre, Γότθοι, Gótthoi) were a Germanic people who played a major role in the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the emergence of medieval Euro ...
".
Modern Switzerland is atypical in its successful political integration of a multiethnic and multilingual populace, and is often cited as a model for new efforts at creating unification, as in the European Union's frequent invocation of the Swiss Confederate model.
Because the various populations of Switzerland share language, ethnicity, and religion not with each other but with the major European powers between whom Switzerland during the modern
history of Europe found itself positioned, a policy of domestic plurality in conjunction with international neutrality became a matter of self-preservation.
Consequently, the Swiss elites during the period of the formation of
nation state
A nation state is a political unit where the state and nation are congruent. It is a more precise concept than "country", since a country does not need to have a predominant ethnic group.
A nation, in the sense of a common ethnicity, may ...
s throughout Europe did not attempt to impose a national language or a nationalism based on ethnicity, instead pushing for the creation of a civic nation grounded in democratic ideology, common political institutions, and shared political ritual. Political allegiance and patriotism was directed towards the
cantons, not the federal level, where a spirit of rivalry and competition rather than unity prevailed.
C. G. Jung
Carl Gustav Jung ( ; ; 26 July 1875 – 6 June 1961) was a Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who founded analytical psychology. Jung's work has been influential in the fields of psychiatry, anthropology, archaeology, literature, philo ...
advanced the view that this system of social order was one of a "chronic state of mitigated civil war" which put Switzerland ahead of the world in a civilizatory process of "introverting" warlike aggression.
A similar view is attributed to
Gottfried Keller, who is cited to the effect that the Swiss Confederacy could not exist without the endemic rivalry between cantons.
From the 19th century there were conscious attempts to foster a federal "Pan-Swiss"
national identity that would replace or alleviate the cantonal patriotisms. Among the traditions enlisted to this end were federal
sharpshooting competitions or ''tirs'', because they were one of the few recognized symbols of pan-Swiss identity prior to the creation of the
1815 Confederation and because they traditionally involved men from all levels of society, including the peasants, who in
Romantic nationalism had become ideologically synonymous with liberty and nationhood. An additional symbol of federal national identity at the federal level was introduced with the
Swiss national holiday
The Swiss National Day (german: Schweizer Bundesfeiertag; french: Fête nationale suisse; it, Festa nazionale svizzera; Romansh: Festa naziunala svizra) is the national holiday of Switzerland, set on 1 August. Although the founding of the Swis ...
in 1889. The bonfires associated with the national holiday have become so customary since then that they have displaced the ''
Funken
A bonfire is a large and controlled outdoor fire, used either for informal disposal of burnable waste material or as part of a celebration.
Etymology
The earliest recorded uses of the word date back to the late 15th century, with the Catho ...
'' traditions of greater antiquity.
Identification with the national symbolism relating to the Old Swiss Confederacy was especially difficult for the cantons which had been joined to the
Helvetic Republic in 1798 without any prior membership in the Swiss Confederacy, and which were given the status of Swiss cantons only after the end of the Napoleonic era.
These specifically include
Grisons,
Valais,
Ticino
Ticino (), sometimes Tessin (), officially the Republic and Canton of Ticino or less formally the Canton of Ticino,, informally ''Canton Ticino'' ; lmo, Canton Tesin ; german: Kanton Tessin ; french: Canton du Tessin ; rm, Chantun dal Tessin . ...
,
Vaud and
Geneva
Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevra ; rm, Genevra is the second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich) and the most populous city of Romandy, the French-speaking part of Switzerland. Situa ...
.
St. Gallen is a special case in a different sense, being a conglomerate of various historical regions created in 1803; in this case, patriotism may attach itself even to sub-cantonal entities, such as the
Toggenburg. Similarly, due to the historical imperialism of the
canton of Berne, there is considerable irredentism within the Bernese lands, most visibly
in the Bernese Jura but to a lesser extent also in parts of the
Bernese Oberland such as
Hasli.
Citizenship and naturalization
Swiss citizenship is still primarily citizenship in one of the
Swiss cantons, and the naturalization of foreign citizens is the privilege of the cantons.
No
Swiss passports were issued prior to 1915, more than 60 years after the establishment of the modern Swiss Confederation. Prior to 1915, citizens held passports issued by their cantons, the Confederation being considered as a federation of the cantons, not a state composed of
natural person
In jurisprudence, a natural person (also physical person in some Commonwealth countries, or natural entity) is a person (in legal meaning, i.e., one who has its own legal personality) that is an individual human being, distinguished from the b ...
s as its citizens.
The
Swiss Constitution of 1848 regulated certain rights that the cantons were required to grant to citizens of other cantons, such as the right of residence (in the case of naturalized citizens after a period of five years).
The
Swiss Constitution of 1874, which remained in force (with revisions) until 1999,
defined Swiss citizenship as inherited from cantonal citizenship: '' Jeder Kantonsbürger ist Schweizer Bürger'' ("every citizen of a canton is a Swiss citizen").
In the preamble to the current
Swiss Constitution of 1999, a "Swiss People" (''Schweizervolk'') is invoked alongsides "the Cantons" as sovereign entity, and article 1 reads "The People and the Cantons
..form the Swiss Confederation."
Article 37 still defines Swiss citizenship as inherited from communal and cantonal citizenship: "Any person who is a citizen of a commune and of the Canton to which that commune belongs is a Swiss citizen."
As Swiss citizenship is entirely based on ''
jus sanguinis'', the
place of origin In Switzerland, the place of origin (german: Heimatort or Bürgerort, literally "home place" or "citizen place"; french: Lieu d'origine; it, Luogo d'origine) denotes where a Swiss citizen has their municipal citizenship, usually inherited from prev ...
rather than the
place of birth is recorded in identity documents. As Swiss citizenship is tied to the cantonal citizenship associated with the "place of origin" (''Heimatort'' or ''Bürgerort'' "home commune, commune of citizenship"), a citizen's place of origin is inherited from his or her father (from the mother if born out of wedlock or if the father holds no citizenship).
The significance of the place of origin outside of the naturalization procedure has been gradually abolished in the early 21st century. Since 2012, the municipality or canton of a citizen's place of origin is no longer responsible for providing
social welfare to that citizen. Since 2013, a woman no longer acquires the place of origin of her husband upon marriage.
While the cantons are responsible for naturalization, federal
Swiss nationality law regulates minimal requirements necessary for naturalization.
These requirements were significantly reduced in a 2018 revision of the law, allowing naturalization after a minimal period of residence of ten years, and in certain cases as little as five years (naturalization of spouses and children of Swiss citizens; years of residence at ages 8 to 18 count double).
A further requirement is that the applicant be "well integrated" and "familiar with life in Switzerland", and must have
both oral and written competence in one of the national languages of Switzerland.
The federal law just specifies minimal requirements for naturalization, and cantons are free to introduce more stringent requirements. In practice, the cantons delegate the actual procedure of naturalization to the
communes.
With 25% of the population resident aliens, Switzerland has one of the highest ratios of non-naturalized inhabitants in Europe (comparable to
the Netherlands; roughly twice the ratio of
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwee ...
). In 2003, 35,424 residents were naturalized, a number exceeding net population growth. Over the 25-year period of 1983 to 2007, 479,264 resident foreigners were naturalized, yearly numbers rising gradually from below 10,000 (0.1%) in the 1980s to above 40,000 (0.6%) in the 2000s. Compare the figure of 0.2% (140,795) in the United Kingdom (2004).
Genetics
The genetic composition of the Swiss population is similar to that of
Central Europe
Central Europe is an area of Europe between Western Europe and Eastern Europe, based on a common historical, social and cultural identity. The Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) between Catholicism and Protestantism significantly shaped the a ...
in general. Switzerland is on one hand at the crossroads of several prehistoric migrations, while on the other hand the
Alps
The Alps () ; german: Alpen ; it, Alpi ; rm, Alps ; sl, Alpe . are the highest and most extensive mountain range system that lies entirely in Europe, stretching approximately across seven Alpine countries (from west to east): France, Sw ...
acted as a refuge in some cases. Genetic studies found the following
haplogroups to be prevalent:
*
Y-DNA:
R1b
Haplogroup R1b (R-M343), previously known as Hg1 and Eu18, is a human Y-chromosome haplogroup.
It is the most frequently occurring paternal lineage in Western Europe, as well as some parts of Russia (e.g. the Bashkirs) and pockets of Central ...
,
E3b,
I1b2,
R1a,
J
Haplogroup R1b-U152 also known as R1b-S28 is the frequent haplogroup of Swiss people, followed by R1b-U106/R1b-S21.
*
mtDNA:
H 28% (
HV 33%),
U4+U5 (14%),
K (7%),
J (5%)
Gallery
File:Diebold Schilling Chronik Folio 153r.jpg, Citizens of Lucerne meeting Unterwalden troops (''Lucerne Chronicle
The ''Luzerner Schilling'' (or ''Luzernerchronik'', Lucerne chronicle) is an illuminated manuscript of 1513, containing the chronicle of the history of the Swiss Confederation written by Diebold Schilling the Younger of Lucerne.
The chronicle is a ...
'' 1515)
File:Trachten Kanton Zürich 18Jh Herren.jpg, Patrician dress of Zürich (early 18th century)
File:Joseph Reinhart Trachtenbild Zürich 1802.jpg, People wearing Zürich folk costume in a rowing boat on Lake Zürich (Joseph Reinhart
Joseph W. Reinhart (1851–1911) was an American businessman who served as the twelfth president of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway. He was head of the Santa Fe from December 1893 until August 1894.
Biography Early years
Joseph W. Rein ...
1802)
File:CH-NB - Bern, Kanton, Sammelbatt, Trachten Mittelland - Collection Gugelmann - GS-GUGE-BLEULER-E-4.tif, Bernese folk costumes (1810)
File:CH-NB_-_Trachten_Sammelblatt_-_Collection_Gugelmann_-_GS-GUGE-K%C3%96NIG-20-5.tif, Folk dress of Uri and Zürich (musicians), Appenzell (f) and Bern (m), Fricktal (f) and Unterwalden (m), Thurgau (f) and Vaud (m), Appenzell (m) and Berne (f) (dancers), Franz Niklaus König
Franz Niklaus König (1765–1832) was a Swiss painter of genre art and portraits.
After studying under Tiberius and Marquard Wocher, Sigmund Freudenberger and Balthasar Anton Dunker, he made a name for himself through dress pictures, rural ge ...
(1828)
File:Zentralbibliothek Solothurn - 1 COSTUME DU CANTON DE ZUG 2 ET 3 id DE SOLEURE 4 id DAPPENZELL - a0114.tif, Folk costume of Zug, Solothurn and Appenzell (1820s)
File:Landsgemeinde Trogen 1814.jpg, 1814 '' Landsgemeinde'' in Trogen, Appenzell (Johann Jakob Mock, c. 1820)
File:Anker Schulspaziergang 1872.jpg, ''Der Schulspaziergang'' ("School Promenade", Albert Anker
Albrecht Samuel Anker (April 1, 1831 – July 16, 1910) was a Swiss painter and illustrator who has been called the "national painter" of Switzerland because of his enduringly popular depictions of 19th-century Swiss village life.
Life
Bor ...
1872), representing Pestalozzi Pestalozzi is the surname of an Italian family originally based in Gravedona and Chiavenna who settled in Switzerland during the Counter-Reformation. Members of this family include:
* Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi (1746–1827), Swiss pedagogue an ...
's liberal approach to education[''Swiss Review'', Secretariat for the Swiss Abroad (2010), p. 13.]
File:François Louis Jaques Paysans fribourgeois au bistrot.jpg, Fribourg farmers in the tavern (François Louis Jaques 1923)
File:Folk costume Fortepan 83891.jpg, Women in folk costume (1939)
File:Alphorn.jpg, Alphorn players in a folklore festival in Lucerne (2008)
See also
*
Brünig-Napf-Reuss line
The Brünig-Napf-Reuss line forms a geographical boundary in traditional Swiss culture ('' Kulturgrenze''). Running from the Brünig Pass along the Napf region to the Reuss (which joins the Aare at Brugg), it partly separates western (Bernese Germa ...
*
Demographics of Switzerland
*
List of Swiss people
This is a list of people associated with the modern Switzerland and the Old Swiss Confederacy. Regardless of ethnicity or emigration, the list includes notable natives of Switzerland and its predecessor states as well as people who were born elsew ...
*
Women in Switzerland
*
Röstigraben
*
Swiss migration to France
Swiss migration to France has resulted in France being home to one of the largest Swiss-born populations outside Switzerland. Migration from the Switzerland to France has increased rapidly from the 1980s onward and by 2013 there were an estima ...
*
Swiss nationality law
*
Swiss abroad
*
Swiss Americans
*
Swiss Mexicans
Swiss Mexicans are Mexican citizens of full or partial Swiss ancestry. Swiss Mexican communities are found in Mexico City, Morelos, Oaxaca, Chiapas, Puebla, Veracruz, Quintana Roo and Chihuahua. There are about 4,700 Mexicans of Swiss ancestry and ...
Notes
References
Bibliography
*Walter Sorell, ''The Swiss: A cultural panorama of Switzerland''. Bobbs-Merrill, 1972.
*Heinrich Zschokke, ''Des Schweizerlands Geschichten für das Schweizervolk'', J. J. Mäcken, 1823
Internet Archive trans. as ''The History of Switzerland, for the Swiss People'' by Francis George Shaw, 1855
Google Books*Frank Webb, ''Switzerland of the Swiss'', Scribners, 1910
Archive.org*Paul Bilton, ''The Xenophobe's Guide to the Swiss'', Oval Projects Ltd, 1999
Internet Archive*Leo Schelbert, ''Swiss Migration to America: The Swiss Mennonites'', Ayer Publishing, 1980.
*John Paul Von Grueningen, ''The Swiss In The United States: A Compilation Prepared for the Swiss-American Historical Society as the Second Volume of Its Publications'', Swiss-American Historical Society, 1940, reprinted for Clearfield Co. by Genealogical Pub. Co., 2005, .
*Henry Demarest Lloyd, John Atkinson Hobson, ''The Swiss democracy: The Study of a Sovereign People'', T. F. Unwin, 1908.
*J. Christopher Herold, ''The Swiss without Halos'', Greenwood Press, 1979.
*Julie Hartley-Moore, ''The Song of Gryon: Political Ritual, Local Identity, and the Consolidation of Nationalism in Multiethnic Switzerland'', Journal of American Folklore 120.476 (2007) 204–229.
*Arnold Henry Moore Lunn, ''The Swiss and their Mountains: A Study of the Influence of Mountains on Man'', Rand McNally, 1963.
*Hans Kohn, ''Nationalism and Liberty: The Swiss Example.'' London: George Allen and Unwin, 1956.
*Marcello Sorce Keller, “Transplanting multiculturalism: Swiss musical traditions reconfigured in multicultural Victoria”, in Joel Crotti and Kay Dreyfus (Guest Editors), ''Victorian Historical Journal'', LXXVIII(2007), no. 2, pp. 187–205; later appeared in ''Bulletin - Schweizerische Gesellschaft für Musikethnologie und Gesellschaft für die Volksmusik in der Schweiz'', October 2008, pp. 53–63.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Swiss people
Society of Switzerland