Name Schwyz

the earliest record of name dates 972, recorded in medieval latin villa suittes. there number of uncertain records dated between 924 , 960, in form swites (suuites) , switz. name recorded schwitz in 13th century, , in 17th 18th century schweitz. name s etymology uncertain. long presented derived name of eponymous founder in swiss legend, 1 suito or switer, explanation found in swiss school textbooks until first half of 20th century. there no consensus on name s derivation. germanic etymology suggested gatschet (1867), deriving name old high german verb suedan burn (referring slash-and-burn clearing of woodland habitation). brandstetter (1871) critical of gatschet s suggestion , prefers derivation alemannic personal name in svid- presenting scholarly defense of suito of founding legend. etymology proposed schweizerisches idiotikon hubschmied (1929) derives name gallo-roman *(alpes) suētas, gaulish or latin word pig , via romance *suēdes (mountain, pasture) of pigs yielding alemannic swītes. hubschmied himself distanced himself opinion in 1961, preferring unspecified pre-roman (or etruscan ) source. sonderegger (1966) revisits gatschet s suedan slash-and-burn proposal, claims derivation cognate celtic root, *sveit-, proto-celtic *sveitos meaning of clearing or similar, giving gaulish *svētos (the long vowel in rēnos rhine ), gallo-romance *svēdus, -is, , swītes in old high german 8th century.

the name schwyz extended area dominated schwyz (the canton of schwyz), , later entire old swiss confederacy. other cantons tended resent in 15th century, after 1499 term schwyzer self-adopted, out of spite speak, since had been employed term of abuse swabian side during swabian war. eidgenossenschaft , schwytzerland (the origin of english name switzerland ) used interchangeably country names in 16th century.

the swiss german pronunciation [ʃviːts] homophonous name of town , of country (the 2 distinguished use of definite article latter, [ʃviːts] schwyz , [tʃviːts] switzerland ). spelling of y [iː] originates ligature ij in 15th-century handwriting.