The Word of the Year embodies key social developments that are reflected in Swiss discourses. A team of researchers at the School of Applied Linguistics determines Switzerland’s Word of the Year in order to find out what is on the population’s mind – in all four national languages.

Switzerland’s Word of the Year is selected on a multilingual, research-oriented and interactive basis:

Between 2003 and 2016, the “Word of the Year Office” selected Switzerland’s Word of the Year in German. Since 2017, a team of researchers at the ZHAW School of Applied Linguistics has determined Switzerland’s Word of the Year in German and French, with Italian being added in 2018 and Romansh in 2019.

For each language, the selection process encompasses three stages:

1. The researchers initially analyse the ZHAW “Swiss-AL corpus” text database and identify 20 words that have been used more frequently in the current year than in the years before.
2. A jury of language professionals then selects the three most striking words from this list and suggestions from the public as well as on the basis of their own experience.
3. Finally, the researchers use word histories to show how these words have developed as part of language use in Switzerland during the past year and what social changes they represent.

The ZHAW collects data on public discourse as well as suggestions that can be sent in via the following channels up to 3 December:

#WortdesJahresCH
wort-des-jahres.linguistik@zhaw.ch

#MotDeLAnnéeCH
mot-de-l-annee.linguistique@zhaw.ch

#ParolaDellAnnoCH
parola-dell-anno.linguistica@zhaw.ch

#pledrumantsch
pled-da-l-onn.linguistica@zhaw.ch

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