Ok, .ch is NOT China, it is Switzerland. I'm not sure why, there's doesn't seem to be a .sw in use, but the IANA database doesn't seem to come with explanations.(EDIT: Thanks to eBryan, I now know that CH stands for "Confoederatio Helvetica" (Swiss Confederation), the name of the alliance of cantons formed in 1291 in opposition to Hapsburg rule. That actually makes a lot more sense-- thanks, eBryan.)
China is actually .cn, which looks like it should be Canada, but Canada is .ca. Which should be easy to remember, except for all of the other freaking countries that start with C-A-.
There's also .cat, which is apparently "Reserved for the Catalan linguistic and cultural community." That's kind of cool, although I don't have any idea how much use it actually gets. And there doesn't appear to be a domain reserved for the Basque, which seems kind of unfair. There is one for Gibraltar (.gi), which I don't think I even knew was a territory (Spain keeps trying to claim their land, but it technically belongs to the UK). And of course, there's always .இலங்கை, reserved for Sri Lanka (they have .lk too). I don't even know what script that is. Tamil? Maybe?
The reasoning behind .ch for switzerland is fascinating.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2145/why-is-ch-the-abbreviation-for-switzerland
My Catalan friends would probably point out that Catalunya has a much larger population and economy than the Basque region, including Spain's second major city, Barcelona.
ReplyDeleteAnd many (most) of its citizens speak Catalan as their first language and Spanish as their second.
I think there's a case.