[The language of medicine in Switzerland 1920 to 1995]

It is generally accepted that since the end of the Second World War, English has become the main language in the medical field in Switzerland, but scarcely any objective data are available on the development of this process in this country. The aim of the present study was to analyze the frequency of the different languages in the literature references in articles published in the Swiss Medical Weekly over the past 75 years, with special attention to the possible differences existing between articles originating in German-speaking Switzerland and French-speaking Switzerland.

The language of publication of 47,160 literature references cited in 2489 original articles published in the Swiss Medical Weekly between 1920 and 1995 was established. The 1730 articles published in German contained 32,607 assessable references; the 759 articles published in French contained 14,553 assessable references.

The percentages of literature references in German, French and English cited in the articles written in German were, respectively, 83.6%, 9.1% and 5.9% in 1920; 68.6%, 7.2% and 18.3% in 1945; 30.7%, 5.6% and 61.9% in 1970; 11.3%, 1.5% and 86.7% in 1995. The percentages of literature references in French, German and English cited in the articles written in French were, respectively, 61.1%, 31.8% and 4.0% in 1920; 30.6%, 39.3% and 26.5% in 1945; 19.8%, 9.6% and 69.7% in 1970; 7.4%, 2.4% and 90.0% in 1995.

(1) Between 1945 and 1995 the percentage of literature references in English has increased continuously, while the percentages of references in German and French have decreased. (2) English replaced German as the main language of medicine towards 1955 in French-speaking Switzerland and towards 1965 in German-speaking Switzerland. (3) During the whole period studied (1920-1995), French-speaking authors cited publications in German more frequently than German-speaking authors cited publications in French. (4) The evolution of the relative importance of the languages in German-speaking Switzerland is very similar to that previously described in Germany and Austria. (5) In French-speaking Switzerland, on the other hand, the evolution of the relative importance of the different languages differs very considerably from that previously described in France.