D-A-CH or DACH is a acronym used to represent the dominant states of the German language Sprachraum. It is based on the international vehicle registration codes for:
- Germany (D for Deutschland)
- Austria (A for Austria, in German "Österreich")
- Switzerland (CH for Confoederatio Helvetica, in German "(der) Schweiz")
"Dach" is also the German word for "roof", and is used in linguistics in the term Dachsprache, which standard German arguably is in relation to some outlying dialects of German, especially in Switzerland and Austria.
The term is sometimes extended to D-A-CH-Li, DACHL or DACH+ to include Liechtenstein. Another version is DACHS (with Dachs meaning "Badger" in German) with the inclusion of the German speaking region of South Tyrol in Italy.
DACH is also the name of an Interreg IIIA project, which focuses on crossborder cooperation in planning.
Read more about this topic: German-speaking Countries