SWITZERLAND
DIALECTS
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ALL ABOUT SWITZERLAND |
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SWISS GERMAN DIALECTS |
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Seen from the outside, all Swiss German dialects are Alamannic and belong to the same group as the dialects of southwestern Germany (Baden-Würtemberg), while the Alamannic group is clearly distinct from southeastern (Bavarian - Austrian) and even more from northern German dialects. The Alamannic group of dialects also includes the German dialect of the Alsace region (north of Basel, western shore of River Rhine) that has been part of Germany for some time and is part of France since the end of World War I.
Nevertheless, there is no such thing as a uniform Swiss German dialect, there are more than a dozen of them and native people can always tell in which part of Switzerland a person speaking a particular dialect was born and raised. Even within a region one may differentiate dialects between cantons as close to each other as Basel-Stadt and Baselland.
The most important formal difference of Swiss German vs. standard German is the absence of the past tense (preterite) in Swiss German; only forms with the past participle are used. Common to all Swiss German dialects is the frequent use of -li as an ending indicating smallness. People in Switzerland seem to be fond of smallness ...
While Germans try to coin new words or add new meanings to existing words for new things coming from America or Asia, the original English word (or what they think the English word is ...) is almost always used in Switzerland, however with a pronounciation that you often might not recognize its origin any more. So a computer is still a Computer in Switzerland (not a Rechner as in Germany) and has a Harddisk (not a Festplatte). Often these English terms are more precise in a way, because they avoid giving a new, second meaning to an existing word (which may be ambigous in some contexts). So while classical tools are Werchzüg in Swiss German, software tools are Tools and you find them in a Directory named Toolbox (not in a Werchzügchaschte). This trend is not so new for Switzerland, only the source language has changed: in the 18th and 19th centuries hundreds of words were adopted from French (pedestrians walk on a Trottoir in Switzerland, not on a Bürgersteig and in a railway station they walk on a Perron instead of a Bahnsteig and they have to buy a Billet, not a Fahrkarte - which is being checked by a Kondukteur instead of a Schaffner).
Other aspects differ widely among regional dialects. Bernese dialect, for example, uses a different rule for the sequence of words within a sentence than northern and central Switzerland's dialects and Standard German do - French influence at the language border is obvious. Pronounciation of the same words (like Milch, Mälch, Müulch for milk) and melody differ as well from region to region. There are a number of variant truly German words that are completely unknown in Germany (or have been abandoned there in the course of the centuries), but many of them are only used in some dialects (for example cream is Sahne in Germany, Obers in Austria, Rahm in eastern Switzerland and on the written product declaration, but Nidle in Bern; and if you order a coffee with cream in a restaurant, it's called Kafi crème [from French] everywhere in German speaking Switzerland).
Generally, northeastern Swiss dialects are closer to standard German in pronounciation and have fewer special words while dialects from narrow alpine valleys are more original and require a longer adaptation time. The dialect of upper Wallis is probably the most peculiar one and sounds kind of mysterious even to many urban Swiss German natives.
While using dialects is considered to be somewhat uncultered in other countries, German speaking Swiss people are very proud of their regional dialects. A Swiss professor or businessman will of course not use some words considered to be vulgar, but they will use dialect even in professional discussions and/or formal negotiations. Standard German is normally only used for writing (therefore it is called Schriftdeutsch [written German] in Switzerland). If there are people present that do not understand dialect (Germans, Austrians or French/Italian speaking Swiss), standard German is used, however.
Radio and Television news are being read in standard German while most talkshows on politics, culture or science use dialect. Sometimes you might hear a mixed version, for example an immigrant might perfectly understand dialect but answer in standard German or mix the two. Americans might know this as the Kissinger effect - an immigrant must understand the language, but he might be successful without being able to talk it perfectly.
French dialects have existed once in Switzerland, but almost all Romands [French speaking Swiss] do not use them any longer, not even within the family or among friends. Only a few words differ from what you would learn from schoolbooks - like nonante for ninety (instead of the somewhat clumsy quatre-vingt-dix) or vélo for bicycle (instead of bicyclette) - but this is not typical for Swiss French, you can hear that in some parts of France or in Belgium, too.
French speaking Swiss are proud to be part of the French speaking community and they cannot understand why German speaking Swiss stick to their dialects (especially since this makes it difficult to understand them).
The use of Swiss Italian dialects is still widespread within the family, among friends and even in business life in the southern Swiss canton of Ticino - as long as everybody is able to understand it. But as there are a lot of German speaking residents in southern Switzerland there are fewer opportunities in business life to "be among themselves" for the Ticinesi than for the larger Swiss German population in northern Switzerland. Swiss Italian dialects do have a slight affinity to French, at least knowing French helps to understand them.
One reason why Swiss German and Swiss Italian dialects are still widely used while Swiss French patois has almost completely disappeared may be found in history. During the 1930's both Germany and Italy had fascist (ultra-nationalist, totalitarian) governments (Hitler, Mussolini). They both declared they wanted to incorporate all regions sharing their country's language and culture. No similiar thing can be said of France. So it was a question of national survival for Switzerland to mark a difference towards Germany and Italy while France was rather seen as an ally against foreign nationalist totalitarianism.
On the other hand a broad majority in German speaking Switzerland has accepted new rules for writing Standard German as proposed by a team of language experts from Germany, Austria and Switzerland without many discussions, while there is strong opposition and even "civil disobedience" towards the reform from major German newspapers. So one cannot really say that the Swiss are (more) unwilling to cooperate than the Germans ...
Learn more about
Switzerland's four national languages
Have an earful of Swiss German dialect with Switzerland's National Public Radio: As news and some other informations are broadcast in Standard German, you have to select a time you can be sure of Swiss German language:
And here's the Swiss Radio DRS1 livestream
Click on the loudspeaker symbol on the right side of the window and choose
type of player in pop-up window (RealAudio in same window / Window Media Player in
same window / RealAudio in separate window / Windows Media Player in separate
window). Then click on SPEICHERN button to save your choice - there you go!
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