The Linguist

22 The Linguist Vol/61 No/2 2022 thelinguist.uberflip.com FEATURES In today's global times, why does Swiss German continue to thrive? Joanna Dornbierer-Stuart offers some insights The everyday spoken language of most Swiss people is Swiss German or Schwiizerdütsch. Every region, town and even village in German-speaking Switzerland has its own version of the dialect, making it tricky to define the rules of Swiss German. In a few formal settings, including school, Federal Parliament and state TV news, a Swiss-style High German (Swiss Standard German) is used. This varies slightly from the Standard German of Germany or Austria in terms of accent and the odd word. For example, the Swiss use Tram instead of Straßenbahn, Velo instead of Fahrrad ('bicycle') and Trottoir instead of Bürgersteig ('pavement'). In fact, when Germans hear Swiss High German, they often think it is Swiss German and are pleased they can understand it. However, true Schwiizerdütsch is unintelligible to the average German. Swiss German dialects evolved from Alemannic, a group of High German dialects, where 'high' refers to the geographically higher regions of German-speaking Europe, i.e. towards the south. Most of these dialects underwent the High German consonant shift between the 4th and 9th centuries, separating them from Low German. This caused [t] to change to [ts], [p] to [pf] or [f] and mid-word [k] to [x]: sitten > sitzen ('sit'); piepen > pfeifen ('whistle'); maken > machen ('make'). In the southernmost Alemannic dialects, including Swiss, there was a further shift, causing initial and final [k] to change to [x] or [k͡ x] (a strong guttural k): Katze > chatz [xaʦ] ('cat'); Kind > chind [xɩnd] ('child'); Königin > königin [ˈk͡ xœnɩgɩn] ('queen'); Sack > sack [sak͡ x] ('bag'). Most Swiss dialects also underwent the Alemannic 'n' apocope, which led to the loss of final -n in words such as Garten (> garte; 'garden') and machen (> mache; 'make'). Standard German originated as a written language and developed in a process, starting in the 16th century, in which writers tried to write in a way that was understood in the largest possible area. It mixes elements of northern and southern German dialects. In Germany, local dialects are still spoken today in informal situations and at home, but speakers use a continuum of varieties ranging from the more dialectal to the more standard, according to the situation. There is no such continuum between the Swiss German dialects and Swiss Standard German, with the result that in Switzerland the use of Standard German is almost entirely restricted to the written language. This has created a barrier that seems to keep Swiss German alive. Of all the German-speaking countries, Switzerland has most fully retained the use of dialect in everyday situations. Linguistically, Swiss German is a language in its own right since all of its dialects are mutually intelligible. It is rather unfortunate that Swiss German has never been formally standardised in a written language, unlike Luxembourgish, which was standardised in 1975. As a foreigner, you will never be fully integrated in Swiss society until you speak Swiss German. The Swiss tend to start a conversation with a stranger in dialect and then, if they notice that the person is not a dialect speaker, they switch to High German out of courtesy. However, this can feel like a signal that you do not belong. When I arrived in Switzerland, over 30 years ago, the advice was that you should first concentrate on Standard German, as you will definitely need to use it and every Swiss can speak it. But if you then want to add Swiss German to your repertoire, you are faced with a huge intellectual challenge. Trying to learn both simultaneously will create massive confusion, and you may end up speaking neither one well. Help was limited back then. As a linguist, I wanted to find out the precise rules of Swiss German (East Swiss dialect), and made it my mission to write them down in a practical guide for learners of the language. 1 Swiss German untangled Many peculiarities of Swiss German can be regularised. The rules vary slightly from dialect to dialect, but the Swiss generally have little difficulty understanding other dialects. Starting with phonology, most Swiss German dialects have preserved the Middle High German monophthongs [iː], [uː] and [yː] where Standard German shows diphthongization: German Zeit [tsaɩt], Swiss zyt [tsi:t] ('time'); German Haus [haʊs], Swiss huus [hu:s] ('house'). Hopp Schwiizerdütsch!* FORMAL LANGUAGE A sign in Zurich indicates a pavement using Swiss Standard German – not to be confused with Swiss German IMAGES © SHUTTERSTOCK

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