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thelinguist.uberflip.com DECEMBER 2016/JANUARY 2017 The Linguist 23 FEATURES German. Or they might meet it even earlier, in cartoons on television that were made in Germany, for example. A form of written Swiss German is used in advertisements and text messages from young people. However, there is no official written form and it is up to the writer to decide how to spell words. Added to this, there are as many dialects of Swiss German as there are cantons, so understanding written Swiss German is quite a skill. I normally have to read it aloud before I understand it – and then only if it is Swiss German from the canton of Zurich and its close neighbour, Aargau. There was once an advertisement in the main station of Zurich for Ovomaltine (Ovaltine), which the Swiss drink for breakfast. It said Hush dini ovo hüt scho kaa? (Hast du deine Ovo heute schon gehabt?; 'Have you already had your Ovo today?'). When I once tried to explain Swiss German to my mother, she said: "But surely the educated Swiss speak Standard German as their mother tongue?" She associated speaking a dialect with a class difference. But Swiss German is the mother tongue of all native Swiss Germans, from manual labourer to university professor – although the professor would use Standard German when giving a lecture. Standard German is spoken in formal settings or where there might be people who don't understand Swiss German. It is widely used on state television and the radio for the news and documentaries. But discussion programmes, however intellectual the content, are in Swiss German. Of course, when the Swiss speak Standard German, it also differs slightly to what is spoken in Germany. After a number of visits here, my sister (who learnt German in Hamburg) was watching the news and said, "I think I'm beginning to understand Swiss German". "That's not Swiss German!" I said. "That's a Swiss speaking High German." There are some lexical differences and the pronunciation (intonation) varies slightly. Romansh In the valleys of Graubünden, a large canton in the east, approximately 40,000 people speak the ancient Romance language, Romansh, as their mother tongue or main language. They are normally bilingual, and often trilingual, speaking Romansh, Swiss German and Italian. Some would consider themselves Romansh but have Swiss German as their mother tongue. Unlike Swiss German, this is a written language and is descended from the Vulgar Latin spoken by the Romans who once occupied the region. By the fifth century, it had replaced the Celtic and Raetic languages previously spoken in the area. It is closely related to French and heavily influenced by German. Over the centuries, it gradually retreated to its present area in Switzerland, having been replaced elsewhere by Alemannic and Bavarian dialects. The earliest Romansh writing dates from the 11th century, with major works appearing in the 16th century. The 19th century saw a literary revival and the start of a movement dedicated to preserving the language. In 1938, it became the fourth national language of Switzerland, and in 1996, the fourth official language (although it is only the tenth most spoken language in the country). To complicate matters, there are five different dialects, which some consider to be five separate languages, as each of them have their own written form going back several centuries. In Romansh-speaking areas, it is used as the medium of instruction in schools. However, this is a pan-regional variety, called Rumantsch Grischun (RG), introduced in 1982 to simplify communication and save costs for official forms and announcements, not to mention school books. It has caused considerable controversy among the speakers of the other idioms, who passionately object to having "another language" imposed on them. In fact, the local communes have the authority to decide on the language of instruction in their schools. Some have adopted RG, but many have retained their idioms as the language of literacy. BILINGUAL LIFE A couple in the bilingual canton of Valais (above left); and a Romansh traffic sign in Lubiu (above right) Standard German Swiss German (my spellings) English Was hast du gesagt? Va hush xite What did you say? Grüss Gott Groo ertsi (Zurich dialect) God's greetings (common greeting) Wo bist du? Vo bish? Where are you? Wohin gehst du? Vo anna gaash? Where are you going? STANDARD VS. SWISS GERMAN © SHUTTERSTOCK; TERFILI 'R ÄTOROMANISCHES STRASSENSCHILD BEI WALTENSBURG/V UORZ' WIKIPEDIA CC BY-SA 3.0