Swiss German

This article is about the mostly spoken Swiss language, a family of local dialects. For the official language, see Swiss Standard German.
Swiss German
Schweizerdeutsch (in Standard German), or e.g. Schwiizerdütsch (in Swiss German)
Pronunciation [ˈʃʋit͡sərˌd̥yt͡ʃ]
Native to Switzerland (as German), Liechtenstein, Vorarlberg (Austria), Piedmont & Aosta Valley (Italy)
Native speakers
 4.93 million in Switzerland (2013)[1]
Unknown number in Germany (excluding Alsatian) and Austria
Language codes
ISO 639-2 gsw
ISO 639-3 gsw (with Alsatian)
Glottolog swis1247[2]
Linguasphere 52-ACB-f (45 varieties: 52-ACB-faa to -fkb)

Swiss German (Standard German: Schweizerdeutsch, Alemannic German: Schwyzerdütsch, Schwiizertüütsch, Schwizertitsch,[note 1] and others) refers to any of the Alemannic dialects spoken in Switzerland and in some Alpine communities in Northern Italy. Occasionally, the Alemannic dialects spoken in other countries are grouped together with Swiss German, as well, especially the dialects of Liechtenstein and Austrian Vorarlberg, which are closely associated to Switzerland's.

Linguistically, Swiss German forms no unity. The linguistic division of Alemannic is rather into Low, High and Highest Alemannic, varieties of all of which are spoken both inside and outside of Switzerland. The reason "Swiss German" dialects constitute a special group is their almost unrestricted use as a spoken language in practically all situations of daily life, whereas the use of the Alemannic dialects in the other countries is restricted or even endangered.

The dialects of Swiss German must not be confused with Swiss Standard German, the variety of Standard German used in Switzerland. Most people in Germany do not understand Swiss German. Therefore, when an interview with a Swiss German speaker is shown on German television, subtitles are required.[3] Although Swiss German is the native language, from age 6 people additionally learn Swiss Standard German at school and are thus fully able to understand, write and to speak Standard German with varying abilities mainly based on the level of education.

Use

Unlike most regional languages in modern Europe, Swiss German is the spoken everyday language of all social levels in industrial cities, as well as in the countryside. Using the dialect conveys neither social nor educational inferiority and is done with pride.[4] There are a few settings where speaking Standard German is demanded or polite, e.g., in education (but not during breaks in school lessons, where the teachers will speak in the dialect with students), in multilingual parliaments (the federal parliaments and a few cantonal and municipal ones), in the main news broadcast or in the presence of non-Alemannic speakers. This situation has been called a "medial diglossia", since the spoken language is mainly the dialect, whereas the written language is mainly (the Swiss variety of) Standard German.

Swiss German is intelligible to speakers of other Alemannic dialects, but poses greater difficulty in total comprehension to speakers of Standard German, including French- or Italian-speaking Swiss who learn Standard German at school. Swiss German speakers on TV or in movies are thus usually dubbed or subtitled if shown in Germany.

Dialect rock is a music genre using the language; many Swiss rock bands, however, alternatively rather sing in English.

The Swiss Amish of Adams County, Indiana and their daughter settlements also use Swiss German.

Variation and distribution

Swiss German is a regional or political umbrella term, not a linguistic unity. For all dialects, there are idioms spoken outside Switzerland that are more closely related to them than some Swiss German dialects. The main linguistic divisions within Swiss German are those of Low, High and Highest Alemannic, and mutual intelligibility across those groups is almost fully seamless, though with some minor exceptions, mainly regarding vocabulary. Low Alemannic is only spoken in the northernmost parts of Switzerland, in Basel and around Lake Constance. High Alemannic is spoken in most of the Swiss Plateau, and is divided in an eastern and a western group. Highest Alemannic is spoken in the Alps.

Language distribution in Switzerland ----
  German

Each dialect is separable into numerous local subdialects, sometimes down to a resolution of individual villages. Speaking the dialect is an important part of regional, cantonal and national identities. In the more urban areas of the Swiss plateau, regional differences are fading due to increasing mobility, and a growing population of non-Alemannic descent. Despite the varied dialects, the Swiss can still understand one another, but may particularly have trouble understanding Walliser dialects.

History

Most Swiss German dialects, being High German dialects, have completed the High German consonant shift (synonyms: Second Germanic consonant shift, High German sound shift[5][6]), that is, they have not only changed t to [t͡s] or [s] and p to [p͡f] or [f], but also k to [k͡x] or [x]. But, for example, most Swiss dialects have initial [x] or [k͡x] instead of k; there are, however, exceptions, namely the idioms of Chur and Basel. Basel German is a Low Alemannic dialect (mostly spoken in Germany near the Swiss border), and Chur German is basically High Alemannic without initial [x] or [k͡x].

Examples:

High Alemannic Low Alemannic Standard German translation
[ˈxaʃtə] [ˈkʰaʃtə] [ˈkʰastən] box
[k͡xaˈri(ː)b̥ik͡x] [kʰaˈriːbikʰ] [kʰaˈriːbɪk] Caribbean

The High German consonant shift happened between the fourth and 9th centuries south of the Benrath line, separating High German from Low German, where high refers to the geographically higher regions of the German-speaking area of those days (combining Upper German and Central German varieties - also referring to their geographical locations). North of the Benrath line up to the North Sea, this consonant shift did not happen.

The Walser migration, going on between the 12th and 13th centuries, spread upper Wallis varieties towards the east and south, into Grisons and even further to western Austria and northern Italy. Informally, a distinction is made between the German-speaking people living in the canton of Valais, the Walliser, and the migrated ones, the Walsers (to be found mainly in Graubünden, Vorarlberg in Western Austria, Ticino in South Switzerland, south of the Monte Rosa mountain chain in Italy (e.g. in Issime in the Aosta valley), Tirol in North Italy, and Allgäu in Bavaria).

Generally, the Walser communities were situated on higher alpine regions, so were able to stay independent of the reigning forces of those days, who did not or were not able to follow and monitor them all the time necessary at these hostile and hard to survive areas. So, the Walser were pioneers of the liberalisation from serfdom and feudalism. And, Walser villages are easily distinguishable from Grisonian ones, since Walser houses are made of wood instead of stone.

Phonology

Consonants

Like all Southern German dialects, Swiss German dialects have no voiced obstruents. However, they have an opposition of consonant pairs such as [t] and [d] or [p] and [b]. Traditionally, that distinction is said to be a distinction of fortis and lenis, though it has been claimed to be a distinction of quantity.[7]

Swiss German keeps the fortis–lenis opposition at the end of words. There can be minimal pairs such as graad [ɡ̊raːd̥] 'straight' and Graat [ɡ̊raːt] 'arête' or bis [b̥ɪz̥] 'be (imp.)' and Biss [b̥ɪs] 'bite'. This distinguishes Swiss German and Swiss Standard German from German Standard German, which neutralizes the fortis–lenis opposition at the ends of words, a phenomenon usually called final-obstruent devoicing, even though, in the case of German, phonetic voice need not be involved.

Swiss German /p, t, k/ are not aspirated. Aspirated [pʰ, tʰ, kʰ] have (in most dialects) secondarily developed by combinations of prefixes with word-initial /h/ or by borrowings from other languages (mainly standard German), e.g., /ˈphaltə/ 'keep' (standard German behalten [bəˈhaltn̩]); /ˈtheː/ 'tea' (standard German Tee [ˈtʰeː]); /ˈkhalt/ 'salary' (standard German Gehalt [ɡəˈhalt]).

In the dialects of Basel and Chur, aspirated /k/ is also present in native words.

Unlike Standard German, Swiss German /x/ does not have the allophone [ç], but is always [x], or in many dialects even [χ]. The typical Swiss shibboleth features this sound: Chuchichäschtli ('kitchen cupboard'), pronounced [ˈχuχːiˌχæʃtli].

Most Swiss German dialects have gone through the Alemannic n-apocope, which has led to the loss of final -n in words such as Garte 'garden' (standard German Garten) or mache 'to make' (standard German machen). In some Highest Alemannic dialects, the n-apocope has also been effective in consonant clusters, for instance in Hore 'horn' (High Alemannic Horn) or däiche 'to think' (High Alemannic dänke). Only the Highest Alemannic dialects of the Lötschental and of the Haslital have preserved the -n.

The phoneme /r/ is pronounced as an alveolar trill [r] in many dialects, though certain dialects, especially in the Northeast or in the Basel region, have a uvular trill [ʀ] like the one heard in many German varieties of Germany.

Vowels

Monophthongs of the Zürich dialect, from Fleischer & Schmid (2006:256)

Most Swiss German dialects have rounded front vowels, unlike other High German dialects.[8] Only in the Low Alemannic dialects of northwest Switzerland (mainly Basel) and in the Walliser dialects have the rounded front vowels been unrounded. In Basel, the rounding is being reintroduced under the influence of other Swiss German dialects.

Like Bavarian dialects, Swiss German dialects have preserved the opening diphthongs of Middle High German: /iə̯, uə̯, yə̯/, e.g. in /liə̯b̥/ 'lovely' (standard German lieb, but pronounced /liːp/); /huə̯t/ 'hat' (standard German Hut /huːt/); /xyə̯l/ 'cool' (standard German kühl /kyːl/). Note that some of those diphthongs have been unrounded in several dialects.

Like the Low German language, most Swiss German dialects have preserved the old West-Germanic monophthongs /iː, uː, yː/, e.g. /pfiːl/ 'arrow' (standard German Pfeil /pfaɪ̯l/); /b̥uːx/ 'belly' (standard German Bauch /baʊ̯x/); /z̥yːlə/ 'pillar' (standard German Säule /zɔʏ̯lə/). A few Alpine dialects show diphthongization similar to Standard German, especially some dialects of Unterwalden and Schanfigg (Graubünden) and that of Issime (Piedmont).

Diphthongization in some dialects
Middle High German/many Swiss German dialects Unterwalden dialect Schanfigg and Issime dialects Standard German translation
[huːs] [huis] [hous] [haʊ̯s] house
[tsiːt] [tseit] [tseit] [tsaɪ̯t] time

Some Western Swiss German dialects (e.g. Bernese German) have preserved the old diphthongs /ei̯, ou̯/, whereas the other dialects have /ai̯, au̯/ like Standard German or /æi̯, æu̯/. Zurich German and some other dialects distinguish primary diphthongs from secondary ones that arose in hiatus position, i.e. Zurich German /ai̯, au̯/ from Middle High German /ei̯, ou̯/ versus Zurich German /ei̯, ou̯/ from Middle High German /iː, uː/, e.g. Zurich German /bai̯, frau̯/ 'leg, woman' from M.H.G. bein, vrouwe versus Zurich German /frei̯, bou̯/ 'free, building' from M.H.G. frī, būw.

Suprasegmentals

In many Swiss German dialects, consonant length and vowel length are independent from each other, whereas they are dependent in other Germanic languages. Examples from Bernese German:

short /a/ long /aː/
short /f/ /hafə/ 'bowl' /d̥i b̥raːfə/ 'the honest ones'
long /fː/ /afːə/ 'apes' /ʃlaːfːə/ 'to sleep'

Stress is more often on the first syllable than in standard German, even in French loans such as [ˈmɛrsːi] or [ˈmersːi] "thanks". Note that there are many different stress patterns even within dialects. Bernese German is one of the dialects where many words are stressed on the first syllable, e.g. [ˈkaz̥ino] 'casino', whereas standard German has [kʰaˈziːno]. However, no Swiss German dialect is as consistent as the Icelandic language in this respect.

Grammar

The grammar of Swiss dialects has some specialties compared to Standard German:

example: Si chunt üse Chrischtboum cho schmücke.
literal translation: she comes our Christmas tree come decorate
translation She comes to decorate our Christmas tree.
standard German: Sie kommt unseren Christbaum schmücken.
example: Si lat ne nid la schlafe.
literal translation: she lets him not let sleep
translation: She doesn't let him sleep.
standard German: Sie lässt ihn nicht schlafen.
This is probably a generalization of a close association of these verbs with the following verb in perfect or modal verb constructions:
perfect: Si het ne nid la schlafe.
literal translation: she has him not let sleep
translation: She hasn't/didn't let him sleep.
standard German: Sie hat ihn nicht schlafen lassen. or Sie ließ ihn nicht schlafen.
modal verb: Si wot ne nid la schlafe.
literal translation: she wants him not let sleep
translation: She doesn't want to let him sleep.
standard German: Sie will ihn nicht schlafen lassen.

Vocabulary

The vocabulary is rather rich, especially in rural areas: many specialised terms have been retained, e.g., regarding cattle or weather. In the cities, much of the rural vocabulary has been lost.

Most word adoptions come from Standard German. Many of these are now so common that they have totally replaced the original Swiss German words, e.g. the words Hügel 'hill' (instead of Egg, Bühl), Lippe 'lip' (instead of Lefzge). Others have replaced the original words only in parts of Switzerland, e.g., Butter 'butter' (originally called Anken in most of Switzerland). Virtually any Swiss Standard German word can be borrowed into Swiss German, always adapted to Swiss German phonology. However, certain Standard German words are never used in Swiss German, for instance Frühstück 'breakfast', niedlich 'cute' or zu hause 'at home'; instead, the native words Zmorge, härzig and dehei are used.

Swiss dialects have quite a few words from French and Italian, which are perfectly assimilated. Glace (ice cream) for example is pronounced /ɡlas/ in French but [ˈɡ̊lasːeː] or [ˈɡ̊lasːə] in many Swiss German dialects. The French word for 'thank you', merci, is also used as in merci vilmal, literally "thanks many times". Possibly, these words are not direct adoptions from French but survivors of the once more numerous French loanwords in Standard German, many of which have fallen out of use in Germany.

In recent years, Swiss dialects have also taken some English words which already sound very Swiss, e.g., [ˈfuːd̥ə] ('to eat', from "food"), [ɡ̊ei̯mə] ('to play computer games', from "game") or [ˈz̥nœːb̥ə] or [ˈb̥oːrd̥ə] – ('to snowboard', from "snowboard"). These words are probably not direct loanwords from English, but have been adopted through standard German intermediation. While most of those loanwords are of recent origin, some have been in use for decades, e.g. [ˈ(t)ʃutːə] (to play football, from "shoot").

There are also a few English words which are modern adoptions from Swiss German. The dishes müesli, and rösti have become English words, as did loess (fine grain), flysch (sandstone formation), kepi, landamman, kilch, schiffli, and putsch in a political sense. The term bivouac is sometimes explained as originating from Swiss German,[11] while printed etymological dictionaries (e.g. the German Kluge or Knaurs Etymological Dictionary) derive it from Low German instead.

Literature

Written forms that were mostly based on the local Alemannic varieties, thus similar to Middle High German, were only gradually replaced by the forms of New High German. This replacement took from the 15th to 18th centuries to complete. In the 16th century, the Alemannic forms of writing were considered the original, truly Swiss forms, whereas the New High German forms were perceived as foreign innovations. The innovations were brought about by the printing press and were also associated with Lutheranism. An example of the language shift is the Froschauer Bible: Its first impressions after 1524 were largely written in an Alemannic language, but since 1527, the New High German forms were gradually adopted. The Alemannic forms were longest preserved in the chancelleries, with the chancellery of Bern being the last to adopt New High German in the second half of the 18th century.[12]

Today all formal writing, newspapers, books and much informal writing is done in Swiss Standard German, which is usually called Schriftdeutsch (written German). Certain dialectal words are accepted regionalisms in Swiss Standard German and are also sanctioned by the Duden, e.g., Zvieri (afternoon snack). Swiss Standard German is virtually identical to Standard German as used in Germany, with most differences in pronunciation, vocabulary and orthography. For example Swiss Standard German always uses a double s (ss) instead of the eszett (ß).

There are no official rules of Swiss German orthography. The orthographies used in the Swiss German literature can be roughly divided into two systems: Those that try to stay as close to standard German spelling as possible and those that try to represent the sounds as well as possible. The so-called Schwyzertütschi Dialäktschrift was developed by Eugen Dieth, but knowledge of these guidelines is limited mostly to language experts. Furthermore, the spellings originally proposed by Dieth included some special signs not found on a normal keyboard, such as ⟨ʃ⟩ instead of ⟨sch⟩ for [ʃ] or ⟨ǜ⟩ instead of ⟨ü⟩ for [ʏ]. In 1986, a revised version of the Dieth-Schreibung was published, designed to be written "on a normal typewriter".[13]

A few letters are used differently from the Standard German rules:

Since the 19th century, a considerable body of Swiss German literature has accumulated. The earliest works were in Zurich German (Johann Martin Usteri, Jakob Stutz); the works of Jeremias Gotthelf which were published at the same time are in Swiss Standard German, but use many expressions of Bernese German. Some of the more important dialect writing authors and their works are:

Parts of the Bible were translated in different Swiss German dialects, e.g.:[15]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Because of the many different dialects, and since there is no defined orthography for none of them, many different spellings can be found.

References

  1. ↑ "Sprachen, Religionen – Daten, Indikatoren: Sprachen – Üblicherweise zu Hause gesprochene Sprachen" (official site) (in German, French, and Italian). Neuchâtel, Switzerland: publisher=Swiss Federal Statistical Office. 2015. Retrieved 2016-01-13. Zu Hause oder mit den Angehörigen sprechen 60,1% der betrachteten Bevölkerung hauptsächlich Schweizerdeutsch
  2. ↑ Nordhoff, Sebastian; Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2013). "Swiss German". Glottolog. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.
  3. ↑ "10vor10 – Nachrichtenmagazin von Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen" (in German). 3sat – ZDF ORF SRG ARD, the television channel collectively produced by four channels from three countries. Retrieved 2015-09-18. Swiss German talks and interviews on the daily night news show 10vor10 by the major German Swiss channel SRF1 is consistently subtitled in German on 3sat
  4. ↑ See, for instance, an Examination of Swiss German in and around Zürich, a paper that presents the differences between Swiss German and High German.
  5. ↑ Translations of Hochdeutsche Lautverschiebung
  6. ↑ Tranlslations of High German consonant shift
  7. ↑ Astrid Krähenmann: Quantity and prosodic asymmetries in Alemannic. Synchronic and diachronic perspectives. de Gruyter, Berlin 2003. ISBN 3-11-017680-7
  8. ↑ Werner König: dtv-Atlas zur deutschen Sprache. München: Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag, 1989. ISBN 3-423-03025-9. S. 149.
  9. 1 2 Andreas Lötscher: Schweizerdeutsch – Geschichte, Dialekte, Gebrauch. Huber, Frauenfeld/Stuttgart 1983 ISBN 3-7193-0861-8
  10. ↑ See Rudolf Hotzenköcherle, Rudolf Trüb (eds.) (1975): Sprachatlas der deutschen Schweiz II 261s.
  11. ↑ Cf. the entry bivouac of the Online Etymology Dictionary
  12. ↑ Entry Deutsch ('German') in the Historical Dictionary of Switzerland
  13. ↑ Dieth, Eugen: Schwyzertütschi Dialäktschrift. Dieth-Schreibung. 2nd ed. revised and edited by Christian Schmid-Cadalbert, Aarau: Sauerländer, 1986. ISBN 3-7941-2832-X (in German)
  14. ↑ Archived 1 January 2013 at the Wayback Machine.
  15. ↑ See a compilation on http://www.bibel-gesangbuch.de/mundart.html#schweizerdeutsch (in German)

Bibliography

A Select Bibliography of English Texts on Swiss German offers the homepage of Schweizerisches Idiotikon.

External links

Alemannic edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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