Swiss German

Unlike most regional languages in modern Europe, Swiss German is the everyday spoken language for the majority of the population, in all social strata, from urban centers to the countryside. Using Swiss German conveys neither social nor educational inferiority and is done with pride. 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 with students in Swiss German), 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 Swiss German, whereas the written language is mainly (the Swiss variety of) Standard German. In 2014, about 87% of the people living in the German-speaking portion of Switzerland were using Swiss German in their everyday lives. Swiss German is intelligible to speakers of other Alemannic dialects, but largely unintelligible to speakers of Standard German who lack adequate prior exposure. This is also a challenge for French- or Italian-speaking Swiss who learn Standard German at school. In the rare cases that Swiss German is heard on TV in Germany and Austria, the speaker is most likely to be dubbed or subtitled. More commonly, a Swiss speaker will speak Standard German on non-Swiss media. "Dialect rock" is a music genre using the language; many Swiss rock bands, however, sing in English instead. The Swiss Amish of Adams County, Indiana, and their daughter settlements also use a form of Swiss German. ==Variation and distribution==

Swiss German is a regional or political umbrella term, not a linguistic unity. For all Swiss-German dialects, there are idioms spoken outside Switzerland that are more closely related to them than to some other 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, despite some differences in 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 into an eastern and a western group. Highest Alemannic is spoken in the Alps. • Low Alemannic: • Basel German in Basel-Stadt (BS), closely related to Alsatian • High Alemannic: • Western: • Bernese German, in the Swiss Plateau parts of Bern (BE) • Dialects of Basel-Landschaft (BL) • Dialects of Solothurn (SO) • Dialects of the western part of Aargau (AG) • In a middle position between eastern and western: • Dialects in the eastern part of Aargau (AG) • Dialects of Lucerne (LU) • Dialects of Zug (ZG) • Zürich German, in Zürich (ZH) • Eastern: • Dialects of St. Gallen (SG) • Dialects of Appenzell (AR & AI) • Dialects of Thurgau (TG) • Dialects of Schaffhausen (SH) • Dialects in parts of Graubünden (GR) • Highest Alemannic: • Dialects in parts of Canton of Fribourg (FR) • Dialects of the Bernese Oberland (BE) • Dialects of Unterwalden (OW & NW) and Uri (UR) • Dialects of Schwyz (SZ) • Dialects of Glarus (GL) • Walliser German in parts of the Valais (VS) • Walser German: due to the medieval migration of the Walser, Highest Alemannic spread to pockets of what are now parts of northern Italy (Piedmont), the north-west of Ticino (TI), parts of Graubünden (GR), Liechtenstein and Vorarlberg. One can separate each dialect 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 to a growing population of non-Alemannic background. Despite the varied dialects, the Swiss can still understand one another, but may particularly have trouble understanding Walliser dialects. ==History==

Most Swiss German dialects have completed the High German consonant shift; exceptions are all Highest Alemanic dialects. Unlike Standard German, which has only shifted t to or and p to or , they have also shifted k to or ; the dialects of Chur and Basel are exceptions to this particular difference. Basel German is a Low Alemannic dialect (mostly spoken in Germany near the Swiss border), and Chur German is basically High Alemannic without initial or . Examples: The High German consonant shift occurred between the 4th and 9th centuries south of the Benrath line, separating High German from Low German (where high refers to areas of greater altitude). It combines Upper German and Central German varieties - also referring to their geographical locations. The Walser migration, which took place in the 12th and 13th centuries, spread varieties from upper Valais to the east and south, into Grisons and to modern western Austria and northern Italy. Informally, a distinction is made between the German-speaking people living in Valais, the Walliser, and those who have migrated, the Walsers. The latter can mainly be found in Grisons and Ticino in Switzerland, Vorarlberg in Austria, south of the Monte Rosa mountain chain in Italy (e.g. in Issime in Valle d'Aosta), South Tyrol in northern Italy, and the Allgäu in Bavaria). Generally, the Walser communities were situated on higher alpine regions, so were able to stay independent of the ruling forces of those days, who did not or were not able to oversee them all the time in these hostile environments. Hence the Walsers were pioneers of the liberation from serfdom and feudalism. In addition, Walser villages are easily distinguishable from Grisonian ones, as Walser houses are made of wood rather than stone. ==Phonology==

Consonants Like most other Southern German dialects, Swiss German dialects have no voiced obstruents. The voiceless lenis obstruents are often marked with the IPA diacritic for voicelessness as . Swiss German are not aspirated. Nonetheless, there is an opposition of consonant pairs such as and or and . Traditionally, it has been described as a distinction of fortis and lenis in the original sense, that is, distinguished by articulatory strength or tenseness. Alternatively, it has been claimed to be a distinction of quantity. Aspirated have secondarily developed by combinations of prefixes with word-initial or by borrowings from other languages (mainly Standard German): 'keep' (standard German ); 'tea' (standard German ); 'salary' (standard German ). In the dialects of Basel and Chur, aspirated is also present in native words, corresponding to the affricate of the other dialects, which does not occur in Basel or Chur. Swiss German keeps the fortis–lenis opposition at the end of words. There can be minimal pairs such as 'straight' and 'arête' or bis 'be (imp.)' and 'bite'. That distinguishes Swiss German and Swiss Standard German from German Standard German, which neutralizes the fortis–lenis opposition at the ends of words. The phenomenon is usually called final-obstruent devoicing even though, in the case of German, phonetic voice may not be involved. Unlike Standard German, Swiss German does not have the allophone but is typically , with allophones . The typical Swiss shibboleth features this sound: ('kitchen cupboard'), pronounced . Most Swiss German dialects have gone through the Alemannic n-apocope, which has led to the loss of final -n in words such as 'garden' (standard German ) or 'to make' (standard German ). In some Highest Alemannic dialects, the n-apocope has also been effective in consonant clusters, for instance in 'horn' (High Alemannic ) or 'to think' (High Alemannic ). Only the Highest Alemannic dialects of the Lötschental and of the Haslital have preserved the -n. The phoneme is pronounced as an alveolar trill in many dialects, but some dialects, especially in the Northeast or in the Basel region, have a uvular trill , and other allophones resulting in fricatives and an approximant as [] like in many German varieties of Germany. In many varieties of Bernese German and adjacent dialects, an at the syllable coda and intervocalic are pronounced as a or respectively. A labiodental approximant is used instead of the Northern Standard German fricative as the reflex of Middle High German . Vowels Most Swiss German dialects have rounded front vowels, unlike other High German dialects. Only in Low Alemannic dialects of northwestern Switzerland (mainly Basel) and in Walliser dialects have rounded front vowels been unrounded. In Basel, rounding is being reintroduced because of the influence of other Swiss German dialects. Like Bavarian dialects, Swiss German dialects have preserved the opening diphthongs of Middle High German: : in 'lovely' (standard German but pronounced ); 'hat' (standard German ); 'cool' (Standard German ). Some diphthongs have become unrounded in several dialects. In the Zürich dialect, there traditionally exists a separate phonemic series of near-close vowels /ɪ/, /ʏ/ and /ʊ/ contrasting with /i/, /y/ and /u/ (as shown by minimal pairs such as [tʏ:r] 'dry' vs [ty:r] 'expensive'), but this contrast is in the process of being lost. Short pronunciations of // are realized slightly more openly than the long ones, but the difference is so small that it is appropriate to indicate it only in narrow transcription and only with an opening diacritic rather than by separate symbols such as [ɪ], [ʏ], [ʊ]. Sounds like the monophthong can frequently become unrounded to among many speakers of the Zürich dialect. Vowels such as a centralized [] and an open-mid [] only occur in the Bernese dialect. Like in Low German, most Swiss German dialects have preserved the old West-Germanic monophthongs : 'arrow' (Standard German ); 'belly' (Standard German ); 'pillar' (Standard German ). A few Alpine dialects show diphthongization, like in Standard German, especially some dialects of Unterwalden and Schanfigg (Graubünden) and the dialect of Issime (Piedmont). Some Western Swiss German dialects like Bernese German have preserved the old diphthongs , but the other dialects have like Standard German or . Zürich German, and some other dialects distinguish primary diphthongs from secondary ones that arose in hiatus: Zürich German from Middle High German versus Zürich German from Middle High German ; Zürich German 'leg, woman' from Middle High German , versus Zürich German 'free, building' from Middle High German , . Suprasegmentals In many Swiss German dialects, consonant length and vowel length are independent from each other, unlike other modern Germanic languages. Here are examples from Bernese German: Lexical stress is more often on the first syllable than in Standard German, even in French loans like or 'thanks' (despite stress falling on the final syllable in French). However, there are many different stress patterns, even within dialects. Bernese German has many words that are stressed on the first syllable: 'casino' while Standard German has . However, no Swiss German dialect is as consistent as Icelandic in that respect. ==Grammar==

The grammar of Swiss dialects has some idiosyncratic features in comparison to Standard German: • There is no preterite indicative (yet there is a preterite subjunctive). • The preterite is replaced by perfect constructs (this also happens in spoken Standard German, particularly in Southern Germany and Austria). • It is still possible to form pluperfect phrases, by applying the perfect construct twice to the same sentence. • There is no genitive case, though certain dialects have preserved a possessive genitive (for instance in rural Bernese German). The genitive case is replaced by two constructions: The first of these is often acceptable in Standard German as well: possession + Prp. (Std. German ) + possessor: vs. Standard German ('a book of a professor'), vs. Standard German ('the professor's book'). The second is still frowned on where it appears in Standard German (from dialects and spoken language): dative of the possessor + the possessive pronoun referring to the possessor + possession: ('the professor his book'). • The order within verb groups may vary, e.g. vs. Standard German 'when you have come/came'. In fact, dependencies can be arbitrarily cross-serial, making Swiss German one of the few known non-context-free natural languages. • All relative clauses are introduced by the relative particle ('where'), never by the relative pronouns as in Standard German, e.g. vs. Standard German ('the example that she writes'); vs. Standard German ('the example that she thinks of'). Whereas the relative particle replaces the Standard German relative pronouns in the Nom. (subject) and Acc. (direct object) without further complications, in phrases where plays the role of an indirect object, a prepositional object, a possessor or an adverbial adjunct it has to be taken up later in the relative clause by reference of (prp. +) the personal pronoun (if ' refers to a person) or the pronominal adverb (if ' refers to a thing). E.g. ('the professor whose book I showed you'), ('the mountain that we were upon'). This is the case for the motion verbs 'to go' and 'to come' when used in the meaning of 'go (to) do something', 'come (to) do something', as well as the verbs 'to let' and in certain dialects 'to start, to begin' when used in the meaning of 'let do something', or 'start doing something'. Most affected by this phenomenon is the verb , followed by '. Both ' and '''' are less affected and only when used in present tense declarative main clauses. Declarative sentence examples: As the examples show, all verbs are reduplicated with a reduced infinitival form when used in a declarative main clause. This is especially interesting as it stands in contrast to the standard variety of German and other varieties of the same, where such doubling effects are not found as outlined in the examples. : weakest doubling effects Reduplication effects are weaker in the verbs 'to let' and 'to start, to begin' than they are in 'to go' and 'to come'. This means that '' is most likely to be used without its reduplicated and reduced form while retaining grammaticality, whereas utterances with goo'' are least likely to remain grammatical without the reduplicated part. Between ' and ', these effects are weakest in '. This means that while reduplication is mandatory for ' in declarative main clauses almost everywhere in the country, this is the case for fewer varieties of Swiss German with ''. The reason for this is unknown, but it has been hypothesized that the fact that afaa has a separable prefix (a''-) might weaken its doubling capacity. and : stronger reduplication Ungrammaticality in reduplication of 'to start, to begin' in the past tense and in subordinate clauses as well as the somewhat more lenient use of reduplication with '''' 'to let' stand in contrast to doubling effects of the motion verbs '''' 'to go' and 'to come'. When the latter two verbs are used in other utterances other than a declarative main clause, where the finite verb traditionally is in second position, their use might not be mandatory; however, it is correct and grammatical to double them both in the past tense and in subordinate clauses: Past tense example with and : {{interlinear |lang=gsw |indent=2 {{interlinear |lang=gsw |indent=2 As outlined in both examples, the reduplicated form of both and can but does not have to be used in order for the past tense sentences to be grammatical.Notably, it is the reduced form of both verbs that is necessary, not the full participle form. Subordinate clause examples for and : {{interlinear |lang=gsw |indent=2 {{interlinear |lang=gsw |indent=2 In subordinate clauses, the reduplicated part is needed as the sentence would otherwise be ungrammatical in both ' and '. The same is true for the past tense. Since there is only one past tense in Swiss German and since this is formed using an auxiliary verb – 'to be' or 'to have', depending on the main verb – reduplication seems to be affected and therefore, less strictly enforced for ' and ', while it is completely ungrammatical for and optional for respectively. Questions Questions behave a lot like their declarative counterparts, and reduplication is therefore mandatory for both motion verbs '''' 'to go' and '''' 'to come', while '''' 'to let' and '''' 'to start, to begin' show weaker doubling effects and more optionality. Furthermore, this is the case for both open and close (yes/no) questions. Consider the following examples: in open and close questions: {{interlinear |indent=2 {{interlinear |indent=2 Just like in declarative forms, could be reduced to a- and thus be considered the detachable prefix. In this case, ' would no longer be a reduplicated verb, and that is where the language development seems to move towards. The examples below outline ' reduplicated with both its reduced form ' and the reduced form of ', '''', in different sentence forms. Declarative main clause, present tense {{interlinear |lang=gsw |indent=2 Declarative main clause past tense {{interlinear |lang=gsw |indent=2 Subordinate clause {{interlinear |lang=gsw |indent=2 Imperative mood {{interlinear |lang=gsw |indent=2 Multiple reduplication with and With the motion verbs 'to go' and 'to come', where reduplication effects are strongest, there is some variation regarding their reduplicated or reduced forms. Thus, in some Swiss German dialects, ' will be doubled as , while will be doubled as . In some analyses, this is described as a multiple reduplication phenomenon in that the reduced infinitives or part is repeated as , providing the forms ' and ''''. However, these forms are used less frequently than their shorter counterparts and seem to be concentrated into a small geographic area of Switzerland. == Vocabulary ==

The vocabulary is varied, especially in rural areas: many specialized terms have been retained, e.g., regarding cattle or weather. In the cities, much of the rural vocabulary has been lost. A Swiss German greeting is , from (Standard German '''' ), loosely meaning 'God bless you'. 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 'hill' (instead of , ), 'lip' (instead of ). Others have replaced the original words only in parts of Switzerland, e.g., 'butter' (originally called 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 'breakfast', 'cute' or 'at home'; instead, the native words , and are used. Swiss dialects have quite a few words from French and Italian, which are perfectly assimilated. (ice cream) for example is pronounced in French but or in many Swiss German dialects. The French word for 'thank you', , is also used as in (, cf. Standard German's and ). 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., ('to eat', from 'food'), ('to play computer games', from game) or or – ('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. ('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, landammann, kilch, '', and putsch in a political sense. The term is sometimes explained as originating from Swiss German, while printed etymological dictionaries (e.g. the German Kluge or Knaurs Etymological Dictionary'') derive it from Low German instead. Sample phrases ==Orthography==

History 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. Today all formal writing, newspapers, books and much informal writing is done in Swiss Standard German, which is usually called (written German). Certain dialectal words are accepted regionalisms in Swiss Standard German and are also sanctioned by the Duden, e.g., (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 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 instead of for or instead of for . In 1986, a revised version of the Dieth-Schreibung was published, designed to be typed with a regular typewriter. Conventions A few letters are used differently from the Standard German rules: • (and ) are used for the affricate . • is used for the unaspirated fortis . • (and sometimes ) traditionally stands for the (in many dialects shortened to , but still with closed quality) that corresponds to Standard German , e.g. in 'rice' (standard German ) vs. 'giant' (standard German ). This usage goes back to an old ij-ligature. Many writers, however, do not use , but /, especially in the dialects that have lost distinction between these sounds, compare Zürich German 'rice' or 'giant' to Bernese German 'rice' vs. ('giant'). Some use even , influenced by Standard German spelling, which leads to confusion with for . • represents , slightly different from Standard German as . • usually represents , and can also represent or . • represents , represents , and represents . • Since is written as , is written as , though in eastern Switzerland is often used for both of these phonemes. ==Literature==

Since the 19th century, a considerable body of Swiss German literature has accumulated. The earliest works were in Lucerne German (Jost Bernhard Häfliger, Josef Felix Ineichen), in Bernese German (Gottlieb Jakob Kuhn), in Glarus German (Cosimus Freuler) and in Zürich 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: • Anna Maria Bacher (born 1947), (South Walser German of Formazza/Pomatt) • Albert Bächtold (1891–1981), (Schaffhausen dialect of Klettgau) • Ernst Burren (born 1944), (Solothurn dialect) • August Corrodi (1826–1885), (Zurich dialect) • Barbara Egli (1918–2005), (Zurich Oberland dialect) • Fritz Enderlin (1883–1971), , translated from C. F. Ramuz's French poem "" (Upper Thurgovian dialect) • Martin Frank (born 1950), (Bernese dialect with Zurich interferences) • Simon Gfeller (1868–1943), (Bernese dialect of Emmental) • Georg Fient (1845–1915), (Graubünden Walser dialect of Prättigau) • Paul Haller (1882–1920), (Western Aargau dialect) • Frida Hilty-Gröbli (1893–1957), (St Gall dialect) • Josef Hug (1903–1985), (Graubünden Rhine Valley dialect) • Guy Krneta (born 1964), (collection of short stories), (prose), (Bernese dialect) • Michael Kuoni (1838–1891), (Graubünden Walser dialect of Prättigau) • Maria Lauber (1891–1973), (Bernese Oberland dialect) • Pedro Lenz (born 1965), (Bernese Dialect) • Meinrad Lienert (1865–1933), (Schwyz dialect of Einsiedeln) • Carl Albert Loosli (1877–1959), (Bernese dialect of Emmental) • Kurt Marti (1921-2017), (Bernese dialect) • Werner Marti (1920–2013), (Bernese dialect) • Mani Matter (1936–1972), songwriter (Bernese dialect) • Traugott Meyer (1895–1959), (Basel-Landschaft dialect) • Gall Morel (1803–1872), (Schwyz German of Iberg) • Viktor Schobinger (born 1934), and a lot of other Züri Krimi (Zurich dialect) • Caspar Streiff (1853–1917), (Glarus dialect) • Jakob Stutz (1801–1877), (Zurich Oberland dialect) • Rudolf von Tavel (1866–1934), (Bernese dialect) • Alfred Tobler (1845–1923), (Appenzell dialect) • Johann Martin Usteri (1763–1827), (Zurich German) • Hans Valär (1871–1947), (Graubünden Walser dialect of Davos) • Bernhard Wyss (1833–1889), (Solothurn dialect) Parts of the Bible were translated in different Swiss German dialects, e.g.: • (Bernese New Testament, translated by Hans and Ruth Bietenhard, 1989) • (parts of the Old Testament in Bernese dialect, translated by Hans and Ruth Bietenhard, 1990) • (Psalms in Bernese dialect, translated by Hans, Ruth and Benedikt Bietenhard, 1994) • (Zurich German New Testament, translated by Emil Weber, 1997) • (Psalms in Zurich German, translated by Josua Boesch, 1990) • (parts of the Old and the New Testament in Basel dialect, 1981) • (Gospel of Mark in Lucerne dialect, translated by Walter Haas, 1988) • (Gospel of Mark in the Obwalden dialect, translated by Karl Imfeld, 1979) ==Cinema and television==

Many films and TV series produced in German-speaking Switzerland are filmed in Swiss German, although these are sometimes re-dubbed into Standard German for broadcast or when shown in cinemas. For instance, Swiss Tatort episodes are originally re-recorded with dialogue in dialects, usually various Swiss German dialects, or for example French or Italian, as required by the corresponding role, for broadcasting on German Swiss channels (SRF), and dubbed in Standard German spoken with a Swiss accent to preserve the local colour of the setting for broadcasting on German and Austrian channels. == See also ==