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Swiss German vs. Hochdeutsch (Standard) | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| neoinarien Diglot Newbie United States Joined 6341 days ago 13 posts - 14 votes Speaks: English*, French | Message 1 of 36 20 June 2008 at 2:12am | IP Logged | ||
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How different is it? Mutually intelligible? What stereotypes surround Swiss German vs. standard German?
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| Tigresuisse Triglot Senior Member SwitzerlandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6006 days ago 182 posts - 180 votes  Speaks: Italian*, English, German Studies: Russian | Message 2 of 36 20 June 2008 at 3:26am | IP Logged | ||
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Well first I have to tell you I'm not native in German but I'm Swiss ... which helps a lot in saying something on this topic.
There is more than one Swiss German ad there is a difference between the regions. Zurich, Basel, Bern ... they all have their own differences but among them, Swiss German people understand each others (most of the times). My grandmother was born in Luzern and she's native in Swiss German of Luzern. When I was living in Basel, I told her I had big difficulties in understanding the people there (after having lived 1 year in Munich) and she told me she would not understand neither ... so the mutual understanding is not always 100%. Then, what I know is that Swiss German do understand German people (also because officially in Swiss German schools lessons should be held in German ... even it is not always the case). German people have much more difficulties in understanding Swiss German ones, especially those living far away from the Swiss borders with Germany. As I said, I'm not native in German nor Swiss German but that is (almost everything) what I know about this topic ... Of course it would be better to have an answer from a Swiss German or a German !!!! Marta 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| !LH@N Triglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6822 days ago 487 posts - 531 votes Speaks: German, Turkish*, English Studies: Serbo-Croatian, Spanish | Message 3 of 36 20 June 2008 at 7:14am | IP Logged | ||
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I think I'd count as a native German speaker. I have difficulties understanding Swiss German and need to focus really good. I once went to the Swiss embassy to a conference, after which I had the opportunity to conversate with the embassador...and let me tell you I hardly understood a word!
Regards, Ilhan 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| JW Hexaglot Senior Member United States youtube.com/user/egw Joined 6123 days ago 1802 posts - 2011 votes 22 sounds Speaks: English*, German, Spanish, Ancient Greek, French, Biblical Hebrew Studies: Luxembourgish, Dutch, Greek, Italian | Message 4 of 36 20 June 2008 at 2:57pm | IP Logged | ||
Swiss German is like any other German dialect, difficult for the speaker of Hochdeutsch (Standard German) to understand. However, as Tigresuisse said, I think Swiss Germans can normally understand Hochdeutsch. By the way, there is a Swiss German sound clip on the site here: http://how-to-learn-any-language.com/sounds/index.asp?sound= 17 As far as stereotypes, I’ll defer to natives to opine but from my time spent in Heidelberg, it seemed like people viewed “Schwyzertütsch” as “komisch”, i.e, strange, weird, funny. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 jeff_lindqvist Diglot Moderator SwedenRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6910 days ago 4250 posts - 5711 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Irish, French Personal Language Map | Message 5 of 36 20 June 2008 at 4:52pm | IP Logged | ||
That's what I've heard too. A friend of mine who once spent a year in Switzerland says that he was cracking up each time his colleagues spoke Swiss (and I don't think he was the only one having a laugh). 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| alexraasch Diglot Groupie Germany alexraasch.de Joined 6458 days ago 52 posts - 52 votes Speaks: German*, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, Mandarin | Message 6 of 36 25 July 2008 at 5:09pm | IP Logged | ||
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As a native German, I must say that Swiss German is almost entirely unintelligible for me. Other than a few words, I cannot follow a speech or hold a conversation with a Swiss.
Also, I cannot agree with one of the statements above that Swiss German is like any other dialect. It's rather a language of its own, just as Bairisch, Alemannisch and Lower German. These three are equally hard to understand for me. That said, most of the *dialects* are perfectly and easily intelligible. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| JW Hexaglot Senior Member United States youtube.com/user/egw Joined 6123 days ago 1802 posts - 2011 votes 22 sounds Speaks: English*, German, Spanish, Ancient Greek, French, Biblical Hebrew Studies: Luxembourgish, Dutch, Greek, Italian | Message 7 of 36 25 July 2008 at 6:00pm | IP Logged | ||
Dialect versus Language is a contentious debate to enter into, rather an auberge espagnole. I really could argue either side of that debate ;) That being said, I certainly would not argue against classifying Swiss German as a language. It is at least as different from Hochdeutsch as is Luxemburgish and I would classify Luxemburgish as a language. The Continental West Germanic languages and dialects are basically a continuum, ranging from a terminus a quo of Swiss German to a terminus ad quem of Frisian. I would guess you can understand dialects that are closer to your own region but not the ones further away? Edited by JW on 25 July 2008 at 6:03pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| jimbo baby! Senior Member United States Joined 5978 days ago 202 posts - 208 votes 2 sounds Speaks: English* | Message 8 of 36 25 July 2008 at 7:08pm | IP Logged | ||
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Are Swiss German movies usually in Hochdeutsch or dialect? Since not all the dialects are mutually intelligible how do they overcome this in movies? Do they just use a popular dialect like from Zurich or Basel that most Swiss Germans would probably understand?
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