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Swiss German vs. Hochdeutsch (Standard) | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
 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 9 of 36 25 July 2008 at 7:27pm | IP Logged | ||
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Slightly off-topic (and it may have been brought up before) - is there a website out there with sound samples of a lot of German accents/dialects? I know there are sites for Swedish, Norwegian and (British Isles) English, so perhaps something for German as well?
I would prefer a site with sound samples and transcripts instead of a random radio broadcast (the Norwegian site I know has people reading the same text in the various dialects). 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Rameau Triglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6108 days ago 149 posts - 258 votes 4 sounds Speaks: English*, GermanC1, Danish Studies: Swedish, French, Icelandic | Message 10 of 36 26 July 2008 at 1:49am | IP Logged | ||
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Perhaps not quite what you're looking for, but the Deutsche Welle Dialektatlas has a large number of sound-clip-rich features plus other information on various German dialects (albeit largely only those spoken in Gemany, although Swiss German is covered somewhat in the Alemannisch feature). Edited by Rameau on 26 July 2008 at 6:58am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Eduard Decaglot Senior Member Norway Joined 6026 days ago 166 posts - 170 votes 2 sounds Speaks: Dutch*, NorwegianC1, Swedish, Danish, English, German, ItalianB1, Spanish, Serbo-Croatian, French Studies: Portuguese | Message 11 of 36 26 July 2008 at 4:49am | IP Logged | ||
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The Swiss German dialect/language is quite different from Standard German, though I think it doesn't take a long time to get used to and understand to a large extent. This language is used not only in homes, but also in public and pretty all German-Swiss use it, independent of their socio-economical status. Luckily (for foreigners), most speak Standard German too.
By the way, the Standard German used in Switzerland is a bit different from the one used in Germany. The 'ß' is not used at all in Switzerland, and other words have a slightly different spelling. For example: Kommissar (D) -> Kommissär (CH). 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 12 of 36 26 July 2008 at 8:16am | IP Logged | ||
Yes, kind of. I can understand the northern dialects easier (they're really just accents). Many southern people speak Hochdeutsch with a heavy accent but I can perfectly understand them. When they gradually switch over to their regional dialects/languages I get lost. In Bairisch for example, they have many contractions where they merge two or three Hochdeutsch words into one word. Sometimes whole sentences are replaces by just a single word. However, I cannot understand Frisian dialects or Lower German, which is spoken in my region by some. Those are just too different. About the dialect/language classification: I make things easy for myself by saying, that everything I can understand is just a dialect and what I can't understand is a different language. :-)) Edited by alexraasch on 26 July 2008 at 8:20am 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 13 of 36 26 July 2008 at 9:53am | IP Logged | ||
Yes, the DW Dialektatlas is a great source. If you want to delve a bit deeper into a particular dialect, Kauderwelsch has a series of books and CDs on most (if not all) of the dialects. For example, here is the one on Swiss German: CD Book 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 14 of 36 26 July 2008 at 3:28pm | IP Logged | ||
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Thanks for the link, Rameau. I will have a look at it immediately.
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| Earle Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6316 days ago 276 posts - 276 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Norwegian, Spanish | Message 15 of 36 26 July 2008 at 11:18pm | IP Logged | ||
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FWIW, Swiss whose native language is Swiss German regard the study of standard Hochdeutsch as the study of a foreign language (Fremdsprache). I've had quite a few Swiss friends tell me that. One of the more amusing remarks I've heard was from a friend in her 60s, a ski instructor in the Berner Oberland. She said that she thought her German students regarded her accent (and Swiss German) as "Kuh Deutsch."
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| Autarkis Triglot Groupie Switzerland twitter.com/Autarkis Joined 5953 days ago 95 posts - 106 votes 4 sounds Speaks: German*, English, French Studies: Italian | Message 16 of 36 13 August 2008 at 5:25am | IP Logged | ||
There's both. :) But as the market is small already in German Films, many Swiss movies (the one I've got in mind is "Ernstfall in Havanna") have parts in Hochdeutsch, English, and are being captioned for export. :) I'm one of those who say "Chuäschwizerisch" (=Kuhschweizerisch = cow swiss) when referring to our language. For me it's an ironic way of pointing out the pride that many swiss are expressing in their dialect, like theirs was superior or something. I think that regional, narrow-minded thinking got me into studying foreign languages as well. I think I'm going to upload a sound bite with the word "Chuäschwizerisch" in it just for the fun of it. :) For the original topic: Yesterday, I was talking to a Dutch couple at the train station (in English). And sometimes I understood bits and pieces of what they were saying to each other (in Dutch), and I have never studied Dutch. I think, Germans experience the same thing when trying to understand Swiss German: They understand pieces of it, though I'm betting they understand more pieces of Swiss German than I understood of Dutch. And they have to strain their ears to make something of it. They can generally know when you're talking about them, but they might be not able to understand more than "These are mountain farmers." when they here two mountain farmers talk. That is because isolated dialects are more "deformed" - I don't know the correct philological term - and because they use a farmer's vocabulary. If they were listening to urban dwellers, especially from Zurich, they'll have a much easier time. Edited by Autarkis on 23 August 2008 at 7:04am 1 person has voted this message useful |
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