Swiss Standard German

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Swiss Standard German is one out of four official languages in Switzerland, besides Romansh, French and Italian. It is a variety of Standard German, used in the German speaking part of Switzerland, mainly written, rather rarely spoken.

Spoken Swiss Standard German must not be confused with Swiss German, the Alemannic dialects that are the normal everyday language of all people in the German speaking part of Switzerland.

Standard German is a pluricentric language. In comparison with other local varieties of Standard German, Swiss Standard German has distinctive features in all linguistic domains: not only in phonology, but also in vocabulary, syntax, morphology and orthography. These characteristics of Swiss Standard German are called helvetisms.

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[edit] Written Swiss Standard German

Swiss Standard German is the usual written language in the German-speaking part of Switzerland. It is similar in most respects to the Standard German in Germany and Austria, although there are a few differences in spelling, most notably the replacing of the German ligature ß with ss. A Swiss keyboard has no ß-key, neither has it capital A-, O-, U-Umlaut keys (Ä, Ö, Ü). This dates back to mechanical typewriters that had the French diacritical marks letters on theses keys to allow the Swiss to write French on a Swiss German QWERTZ keyboard (and vice versa). Thus a Swiss German VSM-Keyboard has an ä-key that prints an à (a-grave) when shifted [1]. Accordingly, the Swiss are accustomed that names are not written with a starting capital umlaut, but with Ae, Oe and Ue, such as the Zurich suburb Oerlikon. The spelling differences may be noticed in German Wikipedia articles written about Switzerland or Swiss-related subjects.

Even though the local dialects are occasionally written, their written usage is mostly restricted to informal situations such as private text messages, emails, letters or notes.

[edit] Spoken Swiss Standard German

The normal spoken language in the German-speaking part of Switzerland are the local dialects. Swiss Standard German is only spoken in very few specific situations, for instance in schools and universities (though during the breaks, the professors will speak dialect with their students); in news broadcast of the public broadcast services; in the parliaments of certain German-speaking kantons; in the national parliament (unless another official language of Switzerland is used); in loudspeaker announcements in public places such as railway stations etc. The situations when Swiss Standard German is spoken are characteristically formal and public, and they are situations where written communication is also important.

In informal situations, Swiss Standard German is only used with people who don't understand the dialects. Among each other, the German speaking Swiss use their respective Swiss German dialects, irrespective of social class, education or topic.

Unlike in other regions where High German varieties are spoken, there is no continuum between Swiss Standard German and the Swiss German dialects. The speakers speak either Swiss Standard German or Swiss German dialect, and they are conscious about this choice.

[edit] Diglossia

The concurrent usage of Swiss Standard German and Swiss German dialects has been called a typical case of diglossia. This claim has been debated, because the typical diglossia situation assumes that the standard variety has high prestige, whereas the informal variety has low prestige. In the German-speaking part of Switzerland, however, the Swiss German dialects don't have a low prestige. The situation is rather like in parts of Scotland and Northern Ireland, where Scottish English and Scots play similar roles.

Since Swiss Standard German is the usual written language and the Swiss German dialects are the usual spoken language, their interrelation has been called a medial diglossia.

[edit] Attitude to spoken Swiss Standard German

Many German-speaking Swiss do not like speaking Swiss Standard German, irrespective of their education. When they compare their Swiss Standard German to the way people from Germany talk, they think their own way of talking is inferior because it is clumsy and slow. Most German-speaking Swiss think that the majority speak a rather poor Swiss Standard German; however, when asked about their personal proficiency, a majority will answer that they speak quite well.[2]

Many people from Germany have a positive attitude towards Swiss Standard German. They think of it as cute and rural, an attitude that usually causes embarrassment to German-speaking Swiss. The attitude of German people towards Swiss Standard German is often illustrated by the following anecdote: Someone from Germany hears Swiss Standard German, mistakes it for Swiss German and is surprised that she/he understands it so easily. Afterwards, when that person hears actual Swiss German, she/he doesn't understand a word.

[edit] References

  1. ^ [Swiss Norm], former VSM norm, SN 074021
  2. ^ (German) Ist der Dialekt an allem schuld?, Martin Heule's 2006-09-19 Kontext programme on the SRG SSR idée suisse radio broadcast.

[edit] Literature

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