High Alemannic is a branch of Alemannic dialects and belongs to the German language, even though they are only partly intelligible to German speakers. Alemannic (Alemannisch) belongs to the Upper German branch of the Germanic language family. ... German (called Deutsch in German; in German the term germanisch is equivalent to English Germanic), is a member of the western group of Germanic languages and is one of the worlds major languages. ...

The High Alemannic dialects are spoken in Liechtenstein and in most of German-speaking Switzerland (for instance Bernese German or Zürich German) except for the Highest Alemannic dialects in the South and for the Low Alemannic Basel German dialect in the North West. They are also spoken in Southern Baden-Württemberg in Germany and in Vorarlberg in Austria. Therefore, High Alemannic must not be confused with Swiss German, which refers to all German dialects of Switzerland because of the special diglossic situation of German-speaking Switzerland. Bernese German is the High Alemannic dialect spoken in the Swiss plateau (Mittelland) part of the canton of Bern and in some neighbouring regions. ... Zürich German is the High Alemannic dialect spoken in Zürich, Switzerland. ... Basel German or Baseldytsch (also Baseldütsch, Baseldeutsch) is the dialect of the city of Basel, Switzerland. ... With an area of 35,742 km² and 10. ... Vorarlberg is the westernmost federal state of Austria. ... Swiss German (Schweizerdeutsch, Schwyzerdütsch, Schwiizerdütsch, Schwyzertütsch, Schwizertitsch) is any of the Alemannic dialects spoken in Switzerland. ... In linguistics, diglossia is a situation where, in a given society, there are two (often) closely-related languages, one of high prestige, which is generally used by the government and in formal texts, and one of low prestige, which is usually the spoken vernacular tongue. ...

Features

The distinctive feature of the High Alemannic dialects is the completion of the High German consonant shift, for instance chalt [xalt] 'cold' vs. Low Alemannic and standard German 'kalt' [kʰalt]. In historical linguistics, the High German consonant shift or Second Germanic consonant shift (German: hochdeutsche or zweite germanische Lautverschiebung) was a phonological development (sound change) which took place in the southern dialects of German in several phases, probably beginning between the 3rd and 5th centuries AD, and was almost complete...