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Swiss Standard German refers to the spoken and written varieties of Standard German used in the German speaking part of Switzerland. Standard German is the prescriptive norm variant of the German language used as a written language, in formal contexts, and for communication between different dialect areas. ...
The German speaking part of Switzerland (German: Deutschschweiz) comprises about 65 % of Switzerland (North Western Switzerland, Eastern Switzerland, Central Switzerland, most of the Swiss plateau and the greater part of the Swiss Alps) In most Swiss cantons, German is the only official language (Aargau, Appenzell, Basel, Glarus, Lucerne, Nidwalden, Obwalden...
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. This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...
Alemannic German (Alemannisch) is a group of dialects of the Upper German branch of the Germanic language family. ...
A dialect (from the Greek word διάλεκτος, dialektos) is a variety of a language used by people from a particular geographic area. ...
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. A pluricentric language is a language with several standard versions. ...
A variety of a language is a form that differs from other forms of the language systematically and coherently. ...
The vowels of modern (Standard) Arabic and (Israeli) Hebrew from the phonological point of view. ...
A vocabulary is a set of words known to a person or other entity, or that are part of a specific language. ...
For other uses, see Syntax (disambiguation). ...
Morphology is a subdiscipline of linguistics that studies word structure. ...
The orthography of a language is the set of symbols (glyphs and diacritics) used to write a language, as well as the set of rules describing how to write these glyphs correctly, including spelling, punctuation, and capitalization. ...
A Helvetism (new lat. ...
Written Swiss Standard German
Swiss Standard German is the usual written language in the German speaking part of Switzerland. Even though the local dialects are occasionally written, their written usage is mostly restricted to informal situations such as private SMS, emails, letters or notes. A written language is a language that uses a writing system to convey meaning, or more generally the written form of any language that has such written components. ...
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. Spoken language is a language that people utter words of the language. ...
Guangzhou (Traditional Chinese: 廣州; Simplified Chinese: 广州; pinyin: Guǎngzhōu; Wade-Giles: Kuang-chou; Jyutping: Gwong2zau1; Yale: Gwóngjaū) is the capital of the Guangdong Province in southern China. ...
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. Subdivisions Central German Upper German High German (in German, Hochdeutsch) is any of several German dialects spoken in Germany, Austria, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, and Luxembourg (as well as in neighbouring portions of Belgium, France (Alsace), Italy, Poland, and Romania (Transylvania) and in some areas of former colonial settlement, for example in...
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. 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. ...
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.
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.[1]
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 embarassment 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.
See also A Helvetism (new lat. ...
References - ^ (German) Ist der Dialekt an allem schuld?, Martin Heule's 2006-09-19 Kontext programme on the SRG SSR idée suisse radio broadcast.
SRG SSR idée suisse is the Swiss public broadcasting organisation, founded in 1931. ...
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