Swiss German Language Guide

Official language in
Switzerland
Script
Latin

Where it's spoken

Swiss German is a collective term for all the Alemannic dialects spoken in German-speaking Switzerland, and the Federal Statistical Office describes it as present everywhere there. The Federal Constitution names German, French, Italian and Romansh as the national languages, and German, French and Italian as the official languages of the Confederation, with Romansh also official in dealings with Romansh speakers. It does not mention the dialects by name.

German-speaking Switzerland is described as a diglossic situation. Standard German, called Schriftdeutsch or Hochdeutsch there, is the form in which people mainly read and write, and its spoken use is limited to relatively few occasions, while the dialect is the matter-of-course everyday language of all social classes. The Historical Dictionary of Switzerland adds that in the second half of the twentieth century Swiss German spread into all areas of public life, including politics, church, school and the mass media. This app's card for Wie heisst das uf Dütsch? ("What is that called in German?") says that signs and documents in Switzerland are usually in Standard German.

In a national survey of language use, 87% of the population of the German-language area regularly used Swiss German, where regular use means at least once a week in at least one area of life, whether actively or passively.

The dialects differ from place to place. Most Swiss German dialects belong to High Alemannic, whose mark is Chind for Kind, while only the city of Basel lies in the Low Alemannic area (Khind). The card for Ich verstah nöd ("I don't understand") says that Zürich uses nöd where Bern uses nid and Basel uses nit. The Zürich dialect itself is described as remarkably uniform for the size of the canton, but the Weinland and the Rafzerfeld in the north of the canton are not counted linguistically as Zürich German and are more similar to the dialects of Schaffhausen and western Thurgau. In the rest of the canton the Zürcher Oberland and the Winterthur area differ only in nuances: in the Oberland a long aa became oo, so Straass became Strooss, and in the Winterthur area niid was traditionally said instead of nööd, although nööd is also widely heard there.

Some everyday words differ from Standard German. A description of Swiss German says that many words for transport, sport and food are foreign words, mostly from French, and lists Tram, Velo and Perron. This app's card for s Velo ("Bicycle") says that it is a neuter noun borrowed from French, and the card for Wo cha ich es Billett choufe? ("Where can I buy a ticket?") says that the Standard German word Fahrkarte is not used.

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Script & pronunciation

Swiss German is written in Latin letters, but there is no standardised or binding spelling, and several competing guides exist. Swiss radio SRF says that Swiss German was for a long time practically only a spoken language, that more and more people now write their dialect in everyday life, and that the writing is something of a wild growth: some writers follow the pronunciation, as in zùùgfaare, while others keep close to the Standard German spelling, as in zugfahre.

SRF names two worked-out spellings, both developed mainly for dialect literature. Eugen Dieth's Schwyzertütschi Dialäktschrift follows the pronunciation: a short vowel is written with one letter and a long vowel with two, as in zùùgfaare. Werner Marti's Bärndütschi Schrybwys is closer to Standard German and writes zugfahre. The Mundartforum recommends the Dieth spelling and describes it as a guide that has proved to be a practical compromise between closeness to speech and readability. It adds that the association Züritüütsch offers spelling recommendations for Zürich German that are based on the Dieth spelling. This app's cards also write long vowels double, as in Wii ("Wine", with a note to watch the long ii) and gaat in S WLAN gaat nöd ("The WiFi is not working"). SRF's article on Zürich German writes the word for "not" as nööd, with a doubled ö, while the cards write nöd.

SRF lists some conventions that help with reading. It says that scht and schp are not written at the start of a syllable, but are written at the end of a syllable or on a syllable boundary, because in Standard German spelling st and sp at the start of a syllable are already read as scht and schp; it gives Chaschperli and fescht as typical Swiss German pronunciations. The cards write nächscht in Wo isch de nächscht Bankomat? ("Where is the nearest ATM?"). SRF also says that apostrophes are unnecessary and that Zvieri, s isch and d Frau are better than Z'vieri, s'isch and d'Frau. The cards write the small article d or s as a separate word without an apostrophe: d Hoor in Chönd Sie mir d Hoor schnide? ("Could you cut my hair?") and s Gate in Wo isch s Gate? ("Where is the gate?").

The letter ß is not used. The official German spelling rules say that where ß is not available ss is written, and that in Switzerland and Liechtenstein ss may always be written. The cards write ss, as in Ich weiss nöd ("I don't know"), and the note on Sie sind sehr grosszügig ("You are very generous") says that Swiss spelling writes ss instead of ß. This app's Swiss German cards carry no romanized reading beside the spelling.

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Grammar essentials

Siebenhaar and Wyler say that in the noun Swiss German manages with two cases, nominative/accusative and dative, and that the genitive is paraphrased, for example with vo (Standard German von). The cards show the dative in the polite forms: the note on Wie gaats Ihne? ("How are you?") says that Ihne is the dative of the polite Sie, and Wie gaats dir? uses dir, the dative of du. The card for Dörf ich es Föteli vo Ihne mache? ("May I take your photo?") has vo Ihne, which its note glosses as "of you".

The same description names the absence of the imperfect as the most important difference in the verb forms. The past is therefore built with the perfect: the note on S Ässe isch fein gsi ("The food was delicious") says that the past is formed with isch gsi and that no simple past is used, and the note on Ich ha das nöd bstellt ("I didn't order this") calls it the perfect tense (ha plus a participle).

The negation nöd comes after the verb in the cards, as in Ich verstah nöd ("I don't understand") and Ich weiss nöd ("I don't know").

In the plural of the verb, the eastern half of German-speaking Switzerland has one form for all persons: the Historical Dictionary of Switzerland gives mir/ir/si mached, while the west has two forms, mir mache, (d)ir mached, si mache. Siebenhaar and Wyler describe the same contrast and name the Brünig-Napf-Reuss line as the border between the eastern and western dialects. The cards' polite questions use the ending -ed with Sie: Bruuched Sie en Sack? ("Do you need a bag?") and Wie heissed Sie? ("What's your name?"), and the note on the card for Sie ("You (polite)") says that the verb takes the plural form.

Some constructions are typical of the dialect. The cards use go with an infinitive to mean going to do something: the note on Ich wett go tauche ("I would like to go diving") calls it a typical dialect construction, and Wotsch mit mir go ässe? means "Would you like to go and eat with me?". Siebenhaar and Wyler say that all relative clauses are introduced by the word wo, whatever the gender of the noun it refers to; the card Ich bruuche en Dokter, wo Änglisch redt ("I need a doctor who speaks English") has wo where Standard German would have der. The same description notes a liking for diminutives, formed with -li. The cards show it in Hörnli ("Hörnli (small elbow macaroni)") and Gipfeli ("Gipfeli (Swiss croissant)"), and in Föteli ("photos"), which the note on Ich schicke Ihne d Föteli describes as the diminutive of Foto.

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Politeness & etiquette

Swiss German has a polite and an informal "you". The card for Sie ("You (polite)") says that it is the polite word for you with strangers and elders, that it is always capitalised, and that the verb takes the plural form. Ihne is its dative and Ihri its possessive, as in Was isch Ihri Mailadrässe? ("What is your email address?"). With friends the cards use du, so Wie gaats Ihne? and Wie gaats dir? are the polite and the informal way of asking "How are you?".

A newspaper article from the Neue Zürcher Zeitung, subtitled as taken from the Wörterbuch der schweizerdeutschen Sprache, says that Sie came into spoken language through the bourgeois upper class in the eighteenth century and that in the nineteenth century people of all classes in eastern Switzerland took it up, while du remained du. It quotes a mid-twentieth-century newspaper report saying that east of the Reuss, addressing someone with the older form ihr had become, so to speak, a form of impoliteness.

A later article in the same newspaper says that du is spreading and that many companies officially introduce a du culture, and it adds that for many people Sie still shows mutual respect and a comfortable distance.

The greetings are paired by register in the cards. Grüezi ("Hello") is marked formal and described as the greeting for strangers, shop staff and older people, while Hoi ("Hi") and Sali ("Hi") are informal greetings for friends, and Hoi zäme greets a group. Uf Widerluege ("Goodbye") is the polite goodbye, and the cards give Ade and Tschau as the casual ones.

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