and some people say shhhugar for shit- but most don't bother- some even change the s to a f, and the vowel, and the ending
a pane of glass...
I've always said Schiete and will continue doing so.
My American OH says "shoot," trying to be a good girl. And she doesn't like it at all when I say that, once you master the usage of "sh*t" and "f~ck" you already have internalized 40% of the average vernacular US vocabulary......
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[ducking]
P.S. Sh*t, using an asterisc in "f~ck" didn't work, the bad-word filter of the forum system just replaced the whole word with ",". No kidding.
The dialects of Vorarlberg and even parts of Tirol are Alemannic just as most German dialects in Switzerland. Some areas of Graubünden and Tirol however speak dialects which are almost Bavarian. While the Allgäu has a dialect which is almost St. Gallerisch
I am all grown up and have to confess that there are few things I enjoy more than cussing. and despite being an unquestionable pro at the art in my native English, it's a lot more fun in the States to run off a solid 10 second string in Swiss German - not only do people not have any clue what you're saying, they naturally presume that knowing a second language is equivalent to being "cultured". and knowing that they're completely wrong in their presumption just adds to the visceral thrill of the whole experience. still, "scheisse" is not a particular personal favorite.
I have never understood the people who dislike the various dialects of Swiss German or the way they sound. I find Swiss German to be a wonderfully expressive language - you can almost hear the personality of the various regions in how it is spoken, and it's status as "dialect" as opposed to "language" means that people when speaking it are more likely to be comfortable and relaxed, i.e. natural. and of course it is very useful for directly communicating frustration with others, certainly much more so than English.
Studying High German to get the standard, speaking Swiss German. As learning by speaking, there is no grammar needed really, just follow and get used to the speaker! ^^
I LOVE swearing but only in conjunction with a rich vocabulary and a tuneful tone That e-card going around Twitter and FB a couple of years ago summed me up pretty well, the one that said, "I do not spew profanity, I take my time to enunciate them properly. After all, I'm a f-----g lady!" Haha. Obviously not at work, or infront of the parents/in-laws or the children!
I keep hearing Swiss German referred to as dialect. Is it like knowing your standard RP English and then reading an Irvine Welsh book? Or is it a completly different language? How different are the actual words, or is it mostly just the way they are pronounced with a bit of slang thrown in?
Pane (y)
Most of the words are just a detail of pronounciation. But the there is some variation in grammar as also in the actual words. For ex. Swiss German has a big influence from French. Also many words associated with farming, food, and craft are different, just because they have been in use for such a long time. The difference is not just Standard German - Swiss German, but from one place (Canton, Town, Valley etc.) to the next.
It is actually even possible to pinpoint someones origin by just using the pronunciation of a few word.
Unfortunately, this becomes less and less acurate as dialects adapt to each other and sound more and more the same. On the other hand, it also means that people from different parts communicate much more with each other than it was in the past. Blame radio, TV, telephon, and cheap transportation.
Some Wikipedia links (In Realtive order):
| . +- Swiss Standard German
| ... +- Emil Steinberger German)
.. +- High German
.... +- Upper German
...... +- Alemannic German
........ +- Swiss German
Cursing? Opel Austria had a nice radio ad: "Sie unterbemitteltes Borstenvieh haben den Radius der Kurve skrupellos – wie eine Sehne den Kreis – durchschnitten! Sie Spross eines Freudenmädchens."
You should also add:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swiss_Standard_German just right after High German .
here in German:
and here in (mostly) Swiss German:
Added it to the list and reordered the list a bit.
I put it outside of the dialects, because it is in the very first step the written German language, and:
Added the Emil German to the tree.
PS: the Adolf Ogi German is related to it.
Yes, because I interpreted High German aka Hochdeutsch in the sense of Standard German ;-)
That's brilliant! I'm assuming it's the exact same script in both. That's very insightful to be able to compare like that. I'll have another listen when my NOISY children have gone to bed lol.
Is he funny BTW? What is he saying? x
The difference is minimal, there are very few people in the forum for whom it really matters. This wiki link is also exaggerating quite a few things:
This is just crap anno 2014. There is in real life a kind of High German spoken with perfect Swiss German phonetics and variations. Distinction is becoming more and more blurry for more and more people. Spoken High German is a gradual thing too, especially when you are German and can compare the High German versions you are confronted with. The spectrum is quite obvious. Including with a couple of teachers I know very very well... They think they are conscious about this choice but that's mostly because the Germans don't tell them how their German really is. Swiss even get pissed when we compliment them for perfect German, as it implies it could be not perfect, so imagine when facing a eingebildete person, no way a German will confront this person with the facts. But this is only for mother tongue level command of language, other people won't get these nuances anyway, so keep learning High German with the Swiss, there is no need to speak with a German accent so please keep learning the Swiss way.
Pardon me, but I totally disagree. Myself, I am totally aware of whether I speak my Swiss variety of High German, or whether I speak my dialect. That's a huge difference, in fact, and absolutely consciously done!
And of course, a huge proportion of Germans do not speak high German. There are huge regional differences, as pronounced as in the UK for instance, and very much depends on education, 'class', etc. Although as Faltrad says, borders are getting increasingly blurred.
[](http://www.zonu.com/detail-en/2011-05-24-13745/German-Dialects-1910.html)
I am not sure if Faltrad was trying to say that. For me it's a difference if I speak German on the phone to a German Speaker (or in Germany) or if I speak to a class of Swiss students in High German. My High German sounds a lot more German in the first case
Nowadays simplified to:
Attention, do not mismatch High German dialects (then you are correct) with High German aka Standard German !
These synonyms, High German and Standard German , exist because the Standard German was derived from the High German language used by merchants during the 1650/1750 period, when they started to use a somewhat standardised High German as a written language, instead of Latin , to simplify their work!
Fine for you, I am just saying that there are people who mix up far much than they think. Some Swiss have a better High German than some Germans, no doubt about it. I write a general comment, you write a personal answer. Doesn't match. Sorry.
Odile,
The "Fränkisch" part for the netherlands is wrong. Fränkisch and High/low/Middle are different things, actually, the three versions exist for Fränkisch. But that's another topic.