German "delikat" usually is what "delicious" is in English, not "delicate." QUOTE]
I know you said "usually" but I just wanted to point out that the two words DO have also the same meaning. "Das ist eine delikate Angelegenheit, wir müssen vorsichtig sein" does mean this is a delicate matter, we have to be careful. So not a false friend but a word with different meanings in German. I would even say that the delicate meaning of the word "delikat" is more often used than the delicious meaning. What you do hear more often though is "Delikatesse" which is of course derived from that word.
When you hear " Junge ," you either are listening to Standard German, or you actually hear " jung " (young). The Standard German word " Junge " (boy) is " Bueb " in Swiss German and " Giu " in Bernese.
Yes, it's complicated, and it can yield funny results, but that's part of the fun. Reminds me of when I had to learn that in the American Midwest "guy" can refer to females too and sometimes even to females only. That was when my Michiganian OH called an all-ladies-run store and asked, "Are you guys open tomorrow?"
Yes, that's exactly why I wrote "usually," but I'd say the "delicious" meaning is much more frequent in average-level conversation, because most people only see the connection to " Delikatesse ." " Eine delikate Angelegenheit " sounds pretty exaalted; most people would say, " eine heikle [ or: knifflige] Angelegenheit. "
Which reminds me of the funny fact that, at least in American English, "delicatessen" (from the German plural " Delikatessen ") very often is used as a singular when referring to a store, and it even has the plural "delicatessens."
That's brilliant. I gave it a try and interestingly it placed me at the closest German border point to where I used to live in Switzerland (about a 15-20 minute drive). Have any other non-native speakers given this a go?
I learnt most of my German (discounting any UK schooling!) in Bavaria (5 years) and then Switzerland (3 years) and feel I do have a tendency to unconciously cross between Swiss Standard German and a bit of (various Swiss) dialects and (occaisionally) a bit of Bayerisch and (even more occaisonally) German-High German. Certainly not something a native would do. I also noticed that my pronounciation of "jeweils" with a Swiss-style vowel sound isn't on the list which is full of dialect alternatives I'd never use. I've had people ask me whether I was Dutch before, and sometimes even Swedish ("because you speak such good English"!).
" Jeweils " in Swiss German is rare, and, if ever used, it's something like " jewile, " but that sounds somewhat bookish, like a polititian reading a speech in Swiss German from a script written in Standard German. Depending on the regional dialect, usually you'll hear " amigs ," " ämel " and probably many more variants.
It is complicated yes, but it's part of the charm!
I use "guys" to mean males and females also. I say it to my children A LOT ("Come on guys!" "Are you guys ready?" etc. even though one is a girl!) I think subconsciously I stole it from Phoebe in Friends . I do that a lot, if I think something is quaint in a dialect or slang from somewhere I am not from, I'll take it on and start using it naturally! I probably have quite a few American-isms in my English that I#ve picked up in this way, I don't even notice them any more!
I think it sounds like Swedish with a Welsh (Cymraeg) accent! I hear a lot of "khkhkh" sound just like in Welsh! This is the one thing I thought would differentiate Swiss German from German German. When I've heard presenters on SF1 speak German with a lot of the "kkhhh" sound, I thought ahh that must be Swiss! I thought German German would replace the "kkhhh" with "sssschhhh"
Yes you do make sense. Standard German ch can be a palatal fricative phonem as in " ich " or a velar fricative as in " ach " ("velar" meaning at the soft, i.e. rear part of the palate) with an occasional slight tendency towards an uvular fricative, depending on the origin of the speaker. In Swiss German (except some dialects in the Grisons) it always is an uvular fricative, very rough, articulated at the very innermost end of the mouth.
And now it's up to Wolli to mention that the "Swiss" ch can be found also in the Alemannic speaking pockets of Tyrol in Austria. Correct.
Swiss German being my mother tongue, I can tell you that it is much more of a sing-song than "high" German and of course, as everybody was pointing out: lots of throaty sounds for the "ch" and "li"s...
Where from is the narrator, and where from the "lady in Germany" ? If one is from München and the other one from Hannover the "sounds" are possibly most different
While BOTH are Nord-Deutsch basically, Berlinerisch and Hannoveranisch clearly differ. While at the other hand, St. Gallerisch and Vorarlbergisch (CH + AT) are almost the same, and Baaslerisch plus Süd-Elsässisch and Süd-Badisch are at least very very similar, and the dialects spoken in Konstanz, Stein-am-Rhein, Singen and Schaffhausen are ONE family of dialects