Tonto Dütsch (Swiss German)

Language Corner
21
for those who are interested, DRS1 makes the Idiotikon available online (and searchable). I checked and didn't see the online version linked to in the stickies, so sorry if this has previously been posted. I could live here in Switzerland for the rest of my life and still barely scratch the surface of the information available in these volumes...

http://www.idiotikon.ch/Register/

22
Nobody goes to Detroit. Once in Detroit, they go to Windsor.

23
them's fighting words!!!

24
Hey, whatchu know 'bout Windsor?

Ah come on...don't tell me, that back in the days, before you became the senior citizen that you are now, you didn't go to Windsor and had a few drinks at "Houl at the Moon".

25
I spent every Friday and Saturday night between the ages of 19 and 21 in Windsor. and the only women you would ever meet at the bar...

...would be Americans.

26
Heilige Siech!

That's a lot of stuff I don't even understand, reading it!

Quite glad, it comes naturally to me...

Really glad, I don't have to learn any version of german...

27
Have to refresh my swiss german

28
Well, from conducting a field research I managed to conclude, that the ones from Ohio were definitely the easiest ones.

29
With build in

30
Just do the same the other way around and you'll speak High German. Spread the word.

31
where did you get that from? Me and my Swiss friends still speak pure bread Züritüütsch

but anyways, I am kinda curious to take a look at this pdf and see if it's of any use

and just to mention this: it is impossible to learn dialect from picking up high german first and then just adapt some "local variation".

I am born in Zurich and don't understand folks from Wallis, Uri or any other canton in the area

or let me make this example:

Cucumber

ZH-german: Gurke

BE-german: Cucumbere

Mashed Potatoes

ZH-German: Herdöpfelstock

BE-German: Gummelestunggis

sooooo..

32
thought I would bring this thread back up for those who might be interested, I would guess my notes are now about 50-75% longer now and certainly improved (especially as to sentence structure and everyday phrases). keeping in mind, of course, that - although my wife and I study German (slowly) - my focus has been much more on trying to navigate the language spoken in and around the Zurich area.

after just about a year of pretty focused work, I suspect my Swiss German is now at about the level of a 6 or 7 year old, which means I can work my way around the basics in the office or in friendly social settings (where I have a feel for the context of the conversation), I can struggle through Wikipedia in Swiss German, I can grasp a little more than half of what is said on the local news and with some patience I can laugh at some of Mike Mueller's jokes. my syntax is still stilted and rather poor, which is probably in large part a result of the fact that I understood zero German before we moved over here, but is slowly improving and being an Ami means I get plenty of understanding from folks who have the unenviable task of trying to figure out what I'm saying.

shoot me a PM with your e-mail address and I'm happy to send it along via .pdf...

33
And the

ZH -- Gurke

in SH is a -- Gugummere

-

to be taken by car by somebody else in BE

is mitriiite

but

ZH/SH Putter

is

Anke in BE

And to get to your question about Alt-Züritüütsch. I never heard that old form ever again after the late 1960ies. The dialects in the ZH-Oberland are old Züri-Tüütsch but NOT what was the AltZüritüütsch of Stadtkreis I + II plus Kilchberg, Rüschlikon and Thalwil.

34
First of all great idea and really helpful for many I am sure!

To the people claiming to speak Zuritüütsch on this thread ;-) Gurke is not called Gurke in Zurichtüütsch. It never was. It is called Guggumere. The fact that people claiming to speak Züritüütsch don't know that anymore proves Wollis point. But that is just the way it goes with languages. The English spoken today is also not the same as the one spoken 50 years ago...

35
The good news for me is that I don't eat cucumbers, so the only time I use the word is to express frustration.

36
Cucumere und Geummelestunggis are purely Emmentaler dialect. No self respecting Oberländer would say that. We say Gurke und Härpfelstock

37
That's quite logical: What is spoken at Coop on a Saturday afternoon might help you more than what is spoken at Migros if you want to buy beer at Coop on a Saturday afternoon.

Problem solved.

Next problem: ...... your choice of beer.... oops