![]() ![]() You won’t find any Fahrräder (bicycles) in Switzerland for example the Swiss prefer to cycle on Velos – which originates from French (except with its own unique Swiss German pronunciation).Įven where French words are used in High German, the Swiss opt to be awkward and choose another French synonym to use! A Friseur is what you’d ask for when you’d like a haircut in Germany, but in Switzerland you’d ask for a Coiffure. Where perfectly adequate words exist in High German, the Swiss tend towards their French influences, saying quirky hybrids such as ‘ Merci vielmal‘, (thanks very much). The Swiss tend to like to make themselves different to their German neighbours in any way possible, and this is especially true with their written language. Or more accurately: Swiss Standard German – which is pretty much the same as High German, except for a few peculiarities.Īlthough Swiss Standard German is supposed to be like High German, there are quite a few interesting differences. All print media and written correspondence are in High German (excluding informal text messages or emails etc.). Thankfully – for those of us more familiar with High German – Swiss German tends to be just a spoken language. But this is very much my personal opinion! Swiss German sounds very pleasing to the ear and somehow more ‘natural’ than High German, perhaps due to the sing-song nature of the dialect’s intonation. Not only does Swiss German have its own pronunciation, but it also has its own vocabulary and grammar – for instance, there is no simple past tense or genitive case in Swiss German, although it does have its own set of articles etc. ![]() Kuchenkasten Chüchichäschtli Kitchen cupboard One of the noticeable differences between High German and Swiss German is in pronunciation.įor example the High German ‘ung’ is pronounced as ‘ig’, ‘ei’ as ‘ie’, ‘n’s are often omitted and if you seem to hear people with throat infections, you’re probably just mistaking it for the coarse ‘ch’ which the Swiss say instead of ‘k’! As can be seen in these common examples: ![]() Swiss German differs from city to city – and from valley to valley – too. What people actually speak here is Swiss German (a range of Alemannic dialects), rather than German German (or ‘High German’) and they differ quite a lot. We’re told that Switzerland has four official languages: German (64%), French (21%), Italian (7%) and Romansh (<1%), but this isn’t quite the case. Anyone flying into Switzerland and expecting to be greeted in German by a customs officer may at first think they’ve ended up in the wrong country upon hearing the local language. ![]()
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