Swiss Standard German

Swiss High German or Swiss High German refers to the cars in Switzerland Standard German. It is a national variety of standard German, which is distinguished by a number of peculiarities in vocabulary, word formation, morphology, syntax, spelling and pronunciation outside Switzerland occurring varieties. These features are referred to as Helvetismen.

The Swiss German is called in Switzerland writing German or just high German. It should not be confused with the Swiss Germans, under which the German in Switzerland as a common vernacular Alemannic dialects are summarized.

Written using

The written in German Switzerland is not fundamentally different [note 1] [note 2] of the written language in the rest of the German -speaking world. The differences relate to most of the vocabulary, word formation, spelling [note 3] and with very few exceptions in the grammar (see Helvetismen ).

It is striking that in Switzerland for a long time no sharp s (ß), but always a double S is written. In Swiss schools, the use of ß is not taught. And it does not happen on the Swiss keyboard. [Note 4]

Swiss place names are written in initial position with Ae, Oe, Ue (eg Aetzikofen, Oerlikon or Uebeschi ). With other words you meet in Switzerland still frequently on these spellings (oil instead of oil ), but is now considered wrong.

Swiss Standard German is used in Switzerland for all German texts, for example in the Swiss media ( all newspapers and magazines ), in official documents, in operative and private correspondence or in publications of Swiss companies. In contrast, a reader encounters in Switzerland on federal German or Austrian Standard German, as soon as Textgut or their authors from Germany and Austria come.

Oral use

They spoke Swiss High German usually formally referred to the public, in school, at events with " non-Swiss German ", at universities in courses in newscasts of public service broadcasters in the parliaments of some German-speaking cantons and - unless another language is used - debates in the federal parliament. Held in high German, for example, the loudspeaker announcements at stations. It is customary to use the Swiss High German for written texts: A lawyer is usually to submit his presentation to court in Swiss Standard German or Swiss High German written and read, but otherwise continue his speeches, as judge, prosecutor and other parties in the Swiss dialect of German.

In everyday situations Swiss Standard German is only spoken with people who do not understand the dialect. Among the various dialects is widespread mutual intelligibility, so that must not be used on the Swiss High German for understanding. In Switzerland dialects usually have a higher reputation than in other German -speaking countries. The oral colloquial language between German Swiss is almost without exception each local dialect, the local dialect, regardless of education and social status. The dialect has today no connotations of the uneducated, rural or Bäuerlichen how the German language in the rest room at least was formerly mostly the case ( sociolect ). Even university professors use outside of lectures their respective Swiss-German dialect - both for communication with ( Swiss ) students as well as for scientific exchange.

Dialect ( dialect ) and standard German to one another in a diglossic relationship, as both forms of language clearly occupy separate functions and scopes. Between dialect and standard German, there is no gradual gradations and transitions.

Explanations

German Swiss speak generally a recognizable other than the High German speakers from other German-speaking regions. The following factors play a role:

Interference

The standard German almost all Swiss German differs in pronunciation from the Standardlautung because the local dialect forms are far more spoken than in other German-speaking countries and so far the debate mix ( " you can hear the actual dialect speakers in the pronunciation of standard German out "). This phenomenon is called interference.

For example, the I -sound, ie the palatal fricative as in "I", there is in the Swiss dialects not here all the ch- sounds are invariably spoken of as uvular fricatives, so as ah -sound, the Swiss ch usually still significantly more " scratch ". Therefore, many Swiss German speakers use in High German, without exception, the oh - sound. It is noteworthy, that is pronounced differently even within the Switzerland standard German depending on the dialect region; So Bernese speak a different colored high German as St. Gallen, because a Bernese dialect other interferences caused as a St. Galler dialect. Often it is possible to conclude on the basis of standard German pronunciation of the origin of the speaker. However, this applies in all German-speaking parts that are still dialects are spoken.

Other interferences are - depending on the dialect - the closed and dark pronounced long a, which tends to o, a very open pronounced ä, some other word accents or a stronger variation of the pitch. In general, then applies the missing glottal stop; so are some good evening or not ice as a good | Evening and ver - iron, but pronounced like good - nabend and ve - travel, rather than re-member e - rinnern is said [Note. 5]

Language Convention

A study of the speech behavior of first-and second -graders at German Swiss primary schools shows that first-graders speak standard German, which is closer to the West German High German (in short: Federal German ) than the German the second and third graders. Learned they have it outside of school. Here, the television plays an important role. First graders speak as the "I" - and "Oh " - sounds similar to the Federal German as a second-grader. School children learn so during the early school years, has to sound like Swiss Standard German, adjust their articulation and remove the process from a federal Germans. Speak a recognizable Swiss form of the standard language that Swiss German is thus seen as the result of a learning process and adapt to a language convention. Driving force behind this adaptation are the pursuit of conformity and the desire to be recognized by the speech community as a member.

This approach understands Swiss High German as a variety for which there is an independent voice Convention; prevails in the community of the speaker a " fairly broad agreement about which variants are appropriate for the Swiss standard language [ = Swiss German high ] and which are not ."

Literacy

Because the default language is hardly spoken outside of the school curriculum, the influence of the school on the quality of the standard language is very large. The language - the oral - is very much focused on principles of literacy in the classroom: a typical principle is written, for example, the requirement to make complete sentences. Syntactic feature of written language are longer sentences with complex structures, larger variance word (word diversity) and more adjectives. Spoken language also serves in the classroom often only superficially the communication and is strongly judged by whether it is used correctly. Is considered to be correct, which can also be written. The study of oral narratives by school children shows that with increasing education level decreases the degree of orality in the spoken language. The story of a sixth- grade student shows in comparison to the story of a first grade, although a " more elaborate " syntax, but is also " papierern " and " stiff " - but aufschreibbar. The sixth grader has not improved expressiveness in language teaching, but learned how to retell stories pictures. A comparative study of southern Germany and north-western Swiss students at primary level shows substantial differences between the standard languages ​​of the two groups strongly: the German children's show, for example, a clear trend towards total assimilation ( ham for have ) and reduced nasal forms such as the shortening of the indefinite article ( 'n - a house, 'ne flower - a flower ). In the Swiss speakers reduced nasal forms do not occur in practice, the suffix -en is often fully realized (we go instead we go ). The Swiss spokesman waive described slurring and hold so much more often the - correct - standard embodied achievements forms one than students from Southern Germany, but just facilitate this slurring the articulation and simplify the flow of language.

• According to this approach, leads the school in German Switzerland to the fact that Swiss seek a possibly overly correctly spoken High German; while they are based on one side on quality criteria that apply to the written language. This penalizes the linguistic spontaneity and the eloquence of oral high German.

Attitudes towards the spoken standard language

Many Swiss German press are reluctant to verbally in the standard language. This concerns not only " educated " classes of the population, but also academics.

Although not the dialect but High German is the official language, the latter is not perceived as the language of Switzerland, but as a "foreign language " as the language of Germany. This is also reflected in the relatively low echo which has found the spelling reform of 1996 in the German-speaking Switzerland. In a survey by the German Department of the University Zurich 80 % of 150 respondents were of the opinion, High German was for Swiss German, a foreign language. However, only 30 % believe it was for her own a foreign language.

Latest developments

The reluctance of many German-speaking Swiss to make use of the oral use of the standard language, often leads to conflict with Swiss from the other language regions: Since this study only the high German standard language in school, they have difficulties to understand the dialect. This leads to difficulties in understanding across language boundaries. English is at the level of the economy, therefore, lately increasingly used. Romands often learn additionally Swiss German.

The mediocre results of Swiss German students in the linguistic field of the PISA study led to the promotion of the standard language is again increasingly demanding (as of 2003).

In order to remedy the lack of active control, the standard language and the "foreign language " to produce a more positive relation to this, is to be consistently spoken in many cantons from 2005 onwards in kindergarten German as the language of instruction. Therefore dialect friends are already warning of a suppression of the Swiss German dialects.

Examples

A few examples of the Swiss High German. It should be noted that these Helvetismen not represent dialectal expressions that would apply in the standard language as a stylistic errors, but that it is correct standard linguistic expressions.

1 Legally called äufnen " raise the capital ." In the non- legal language is äufnen but mostly used in the sense of " set up a fund and provided with a seed capital ».

Ins Swiss High German also many French expressions have been incorporated. The French spelling was largely maintained. In contrast, the words often imposed a Swiss German pronunciation, such as the emphasis on syllables (fondue: emphasis on the first syllable; ticket: "t" is mitgesprochen ).