Swiss Standard German

Swiss Standard German, referred to by the Swiss as Schriftdeutsch, or Hochdeutsch, is one of four official languages in Switzerland, besides French, Italian and Romansh.^[1] It is a variety of Standard German, used in the German-speaking part of Switzerland, mainly written, and rather less often spoken.

Spoken Swiss Standard German must not be confused with Swiss German, the Alemannic dialects that are the normal everyday language of all people in the German-speaking part of Switzerland.

Standard German is a pluricentric language. In comparison with other local varieties of Standard German, Swiss Standard German has distinctive features in all linguistic domains: not only in phonology, but also in vocabulary, syntax, morphology and orthography. These characteristics of Swiss Standard German are called helvetisms.

Written Swiss Standard German

Swiss Standard German is the official written language in the German-speaking part of Switzerland. It is used in books, all official publications (including all laws and regulations), in newspapers, printed notices, most advertising and in other printed matter. Authors write literature in Swiss Standard German, although some specific dialect literature exists. SSG is similar in most respects to the Standard German in Germany and Austria, although there are a few differences in spelling, most notably the replacing of the German ligature ß with ss and in some cases different words are used.

Examples of differences between Swiss Standard German and that used in Germany:

• xxxxstrasse (name of a street) = xxxxstraße in Germany.
• Tram = Straßenbahn (Germany).
• Billet = Fahrkarte (Germany) = Ticket (for bus/tram/train etc.).
• Führerausweis = Führerschein (Germany) = Driving Licence.
• Velo = Fahrrad (Germany) = bicycle
• Natel = Handy (Germany) = mobile phone (now almost extinct and being replaced by the German version)

However, the Swiss use the Swiss Standard German word "Lernfahrausweis" for a learner's driving permit (note how it differs from the SSG word for a "regular" driving license: Führerausweis.)

The Swiss sometimes use a different Standard German word from their neighbours from Germany to say the same thing, and an example of this is: "Spital" (hospital). "Spital", being Standard German, is found in most large volumes of Standard German language dictionaries. However, the Germans prefer to use "Krankenhaus".

Differences in grammar are apparent, as Swiss have different genders for some nouns:

Swiss das Tram, Germany die Tram (English: tram, alltough "Strassenbahn" is mostly used in German) Swiss das E-Mail, Germany die E-Mail (English: e-mail)

Some expressions are more akin to a translation from the French, and differ from usage in Germany, such as

Swiss ich habe kalt, Germany mir ist kalt (I am cold) Swiss das geht dir gut, Germany das passt dir gut (it suits you)

A Swiss keyboard has no ß-key, nor does it have capital A-, O-, U-Umlaut keys (Ä, Ö, Ü). This dates back to mechanical typewriters that had the French diacritical marks letters on these keys to allow the Swiss to write French on a Swiss German QWERTZ keyboard (and vice versa). Thus a Swiss German VSM-Keyboard has an ä-key that prints an à (a-grave) when shifted ^[2]. Accordingly, the Swiss are accustomed to names not being written with a starting capital umlaut, but instead with Ae, Oe and Ue, such as the Zürich suburb Oerlikon.

Even though the local dialects are occasionally written, their written usage is mostly restricted to informal situations such as private text messages, e-mails, letters or notes.

Spoken Swiss Standard German

The normal spoken language in the German-speaking part of Switzerland is the local dialects. Swiss Standard German is only spoken in very few specific situations, for instance in schools and universities (though during the breaks, teachers and professors will speak dialect to their students); in news broadcasts and serious programmes of the public media channels; in the parliaments of certain German-speaking cantons; in the national parliament (unless another official language of Switzerland is used), although dialect is certainly encroaching on this domain; in loudspeaker announcements in public places such as railway stations, etc. Church services, including the sermon and prayers are usually in Standard German. The situations when Swiss Standard German is spoken are characteristically formal and public, and they are situations where written communication is also important.

In informal situations, Swiss Standard German is only used with people who don't understand the dialects. Among each other, the German-speaking Swiss use their respective Swiss German dialects, irrespective of social class, education or topic.

Unlike in other regions where High German varieties are spoken, there is no continuum between Swiss Standard German and the Swiss German dialects. The speakers speak either Swiss Standard German or a Swiss German dialect, and they are conscious about this choice.

Diglossia

The concurrent usage of Swiss Standard German and Swiss German dialects has been called^[who?] a typical case of diglossia. This claim has been debated^[who?], because the typical diglossia situation assumes that the standard variety has high prestige, whereas the informal variety has low prestige. In the German-speaking part of Switzerland, however, the Swiss German dialects do not have a low prestige. The situation is rather like in parts of Scotland and Northern Ireland, where Scottish English/Mid-Ulster English and Scots play similar roles.

Since Swiss Standard German is the usual written language and the Swiss German dialects are the usual spoken language, their interrelation has been called a medial diglossia^[who?].

Attitude to spoken Swiss Standard German

Many German-speaking Swiss do not like speaking Swiss Standard German, irrespective of their education. They will often prefer to speak English when the need arises to abandon dialect. When they compare their Swiss Standard German to the way people from Germany speak, they think their own proficiency is inferior because it is studied and slower. Most German-speaking Swiss think that the majority speak a rather poor Swiss Standard German; however, when asked about their personal proficiency, a majority will answer that they speak quite well.^[3]

Many people from Germany have a positive attitude towards the pronunciation and vocabulary of Swiss Standard German. They think of it as quaint and rural, an attitude that usually causes embarrassment to German-speaking Swiss. The attitude of German people towards Swiss Standard German is often illustrated by the following anecdote: someone from Germany hears Swiss Standard German, takes it for Swiss German and is surprised that he understands it so easily. Afterwards, when that person hears actual Swiss German, he does not understand a word.

References

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Literature

• (German) Földes, Csaba: Deutsch als Sprache mit mehrfacher Regionalität: Die diatopische Variationsbreite. In: Muttersprache (Wiesbaden) 112 (2002) 3, S. 225-239
• (German) Michael Kühntopf, Schweiz-Lexikon. Sach- und Sprachlexikon zur Schweiz, 4. Auflage, Norderstedt 2008, ISBN 978-3-8334-8649-4
• (German) Hägi, Sara: Nationale Varietäten im Unterricht Deutsch als Fremdsprache. Frankfurt am Main u. a. 2006. ISBN 3-631-54796-X.
• (German) Hägi, Sara und Joachim Scharloth (2005): Ist Standarddeutsch für Deutschschweizer eine Fremdsprache?
• (German) Scharloth, Joachim (2004): Zwischen Fremdsprache und nationaler Varietät: Untersuchungen zum Plurizentrizitätsbewusstsein der Deutschschweizer
• (German) Siebenhaar, Beat und Alfred Wyler (1997): Dialekt und Hochsprache in der deutschsprachigen Schweiz.
• (German) Siebenhaar, Beat: Das Verhältnis von Mundarten und Standardsprache in der deutschen Schweiz