Swiss German is the collective name for the Alemannic dialects of German spoken in German-speaking Switzerland, and also heard in nearby Alpine valleys of Italy, in Liechtenstein and in Austria's Vorarlberg. Unlike most regional vernaculars in modern Europe, it remains the everyday spoken language of the majority of the population across every social class, from the largest cities to rural villages, existing in a diglossic relationship with Standard German, which is reserved mainly for writing and formal contexts. Grammatically it lacks a preterite indicative and a productive genitive case, and phonologically several dialects preserve the old /k/ to /kx/ shift lost in Standard German, giving the language forms such as Gruezi and the famously tongue-twisting Chuchichaschtli.
Facts
RegionGerman-speaking Switzerland, plus Alpine communities in Italy's Piedmont and Aosta Valley, Liechtenstein and Austria's Vorarlberg 1 Speaker Communityabout 4.93 million native speakers in Switzerland as of 2013; roughly 87 percent of people in German-speaking Switzerland used it in everyday life as of 2014, across every social class, unlike most regional vernaculars elsewhere in Europe 1 Distinguishing Featuresretention, in most dialects, of the Old High German consonant shift's /k/ to /kx/ development, unlike Standard German; absence of a preterite indicative, with the perfect tense used for all past reference; no productive genitive case, its function taken over by possessive constructions built with vo (from); everyday vocabulary such as Gruezi for hello and Chuchichaschtli for kitchen cupboard, the latter a byword for the dialect's difficulty for outsiders 1 Classification
Variety Kind Connections
Descends From
Source Wikipedia: Swiss German
Sources
1. Wikipedia: Swiss German
Wikimedia FoundationUse section
Unlike most regional languages in modern Europe, Swiss German is the everyday spoken language for the majority of the population, in all social strata, from urban centres to the countryside.
Variety kind, Swiss German entity page
Swiss German is the collective name for the Alemannic dialects of German spoken in German-speaking Switzerland, and also heard in nearby Alpine valleys of Italy, in Liechtenstein and in Austria's Vorarlberg.
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