Swiss German

Swiss German. Schweizer Deutsch. Schwyzerdütsch. Schwiizerdüütsch. Schwizertitsch. I am sure there are also other variations of this word that I do not know. This is also my main argument for why Swiss German is not its own language, but rather a dialect of German--there are no spelling rules! For example, in church, the songs are in either English, Standard German, or Swiss German (and all of the speaking stuff is in Swiss German...). In the songs that are Swiss German, I notice a variety of ways to spell the same words. While Swiss German varies among the different parts of German-speaking Switzerland, the spelling varies even among the Züridüütsch speakers (Zürich Swiss German speakers). I also notice that in school during Quellenstunde (a sort of Chapel) when a teacher uses a PowerPoint and puts something in Swiss German, the spelling varies among the teachers. Some of them love the double vowels (ii, üü, ää--these vowel pairs do not appear in Standard German) and some don't. It just depends. Although the pronunciation is still the same, the spelling is different. For an example, see above. :-)

Are you following this? Are you confused? It's really okay if you are, because I can relate. I'm surrounded by it! While I've certainly improved on understanding Swiss German (I mean really, there's nowhere to go but up when you start out with an understanding of zero...), I still have a ways to go. There are times where I understand everything that is said and there are times where I understand almost nothing. Yes, that also has to do with which part of German-speaking Switzerland a person comes from, but it also depends on how fast they are speaking and how strong of an accent they have. It also depends on the topic, although that can be true for Standard German as well. Generally, I understand nearly everything said to me/around me in Standard German. So, you can imagine my frustration with Swiss German, right?

It's hard to think of a way to compare this to English, because we don't have that strong of differences. I mean, yes, British English and Australian English are different than American English (and we don't have a Standard English, just so you know. They are all correct variations of English.) Maybe it's kind of like Scottish English (not to be confused with Scottish Gaelic), where a lot of native English speakers find it difficult to understand. Many Germans and Austrians find Swiss German difficult or impossible to understand at first. Some say that this makes it its own language--the fact that other native speakers cannot understand it right away--but I disagree. In order for a language to be its own language it needs to have a correct spelling.

Okay, sorry. My linguistic nerd side is showing. I could probably write a whole paper about this.

My point in writing this is that although I am doing pretty well with my German and have very few problems understanding things when someone speaks to me in Standard German, Swiss German is another story. It's like learning another language. Kind of. I mean, almost right away, I noticed similarities to Standard German and I noticed patterns in pronunciation that were different than Standard German, and noticing them led to understanding the words. But language learning is frustrating. It's hard. Learning your native language took probably about two-ish years before you started producing sentences, and even then you made a lot of mistakes. Everyone probably even thought it was cute. But when you're learning a new language (second, third, etc.), taking nearly two years to just listen and babble sounds is not so normal, and you expect/want that understanding and fluency to happen sooner. Unfortunately, our brains don't work that way (yes, those "Learn a language fluently in 10 days!" are hoaxes.), and we forget just how much time it takes to understand. Sometimes I think Swiss German is more frustrating because I know that it's "just" a dialect of German and, in my head, I should be able to understand it by now (after nearly six months of being here). But six months, in the language learning process, is not very long. Six months actually, in the scheme of life, is not that long. And it's pretty good that I'm understanding as much as I am right now. I've said from the beginning that I'll probably understand it well at the end of my year here. I'm not planning on speaking it at all, because that would sound weird as a non-native, but I did promise some students that I would say (read: attempt to say) "Chuchichästli" (There are probably other ways to write this as well) on my last day here. It means "kitchen cabinet", which is "Küchenschrank" in Standard German. It's probably the most famous Swiss German word that most non-Swiss Germans cannot pronounce properly.

Oh, Swiss German. Someday we'll be friends ;-)