bluewatersail

When you travel to Zurich and the German speaking part of Switzerland do you tend to speak German or English with the local Swiss people?

brendamc

I'm not German (American), but I speak German with them & I believe the German Germans do too. Just an interesting sing-songy way of speaking Deutsch...

haubd

German.
Why should I use English, if I speak the "native" language?
Almost anywhere people are much more helpful and friendly if you (try to) talk to them in their native language...

Edited to add: I am German.

bluewatersail

Well because Swiss German is vastly different from the German of Germany. I've heard Germans say they have quite a bit of difficulty understanding Swiss German. I've also had Swiss people tell me about speaking English with natives of Germany just to make things easier for both parties. You two must be wonderful linguists.

BTW, Heidi from Mandarin Oriental Munich says hello to you and RichardSF. 3 times in one day, "Hello, my name is Heidi". Wonderful hotel.

Aviatrix

There is Schwyzerdütsch (sp?) - and there is German with a Swiss accent.

The former is a dialect according to some, and a separate language according to others. It is as different from German as Dutch or Letzeburgisch (the language of Luxembourg). It's what Swiss people speak among themselves in informal situations.

German is the language of education, it is the language used in written communications, and until a couple of decades ago it was the only language used on TV and radio (there are now some stations that broadcast in Schwyzerdütsch).

There may still be some old people in some remote mountain villages that only speak Schwyzerdütsch, but as a general rule Swiss people can speak standard German and will switch to standard German the moment they realise that the other person is not Swiss. A Swiss speaking standard German is as intelligible to a German as an American speaking standard American English is to a British person.

chtiet

... which is not to say that you can't recognize Swiss people speaking standard German from a mile away - and not just because of the accent, but also because of vocabulary and diction.

'Swiss German' and consequently 'Swiss standard German' contains lots of French words, like 'billet' for ticket, 'poulet' for chicken, or 'velo' for bike, which Swiss people will use in standard German. In Germany or Austria these terms will produce blank stares - and very often Swiss people are not familiar with the "proper" German expression. Also, Swiss German tends to be simpler grammatically, and consequently Swiss people tend not to use the genitive, for example. While this is perfectly fine in spoken language, it sounds unrefined in written language - which is why it is easy to recognize something that has been written by someone Swiss. Add to all this the fact that Swiss people tend to speak a lot more slowly, and you're set for having communication barriers. Once I witnessed a elderly Swiss lady trying to buy a waffle at a Christmas market in southern Germany - the woman selling asked in standard language and speed whether she wanted powdered sugar or apple sauce on the waffle for an extra 50 cents - it took another 2 minutes of explaining until the Swiss lady finally recovered from this expression -> and caught on.

A few Swiss people have actually told me that they do not like to speak standard German, and that they'd much rather speak English with someone who doesn't speak "Swiss"...

USAFAN

Actually, a German can not understand "Swiss-German", however, that may depend on the region they come from. I talk with my Swiss friends/customers German.

Gummer8

When you watch the TV news, they often run German sub-titles, even when the announcer is speaking "standard" German. Austrian TV does this too, for that matter.