In Which We Consider the Challenges of Learning German in Switzerland

Long ago, when The Spouse and I first visited Philadelphia, we stayed with a graduate school friend who had grown up in the area.   One morning, TS accompanied him to a bakery to get brunch supplies.  Our friend stepped up to the counter and said, “Gimmeboxstickibuns.”  TS had no idea what had just been said, but without hesitation the clerk handed over a package of sweet rolls.  This was our introduction to the dialect known as Fluffyan.

I was reminded of that experience when I embarked on the daunting task of learning a new language while living in a place where the spoken language is even farther from standard German than Fluffyan is from standard English.  German is one of Switzerland’s four official languages (along with French, Italian and Romansch, the latter a close variant of Latin spoken by a handful of people in the mountain Canton of Graubünden).   But the dialect actually spoken in the German region is Swiss German (Schwyz Deutsch) – or one of its many variants.  Because they were once so isolated, each valley developed its own dialect.

When I first visited Zug last year, it seemed to me that folks were speaking a cross between Swedish and Dutch because of their sing-song rhythms and frequent guttural pronunciation.  Rooted in remote Alpine valleys, Swiss German is an archaic, often courtly language that uses lots of rolled r’s and many words that are no longer common elsewhere.  My first German teacher told me that when he saw the film “The Witness” he could understand everything that the Amish were saying because their dialect is so close to Swiss German.  (The Amish emigrated to Pennsylvania in the 1700s from German-speaking Alpine areas.) Today, Germans who have moved to Switzerland to work tell me that it took them some time before they could understand what the Swiss were saying.

Swiss-German Ad for Andermatt butcher

Until the 1930s, cultivated Swiss people were expected to speak Standard German, in the same way that upperclass British people used the posh English spoken in the movie “The King’s Speech.”  But with the rise of Nazism the Swiss were eager to distance themselves from all things German.  Hence, today Swiss from all walks of life speak their local dialect.  It is still mainly an oral – as opposed to a written – language, but one increasingly sees attempts to capture Swiss German forms in writing.

Swiss children grow up speaking the local dialect, which is also used in the first few years of school.  But when the time comes to learn to read they must switch to German.  Soon after, children also begin to learn English as well as the other official Swiss languages (recall the English songs performed by Zurich’s Singing Christmas Tree). 

On the other hand, language instruction for newcomers to Switzerland begins with standard German.  This makes sense insofar as the underlying grammar is the same, but it doesn’t get around the fact that standard German is not what we hear spoken around us every day. Hence, when we get up the nerve to try out our German in ordinary transactions, most of the responses will be in Swiss German.

For example, every interaction begins with the Swiss-German phrase, Greützi  -- “I greet you,” a formal form used only with strangers and those with whom one is on a formal relationship.  Okay, I got that – I’m very good at Greützi-ing.  In the neighborhoods around Baar and hiking paths generally, one is expected to Greützi everyone one passes, though not in the town center or in urban areas.  One also says it when checking out at the supermarket or entering a shop.   

The problem comes after that, when somewhat later in the transaction the clerk asks a question that I’m not expecting and it is generally in Swiss German.  For a long time I was stumped, upon which the clerk switched to English and I left feeling stupid and defeated.  In many cases, Swiss people prefer to speak in English than in German, but it doesn’t help my learning project.

Through trial and error, TS and I have picked up a working vocabulary of Swiss German phrases that get us through many superficial interactions.  Like Fluffyan, Swiss German is often a condensed version of the standard language with many letters thrown out.  A few examples:

En Guete – (from German Guten Appetite), Enjoy your meal.

Ischtguetzi? – Did you like it? or Was it good? (Invariably asked by the server sometime after the entrée arrives, but I have heard it used in other contexts such as at the end of a ski run)

Gute Morge – (from German Guten Morgen) Good morning

Gute or Schön Abik – Have a good or nice evening

I am sure that as our German improves we will also learn to decipher more and more of the dialect.  But it certainly does not make the process of integration any easier.