Zürich German
Encyclopedia
Dialect
The term dialect is used in two distinct ways, even by linguists. One usage refers to a variety of a language that is a characteristic of a particular group of the language's speakers. The term is applied most often to regional speech patterns, but a dialect may also be defined by other factors,...
spoken in the Canton of Zürich
Canton of Zürich
The Canton of Zurich has a population of . The canton is located in the northeast of Switzerland and the city of Zurich is its capital. The official language is German, but people speak the local Swiss German dialect called Züritüütsch...
, Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
.
It is divided in six sub-dialects, covering the entire Canton with the exception of the parts north of the Thur
Thur
Thur may refer to:*Thur River , a river in Alsace, France*Thur River , a river in East Switzerland* Thursday, as an abbreviation...
and the Rhine.
- The dialect of the town of ZürichZürichZurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is located in central Switzerland at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich...
(Stadt-Mundart) - The dialect spoken around Lake ZürichLake ZurichLake Zurich is a lake in Switzerland, extending southeast of the city of Zurich. It is also known as Lake Zürich and Lake of Zürich. It lies approximately at co-ordinates ....
(See-Mundart) - The dialect of the Knonauer Amt west of the AlbisAlbisThe Albis is a chain of hills in the Canton of Zurich, Switzerland, stretching for some 19 km from Sihlbrugg in the south to Waldegg near Zurich in the north. The chain forms, among others, the border between the Affoltern and Horgen districts. The best known point is Uetliberg at 870 m,...
(Ämtler Mundart) - The dialect of the area of WinterthurWinterthurWinterthur is a city in the canton of Zurich in northern Switzerland. It has the country's sixth largest population with an estimate of more than 100,000 people. In the local dialect and by its inhabitants, it is usually abbreviated to Winti...
- The dialect of the Zürcher OberlandZürcher OberlandThe Zürcher Oberland in Switzerland, is the hilly south-eastern part of the Canton of Zurich, bordering on the Toggenburg, including the districts of Uster, Hinwil, Pfäffikon as well as the Töss Valley as far as the district of Winterthur. The territory gradually fell under the control of the city...
around Lake Pfäffikon and the upper Tösstal valley - The dialect of the Zürcher UnterlandZürcher UnterlandThe Zürcher Unterland comprises the northwestern part of the canton of Zurich, including the districts of Bülach and Dielsdorf....
around BülachBülachBülach is a municipality in Switzerland in the canton of Zurich, located in the district of the same name, and belongs to the Glatt Valley .-History:Bülach is first mentioned in 811 as Pulacha...
and DielsdorfDielsdorfDielsdorf is a municipality, seat of the district of Dielsdorf in the canton of Zürich in Switzerland.-Geography:Dielsdorf has an area of . Of this area, 37% is used for agricultural purposes, while 30.2% is forested...
Like all Swiss German
Swiss German
Swiss German is any of the Alemannic dialects spoken in Switzerland and in some Alpine communities in Northern Italy. Occasionally, the Alemannic dialects spoken in other countries are grouped together with Swiss German as well, especially the dialects of Liechtenstein and Austrian Vorarlberg...
dialects, it is essentially a spoken language
Spoken language
Spoken language is a form of human communication in which words derived from a large vocabulary together with a diverse variety of names are uttered through or with the mouth. All words are made up from a limited set of vowels and consonants. The spoken words they make are stringed into...
, whereas the written language
Written language
A written language is the representation of a language by means of a writing system. Written language is an invention in that it must be taught to children, who will instinctively learn or create spoken or gestural languages....
is standard German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
. Likewise, there is no official orthography
Orthography
The orthography of a language specifies a standardized way of using a specific writing system to write the language. Where more than one writing system is used for a language, for example Kurdish, Uyghur, Serbian or Inuktitut, there can be more than one orthography...
of the Zürich dialect. When it is written, it rarely follows the guidelines published by Eugen Dieth
Eugen Dieth
Eugen Dieth was a Swiss linguist, phonetician and dialectologist. He is well-known for his work in English and German phonetics, and for co-initiating the Survey of English Dialects....
in his book Schwyzertütschi Dialäktschrift; in fact, only language experts know about these guidelines. Furthermore, Dieth's spelling uses a lot of diacritical marks
Diacritic
A diacritic is a glyph added to a letter, or basic glyph. The term derives from the Greek διακριτικός . Diacritic is both an adjective and a noun, whereas diacritical is only an adjective. Some diacritical marks, such as the acute and grave are often called accents...
not found on a normal keyboard. Young people often use dialect for personal messages, such as when texting with their mobile phones. As they do not have a standard way of writing they tend to blend Standard German spelling with Swiss German phrasing.
The Zürich dialect is generally perceived as fast spoken, less melodic than, for example, the Bernese. In the northern parts of the canton, the "r" is pronounced as a uvular trill
Uvular trill
The uvular trill is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , a small capital R...
, whereas in the city around the lake and in the southern parts, it is pronounced as an alveolar trill
Alveolar trill
The alveolar trill is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents dental, alveolar, and postalveolar trills is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is r. It is commonly called the rolled R, rolling R, or trilled R...
.
Characteristic of the city dialect is that it most easily adopts external influences; in particular, the second generation Italians (secondi) have had a crucial influence, as has the English language through the media. The wave of Turkish and ex-Yugoslavian immigration of the 1990s is leaving its imprint on the dialect of the city in particular.
Example
The following text is an example of Zürichdeutsch taken from a news article:- "Wiä's Bieler Tagblatt uf sinerä Online-Plattform am Nammitag brichtet hät, sind d'Strassesperrigä i Biel wiedr ufghobe wördä. D'Strassä seget wiedr befahrbar und d'Polizeiaktion isch beendet wördä. D'Polizei hät am Mittwuch Morgä ufnerä Boustell äs vrdächtigs Paket gfundä chaa und churz druf s'Gbiet um d'Bieler Spitalstrass abgsperrt. D'Öffentlichkeit sött i de nächschtä paar Stundä über d'gnoieri Umständ informiärt werdä."
Here is the following text translated into standard German, or Hochdeutsch:
- "Wie das Bieler Tagblatt auf seiner Online-Plattform am Nachmittag berichtet hat wurden die Strassensperren in Biel wieder aufgehoben. Die Strassen seien wieder befahrbar und die Polizeiaktion wurde beendet. Die Polizei hatte am Mittwochmorgen auf einer Baustelle ein verdächtiges Paket gefunden und kurz darauf das Gebiet um die Bieler Spitalstrasse abgesperrt. Die Öffentlichkeit soll in den nächsten Stunden über die genaueren Umstände informiert werden."
And finally, the text translated into English:
- "As Biel's daily paper stated on its online platform in the afternoon, the roadblocks in Biel had been lifted. It stated the streets were driveable again and the police operation had finished. On Wednesday morning, the police found a suspicious package at a construction site and shortly after, they closed off the area around the 'Bieler Spitalstrasse.' The public will be informed about the situation with more detail in the next few hours."
Literature
- Dieth, Eugen: Schwyzertütschi Dialäktschrift. Aarau: Sauerländer. ISBN 379412832X (proposed orthography, in German)
- Salzmann, Martin: Resumptive Prolepsis: A study in indirect A'-dependencies. Utrecht: LOTLotLot or lots may refer to:*Lot , a unit of weight used in many European countries since Middle Ages until the beginning of the 20th century*Lot, a set of goods, together for sale in an auction; or a quantity of a financial instrument...
, 2006 (=LOT Dissertation Series 136). Chapter 4: Resumptives in Zurich German relative clauses, online http://www.lotpublications.nl/index3.html. - Weber, Albert: Zürichdeutsche Grammatik. Ein Wegweiser zur guten Mundart. Unter Mitwirkung von Eugen DiethEugen DiethEugen Dieth was a Swiss linguist, phonetician and dialectologist. He is well-known for his work in English and German phonetics, and for co-initiating the Survey of English Dialects....
. Zürich (=und Wörterbücher des Schweizerdeutschen in allgemeinverständlicher Darstellung. Bd. I). (prescriptive grammar book, in German) - Weber, Albert and Bächtold, Jacques M.: Zürichdeutsches Wörterbuch. Zürich (=Grammatiken und Wörterbücher des Schweizerdeutschen in allgemeinverständlicher Darstellung. Bd. III). (dictionary Zürich German - Standard German)
- Renate Egli-Wildi: Züritüütsch verstaa, Züritüütsch rede A study book for the Zürich variant of Swiss German, intended for fluent German speakers, published by the Society for Swiss German, Zürich Section. 108 pages, 2 CDs. Küsnacht 2007. ISBN 3-033-01382-7 (in German)
- Fleischer, Jürg & Stephan Schmid (2006): Zurich German. “Journal of the International Phonetic Association” 36: 243-253
- Heinz Gallmann: Zürichdeutsches Wörterbuch Zurich German Dictionary. 695 pages NZZ Libro, Zürich 2009, ISBN 3-03823-555-5