'Schwyzertueuetsch' (was Re: Folk etymology)

[Paul Frank]

> A possibly more definitive solution as to whether Schwyzertueuetsch is a
>  language or just the overall title for a group of very high German dialects
>  might be to ascertain what the four official languages are of the Swiss
>  Confederation: French, Italian, Roumasch (in its various spellings (which
>  one is official?), and ?  Scott Catledge

The fourth language is standard German, which Germans tend to call
Hochdeutsch and the Swiss tend to call Schriftdeutsch. All Swiss Germans
study German in school, but they speak their own Swiss German dialects at
home, among friends, and even at work. Schwyzertütsch is a language that no
one speaks, because people speak Berndeutsch or Zurichdeutsch or any number
of local dialects that together form the dialect we call Schwyzertütsch. My
unscientific and subjective impression (I'm not a linguist) is that there are
more dialectal differences among the various dialects of Swiss German than
among the various varieties of American English. For a standard German
speaker the dialect of Basel is the easiest and some of the dialects spoken
in the canton of Bern are the hardest to understand. Speakers of standard
German find most Swiss German dialects as difficult to understand as Dutch. I
was watching Swiss German television a few minutes ago. The news, dubbed
foreign movies, and German soaps and movies are in standard German, but talk
shows and some other programs in Swiss German - usually in the Zurich
dialect. Swiss German dialects are not usually written down, but there is a
reasonably good dictionary of the dialect spoken in the city of Bern (but not
in the surrounding countryside), a grammar of this dialect by Werner Martini,
and a growing number of folkloristic works the various Swiss-German dialects.
By the way, Swiss Germans are the most populous, prosperous, and politically
powerful linguistic group in Switzerland. And most of them speak passable
French. But hardly any Swiss French can say more than a couple of words in
German, although they have to take seven years of the language in school.
They are probably great daydreamers.

In case anyone is curious about Swiss German, this web page is an MA thesis
about the differences between standard German and the dialect of the city of
Bern (it's in German):

http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Lobby/5200/science/diplomarbeit.htm

I apologize for rambling and straying from the topic of this list.

Cheers,
Paul
_________________________________________________
Paul Frank
English translation from French, German,
Chinese, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese and Dutch
Franktranslation at aol.com || Thollon, Haute-Savoie, France