What is like, living in a country with several official languages?
I know that in Switzerland, they have four different languages, but those are geographically seperate, so e.g. a German-speaking Swiss usually doesn't speak Italian as well.
Is that always the case in other countries as well? It must be quite inconvient, otherwise.
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Safety and product labels are in 3 languages, you have two national languages plus English in school, and if you'd really care you'd just take the train for ~80km and practice your skills in the according language region. Mandatory army service helps a lot with that, at least for males, as half the population will have to do months of service in places with different languages and different people.
P.S. we don't really speak German.
High german is still german
They speak their own dialect, but a German would understand standard Swiss German as spoken in e.g. Zurich without a problem.
We don't speak high German, we only use it for writing . We speak high Alemannic dialects (you know Alsatian?) that luckily are mostly ineligible to standard German speakers.
Downside, if we try to speak proper high German, we sound horrible, because our native grammar and pronunciation is so off we make many errors when trying to sound proper. Then we feel like idiots, then we hate ourselves, then we say nothing in high German no more and keep on babbling in Mundart.
It can be uncomfortable sometimes. I don't understand German and ebay for example is in German. I have to check all shows / movies in Netflix to see if my language is available. So I'm studying German so I'll finally know all 3
>but a German would understand standard Swiss German as spoken in e.g. Zurich without a problem.
No. It takes around 3 months to train a standard Geman in Zürich dialect so he can follow a normal conversation. My sister in law is from Saxony, when her family visits I have to talk high German or nobody will understand me. It is ok though, the Saxons don't speak high German very well themselves. Also had dozens of German co workers, in the first few months you have to talk German with them until they catch the drift.
When it comes to anything more difficult than Zurich German, fun ends for the lowlanders, highest Alemannic dialects are not for the faint of heart:
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>So I'm studying German
Last time I checked you should have 6 years of mandatory German in school, did you dish or are you a foreigner?
Ich bin elsässisch, ditsch oder ober ditsch isch distch, nit nederlander oder danischer, nur ditsch, selb für bayerische ditsch oder pommern ditsch
German :
- high german
-low german
-standard german
Thought it was pretty clear
So do you have to go through 6 years of French and Italian too?
Sounds like a mix between Dutch, Italian and Portuguese
>ditsch
Ahem
For German speakers, French is mandatory first foreign language. For the Romands, it is German. Not sure if Italian is a mandatory first foreign language, maybe in Grison?
It is highest Alemannic, and it is one of the oldest unchanged German dialects there is, this is like people spoke in the 10th century. Even for normal Swiss highest Alemannic dialects are hard to understand, so for shits and giggles our national railway company SBB (big thing in Switzerland) put their customer care center into Valais where everyone speaks like that. Telefon support has never been so funny.
If it is all German to you, why don't you understand a word from the videos? Aren't they talking German?
Yes, German is more than one language it is a so called dialect continuum, with a variety of dialects that are part of a bigger language construct but only inlligible to direct dialect neighbors and not people from other regions, at least it used to be that way .
Well I'm studying it again. Since I've never used it, I don't remember much. Also it's easier for you guys, you only learn English and French
Why is that easier, atop of that I had to learn "proper" German? I spent a couple months in Valais as a kid, that helps, but after a few years not speaking my French is rusty, so I make a week or so holidays in a French part of the world and things are ok again with my Français fédéral.
Same for some backward parts of quebec, some of them speak such a french no one on the continent can understand it, cajun french is also a pain and barely bearable. So your mountain schwitzer isn't a real exemple of how the average swiss alemannic will sound... sure dialects are separate and singular, but they belong to the same family
>So your mountain schwitzer isn't a real exemple of how the average swiss alemannic will sound... sure dialects are separate and singular, but they belong to the same family
I'm a Bütschgi master race, the Bütschgi area on that pic is quite small and it divides into around6 different subdialects. Swiss dialects are so specific that you can pinpoint a Swiss origin to within 5 km on the map by just looking how he pronounces 10 different words: home.datacomm.ch
The analysis is one village off from where I was born and raised.
I knew it was some southern part of ch. It sounds a bit like austrian german/bayerische. Really interesting this variety of dialects. Alsatian has its particularities as well, kochersberg elsässisch, ried elsässisch, sundgau (near switzerland) elsäsisch and of course the lothringen bock (northern alsatians and alsace bossue, they're the hillybillies). Or it was, unfortunately the younger generation almost doesn't understand it, let alone speak it. It's a bit sad.
ditsch is correct, albeit dütsch sounds even nicer.
>dütsch sounds even nicer
>implying Austrians ever managed to hold a Swiss back
Habsurgs are 100% alemannic bulls
The Republic of Ireland likes to larp as a bilingual nation so road signs have both Irish and English