German Reacts to SWISS GERMAN!🇨🇭| Feli from Germany
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- Опубліковано 14 чер 2024
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Germany and Switzerland are neighbors and even though a big part of Switzerland is German-speaking, they don't quite speak the same language! 😅 But how much can a regular German from Munich actually understand of Swiss German?
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Videos I reacted to:
@Wikitongues: Fabia speaking Swiss German ▸ • WIKITONGUES: Fabia spe...
@EasyGerman Swiss German in Zürich▸ • Speaking Swiss German ...
Wetter Schweizerdeutsch ▸ • Wetter Schweizerdeutsch and • ZüriWetter mit Dominiq...
@Aditotoro DEUTSCHER errät SCHWEIZER Wörter mit @dave_ ▸ • DEUTSCHER errät SCHWEI...
@EasyGerman Comparing 5 different Swiss German dialects ▸ • Comparing 5 different ...
@Aditotoro DEUTSCHER errät SCHWEIZER Wörter mit@rewinside ▸ • DEUTSCHER errät SCHWEI...
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0:00 Intro
1:35 Facts about Swiss German
5:31 Learn a language while watching TV!
7:50 @EasyGerman - Zürichdeutsch
17:15 @Wikitongues: Fabia
20:29 Weather Forecast
24:02 @Aditotoro Guessing Swiss Words
29:07 @EasyGerman 5 Swiss Dialects
32:30 Swiss Words with @rewinside
33:57 How much did I understand?
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ABOUT ME: Hallo, Servus, and welcome to my channel! My name is Felicia (Feli), I'm 29, and I'm a German living in the USA! I was born and raised in Munich, Germany but have been living in Cincinnati, Ohio off and on since 2016. I first came here for an exchange semester during my undergrad at LMU Munich, then I returned for an internship, and then I got my master's degree in Cincinnati. I was lucky enough to win the Green Card lottery and have been a permanent resident since 2019! In my videos, I talk about cultural differences between America and Germany, things I like and dislike about living here, and other topics I come across in my everyday life in the States. Let me know what YOU would like to hear about in the comments below. DANKE :)
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*How much did YOU understand? 🤔😅 And which dialect/language should I react to next?* Edit: Just realized I said "beat" instead of "beak" for a bird's mouth. You know what I meant though 😅 I also said that Swiss people don't use the dative case a lot when I really meant to say they don't use the GENETIVE case a lot and use dative instead. Dang it! 🫠
Love your videos. I am a 78 year old American from Dallas and I took two years of German in college. (I had a crush on my teacher. She was a German war bride.) Your videos always have a "positive" outlook or take that gives me joy. I remain amazed at how well you speak English. As the above video demonstrates every language has its "quirks" but regional German seems to have so many that people from different areas can have difficulty understanding their countrymen. My German teacher, Frau Bissel, told me many stories similar to yours. Thanks.
Normally the saying about high valais / oberwallis is that they understand everyone but no one understand them, maybe the video wasn't a hard version. For the " probably took from the french part.
For another language Romansh
Well actually there are 3 official versions of "Standard German" since 1902 enacted at the "Berliner Sprachkonferenz" in 1901 and set into law in all 3 countries in 1902...the Swiss, the Austrian and Germany´s "Standard German"...all 3 have little and few differences in behalf of Grammar/Vocabulary/Orthography in comparision to each other and those have nothing to do with "local dialects"..
So it is always a bit confusing when you just say "Standard German" because it isn´t clear which "Standard German" you actually mean when you refer to Switzerland or Austria because nowadays just very few Germans actually know of their existence presuming that "Germany´s Standard German" is a stand-alone and "the only one", which it isn´t.
Actually I know from a friend, who went with his family from Austria to Germany because of his job, that his daugther had at first a hard time to adapt in the school subject "German" because of that..certain Grammar and certain Orthography what was considered as wrong in Austria was now right in Germany and vice versa.
@@michaelgrabner8977 I mentioned in the video that Swiss standard German and German standard German were different. :) Whenever I later said Standard German, I meant the version in Germany.
@@FelifromGermany Thanks for the prompt respons.
In the French speaking part of Switzerland, we believe that Swiss-German is the language we will all speak in Heaven. Because it takes an eternity to learn.
Just from curiosity, is there Swiss French?
@@ulyssis there are all sorts of local dialects, or patois, but they are barely spoken anymore apart for a few words.
Rumansch, one of the four official Swiss languages, comes from latin and thus resembles French sometimes.
@ ulyssis: There are 4 languages in Switzerland: French, Swiss-German (which is related to Germany-German but different in that way, that Germans don‘t understand us but we do, as we learn Germany-German in school) and there is Italian and Rumansch. The last is a Swiss language but it sounds like a mix of Italian, German and old Latin. And then you have the dialects, like in each nation. A bit like in the US where you have the different dialects from the north/south and the old native-languages. We do not differe so much from other countries beside that we eat molten cheese our mountains are pretty hight and stunning beautiful and that we are fucking small. And do have a direct democracy. Means, if four agree and three disagree, we all agree (or vise-versa).
@@ulyssis kinda yes. In switzerland it's common to call "soixante-dix" (70) as "septante" / "quatre-vingts" (80) as "huitante"
Ouais le soucis c'est qu'on apprend que le HochDeutsch à l'école/gymnase, du coup quand on passe chez les bourbines bah on capte plus rien ahaha. Faut vivre dans un de ces cantons pour apprendre le dialecte je pense. Adieu du canton de Vaud d'ailleurs!
NO!! Müsli is the Swiss-German word for 'mouse' the Frühstück is Müesli. The Swiss say 'if the Germans want to eat mice for breakfast, that's up to them'.
Indeed, you will out yourself as German if you call it "Müsli". In Swiss German it's always "Müesli".
Its just a spelling error.
Müesli is spelled with an e in Germany too.
@@pulvinarpulvinar6749 no?
@@pulvinarpulvinar6749no
Weird. I always spelled it with an e 😅 without e it looks wrong
A Zug is also a Zug in Switzerland. A Zügli are only these small trains, which you sometimes find in zoos or citys for tourists.
or some trams in Bern; the Zahnradbahn e.g at the Riga is also called "es Zügli"
Or if you talk to children.
@@goodsound4756 i literally never heard it.
Bähnli yes but refferig to train as Zügli sounds dumb imo.
Äs Zügli cha au e Gartebaan si (Gardentrain?) oder ä Schmalspurbahn. Mängmol isch dä Uusdruck au historisch bedingt. Vill mee ghört me de Uusdruck "Bähnli". "Zügli" kann auch eine Gartenbahn oder eine Schmalspurbahn sein. Für gewisse Stecken ist der Ausdruck historisch bedingt. Verbreiteter ist der Ausdruck "Bähnli".
Ide Ostschwiiz isch Zügli sehr vebreitet und parallel zum Bähnli und Zug in Gebruch. Oftmol sind dSchmalspurbahne demit gmeint, wos durchus ä paar git.
My Bachelor's degree is in German and though I'd never been to Germany, I felt really good about my fluency. Then I went to work for Swissair in Atlanta. The first time I heard two Swiss speaking to each other, I caught not one word. Not one! Quite the humbling experience.
Don't worry. I am a native German and spoke german all my life. But the sister of my brother in law married a swiss from the area around Bern. When our families meet and Walter (the swiss) talks with his us or even his wife, he strives to speak understandable for us, just standard german with a funny and nice swiss accent. But as soon as he speaks to one of his daughters...oh my, every german needs subtitles to understand a word.
Even most of us native speakers struggle with understanding it. I'm good compared to others but that's just because of practice and being exposed to it. Being fluent in three languages probably helps too to be honest. Your brain just gets used to filling in gaps and patterns in languages.
I learnt German in Munich (from scratch to B2), then moved to Switzerland. Suddenly I realized that everything I learnt in Germany was worthless in Switzerland, with people speaking this kind of guttural dialect very similar to Dutch (Dutch is more musical and beautiful to my ears). A really disappointing experience for me, also because I applied for a job in IT that required "gute Deutschkenntnisse". Sadly I found out that it was almost a scam, provided that my coworkers spoke exclusively their Alemanic dialect, refusing to speak Hochdeutsch. A nightmarish, frustrating and terrible experience.
Antonio Norato You were extremely unlucky. I apologize for these ignorants. The vast majority automatically changes to standard german when adressing a foreign person. I have no problem with standard german at all.
@@mr.9thdoctor615 The dialect around Bern is really, really very special. I speak Swiss German from Zürich and Thurgau as my first language. If I were not used to hearing Bernese I would have no chance of understanding it. It can be very frustrating when someone had studied standard German as a foreign language for many years, then moves to the Bernese region and understands simply nothing.
There was a test on a Swiss website, where Swiss German speakers could choose how they speak around 30 words and then they were shown the location where they have grown up on a precision of 20-30 km (20miles). The regional variabilities were stunning. Of course, with immigration, moving around and the influence of media, it's not as exact anymore.
You'd be surprised how precise "forensic linguists" can pinpoint someone's life. Certain words are learned at certain ages or in certain educational institutions, and you usually pick them up where you live at that age. So often they can even say that someone spent their childhood in Lucerne, completed their Matura in Valais and then completed an apprenticeship in Chur.
i can nearly say to the village from where people are comming i Grow up in aargau... 20 miles is veryvery easy.. 10:32 she is no from zürich, i wouh guess Zofingen ;)
A test of a kind you mentioned I know is the "Chuchichäschtli-Orakel"
"Of course, with immigration... it's not as exact anymore." Which is a big understatement and a huge shame! Because we as the citizens of these German speaking countries, should have the right to decide, who's fitting into our societies and who's NOT!
But our totally disgusting "woke" society immigration madness will kill all these things, which have grown over the last 2000 years, because of "immigration" of the mass of people, who don't fit to our German cultures at all.
It’s very unlikely it’s become less accurate. Linguists have observed for years that media, etc has NOT been causing dialects to mix or level. On the contrary, regional dialects are becoming _more_ distinct, not less!
I'm from Geneva in Switzerland and we speak French here.I'm not quite fluent in German but speak it well enough and have no problem understanding people whenever I'm in Germany. But when I visit German speaking parts of Switzerland? Good god, it's like I've never heard a word in my life😅
Yes. You learned standard german.
That‘s basicly the quivalent of learning dutch and being suprised to not understand afrikaans.
It‘s close but different enough that people argue if it‘s even the same language.
@@Slithermotion yeah, linguistically, Swiss-German is still considered to be a dialect of Standard German btw. I'm Swiss-German but if I tell that to some other friends, good God, they will come at me with foaming mouths lmao.
@@lolhcd Because that‘s wrong.
Swiss german is a german dialect, not a dialect of standard german.
Linguisticly standard german is just another dialect but it got standardized.
Problem is a lot of people think german, high german and standard german are synonyms while they are actually different things.
@@lolhcd I completely agree that Swiss German is a dialect (or to be more exact: A group of dialects). But in my opinion the „problem“ is, that many people see it as an insult if someone calls what they speak a dialect. But that shouldn‘t be the case. The term dialect tells nothing about how different or how unique something is. The decision if something is a language or not is mainly political.
A good example for this is Luxemburgish: It is pretty much mutually Intelligible with Moselle Franconian dialects spoken on the German side of the border. But Luxemburgish is considered a language, the dialects on the German side are considered as German dialects. The only difference: Luxemburgish got standardized and was declared as national language of Luxemburg.
So it was just a completely political decision.
Therefore I think these discussions about whether something is a dialect or a language are always a bit ridiculous. It doesn‘t really matter. It doesn‘t tell us anything about how different the two dialects/languages are. There are many German speakers who will understand Luxemburgish better than Swiss German, there is certainly a Norwegian who has less problems to understand a Swede than an other Norwegian with a really strong dialect and I‘m sure you could find many other similar examples all over the world.
Swiss German already has its own grammar, phonology and vocabulary. The only thing that would change, if it was its own language, would be that there is some sort of standard version that would replace standard german in more formal situations.
Salut, j'habit nouveau au Suisse romondie (prèsque Lausanne) et je ne connais personne. Est-ce que tu as peut-être envie de faire connaissance?
I'm impressed by how well Feli researched the facts about Swiss German. As a Swiss, I also learned something new.
30:00 "Also understandable..."
Yeah he was very kind with you because "Walliserdeutsch" is in my opinion the hardest dialect in Switzerland. If it's spoken strongly even the swiss people from other regions struggle with understanding it. xD
As a east-swiss guy I think what is highly underrated is Appenzell Innerhoder Dialect. I literally live 40 Minutes from Appenzell and I can not understand them at all. I think they would give the Wallisers a run for their money :D
The thing is: the grammar is closer to Standard German. So if he doesn't use the more intricate vocab, and none of the weird vowel forms come up, as was the case in this sentence, it's actually aesier on German ears than most SwG dialects.
I think that guy was pulling his punches a bit - that was far more understandable than Walliserdeutsch usually is for me.
This lady's joy and enthusiasm is infectious. I just enjoy watching her speak...incredibly articulate
she has a strong media background and career, she is great at speaking in front of a camera
Her constant bouncing makes me dizzy.
@@golden.lights.twinkle2329 Close your eyes and just listen, then!
I had a swiss girlfriend who along with her mother and sister were fluent in Swiss German, High German, French, Romansch, Bageot and Italian. At Christmas they would all come together and gather in the kitchen of an evening and would speak a language that would mix the best words and expressions from each of all these languages depending on the context and subject being discussed. They were absolutely fluent and the conversation never paused. Her dad came from Zurich and like me was unable to follow along only picking out words occasionally.
My sister and I speak Spanish, French, Italian, Swiss and High German as well as English. When we have deep talks we usually pick the words in any of those languages that best describes the concept or meaning we want to express.
What is bageot? I've never heard of that language before.
@@andrewtyren7904 maybe he means badiot? (but, wouldn't that be romansh as well? Semplamein Romontsch da las Dolomitas)
I guess with Bageot you mean Bargaiot from Val Bregaglia ??"Ever since the Reformation, the official Bregaglian language has been Italian. Nevertheless, the locals speak a dialect , "Bargaiot", which they consider their mother tongue.
It can be said that "Bargaiot" is a mix of the Lombard and Romansh languages combined with some of its own attributes. The vocabulary is similar to Romansh, the grammar is more Lombard and some unique words have German origins, such as vasciùs, which comes from the German Waschhaus."
@@andrewtyren7904 Ever since the Reformation, the official Bregaglian language has been Italian. Nevertheless, the locals speak a dialect , "Bargaiot", which they consider their mother tongue.
It can be said that "Bargaiot" is a mix of the Lombard and Romansh languages combined with some of its own attributes. The vocabulary is similar to Romansh, the grammar is more Lombard and some unique words have German origins, such as vasciùs, which comes from the German Waschhaus.
As a Swiss I must say that this is very well researched and described.
Also interesting… as you mentioned, „Grüezi“ is used in Zurich and comes from the formal form „Ich grüsse Sie“ (standard German and Zurich dialect use third form plural as formal you). While in Berne, we say „Grüessech“, which comes from „Ich grüsse euch“, and indeed we consistently use the second form plural as formal you („I lose nech zue“ = „Ich höre euch (=Ihnen) zu“), just like in French („je vous salute“), as Berne is near to the French language border. So different Swiss german variants even use different grammar 😅
My wife is from a Swiss village not far from Lake Konstanz (Bodensee). I also studied law in Fribourg, on the Röstigraben (the border of French and German speakers). It is always funny to hear Standard German, of which I can just about catch 30%, then hear my wife's funny little hobbit language, of which I catch *maybe* 10%. I definitely won't have a clue when my kids are talking about me!
And now imagine me and my wife, neither of us having German as first (nor second) language, raising two kids in Switzerland. They just have their secret language, neither of us has virtually a clue what they are talking to each other when they go fast Swiss German. 🤯
@@hundredfireify yep, we did it that way. My wife is Czech, I am Slovak, and we live in Switzerland - and the kids are tri-lingual (or perhaps quadri-lingual, if counting High German and Swiss German as separate languages).
Never tell a Swiss that he speaks a funny little hobbit language... (you're right though)
@@nilsen589 The funny thing is that I first heard the "Hobbit language" description from a good friend of mine from Lucerne! But my wife hates it when I say that, so you're right!
@@lelandunruh7896 Lmao I love it. I think it's hilarious.
In Swiss German, we usually call the meal times with a “Z’” before the word to indicate the time or event of the meal:
Z’Morge (German literally: “zum Morgen”, breakfast)
Z’Znüni (literally “zum Neun Uhr”, little break at nine o’clock)
Z’Mittag (“zum Mittag”, lunch)
Z’Zvieri (“zu vier Uhr”, little break at four o’clock)
Z’Nacht (“zur Nacht”, Dinner)
Would that Z'morge be instead of Frühstück ?, and so on ? Thanks
Yes
@@pimpthyride Yes, it's z + the time when you traditionally eat.
But now you wrote the Z in Znüni and Zvieri twice
You left out Z'abig ("Zum Abend", basically a less late dinner as far as I can tell)
A Zopf in Switzerland is bread made with milk instead of water and butter. People usually eat it with butter and jams or Nutella, but it can also be used to make sandwiches.
... with butter and cenovis...
Or butter and Aromat😂
En hefezopf halt?
Ds Bärn isch es e Züpfe... nume fürs no chli komplizierter ds mache 😅
Haha but foresure you had to mention Nutella 😅🙏
I’m from singapore but moved to CH at a young age. I learned German through interaction and also in school. But when I went to DE to learn German, the teachers looked at me funny and said my accent was “strange” 😭 Until I told them I was from CH, and they were like “Ohhh okay, makes sense”
Jancok
I feel you! Sadly, that is my experience too. I have met to many Germans who just called my accent 'strange' instead of aknowledging that there are infact differen Standards for German in different countries.
@@SwissKaktus That's the sad thing with Germany today: Especially in the middle and north: dialects have become sociolects. If you don't speak the standard accent, that reflects on your socioeconomic status. Not everybody is as accepting as Feli. But then, she is from Bavaria, where they proudly use their dialect (and still manace to learn a decent standard accent in school.) Swiss kids have their best Std German accent befor entering school (learned from TV), then the somehow (not by the teachers) get taught that we don't speak such a polished German here...
what is CH?
@@IstealtoastConfederation Helvetica (Switzerland)
Feli, great video! In the "breakfast interview" section, I remembered that Standard German also has some "false friends" in Swiss German. For example, when you order a "Müsli" in Switzerland, you might not get what you expected since "Müsli" is a little mouse, whereas "Müesli" (with a spoken "e" after the "ü") is what you actually wanted.🙃
Viele Grüße ais Karlsruhe - alla hopp.
Das war witzig! Das Müsli, das ich als Kindheits-Frühstücksliebling hatte, würde in der Schweiz gut ankommen! Wenn Sie dort nicht aufpassen, könnten die Leute Ihre Absicht übersehen. Sprachen können schwierig sein, selbst wenn Menschen in einer gemeinsamen Kultur leben. Wo regionale Unterschiede auftreten, kann sich eine False-Friend-Situation bemerkbar machen! 😂 😝
There are a few great false friends:
Müsli (in Germany: The dish / in Switzerland: A little mouse)
Peperoni (hot peppers / Regular bell peppers)
Paprika (regular bell peppers / just the condiment)
Kehren (to sweep with a broom / to turn around)
Wischen (to wipe something / to sweep with a broom)
Zügeln (to curb something / to move)
Posten (to post something online / to go shopping)
Nudeln (every kind of pasta / only the long flat pasta (like for example tagliatelle))
Finken (finches (a kind of bird) / a house shoe)
Fahrausweis (ticket / drivers license)
Estrich (concrete floor / attic)
Kasten (a box / a wardrobe)
@@NormanF62 It's not really a problem. We are well aware of the Std German pronunciation of Müesli. We just like to make fun of them for it.
You did an incredible job at repeating some of the swiss german words - the pronunciation was really on point. Good job alround on the video. Cheers from Switzerland.
wallis she failed ;)
@@winters3 Definitely.
But I fail any word in the dialect of Wallis notwithstanding the fact my first languages are Swiss German and Italian from Graubünden ...
I am from the swiss german border and can understand almost all swiss dialects, except Walliserdütsch, you should really try to understand it. The breakfast is called zmorge, basically a short version of zum morgen. Theres as well znüni (9 o clock break), zmittag (lunch) and zvieri (4pm food break)
still confuses me when my east-german coworker does his "Frühstück"-break. I already told him a thousand times that what he means is "Znüni".
You only forgot "znacht"
@@annagraf99 you're right, my bad
Hi Feli
Thanks for the video.
I moved to Switzerland 10 years ago from Berlin. It took me 3 months to understand Swiss German, but since today, I still learn new words.
I think because you are from Bavaria it is easier for you to understand, because in the beginning I had no clue 😀
At some point, I was sitting with my mother in a train and I heard some guys talking behind us. I thought they were talking in the Swiss high German, but my mother said, no, she can't understand anything 😁
So yeah, nice of you to give Swiss German a platform.
Nowadays, I understand almost everything, except if someone uses a special word from Hintertupfingen.
Keep up the good word.
Greetings from Zurich
My ex girlfriend also moved from Berlin to Switzerland and it was so exciting to hear what she did not understand when she had just moved. Like stuff I wasn't even aware were different. For example "Schön, bist du da" instead of "Schön, dass du da bist" caused quite the confusion. 😄
Another funny story was when she went to a flat viewing and the landlord asked her whether she wanted to see "den Estrich"... She was like "Warum sollte ich den Estrich sehen wollen?" - I mean I knew you guys call it "Dachboden" but I did not know that "Estrich" was a completely different thing.
Oh and how interesting it was when I was invited to eat "Raclette" at her mother's place in Berlin. Hahaha, I like it though. Less cheese and less potatoes but more of everything else.
Funny story with your mother in the train. Do you now speak Swiss German sometimes? 🙂
grüessich! Ich finds au uere cool wie so vile videos über d'schwiiz plötzlich hochglade werdet.
As someone from Basel, i am so hapoy you did this. I have a feeling swiss german gets ignored so often, even from germans and austrians. Might also be good to add that swiss german is also different in how you spell the words, not just pronunciation. And depending on where you come from, how you pronounce and spell the words is also very different. To clear some things up. 1. Yes, Gipfeli is baiscally a croissant, but there are many different types. 2. Yes, we do eat zopf in slices, often for breakfast, often on sundays. 3. "Büüsi" is just common slang, we also say "Chatz" and "Chätzli".
Also, no one sais "Zügli" to a normal sized train. 😂
Seriously, swiss german is to us germans what an english accents is to americans. It sounds cute and adorable. (even when you speak Hochdeutsch)
@@AmarthwenNarmacil Ah man I found that listed in an article about linguistic differences 😅
My family came from the nearby Liestal area. I wish there was a way to learn Swiss German online. My last name is Marti so if you meet anyone with this name, we are probably related.
And in this video there was some "gonfi" or one step easier "Konfi" for breakfast.
That must be "Konfitüre", "Marmelade", which is "jam".
In Austria it's "Marmalad", but "Konfitüre" is also understood as a word which is very much over the top ;-) But "jam" would mostly be understood as a traffic jam, so they need a hint or two to get the right meaning ;-)
I grew up in a part of Oregon where many German speaking people settled. During WW1 most of them switched to English. But I did go to high school in Beaverton with kids who spoke German at home. Helvetia was founded by Swiss immigrants and they never stopped speaking German. They still speak unintelligible Swiss German.
My cousins used to live in Beaverton. I have fond memories of that area.🤗👍
I think in roman times, the name for Switzerland, or that region, was Helvetia. That may be the etymology for that name.
@@HalfEye79 it is. CH is the country code for Switzerland. It's on Swiss stamps, cars, etc. It means Confoederatio Helvetica.
I would love to hear them speaking that unintelligible Swiss German.
@@robertsandberg2246 Beaverton? Sounds like a town out of 'Debbie does Dallas'
I fully understand your feeling of "cuteness" about Swiss German. I also find it cute even though I'm not a native German speaker.
We Poles feel exactly the same about Czech and Slovak. They also sound cute to us. They feel softer and they have a lot of diminutive forms of words we know from Polish. The thing is that their "diminutive" words are actually not really diminutive in Slovak or Czech, it's just how they use them.
Zurich is only an hour from where I live in Germany, and even though it is wild how different they speak, I can understand almost everything. My favourite part was when he said "z'mörgele" for having breakfast. What a cute word!
And yes, kids definitely call Schnuller Nucki or Nuggi here, too.
Yeah but that's probably the easiest to understand. It's pretty neutral. When you start going into the mountains or otherwise more removed parts it can get very different. Sometimes even us Swiss have to listen really carefully. They often use totally different words that you couldn't possibly know or even guess.
I LOVED how much you enjoyed diving into Schwiizer Düütsch. I moved to the Basel region from the US in 1977. In terms of language, like falling into a black hole, BUT ... most everyone has some experience with English, so that actually slowed down my learning of German. Then I met my Swiss wife from Bern and ... she does languages well, but HATES English, so through pillow talk at first, I learned some German. As a musician, I'd turn on German TV and watch/listen to political discussions while doing technical exercises on my instrument. These are muscle-memory exercises, so the whole idea is NOT to think about what you're playing or how. Watching German TV slowly, slowly opened up my bsic German knowledge. Everyday life then began to let in Swiss Hochdeutsch which is different from Basel-Düütsch. Teaching kids also helped, because they learn Schweizer Hochdeutsch in the school as an obligatory foreign language. So they too have to think about what they want to say. And I understand why you find Swiss German "cute", because these kids speak with a Germanised misch-masch, slapping on an "-en" onto a Swiss German verb. Anrufen auf Schwiizer Düütsch heisst "lytte" or "a-lytte" and always takes the dative form, not like anrufen takes the accusative form. So they ask "Kann ich Dir heute Abend a-lytten?" Even my wife, who, as I said, does well in languages stumbles on this. "Tom hat Dir angerufen".
Now, I'm sitting in an AirBnb im Odenwald. I take week-trips to southern Germany, maybe 3-5 times a year to visit towns with half-timbered houses (Fachwerkhäuser). When I speak my Scheizer Hochdeutsch, I often confuse people here, because they hear my light American accent in well formed German sentences, sometimes mixed with Swiss vocabulary (when will I learn in conversation that "parkieren" is Swiss and "parken" is German?). just yesterday at the Hessisches LAndesmuseum a guard asked me if I was American or Dutch or Swiss. So nice when it's not 100% obvious, that I'm an Ex-Ami.
For those unfamiliar with Swiss German: A-lytte/A-lüte is basically "anleuten", so basically the Swiss "ring" someone, while the Germans "call" someone.
Your mention of "parkieren" reminded me of my favorite German/Swiss misunderstanding: feucht aufnehmen vs. wischen vs. kehren vs. wenden -- Swiss "feucht aufnehmen" is what Germans call "wischen". Swiss "wischen" is what Germans call "kehren" or "fegen". Swiss "kehren" is what you do with a car, and call "wenden" in Germany. It's almost a chain like the Bavarian/English joke "Die hom an Sparren, die Amis: Zu i sogns Ei, zu Ei sogns Eck, Eck sogns corner, und zu koaner sogns nobody."
@@uliwitness Exactly, this is the one word where my husband and I have a "misunderstanding". I know he uses the Swiss variation, but I will ask him always if he means wet or dry 😅
@musicofnote1 wow how did you manage to move to Switzerland as an American? I’ve been looking into it and it looks impossible. I wish I could.
No, no, no…. A Müüsli is a little Mouse. A Müesli (note the e after the ü) is the Breakfast! (These are commonly mistaken/mispronounced by Germans). Gipfeli are Croissants. A Zopf (Butterzopf) is usually a Sunday Breakfast. Zmorge gässe. Zmorge is Breakfast.
Chrömle (Verb) is buying stuff for little money. Chröm (Noun) are also Kekse.
As a Swiss originally from Bern, I really enjoyed your video! I now live in Winterthur (canton Zürich) and as you correctly pointed out, there are differences in dialects. Similar to English, in Bern we don't differentiate between "duzen/siezen". So instead of using "Sie" or "Ihnen", we only use "Dir" and "öich" (= euch) and I've had experiences, where people looked at me weirdly thinking that I was being rude to them but then realizing that I just have a different dialect😅
Very true. I a am also originally from the canton of Berne but i live now as well in Winterthur...
In Swiss German, the word "breakfast" is often called "Zmorge" (short for "zum morge"), which translates to "for morning" or "to (as a preposition) morning".
However, to say "for breakfast", we would still say "zum zmorge", thus adding a second "zum" (for whatever reason).
"To eat breakfast" is then "zmorge näh/ässä" (to take/eat zmorge).
If you want to say that in the most Swiss way, just use "zmörgälä" (= to have breakfast).
Hi Feli
A small glitch at 4:46: We don't use the Genetive case and replace it with the Dative. Swiss Grammar is very similar to Bavarian Grammar: no Imperfect, different genders of articles like der Butter aso. 😊
Wait but in Bavarian too, people will get around the genetive case by using dative... 🤔 I'm confused as to what you're trying to say 😅
@@FelifromGermany That's what I meant with "similar grammar" In both languages there is no Genetive, no Imperfect and different articles for the nouns. Der statt die Butter e.g. What I wanted to point you to at 4:46 is that you said that the Swiss DON'T use the Dative, but we also use the Dative instead of the Genetive. Best, Peter (Bayerisch-Schwyzer Doppelbürger ,) )
@@pefis Ohhhh I meant to say you dint use the Genetive case of course!! 🙈 I didn't even realize I said that wrong
Der besitzanzeigende Dativ. Kannten schon die Römer und viele Dialekte kennen den.
"Wem is dat? Mir!" 😆
@@matanadragonlin Wie viele Römer!?
People from Southern Germany usually don't have many problems understanding Swiss Germans. We from the North usually struggle a lot more.
It took me years to master it to the level where I could listen to strangers talking among themselves and to understand them effortlessly.
Yep, those north of the Apfel-Appel isoglosse usually struggle.
I'm dutch and I learned Hochdeutsch in school and I would say I'm at high B2 level. Recently for my work I needed to go to Switzerland and I can understand like 20-30% when they speak in Swiss-German. Like Feli said they can all speak standard German so it's no problem. I love Switzerland even though the people can be really closed when they don't know you and especially if you can't speak any form of German. When you get to know them Swiss people are really nice. Liebe Grüsse aus den Niederlanden ❤
we swiss people are the best ❤
This is so in your wheelhouse. You do such a great job on these kind . videos. Your explanation of Swiss German and its origins is articulate, comprehensive. Well done!
The cool thing about being Swiss is that we can understand other Swiss, most Germans, usually some French (because we had to learn the language in school), maybe some Italian and/or Spanish - because it's similar to French and of course English.
Thank you so much for this video, as a Swiss from german-speaking Switzerland I truly was waiting for this.
Just some thoughts:
- No one would say "Zügli" to a normal train. It would probably be used for those touristic "trains" on the road, seen in many touristic places around the world. Or a small mountain cable car might be called Zügli if it's a cute, little one.
- Our Zopf is a bread made with butter, usually eaten on Sunday. Of course we cut it in slices and eat it with butter and jam, honey or even some cheese or sausage. In Germany the Zopf is often sweetened, this is not the case in Switzerland.
- As a fun fact, we also have a verb for "having breakfast" and that's "zmörgele", as breakfast (Frühstück) ist called "Zmorge" in most Swiss dialects. Lunch is called "Zmittag", dinner is called "Znacht". But there are no special verbs for those latter two.
- "Müesli" is a Swiss invention, so it's called "Müesli" and never ever "Müsli" which really means "little mouse" in Swiss German. ;-)
And yes, the weather lady said "it's just a little interruption" and said bye with "alles Liäbi", which translates to "alles Liebe" or "much love" - but I really heard it the first time like that, that's kind of a strange use of this term.
Haha isch mer nie ufgfalle, aber ich wird ab etz jedes mal a Müüs denke wenns epper falsch uusspricht 😅
Blasphemy. You do not eat Züpfe with honey, and no need to add more butter to it. Obviously the only correct way is to dip it in coffee... or maybe just make Mökkä.
@@Semilupus Züpfetoast mit Anke isch dr Shit
Yes usually they'd say "s'Bähnli" because they don't use the word "Zug" they call it "Bahn"
@@jmjmjm439 du toschtisch züpfe? würkli? Dänn isch er gar nümm schön fluffig....
How fun! I'm Swiss, so this was a home run for me. Thank you and keep up the great work!
I love the intro to the video with the general remarks about the dialects in the southeastern part of the "German" speaking world. You really did your research very well.
I am bilingual Swiss German - Italian from the region of Graubünden. Where I live, people switch quite easily between Romantsch - Italian - Swiss German.
Selbst nach 37 Jahren an der schweizer Grenze muss ich mich anstrengen um Schweizerdeutsch richtig zu verstehen. 🙂
Bist du ein "Neigschmeckter"?
@@kevinblankenburg4816 Was das?^^
@@dadada23456 Jemand der aus der Fremde nach Schwaben zieht.
@@kevinblankenburg4816 Nein, an der Grenze geboren und aufgewachsen. LG
Man kann die Schwierigkeit Martin Luther zuschreiben, der dem Hochdeutschen 1522 in seiner berühmten Bibelübersetzung einen Ehrenplatz und ein literarisches Ansehen verlieh. Die Auswirkungen waren so tiefgreifend, dass andere deutsche Dialekte darunter litten und an Boden verloren. Die Zeit war einfach nicht gnädig mit ihnen und die Vereinheitlichung des Deutschen hat sie noch regionaler gemacht und teilweise ist das Schweizerdeutsch deshalb für Deutsche schwer verständlich.
I grew up in Munich and lived 13 years in Ulm, we went to Switzerland at least 10 times as a kid/teen, so i usually have no problem understanding Swiss German. But some people are just barely understandable even if you speak their dialect, my landlord in Ulm for example was from the Allgäu and spoke such a thick Allgäuer dialect (a Vorarlberg/Swabian mix) i had problems following sometimes.
Now i live in NRW and regularly get phone calls redirected from colleagues with a "you're from Bavaria you can understand this person" and then they speak a rheilandpfälzisch or hessian dialect and i'm like ok every thing south is Bavarian to you huh?
Die Preissn sind nur neidisch weil's gar nix verstehen, wir sie aber schon xD
Very good introduction! As a Swiss, I'm very proud how you summarized the differences. And I learned a bit on the way ;-) Great job!
An interesting fact about Swiss German is that the german past form (Präteritum) doesn't exist. When we talk about the past we always use the german present perfect form (Perfekt)
Thats why I choose this in english.
Im ersten Video aus Zürich, in dem sie Leute auf der Strasse ansprachen, war definitiv nicht nur Zürichdeutsch zu hören, denn natürlich gibt es in der Schweiz durchaus Leute, die vom einen in den anderen Kanton umziehen, sei es fürs Studium oder wenn auch mal über die Dorfgrenzen hinaus geheiratet wird. ;) (Und gerade in Zürich studieren doch viele junge Menschen auch aus anderen Gegenden.)
Und vorallem arbeiten da auch viele Leute aus anderen Kantonen rund herum.
Nice video. Just a little correction about the "-li"-thing. We only use this ending, when we describe something as the little or small form of it, similar as the german enhanced ending "-lein" (or in some cases "-chen"). For example: A house, in german "ein Haus" is in swiss german "e Huus". A little house, "ein Häuslein" in german, is called "e Hüsli" in swiss german. The example you mentioned with "der Zug" is also "der Zug" in swiss german. "Das Zügli" it's only called, if it's only a locomotive and (for example) two waggons instead of a large ICE with eight or more waggons.
Yeah I had a few people correct me on that. I had that example from an article that listed linguistic differences between standard German and Swiss German but I probably shouldn't have relied on that 😅 You guys definitely use the -li ending way more than we use -lein or -chen though. We wouldn't refer to a small train or a locomotive as Züglein for example. At least, I've never heard anyone say that. 😅
@@FelifromGermany Yes, we use it now and then. But there are even differences. As example: "Schrübli" is a small screw. But "Rüebli" isn't a term for something smaller than usual. It's just a normal word for carrot. Big or small, doesn't matter. Quiet a few examples like "Märli", Meitli or Löli which are normal words. Even though the may sound cute to Germans.
Same in Spanish “little Carlos” would be Carlito big Carlos Carlote etc
@@chips7 "Märli" and "Meitli" are bad examples here... Even in standard German these words are diminutives (Märchen, Mädchen)
@@FelifromGermany Yeah but “Zügli” is a word I’ve never once encountered in over 20 years of living in Switzerland. If we want to refer to a tiny train, the usual word is “Bähnli”.
One of the things Germans who move here take forever to get right is when to use diminutives and when not to - they’re used more in Swiss German than in Standard German, but not as often as Germans _think_ they are! (In general, Germans find it VERY hard to transition to using Swiss German, because it often ends up being in this “uncanny valley” where it comes off almost as a parody, not an earnest attempt.)
Ganz viel Liebi an alli Allemanne!
The effort that went into your research is top notch.This was by far the most accurate video about Switzerland and Swiss German I have ever seen. Well done!
I'm from the Rhineland which is far away from Switzerland. I used to have a client from Zurich. Normally, I called my contact person directly on her phone, and that worked well because she - although of Italian origin - spoke perfectly German (with this nice accent). But every now and then I couldn't reach her and ended up in the company's switchboard. And that's when I felt like an alien, because the friendly lady there spoke pure Swiss German - presumably, because I never really understood her. :)
You speak such good American English that I can’t hardly tell your from another country. My wife is from the Philippines and i find learning even a few words challenging.
As a Swiss living in Bern/Zurich and having met many many many many Germans that moved here ($$😁$$) my experience is usually quite consistent: First they don't understand anything, they can barly guess the topic if it's a quick spoken Saturday night beer table. Then after a few months they "tune in" and understand most if not all of it. This is like 90% of the Germans. Then there are the magical few that understand us from the get-go (mostly from southern regions though) and then there are hopeless ones, like a colleague who has lived here 5 years and still struggles to understand what we speak 😅😅
great video, danke vielmals! always great seeing videos about Swiss German XD
In college i took German.
There were two German teachers, one was German and the other was Swiss
They did some work together, where you could hear accent differences
They both taught High German, but gave us insight into dialect differences
I didn’t put on an accent, but they said i had a good accent
Moin Felicia! I greatly appreciate your wonderful videos. I'm an English speaker who has been learning German. Lately, I've been wanting to learn the difference between the various styles of the language, so this video was a blessing. In the meantime, thank you for the amazing channel. Danke und prost!
Zopf is a bread. A Sunday bread made with white flour, egg, butter, milk. It's often 500g or a kilo. No way is it a pastry. It's eaten with butter and jam or wirh a savory topping. You don't need to toast it
Because we have our Zopf a bit salty and not the sweet version like the Germans.
Hi, Hello!
I Came here as I saw Your film about the IIWW subject. Great film, btw I left a comment there as well. You make very interesting content.
About Swiss German, I meet a family from Swiss in Greece in 2019 and I knew they were speaking German (I speak some German - very little), but I could not understand them 🙂we spoke about it (in English) and that is how I got it, that They are from Swiss.
Cheers from Poland!
PS My brother lives in Amberg (close to Nurnberg). He is a franciskaner priest there.
I am swiss and we do not use the ending li all the time
I would say the train in swiss german is "dr zug"
I've found that listed as an example but maybe it wasn't the best one. 🤔 And I didn't mean to say you guys use it all the time but it seems to be a linguistic fact that it's used a lot more than in Standard German 😊
Very well researched facts about Swiss German in the beginning of the video and also the rest of the video was fun to watch an well made!
So from someone who lives in Switzerland I have to thank you very much for making this video, because our language never gets mentioned anywhere. And here you made a whole video about it so thanks for that.
And the dude who said that he ate a …bread and you didn’t really understand it. He ate a bread with jam on it. He said he ate a ‚gonfibrot‘.
Where I live, we don’t say ‚bütschgi‘ we say ‚bitzgi‘. So yeah it’s different everywhere. And we also don’t say ‚ahoiel‘ we say ‚ahau‘ or ‚gupf‘ 😅
after a month in Munich and 3 months of Duolingo we went to Salzburg for my birthday. I thought I'd be fine after being able to clumsily navigate my way around southern Germany. I was not fine. The waiter knew I wasn't fine -- correcting my Hochdeutsch with whatever the hell is going on in Oesterreich. The train ride back had me contemplating all my life choices
swiss german is an entirely different beast and it makes me want to cry while sitting down in the shower
@YT Algorithm Perfected. My girlfriend's Austrian relatives came over to have a memorial with us for their English granny, since they could not come to the funeral during lockdown. They said I spoke German like a German, but as I have commented before, I think there is an Austrian joke in there.
@YT Algorithm Perfected. My girlfriend's Austrian relatives came over to have a memorial with us for their English granny, since they could not come to the funeral during lockdown. They said I spoke German like a German, but as I have commented before, I think there is an Austrian joke in there.
@@alansmithee8831 dude that's a tearful "danke" from me idc if they're making fun
As a swiss I need to point out, that Train = zügli is not the best example of the usage of our famous -li ending. I'd say it is "dr zug" or in my dialect i say "de zog" "zügli" would be more like a small train for example a kids ride at a fair or maybe a tram/Strassenbahn or something like that.
But else it's a really funny video. Great work, thanks alot!
P.S. Schnäbi in Switzerland is not considered vulgar. It is the word we teach our children, i'd consider it the official swiss word for that bodypart.
The “li” in Swiss German is like “chen” in Standard German, its a diminutive intensifier intended to make a word more endearing!
I do agree that it is a diminutive intensifier but there also are words where it is not.
For example "es tassli" is a cup/Tasse. I don't care how big it is, I would never use the word "Tasse" or something like that, it is possible that in some dialects there could be a difference. Same goes with "es Rüebli" that means a carrot/Karotte that is something different than "e Rüebe" that means beet/Rübe no matter how big the carrot is, it's still "es Rüebli". But since there aren't any rules to swiss german, everyone has his own rules and most of the time we do accept these and understand each other.
Great video! Thanks so much! This was the first video of yours I’ve seen because I love Switzerland and spend my time in canton Bern when I go so I could understand the penultimate video when the teacher from canton Bern spoke. Fab video!
I am living in Fribourg (Freiburg im Üchtland) the sister city of Freiburg im Breisgau. In the local Swiss German dialect they use the verb "to come" for passive phrases. So you say : s'Hus isch buut CHOO" meaning " The house has been built" or in German " Das Haus WURDE gebaut". BUUT means 'gebaut' and CHOO means 'gekommen'
Interesting to see how similar and different the languages are. I’m not good at learning languages, so I’m always interested to hear people talk about the variety of languages that they speak.
Hi Feli! I'm a native Yiddish speaker and i also lived in Zurich for a couple of years in the ealry 2000s, so i really look forward to watch this video. Thanks. 😊
As an exchange student in the summer of 1969 after three weeks, I began to understand my German families southern German dialect better and better. I had been taught high German only and I struggled but made progress. Then we took a three week bus tour of many European countries. I held my own in Austria but next came Switzerland. That was like a brick to the head. We were there three days and I did make progress but slowly. I always believed that trying to speak a countries language was important. The people will help you and appreciate your efforts.
What they are saying for breakfast is „Zmorgä“, a sort of abreviation vor Zum Morgä, wich means for morning.
We have our own verb for it too, its zmörgälä:)
I have been studying German for 4 months, so I am too new to understand their dialect, HOWEVER I am finding reading the standard German subtitles very helpful. I'm learning the present perfect tense so it's great to see this in action! 👍 Zum Frühstück esse ich Roggenbrot und Butter
Hi Feli - as a swiss from Zürich I really love to watch your clips - and of course especially this one. You did a great job!! Congratulation!!
Just one note thouh: the Swiss German spoken by some TV moderators (like the one old clip with the weather lady) is often very bad Swiss German - because they simultaneously read from e prompter which presents in standart German - the language we usually write in. So they translate while reading - which often causes wrong sounding dialect.
AND in the first clip you discussed, there is actually an elderly lady who speaks the Swiss German of Bern, not from Zürich. We Swiss like to listen to even sublte differences in dialect in order to try and guess where exactly - from which of the 25 cantons - somebody comes from
I remember there being news reports a few years ago where there were great complaints about the "fake Swiss German" being spoken by so many radio hosts, who basically speak High German at home, and make up for the gaps in their childhood dialect knowledge with bits from other dialects, or worse, High German.
Idk if this is some kind of joke I am not in on, but Switzerland has 26 cantons.
@@DasAntiNaziBroetchen maybe from the other canton besides the one they're from...
2:17 You come out with very cool maps sometimes, but I think this one has got to be the coolest!
Hi, I’m from the French part of Switzerland and I have to say that I was very impressed about your presentation. You can give so much information at such a fast rate. Thank you for that
I had German in college many years ago and when the army sent me to Landstuhl I thought I would be in my element.
The first few days I could not understand a word they were saying.
I never became fluent but I was understandable but the locals always knew I wasn't from "these parts"
But the Swiss German for me was completely foreign
At least in Germany when I would speak high German which is the way it is taught here it was sort of like a universal German even though I had trouble understanding, say, the Bavarians
I remember a Munich camera shop owner telling me that the Northerners couldn't understand him
But to the point of the Swiss I was trying to speak my German in a little Swiss grocery store and the clerk finally said "will you please speak English! I cannot understand you!" 😁😁😁
Swiss German is crazy! Like German glazed with a coating of French butter and tarragon 😂
Also, as a hand-knitter that sweater is gorgeous af! I hope someone made it for you, cuz if the machine knitters are doing that well wow ☠️
She’s like a German ray of sunshine these videos make me happy cause she seems so happy. Thanks for these from Chicago. Subbed!
Thanks for the tipp with lingopie! I will test it and see wether I can use that for my french students. Although I'm pretty sure that there are only english subtitles!
Ten years ago I was on a long-distance train in Australia (the big English-speaking country in the southern-hemisphere with the kangaroos that isn't to be confused with the small, mountainous German-speaking country in Central Europe). A couple of young solo back-packers boarded the train individually and were assigned the seats across the aisle from me.
Before the train moved off the two back-packers introduced themselves to each other (in English it being in Australia), one said he was from Switzerland and the other one said he was from Berlin in Germany, they then switched to speaking in German.
Five or ten minutes later the two backpackers gave up speaking in German, one of them said something about it being so much easier to understand each other if they used English and from then onwards it was English for the remainder of the journey.
I once served as a translator between a northern German and an Austrian. The difference in Germany between north and south in dialects is basically as big as the difference between Dutch and High German.
My dad's father (Fritz) was Swiss-German. He came from a village on the shores of Lake Biel. He immigrated to Minnesota where he married my Minnesota-German grandmother. He told us things about Swiss Heritage. He said that his Swiss friends had fun confusing German friends with their Swiss Dialect.
😂❤
Greeting from the lake of Biel
I’ve lived in Swiss Germany for three years, five years in Suisse Romande before that. Kids have Znüni for morning tea which kind of translates to “ninesies” because they eat it around 9am. Also, French use « these » so I think is a crossover from French, along with these words velo, poulet, portemonie, garderobe etc
And yet even those quotation marks aren’t identical, since in French there is always a space between the quotation marks and the text within, but not in German.
Grüß dich von Baden-Württembberg, aber Hallo als Amerikaner! I love your channel, and I love the partnership with Josh (shoutout to I Only Understand Train Station podcast!), along with the rest of your content about Germany. I'm an expat from Pennslvania (heartland of American-German heritage), and love your content!!! Your bridging of our cultures is fantastic, and I love having your content with me to find my way in Germany. I constantly look for and see exactly how the topics in your videos apply to me in every-day life. Du und deine Videos beeinflussen mich, noch weiter in mein Deutschleben zu erweitern. Always loving the content :) Mit fruendlichen Grüßen, Brian.
I actually understood nuggi (pacifier), because when my son was a baby all pacifiers were called nuks after the company NUK. This was here in the US, where brand names sometimes become genericized.
That does not only happen in the US.
In Switzerland we for example have „Bostitch“ (meaning stapler), Tip-Ex (whiteout), „Fön“ (hairdryer) or „Natel“ (mobile phone).
@@nirutivan9811 odr no geiler: "Maggi-Krut".
@@Yoshi-vq3og Das stimmt. Da dra hanni nöd denkt. Gits wohl au nöd hüüfig, dass e pflanze nachere Marke benennt wird.
And for those who don‘t speak Swiss German: There is a plant (I think it‘s called „Lovage“ in English), which is called „Maggichruut“ in Swiss German or „Maggikraut“ in Standard German. „Maggi“ is a Swiss brand and „Kraut“ means „herb“. So we have a plant, which is named after a brand.
Swiss French is close to standard French but certainly has it's interesting variations. I learnt standard French in high school in Australia but prefer Suisse-Romande as I had Swiss friends in Australia who took my language to a new high.. I love visiting their extended family in Switzerland for long stays, Hi Feli, great video
True, for example counting is so much easier and more logical in swiss-french.
Yes, but swiss french is not comparable with swiss german the equivalent of the region would be franco provencial.
A dialect/language that was once wide spread in the region but got replaced by (swiss) standard french.
Das Frühstück
Z' Morgä ( Wörtl. Das Morgen )
Sometimes also "Ds z'morgä" sometimes used if you talk about it in another timeline than the presence.
The apple core in berngerman is " Z' Grüpschi"
Great videos Feli! Just happened upon your channel. I was stationed in Stuttgart for 2 years and Heidelberg for 3 years during my Service time in the Army. My wife is German. She is from Kusel near Trier and Kaiserslautern. I can relate with so many of your videos! Keep up the great work!
One of my pet peeves is German companies writing Müsli on Swiss products. In Swiss German this means little mouse, whereas Müäsli or Germanized Müesli means small Muäs (German Mus) meaning porridge or mashed stuff like Apfelmus / apple purée
That, and when I see instant sauce mix in German supermarkets for “Züricher Geschnetzeltes” instead of “Zürchergeschnetzeltes”. (For those who don’t know: the demonym of Zurich in German is Zürcher, not Züricher.)
I was struck by how the weather report almost sounded like Swedish to my ear.
Thank you for this video and give Swiss German some attention! 🤗 Very accurate introduction. 👍 As a Swiss, I‘ve enjoyed watching this! 🫶🇨🇭
I live in Lucerne and we say „tönterle“ when we bought sweets when we were kids
I really liked this video about different German dialects 👍🏻 I grew up in Upper Bayern/Franconia and used to go on holiday to the Bern Schweiz the differences between the areas made speaking the language more of a challenge.
Trottoir, sometimes written as Trottwar, is also a very common word in Baden-Württemberg. Both in swabian and the Baden dialect.
in switzerland you would never write it like Trottwar but the french way. and its also common to write anything with small letters instead of big onces for the nouns
I loved this video! I’m American but my ancestors came from Switzerland. The Swiss German has been passed down until my dad’s generation failed to pass it on. I love the inflections and the sing-song way my aunts talk in Swiss, and when I visited Switzerland, I would sit on the train and hear the same inflections all around me and I felt so at home, even though I couldn’t understand the language. I’m trying to learn it now in my 30’s, but it’s hard to learn. I’m definitely picking up a lot more words now. It’s a comforting language to me, as I’ve heard it spoken as a child.
OMG, you've done this perfectly, I was expecting you to make a hash of this topic, but oh no..., top marks Felicitas! Having lived in and the Bern region for many moons but having English as my mother language, I class myself as bilngual so i'm proud of the excellent job you've done here.
I think i'll write here what I thought I was originally thinking I was going to have to write, when I read the title. It would have been approximately the following; "You've got to have lived in Switzerland for several years, to do a video of this sort and not mess it up, or end up embarrising yourself"! But no..., you nailed it Feli, i'm proud of you.
I wanna add one quick comment to the above, having the Bayerish dialect in your ears, does help you a little better with Swiizerdütsch, more so than if you were from, let's say Hannover or Cologne..., do you agree?
We also have a verb for "eating breakfast" in English: breakfast! Seriously, this is a perfectly fine sentence: "I breakfasted on bacon at the diner and will lunch with a client Downtown."
Never have heard "breakfast" used as a verb in CA.
It is totally fine grammatically but it sounds very formal or old fashioned to my (British) ears. It's something you might hear on Downton Abbey.
@@johnhblaubachea5156 Yeah, it certainly isn't common here in Texas, either. But it exists!
@@KevinKitten I think you're right. That said, "lunch" as a verb does seem to pop up organically from time to time, even here in laid-back informal Central Texas!
@John H Blaubach, EA 😂I know right. I live in Pa. where the English language has alot of misused words , and I've never heard someone say " I breakfasted bacon" lol. "For breakfast I had bacon" would be correct here in south central PA. and I'm sure most of the states
Spanish also has a verb for "to breakfast" -= desayunar (with associated noun "desayuno"). I only realized after watching this video and researching the origins of the word in Spanish that "ayuno" means fast and therefore des+ayuno is similar to the English word.
fruhstuckst du jetzt?
That was very competent and very respectful, only a few very small corners cut. Excellent job! One Swiss Dialect you should cover more is Walliserditsch (from the german speaking part of Kanton Wallis). It is a wonderful language. It is so different that even many Swiss have difficulty following it at standard speed. A bit like some Germans may have difficulty understanding Bavarians. A subject you probably know very well! Keep up the good work Feli.
This video was very entertaining :D
I am swabian from south west Germany and i understood almost everything.
We speak a little bit different where i live...each area speaks a little different in my state but understanding them and they understanding us works very well i think😊
Isch oifaach â alemannischs Gschwätz wos miir hännd!
Up late working on a Sunday night!
Up early on a monday morning :(
I watched all the Swiss videos from the channel 《Easy German》about 3 years ago. Now that I've rewatched some of them hear, I understand much better than I used to. I can't wait to return to Switzerland in July.
Even though I came to Switzerland in 2015 for the first time, it took me until 2019 to start learning Swiss German. While watching this, I'm so happy about the progress I've made so far. If Feli understood 90 %, then I did 95 % (at least in these basic topics)
Greetings from the Czech republic, and soon from Switzerland.
have fun coming back here soon! Make sure to refrain from shopping in anywhere besides Migros and Aldi if you're on a budget haha...have fun!
So lovely, thank you so much! 🙏🏼
Als Berner muss ich in anderen CH-Regionen auch oft über deren Ausdrücke schmunzeln.
Wenn alle so offen und mit soviel Herzlichkeit auf Unterscheide anderer eingehen wie du, dann wäre die Welt ein viel schönerer Ort. 👍🏼
Liebe Grüsse
Markus
Himmugüegeli 🐞 :D
I'm no sure for the German part of Switzerland but in the French part plaited bread is the traditional Sunday's breakfast !😉
In the U.S. we have nowhere near as wide a range of dialectical English as is found in the deutsche Sprachgebiet. The variations are mostly with respect to the local accent, with perhaps a handful of special words. A few examples:
What we in the Chicago area would call a milkshake (ice cream, milk, flavoring) used to be called a "frappe" (pronounced "frap") in New England.
In the American south, "pin" and "pen" are often pronounced the same or almost the same.
In the north, a store clerk might ask you, "D'ya wanna bag?" (do you want a bag for the item you just purchased.) In the south, you might hear, "Would y'all lahk a sack?" (would you all like a sack.) "Y'all" becomes "Yinz" in Pittsburgh (you-uns).
Other variations: faucet/spigot, bubbler/drinking fountain, have a catch/play catch.
There are some fun Chicago-isms: Parkway = the grassy strip between the street and the sidewalk in front of your house. Gangway = the narrow sidewalk running between two houses or apartment buildings. Prairie = a vacant lot down the block from your house. Two-flat = a two-unit apartment building; the owner lives in one and rents out the other.
Ahahahaha that reminded me of when I was a kid. From ages 5-12, I lived in North Carolina. In third grade, we had a spelling test, and the teacher read the word: pen. Then she realized that in her accent, pin and pen are pronounced identically, and quickly added “that’s ‘pen’, p-e-n, not ‘pin’, p-i-n”. Followed by “aww, shoot!” 🤣
I have never heard anyone in the south ask if you want a “sack”. They say “bag”, just like everyone else. And asking if “y’all” want a bag is a bit weird since it’s not normally a group decision. (And you don’t use “y’all” to a singular addressee.)
Northerners often have, um, “creative” ideas about how southerners say things! ;)
@@tookitogo Maybe this has changed over the years. I'm not making it up--I actually had store clerks in Dallas, Memphis, and Atlanta, that I can readily recall, asking me if I wanted a sack. That was in the time period 1990 to about 2000.
@@drzlecuti Perhaps. It’s not something I’ve ever heard, even on (many) subsequent visits over the decades.
I was a career firefighter in South Texas. Many Americans and Canadians came to my area to live during the winter months. We called them "Winter Texans." It was always a nightmare dealing with them as half the time they were completely unintelligible. One very heavy, drunk man had a small fire behind his trailerhouse. We extinguished the fire and I tried to get information from him for my report. All I could hear was "humina humina humina humina." I was at a loss. One firefighter was from Arkansas. I looked at him and he just shrugged his shoulders. The other firefighter was from Atlanta and he understood every word! The man was originally from rural Wisconsin.
I dreaded dealing with these Winter Texans. It was a coin flip if you could communicate with them at all. On a positive side we dealt with people from Mexico and Central America quite frequently. Despite regional variation, I could easily converse with them (most Texans are bilingual). After a few years you become hesitant and a little shy dealing with Americans from the North and immediately relaxed when you see a Spanish speaker.
The US is filled with a polyglot of bizarre regional dialects, especially dealing with rural people. In Missouri you can hear "You-enz" as plural for You, for example.
Anyway- I found your comment astonishing.
Hello from Basel (Switzerland), well, that with SMS in dialect, I have an interesting experience. I'm a little over 60 now and have worked in an office for decades. When I'm sitting at the keyboard, I switch to Standard German, which made it difficult for me to understand what my daughter texted me in Swiss German dialect, I came for half an hour It didn't take me long to figure out what she was going to say to me until I imagined what it would sound like what she had written. 🤣
The example with trains and Zügli applies more to toys, only a few (possibly some regions) say "I'm going on the Zügli". However, it is already the case that "-li" is often used with words. I've never used the quotation marks, the "Swiss version" you mentioned, and I rarely see them (except in books, but the "" is used in newspapers/magazines or correspondence).
The dialects are regionally different within a canton, sometimes even significantly (e.g. Valais, Bern).
Yes, exactly, "Schweiz Wetter", every Swiss person can tell from this name that the title was made by a German and not a Swiss person, a total fail from my point of view ("Schweizer Wetter" or "Wetter Schweiz" would be appropriate).
Weather and news, yes, 90% could understand that, but I think a conversation on the street, especially in areas like Bern (especially Bernese Oberland/Emmental), Graubünden and certainly in Valais you don't even get that anymore Half together (sorry 🤣).
Could be a regional thing even inside Switzerland. The guillemets, as these French quotation marks are called, are definitely used in central Switzerland. And I subscribed to a Swiss computer magazine named Macintouch for years, that used them as well. NZZ also uses them, even on their web site. So either it's regional, or you're just experiencing the dominance of Germany-targeted content in Switzerland. Because of course while German TV stations like Sat 1 and RTL will run Swiss-German ads (and even news, at least in their regional segments), they of course won't go through the hassle of changing ticker news at the bottom of the screen and the like, so you're bound to see a lot of German-formatted content even in Switzerland. (Heck, they're 80 million, Switzerland is 1/10th ... just statistically, there is more of their content in the world than Swiss)
I really enjoyed watching this video and the joy and enthusiasm made it 10x better😂 like mentioned in the video we in switzerland speak high german in school and learn to speak french in 3rd grade and english in 5th grade but it is true with watching videos on youtube or movies in french or english can progress your knowledge of a language so much further than in school. I have kind of a mix of different accents but it more like a “berndütsch” based accent, but i also was told by a coworker, that comes from the french speaking part of switzerland but can speak and understands high german that she doesn’t understand me speaking in my accent. It is true that most of the accents are easy or more easy to understand but for me personally i have a hard time understanding people speaking “valliserdütsch”
My son will be in Germany 🇩🇪 this July to play in the ITF! So happy for him! Thank you for what you do.