Zürich German
Categories: High Germanic languages | Languages of Switzerland | Zürich | Indo-European language stubs
Zürich German is the dialect of High Alemannic German spoken in the Canton of Zürich, Switzerland.
It is divided in six sub-dialects, covering the entire Canton with the exception of the parts north of the Thur and the Rhine.
- The dialect of the town of Zürich(Stadt-Mundart)
- The dialect spoken around Lake Zürich (See-Mundart)
- The dialect of the Knonauer Amt west of the Albis (Ämtler Mundart)
- The dialect of the area of Winterthur
- The dialect of the Zürcher Oberland around Lake Pfäffikon and the upper Töss valley
- The dialect of the Zürcher Unterland around Bülach and Dielsdorf
Like all Swiss German dialects, it is essentially a spoken language, whereas the written language is standard German. Likewise, there is no official orthography of the Zurich dialect. If it is written, then often according to the guidelines published by Eugen Dieth in his book Schwyzertütschi Dialäktschrift.
The Zurich 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 an uvular trill, whereas in the city around the lake and in the southern parts, it is pronounced as an alveolar trill.
Characteristic for the city dialect is that it most easily adopts external influences, especially the second generation Italians (secondi) have had a crucial influence as well as the English language through the media. The wave of Turkish and ex-Yugoslavian immigration of the nineties will undoubtedly leave its imprints on the dialect.
An effect contrary to the enrichment of the dialect by foreign influences comes from the school system, which teaches standard German not as a new language, but merely as a different form of pronunciation and with a modified vocabulary, this leads to a confusion of the two languages. In combination with predominantly standard German television, this leads to a change in Swiss German: the Zurich German word for "butter", "Anke", has been almost completely replaced by the German word "Butter". It is often observed that small children talk standard German when playing alone, imitating the world of television. Another example is the apparition of new time-forms (Swiss German knows only present tense, which is also used for the future, and a composite past tense).
als:Zürichdeutsch