Replacing letters in the Swiss dialect

We have already said that the Swiss dialect of the German language differs from the literary German. People who learn German in order to communicate with people from Switzerland in the future will find it interesting and useful to learn some features.

In Swiss German, letters are often replaced, which changes the spelling of the word and sometimes its pronunciation. Today we give some examples of such a replacement.

In the Swiss German dialect, the letter “k” is often, but not always, replaced with “ch”:

Hochdeutsch – Schweizerhochdeutsch

kommen – cho – to come (i chome, du chonsch, är …);

kaufen – chaufe – buy;

kochen – choche – cook / boil;

Kirsche – Chirschi – sweet cherry;

klein – chlei – small;

Also, the Swiss often change the German “st” to “scht”:

Hochdeutsch – Schweizerhochdeutsch

fast – fascht – almost;

lustig – luschtig – funny / funny;

erst – erscht – first / only;

Angst – Angscht – fear;

Ast – Ascht – branch.

The letter “au” sometimes changes to “uu” or “u”:

Hochdeutsch – Schweizerhochdeutsch

Haus – Huus – the house;

Maus – Muss – mouse;

Haut – Hut – skin;

Kraut – Chrut – herbs (“k” = “ch”);

tausend – tuusig – a thousand;

braun – bruun – brown;

Raum – Ruum – space;

The combinations of the letters “eu” and “äu” are simplified and changed to “ü”:

Hochdeutsch – Schweizerhochdeutsch

heute – hüte – today;

heulen – hüle – howl, howl;

Häuser – Hüser – houses (house in the plural);

Eule – Üle – owl;

Interesting!

Der Berliner Dialekt – Berlin German dialect. It is often said that Berlin is a separate country and not at all Germany. It is not strange that they have their own language.

You can often hear the phrase “berlinerisch sprechen” – “speak Berlin”. There is even a special verb “berlinern” – “speak Berlin”.

There is a detached letter “z” in the Swiss dialect of the German language, it replaces the prepositions “zu” and “in”:

Hochdeutsch – Schweizerhochdeutsch

zu klein – z chlei – too small;

in Berlin – z Berlin – in Berlin;

in Zürich – z Züri – in Zurich;

in Deutschland – z Dütschland – in Germany (“eu” – “ü”);

Another rule, which, by the way, has no exceptions and also saves written work – “ge” changes to “g” in verbs in the form Perfekt (“ich habe etwas gemacht” – “I did something”):

Hochdeutsch – Schweizerhochdeutsch

gemacht – gmacht – do (Perfekt);

geschlafen – gschlofe – sleep (Perfekt);

gegessen – gässe – to eat (Perfekt);

geschrieben – gschriebe – write (Perfekt);

genommen – gno – to take (Perfekt);

The Swiss still love to add the suffix “-li”: “Grüßli”. Sometimes this suffix has a diminutive shade: “Hundeli” – “dog” (from the German “Hund”).

There are a lot of rules for changing letters in Swiss German, these are just the main ones. Can you now read and understand the word “Chuchichäschtli” (“Küchenkästchen” – “kitchen drawers”)?

Information taken from the educational portal schweizerdeutsch-lernen.ch.