Section One - General note on Swiss German

Two forms of German are used in Switzerland. High German, or Hochdeutsch (also known as Schriftdeutsch, "Written German") is the same language used throughout German-speaking Europe. Swiss-German, or Schwyzertütsch, comprises dozens of regional dialects unique to Switzerland, and is unrecognizable to speakers of High German.

No one speaks High German in everyday situations in Switzerland - oral use of High German is restricted to school education, the mass media and public speaking. In all other situations, everyone naturally uses their own local dialect of Swiss-German. And unlike in Britain or France, no one in Germanspeaking Switzerland strives to copy a Zürich accent or a Basel accent in order to gain greater credibility. Using the dialect of your home town is a source of pride.

However, Swiss-German is hardly ever written. It"s only relatively recently that a dictionary laying down agreed spellings has been compiled, and it"s still open to some controversy.

The written German variety used in Switzerland follows all standard German grammar rules with the exception of a few stylistic and idiomatic idiosyncrasies. Most importantly, ß is NOT used in Switzerland, but replaced by ss.

NOTE:

ESSENTIALLY, THE GRAMMATICAL, PUNCTUATION AND HYPHENATION RULES OF WRITTEN SWISS GERMAN ARE IDENTICAL TO HIGH GERMAN, AS THE WRITTEN LANGUAGE IN SWITZERLAND IS STANDARD (HIGH) GERMAN.

Section Two - Grammar and Spelling

1. Gender: German has three grammatical genders: masculine, feminine, and neuter.

2. Case: German has four cases: Nominative, Accusative, Dative, Genitive. The case of a noun is determined by its function within the sentence.

3. Articles: The definite article is der/die/das; the indefinite article is ein/eine/ein (depending on the gender).

4. Plurals: German noun plurals follow one of the following patterns:

5. Capitalisation: The formal "you" address in letters is capitalised: Sie/Ihnen. Example: Ich begrüsse Sie in unserem Club und wünsche Ihnen viel Spass&

Section Three - Punctuation

1. Full stops: Full stops are used at the end of sentences, but also in decimals, dates etc.

2. Speech marks: Speech marks should strictly be "...".

Examples:

3. Quotation marks: German uses single quotation marks for a quotation within a quotation in the same way English does. Example: "Das ist eine Zeile aus Goethes ,Erlkönig' ", sagte er.

Unlike English, German introduces a direct quotation with a colon rather than a comma. Example: Er sagte: "Ich gehe jetzt nach Hause."

4. Apostrophes: Contrary to English, German does NOT use apostrophes to denominate Genitive. Examples: Sandras Schwester, Bettinas Hund.

5. Colons and semi-colons: Colons and semi-colons are used in much the same way as English.

6. Brackets: Brackets or hyphens are frequently used (instead of a comma) to add additional information.

7. Capitalisation: Headings, product names, proper names etc. are normally written in capitals.

The greeting in letters (Dear…) is separated in German by a comma and the first sentence starts in lower case.

Example: Sehr geehrter Herr Direktor,
ich freue mich…

Section Four - Measurements and Abbreviations

1. Measurements: The metric system is used for all measurements. Imperial measurements are generally not used.

A comma is used to denote decimals. Example: 4,5 cm. Exception: Currency (see below).

In contrast to High German, thousands are separated not by a full stop, but either by an apostrophe or a space: 4000 = 4'000 or 4 000 / 50 000 = 50'000 or 50 000.

Times are written as follows: 10.30 am = 10.30 (Uhr) / noon = Mittag / 4.30
pm = 16.30 (Uhr) / midnight = Mitternacht.

Dates are written as follows:

20 February 2004/ 20th February 2004/ February 20 = 20. Februar 2004
20/02/2004 = 20.2.04 or 20.02.2004

There is normally a space between a figure and a measurement abbreviation.

There is normally a space before the % symbol, although this is not compulsory.

There is normally a space between ° C. Example: 30° C.

Currency symbols are usually written with a space before the actual number, i.e. Fr. 500, Euro 45. Numbers with more than 6 digits are generally written out in words.

Example: $ 6 million = 6 Millionen Dollar.

The international 3-letter code e.g. GBP for £, CHF for Swiss Francs, appears instead of the symbol, i.e. before the number. Examples: GBP 200, CHF 500.

Unlike the German version, full stops are used to indicate decimals in currencies.
Examples: Fr. 3.50, Euro 500.12

2. Abbreviations:

N/a = -
No. (nos.) = Nr.
e.g. = z.B.
WxLxHxD = B x L x H x T
1st / 2nd / 3rd / 4th = 1./2./3./4.
Mr. / Mrs. = Hr. / Fr.
Messrs. = Herren
Miss = Frl. (or Frau)
Dear Sir / Madam = Sehr geehrte Dame/ sehr geehrter Herr
m (for metre) = m
cm (for centimetre) = cm
lb (for pound weight) - not used
g (for gram) = g
km (for kilometre) = km
yr (for year) - not used
k (for 1000) - not used
EMEA (Europe, Middle-East & Asia)

Days of the week: Mon, Tues, Wed, Thurs, Fri, Sat, Sun = Mo, Di, Mi, Do, Fr, Sa, So

Months: Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec = Jan, Feb, Mär, Apr, Mai, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sept, Okt, Nov, Dez

Seasons: Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter (not normally abbreviated in English) = Frühling, Sommer, Herbst, Winter (not abbreviated)

Section Five - Hyphenation

Hyphens are used frequently to split words over lines (there are specific rules on where words are to be split, generally based on the syllabic structure).

As there is a tendency towards long noun clusters, hyphens are also used to split up long nouns into their composites: Zug-Fahrplan or Zugsfahrplan.

"N" dashes ( - ) can be used instead of commas to structure long sentences.
The longer "M" dashes (—) are not used.

Section Six - Miscellaneous Peculiarities

Road signs in Switzerland are often given in two languages simultaneously, i.e. Basel/Basle in places bordering on two language regions. Similarly, packaging of Swiss products is usually tri-lingual: German, Italian and French.

Surnames are sometimes given before first names, i.e. people introduce themselves or are referred to as Schmid Peter (Smith, Peter).

The typeface of High German in Switzerland does NOT include the ß, but ONLY ss.

Section Seven - Geographic Distribution

Language Distribution in Switzerland:

German
German is by far the most widely spoken language in Switzerland: 17 of the 26 cantons are monolingual in German.

French
French is spoken in the western part of the country, the "Suisse Romande." Four cantons are French-speaking: Geneva, Jura, Neuchâtel and Vaud. Three cantons are bilingual: in Bern, Fribourg and Valais both French and German are spoken.

Italian
Italian is spoken in Ticino and 4 southern valleys of Grisons.

Rhaeto-Rumantsch (Rumantsch)
Rumantsch is spoken only in the trilingual canton of Graubünden. The other two languages spoken there are German and Italian. Rumantsch, like Italian and French, is a language with Latin roots. It is spoken by just 0.5% of the total Swiss population.

The many foreigners resident in Switzerland have brought with them their own languages, which taken as a whole now outnumber both Rumantsch and Italian. The 2000 census showed that speakers of Serbian/Croatian were the largest foreign language group, with 1.4% of the population. English was the main language for 1%.

SUMMARY Language Situation:

In Switzerland, [standard] High German is first and foremost a written language, which Swiss German children have to learn in school. All lessons are taught in it, and it is the language of newspapers and magazines and most books. It is also widely used in the media.

The language spoken in German-speaking Switzerland is quite different from standard German - called High German - as spoken in Germany. The German Swiss speak Swiss German - which itself is broken up into numerous local dialects. These are different enough to make it possible to determine where a speaker comes from, but generally not so different as to be incomprehensible to other Swiss German speakers.

Sources:

-"Switzerland is yours" website: http://switzerland.isyours.com/e/guide/contexts/german.html

"Schweiz in Sicht" website:
http://www.schweiz-insicht.ch/eng/index.html?siteSect=601&sid=4039995&rubricId=14010

-Goethe Institute website:
http://www.goethe.de/dll/mat/gra/lks/enindex.htm

-German language website:
http://german.about.com/library/weekly/aa031901b.htm

Section Eight - Character Set

[ ] = Alt key codes