Rebecca J. Adams and Dr. Cynthia L. Hallen, Linguistics
Swiss German is the term for the group of Germanic dialects found in Switzerland. They form a sister language to High, or standard, German. They vary significantly from standard German in phonology, syntax, and in semantics . My research project on Swiss German was divided into three parts. First, using information from several books on the history and development of Swiss German, I investigated some of the important points of the dialect itself: its roots; some of the postulated changes that it has undergone; its development from Old High German; and its present status in modern Swiss diglossia. The literature underscores the differences between Swiss German and High German, but does not offer a systematic study of semantic, or word meaning, variation.
I therefore looked at Swiss German and High German synchronically, concentrating on the word/meaning relationships that are in variance from one dialect to the other. Using High German as the standard language because it is the institutional (i.e., educational, governmental, and business) language, I compared the relative broadness, narrowness, negativeness, and positiveness of the Swiss German vocabulary to High German. I focused on non-specialized Swiss vocabulary; choosing the Zürich dialect as the basis of my study. Ninety-one words were identified, the majority of which have broader meanings in Swiss German than in High German.
Words that could refer to more things in Swiss German than in High German were catalogued as broader. An example of a broader word is aabig, which can mean either “dinner” or “evening.” The German equivalent, Abend, only means “evening.” Narrower words are the opposite; they refer to fewer things in Swiss German than in High German. Of example, laufen, a High German word, can mean either “to run” or “to walk quickly.” The Swiss German equivalent, lauffe, can only mean “to walk.” More positive words were more positive in meaning; the Swiss German word rächt (fine, skillful, brave) is more positive than the High German equivalent recht (correct). Lastly, words were classified as more negative if they had more negative connotations. For example, The High German word schließen (to close) can also mean “to disturb” or “to knock over” in Swiss German.
Lastly, I used the modern variations as a starting point for identifying some words whose meanings I could study diachronically, and I used the historical/comparative method to trace the meaning of these words from the nearest common ancestor, Old High German, in order to compare how semantically conservative each dialect has been in its development. In this sampling of words, the Swiss German dialect varies less semantically from Old High German than does Modern High German. It was found that in 71% of the words, the Swiss German meaning is as or more conservative than the High German equivalent.
Basing assumptions on the word sample identified in my research, Swiss German words tend to have broader meanings than their High German counterparts. Also, Swiss German is more similar semantically to Old High German than is High German. These findings imply both that larger scale studies of the comparative semantics of Swiss German are in order and that modern Swiss German words may be a valuable resource for etymological, or word history, work on Old High German.
References
- Lötscher, A. (1983). Schweizerdeutsch: Geschichte, Dialekte, Gebrauch. Frauenfeld: Verlag Huber.Werlen, I. (1983). Eine interaktive Funktion der schweizerdeutschen Partikeln jetzt, gerade, denn/dann. In
- Weydt, H. (Ed.), Partikeln und Interaktion. Tubingen: Niedermeyer.
- Wyler, A. (1984). Dialekt und Hochsprache in der deutschsprachigen Schwiez. Regensdorf: Hürzeler AG.
- Schneider, P. (1991). Deutsch-Schyzertütsch Eichborns Sprach-Lexikon. Frankfurt am Main: Eichborn Verlag.