Helvetism


Helvetisms are features distinctive of the varieties of language spoken in Switzerland, most notably in Swiss Standard German, where they distinguish it from Standard German. The most frequent Helvetisms in German occur in vocabulary and pronunciation, but there are also some distinctive features in syntax and orthography. The French and Italian spoken in Switzerland have similar terms, which are also known as Helvetisms. Current French dictionaries, such as the Petit Larousse, include several hundred helvetisms.
The term Helvetism has also been used in broader cultural and historical contexts, particularly in reference to Swiss literary and intellectual currents from the 18th century onward. In this sense, it has denoted expressions of national identity and unity across linguistic and regional boundaries, often linked to movements emphasizing Swiss values, independence, and supracantonal solidarity.

Background

The definitive work for German orthography, the Duden, explicitly declares a number of helvetisms as correct Standard German – albeit with the annotation, denoting that the usage of the word is limited to Switzerland. However, not all words may be considered part of the "Swiss standard language"/"Swiss standard German" category, because frequency of usage must be evaluated as well; if this does not apply, or if a word's use is known to span only one or more specific dialectal regions, the word must be categorized "dialectal"
In orthographical terms, the most significant difference to Standard German outside Switzerland is the absence of ß.
In everyday language, Helvetisms may be used both consciously and unconsciously by a Swiss German native speaker. Classic examples of Helvetism usage throughout entire literary works are found in a large part of Swiss literature, notably Jeremias Gotthelf's novels located in the Emmental; a contemporary example would be Tim Krohn in his Quatemberkinder. Another group, the most notable of whom is Peter Bichsel, deliberately use Helvetisms to arouse a sort of emotional attachment to the readers' home country: Bichsel is notorious for using dialectal words like Beiz, or Kasten in his "San Salvador" short story. Lastly, there is yet another group of authors whose readers are known to be located all over the German-speaking territory and therefore traditionally refrain from using any Helvetisms in their literary works.
In addition, words which are used outside Switzerland, but which originate from Swiss German may be called "Helvetisms".
Analogously to "Helvetisms", there are also Austricisms and Germanisms.

Examples of Helvetisms

Figures of speech

  • mit abgesägten Hosen dastehen
  • aus Abschied und Traktanden
  • es macht den Anschein
  • in den Ausgang gehen
  • von Auge
  • ausjassen
  • von Beginn weg
  • ab Blatt
  • bachab schicken
  • Einsitz nehmen
  • dastehen wie der Esel am Berg
  • die Faust im Sack machen
  • innert nützlicher Frist
  • das Fuder überladen
  • handkehrum
  • Hans was Heiri
  • es hat
  • sein Heu nicht auf derselben Bühne haben mit
  • jemandem geht der Knopf auf
  • den Rank finden
  • zu reden geben
  • kein Schleck
  • neben den Schuhen stehen
  • es streng haben
  • in Tat und Wahrheit
  • einen Tolggen im Reinheft haben
  • gut tönen
  • gut schmecken
  • keinen Wank tun/machen
  • es wird sich weisen
  • werweisen
  • Jetzt ist genug Heu unten
  • '' versorgen''

    Swiss specifics

In the area's cuisine, local culture and politics, there are numerous peculiarities that are not well known outside Switzerland and which do not have an equivalent standard German expression.
Because of their characteristic pronunciation, speakers of Swiss Standard German will be instantly recognized by other German speakers in most cases.
In general, the pronunciation of Swiss Standard German is influenced by the respective Swiss German dialect of each speaker. The degree of that influence may vary according to their education.

Stress

Swiss German exhibits a strong trend toward stressing all words on the initial syllable:
  • Family names including a preposition are accented on the preposition rather than on the following word.
  • Acronyms are stressed on the first letter rather than the last.
  • Many loanwords are stressed on the first syllable regardless of how they are pronounced in the original language. Examples include Apostroph, Billet, Filet, Garage, Papagei, Portemonnaie and the exclamation Merci.

    Consonants

  • /b d g z/ are voiceless lenes
  • There is no final-obstruent devoicing.
  • /v/ is pronounced as an approximant ; in some words, it is replaced by a voiceless lenis, e.g. in Möve or Advent.
  • Double consonants are often geminated, e.g. immer as.
  • Initial is pronounced as a, for instance in local names like Chur and Cham or in foreign words like China or Chemie, Chirurgie etc.
  • The ending is pronounced, not, e.g. König 'king'
  • is pronounced or , not , e.g. Dachs as or sechs as 'six'.
  • is not vocalized. In Switzerland, Vater 'father' is pronounced and not.
  • In Switzerland the alveolar is more usual than the uvular or.
  • There is often no glottal stop which in other varieties of German is present at start of vowel-initial words.
  • For some speakers, is always pronounced as, and not differentiated into and , e.g. in nicht instead of 'not'.
  • For some speakers, is pronounced as velar affricate, e.g. Kunst.
  • For a few, are pronounced instead of in all positions, e.g. Ast as 'branch'.

    Vowels

  • Unstressed is often not pronounced as schwa, but as or, e.g. Gedanke or 'thought'.
  • is usually pronounced as an open like in English "hat", "patch".
  • Depending on the dialect, may be pronounced as a back ).
  • Depending on the dialect, short vowels may be pronounced more closed, e.g. Bett instead of 'bed', offen instead of 'open', Hölle instead of 'hell'.
  • Depending on the dialect, long vowels may be pronounced more open, e.g. See instead of 'lake', schon instead of 'already', schön instead of 'beautiful'.

    Prosody

A special feature of Swiss Standard German, is a somewhat "singing" cadence. That means that each word's stressed syllable isn't only marked through the higher voice volume, but also through a distinguishable modification of the voice's sound. In general, the pitch of the stressed syllable sinks.
  • In the announcement Profitieren Sie! in the shopping malls' transmissions, the pitch sinks from pro- to -fi-, until it has reached the deepest point at -tie-; at -ren and Sie the voice approximately reaches its original pitch again.

    Orthography

In orthography, the most visible difference from Standard German usage outside Switzerland is the absence of ß.
French and Italian loanwords are written in their original forms in spite of the spelling reform. Majonäse stays Mayonnaise, and Spagetti stays Spaghetti. The NZZ uses the spelling placieren rather than platzieren, which is more common elsewhere.
Geographical names, such as streets, are mostly written together: Baslerstrasse, Genfersee, Zugerberg etc. Compound terms relating to nationality are often written as one word, such as Schweizergrenze and Schweizervolk instead of Schweizer Grenze and Schweizer Volk.
The names of municipalities, towns, stations, and streets are often not written with a starting capital umlaut, but instead with Ae, Oe and Ue, such as the Zürich suburb Oerlikon, or the hamlet Aetzikofen, or the Bernese municipality Uebeschi. However, field names, such as Äbenegg, Ötikon, or Überthal, and any other word, such as Ärzte, usually start with capital umlauts.
Finally, there are specialities like e.g. Bretzel instead of Brezel.
Some of the above-mentioned characteristics are due to the general introduction of the typewriter in economics and administration. Because a Swiss typewriter must be able to write not only German texts but also French and Italian texts, the limited number of keys was not enough for all these languages' special characters to be included. So, the eszett and the uppercase umlauts, as well as other upper-case accented vowels, were omitted.

Syntax

Swiss German differs from Standard German in, for example, the gender of nouns or in the preposition that verbs require.
In general, more often than in Germany or Austria, the Swiss use expressly feminine nouns rather than the generic masculine to refer to occupations and positions held by women. The Binnen-I is standard in Switzerland but may be marked elsewhere as "politically correct".
Relative pronouns: The relative pronoun welche, considered clumsy and antiquated in Standard German, is used without hesitation: in Damit wurde in der Schweiz ein Kompetenzzentrum für Klimafragen geschaffen, welches verstärkt die Bedürfnisse der Bevölkerung in den Mittelpunkt ihrer Forschung stellt..

Grammatical case

Rabatt is used in the dative case; in Standard German in the accusative case. Example: 20% Rabatt auf allen Artikeln.

Sentence structure

The syntax has many constructions with a shortened main clause and a following subordinate clause, which is only marked by the initial position of a verb, e.g.
  • Gut, gibt es Schweizer Bauern. instead of Es ist gut, dass es Schweizer Bauern gibt.
  • Schön, haben Sie heute Zeit. instead of schön, dass Sie heute Zeit haben.
  • Schade, bist du gestern nicht hier gewesen. instead of '' schade, dass du gestern nicht hier gewesen bist.''

    Grammatical gender

In his book Zündels Abgang, author Markus Werner uses Tram – which takes the female article die in Germany's Standard German – with the typically Swiss neuter article das.

Swiss expressions loaned into Standard German

The word Putsch is one example which is widely used in political contexts, even in notable Standard German newspapers. The word Müsli, however, is a special case: in Swiss Standard German, Müsli is the diminutive of Mus and stands for "little mouse". To describe the food, the Swiss use the spelling Müesli.