Zurich German


Zurich German is the High Alemannic dialect spoken in the Canton of Zurich, Switzerland. Its area covers most of the canton, with the exception of the parts north of the Thur and the Rhine, which belong to the areal of the northeastern Swiss dialects.
Zurich German was traditionally divided into six sub-dialects, now increasingly homogenised owing to larger commuting distances:
Akin to 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. When it is written, it rarely follows the guidelines published by Eugen Dieth in his book Schwyzertütschi Dialäktschrift. Furthermore, Dieth's spelling uses a lot of diacritical marks not found on a normal keyboard. Young people often use Swiss German for personal messages, such as when texting with their mobile phones. As they do not have a standard way of writing they tend to blend Standard German spelling with Swiss German phrasing.
The Zurich dialect is generally perceived as fast spoken and less melodic than, for example, Bernese German. Characteristic of the city dialect is that it most easily adopts external influences. The second-generation Italian immigrants have had a crucial influence, as has the English language through the media. The wave of Turkish and ex-Yugoslavian immigration of the 1990s is also leaving its imprint on the dialect of the city.

Phonology

Consonants

  • The distinction between the lenis on the one hand and the fortis on the other is not one of voice but length, with the fortis obstruents being the longer ones. A difference in tenseness is also claimed by some authors, with the fortes being more tense. does not participate in this distinction and neither do the affricates. The contrast occurs in all contexts in the case of plosives. In the case of fricatives, it occurs only in the word-internal and word-final positions. Word-initially, only lenes appear, except in consonant clusters where fortes appear through assimilation. Postvocalic tends to appear only after long vowels. and occur mainly in the word-internal and word-final contexts. Word-initially, tends to appear instead. In monosyllabic nouns, short vowels tend to be followed by fortes. appears only after short vowels. See fortis and lenis for more details. In the table above, is classified as lenis on the basis of its length and distribution.
  • and are aspirated in borrowings from Standard German, e.g. Pack 'parcel'. In other contexts, they are unaspirated, as is. In borrowings with an aspirated, it is nativized to an affricate, as in Kampf 'fight'.
  • Intervocalic nasals are short traditional Zurich German. However, younger speakers tend to realize at least the bilabial and the velar as long in this position, possibly under the influence of other dialects. This is particularly common before and, as in Hammer 'hammer' and lenger 'longer'. This may also apply to, as in Müller 'miller'.
  • vary between velar and uvular in all contexts, including when in contact with front vowels. The distinction between the Ich-Laut and the Ach-Laut found in Standard German does not exist in the Zurich dialect. Chemii 'chemistry' is thus pronounced or but never, with a voiceless palatal fricative found in Northern and Swiss Standard German . That sound does not exist in Zurich German. Similarly, can also be realized as uvular, as in ticke 'thick'.
  • The reflex of the Middle High German is an approximant and not a voiced fricative, unlike in Northern Standard German. The voiced labiodental fricative does not occur in Zurich German.
  • The traditional pronunciation of the rhotic is an alveolar tap, but the uvular variants , , and are now more frequent. The last one overlaps phonetically with the uvular realization of. Speakers can switch between alveolar and uvular articulations, as shown in Fleischer & Schmid's transcription of The North Wind and the Sun. This is very similar to the situation in many dialects of Dutch. R-vocalization does not occur; töörfe 'to be allowed to' is thus never pronounced, only etc. Elsewhere in the article, the rhotic is written with regardless of its precise quality.

    Vowels

  • Traditional Zurich German features an additional, near-close series, which seems about to disappear. Vowels from these series can form minimal pairs with the close series, as exemplified by the minimal pair tüür 'dry' vs. tüür 'expensive'.
  • The short and were originally in complementary distribution, with the latter occurring before and and the former elsewhere. A phonemic split has occurred through analogy and borrowing, with now occurring in places where originally only could appear.
  • The long can easily form minimal pairs with, as in the minimal pair hèèr 'from' vs. Heer 'army'.
  • The short has a marginal status. In native words, it can only occur before and. The word Hördöpfel 'potato' has a common alternative Herdöpfel, with an unrounded . In addition, occurs in loanwords as a substitute for English, as in Bluff 'bluff'.
  • appears only in unstressed syllables. In native words, only it and can appear in unstressed syllables, as exemplified by the minimal pair schweche 'to weaken' vs. Schwechi 'weakness'. In borrowings, other vowels can also appear in the unstressed position, e.g. Bambus 'bamboo'.
  • The open front are phonetically near-front.
  • The open back have a variable rounding and may be realized as unrounded.
  • All diphthongs are falling, with the first element being more prominent:.
  • is marginal and occurs only in exclamations such as pfui 'ugh!'.
  • Originally, two diphthongs with a rounded mid front first element were distinguished. Those were and , distinguished phonemically as in the near-minimal pair nöi 'new' vs. Höi 'hay'. They have since merged into one diphthong.

    Sample

The sample text is a reading of the first sentence of The North Wind and the Sun. It is a recording of a 67-year old male from the town of Meilen, about 15 kilometers from the city of Zurich.

Phonemic transcription

Phonetic transcription

Orthographic version

Emaal händ de Biiswind und d Sune gschtritte, wèèr vo bäidne das ächt de schtèrcher seig.