Schweizerdeutsch

Today, Ella finished reading Der Räuber Hotzenplotz, a famous and very funny German kids' novel, all of one hundred and twenty-four pages long. Ella's class has been reading the book in school for the most part, with only the occasional 10-page-long homework assignments. But Dennis and Ella have been working steadily each night, reading through the whole book, so that Ella could be sure to understand the whole story.

Dennis had Ella read the text out loud, and then he'd translate anything Ella didn't understand.  At the beginning of the book, that was almost everything, but as they got further in, Ella started laughing at the funny parts before Dennis could translate them, and she could go several paragraphs before asking for for help.

When she finished the book this evening, Ella told me that she was really excited to show it to her friends, and she wanted, maybe, to use it to teach them some German words: suddenly, this hard-earned skill has become exciting for her. It's been really nice, watching her progression to confidence.

I can't help but thing how much easier learning German would be for Ella, and me, for that matter, if we actually were immersed in German.  But no matter how many Berlitz classes I take, or  how many extra tutoring sessions Ella has, we'll never be able to sit on a tram and eavesdrop on conversations. If you're looking for total immersion to learn German, Switzerland isn't the place to do it.  They speak something entirely different here.

Ella's teacher has tried to coach Ella, to make her sound a little more Swiss in her accent, at least. "Herr Frederick says that my voice has no music in it, that I sound very flat when I talk."  I can see why he'd say that: to me, in tone and cadence, Swiss German sounds, more than anything else, like the gobbledygook spoken by the Swedish Chef.  If you speak German and are curious to hear a few different dialects of Swiss German (and to see how much you can understand of each) you can watch this clip.

I'll share a few more Swiss words with you, with one caveat: Swiss German is purely a spoken language.  Of course, people try to write it down all the time, but it's always phonetic, and you end up seeing many different spellings.  Switzerland can't even agree on the spelling of the language: I've seen the German "Sweizerdeutsch," but also "Schwyzerdütsch," "Schwizertitsch," and "Schwiizertüütsch."

Often, Swiss and German words are completely different. And, unfortunately, Google Translate is no help at all (probably, I suppose because it is only a spoken language).  Dennis and I spent a good twenty minutes one night, trying to figure out what a "Chibli" is, since our family had been invited to one for Alex's school.  In German, it would be a "Dorffest," and in, English, simply a festival.

But sometimes words are a little bit closer to German.  Often, the "k" sound is transferred to a phlegmy "ch." For example, this blog is called "Say Käse," or "Say Cheese," but really, since we're in Switzerland, I really should have called it "Say Chäs."

But the words I most have a chance of catching are the German words that the Swiss have made their own by adding a diminutive "-li" to the end of the word and then speckling the interiors of their words with umlauts.

If you're in a store, they'll always ask you if you'd like a "Tacheli" or "Säckli": in German, this would be simply a "Tasche" or "Sack." In Germany, when you raise your glass for a toast, they say "Prost;" in Switzerland, it's "Pröschtli." Mouse, or "Maus" in German, becomes "Müüsli."

So when we were in Appenzell on Saturday and Joey picked out his fancy black shirt, on the bottom he was wearing something that looked a bit like karate pants.  With the mandarin collar of his shirt, and those pants, Dennis commented that Joey looked a bit like a Swiss Bruce Lee.

Which, of course, we immediately translated to Schweizerdeutsch: "Brüüsli."

I think it's going to stick.