Wie d meischte scho wüsse tue ig Schwiizetütsch dr ganze Tag rede. Klar verstöht Ihr nit alles was ig jetzt schriebe u es sind e paar Fähler i diese Schrift. Schwiizetütsch isch nit eingentlich e schriftliche Spraach, mehr gesproche.
And now I am sure you are all confused. This was my attempt to write in our Swiss German dialect, although has some mistakes. It is not a dialect that is actually written, although there are a few Swiss writers that have made their name with books written in Swiss German. Gottfried Keller is one that springs to my mind. I know there are some German speaking that also write blogs here, but even they might be confused with our Swiss dialect. To confuse it more, each area has its own dialect, and often various villages pronounce words differently. I understand most Swiss dialects, although have a problem with people from the Wallis area of Switzerland. When I arrived in Switzerland I spent the first two years in Zürich, so adopted and few words in Zürich dialect. I then moved to Solothurn, and now my dialect is almost pure Solothurn, although a few words from Zürich still slip in.
My origins were in East London, but I will not go into detail about my natural Cockney, that is a subject for itself.
Life is interesting with our varous dialects. Most people in Switzerland think I am Dutch, as my intonation goes a little in that direction: also we Brits are not known for speaking foreign languages.
Write about whatever you’d like, but write using regional slang, your dialect, or in your accent.
Photographers, artists, poets: show us LOCAL.
Was – ig glaube es nit. Ig soll uf schwiizertütsch öppis schriebe. Dash isch nit ernscht. Es würde nieme verstah u ig bi sicher es wäre langwielig.
What more or less says “Huh, I don’t believe it. I should write something in Swiss German. That cannot be serious. No-one would understand and I am sure it would be boring.” OK I might even have a few mistakes in the written Swiss German, but written Swiss German does not really exist as such. Everyone writes in their own way, but following the German way of doing it. One author comes to mind that wrote in dialect, Jeremias Gotthelf. He was a priest in a place called Lützelflüh and wrote about the local yokels, some of his stories were filmed (naturally in original Swiss German) and they are really good.
Swiss German is what is spoken in the German speaking part of Switzerland – logical really. But there are as many dialects as places almost. We can start with hello – where I live in Solothurn “Gruessech”, in Zürich “Gruetzi”. Saying goodbye is easier, “ciao” has become quite Swissified in all language regions, after all it is Italian. Wait a minute, some say “adieu” but that comes from the French influence. Of course the people living in the Kanton (State) of Graubünden would say “Sta bain” as a farewell, but they have their own language with about six different dialects. So you take a walk along a street in a village in Graubünden and meet someone, they greet you with “Allegra”.
I think I had better keep with English, as this Swiss German stuff with its over one hundred dialects and four languages is going to confuse everyone. Me – I have been living in Switzerland for 46 years, 44 of which I have been married to a native, so if you cannot beat them, just join them.
Nah let me talk in cockney. That was me lingo where I grew up, dahn in the East End of London, Befnal Green to be exact. I ain’t gonna explain all the rhyming slang, as that gits more complicated as the years go by. At one time me dad would talk about “ ‘aving a dekker at the black and white” and “gimme mi bins”. Eesy peesy ‘e just want to ‘ave a look at the newspaper and needs ‘is glasses.
Of course that cockney stuff is getting more modern every day. Like they now talk about a “Bobby Moore” ya know, that was a footballer dahn in West Ham, but these days a Bobby Moore ‘as become a door. Ya can also talk abaht a Gordon and Gotch – easy – a watch. And so it goes on wiv all that new stuff. In my days it was just dahn the apples and pears (like the stairs), or go dahn the frog and toad (the road). We don’t really talk that way so much any more, but it ain’t wot you say it’s the way that you say it I suppose. The first cockney rule is drop your ‘aches. You know that letter that comes after “g” and before “I” in the alphabet. It just don’t exist east of the City of London. We don’t need it. Have becomes “ave” and a real advanced word would be “ain’t” but that for the clever ones cos it means “have not” in the Queen’s language. Nah it even goes furver like “you ain’t got nuffing”. Nah that really need some finking, like exhausting the old brain cells. If you ain’t not nuffing you got somefing, but dahn in my part of London it don’t mean that, cos it means you got somefing. Just a matter of knowing wot you talking abaht.
So that’s enuf for now. I ‘ad a look in YouTube and fahnd a little film where they had a cockney crew in Star Trek, so let’s see if ya can understand it.
I am Ahmed Abdi, a Wordpress blogger and storyteller who searches for stories that inspire people. I love writing because it’s a reflection of how I perceive the world around me. Lost in a world of endless chaos in my childhood, Unforgettable moments of tragedy and triumphs taught me the art of storytelling where I found myself through letter writing and then turned into stories but then sadly had lost everything I wrote for years. In 2018, I decided to create a Wordpress blog site that would allow me to store and retrieve every piece. Stories from my community, city and people are what make my writing so interesting and inspiring! I’m a tea lover so a cup of tea sometimes makes my blog.
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Chronicles of an Anglo Swiss 