SGS: Language
63% of Swiss people speak the local variation of German. (The other three official languages are French, Italian - both spoken in their familiar forms - and a peculiar ancient tongue called Rhaeto-Romanic that bears little relation to any other modern language.) Since Schweizer Deutsch (pronounced: Schwiitzer-Duutsch) does not exist as a written language, German Swiss are all able to communicate comfortably in socalled High German - they think. Their thick accents might however make the difference between Schweizer Deutsch and Hoch Deutsch purely academic to most outsiders.
If you speak German, try adapting to local conditions as follows: squoosh up your vowels a bit (almost every vowel combination can end up as ii or uu if you try), pronounce k in gutteral fashion - kch - add -zli to every fifth word or so, throw in a little French and Italian seasoning ("merci", "ciao") and introduce a singsong intonation to your sentences.
If you don't speak German, how's your Afrikaans? No, they're not really the same, but a lot of words are similar (more so than High German, although the pronunciation is seriously odd). If you can't make yourself understood, you might be able to at least understand.
If you are stuck with English, smile and point.
5 comments:
Yeah, I'm stuck with English with an American accent and English with a Guyanese accent. Neither of which sound like they'd be terribly helpful.
*smiles* *points* Just practicing.
Hi Scroobious, thanks for visiting my blog.
I must say, I love languages, I love what people do to it, add, subtract new words, old words. It's variety, spice, music.
I think the Swiss call that Rhaeto-Romanic thing 'Romansh'? I'm not sure.
Omar has a Guyanese accent?
In German it's Romansch, quite right. I don't know the language at all, but I just found that the Romansch word for forest is "Silva". Is that not beautiful? Languages... beautiful and spicy indeed.
So yes, Omar, tell us more?
I don't have a Guyanese accent, no. But since my parents and everyone else in my family do, I can fake it fairly well. (No disrespect intended to those who actually do possess the ability to speak multiple languages.)
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