As a Swiss, I honestly never saw/heard a better explanation of the language situation in Switzerland than that. People spread false information about that so often. Like we speak normal German, and its overcomplicated and noone gets Romansh and what not... Appreciate it!
Han mal nöch ade Grenze zu Dütschland gschaffet und au mit Dütsche zemme. Die hend denk Schwizerdütsch wär nöd eusi richtig Sprach sondern nume eh vereifachteri Form vo eusem richtige "Schwizerisch" das eus die Dütsche chönd verstah. :D
Absolutely...know whats best? Growing up in the Swiss German part I was forced to learn French French and was even punished for using Swiss French numbers and words. I had learned from my parents who had worked in the Swiss French part for a couple of years before moving to the Swiss German part. They migranted back when Switzerland was importing laborers in the '70s.
I'm agree with you, using septante and nonante instead of soissante dix and quatre-vingt dix it's better. French of France remained with the ancient kind of numeration based on twenty. I propose to use huitante instead quatre-vingt dix, but will be accepted in the next future? Greetings from Italy.
am doing a research about languages and I wanna tackle the issue of Swiss linguistic diversity. is really German the most spoken language there? do you really use english as a lingua franca instead of french or german ?
The Swiss were actually planning to use that for their slogan for the Euro 2008, which was co-hosted by Austria and Switzerland. The Austrians weren't amused.
I once had a meal in the railway station buffet in Brig (Valais/Wallis) about 30 years ago. I ordered the meal in German, it was delivered in French, and the bill was added up in Italian!
@@vicentbosch la diferencia principal es que en cualquier parte de España , la lengua franca es el castellano y en Suiza no hay una lengua franca, cada uno habla como puede y todo tiene que ser traducido a los 3 idiomas, no es la misma situacion
Well researched, indeed. Just a minor correction: the newly founded canton if Jura was split off from Bern mostly along the confessional border between French speaking Catholics and German or French speaking protestants.
The different languages are the coolest thing of Switzerland and I think using other national languages is better than English. Of course English is useful and important but inside Switzerland I think it is better to emphazise the local languages. I am Italian and live near the border of Switzerland. When I hear Swiss people talking Italian they have my same accent, but they use some different words sometimes than can look strange if you have never heard them before. For example we use "ordinare" to say "to order" (something at restaurant or online) while they say "comandare" which here means "to rule, to give commands to someone". Or if your son comes home from school and tells you "Ho preso una bella nota" is a bad thing in Italy because it means "I got a disciplinary reprimand" while in Switzerland it is a good thing because it means "I got a good grade".
@igor lopes , “Bella nota” (beautiful grade) means good grade in Italian. In Switzerland, it is still used in its primary meaning. But in Italy, although it really means a good grade or positive notice, in the general slang, the sarcastic extended meaning of the phrase seems to have taken over. “Bella nota” is not the official word for reprimand. It would be “avviso” or something similar.
@igor lopes yes. ‘Nota’ in Switzerland (specifically in Ticino) is used to say ‘ho preso una bella nota’ which means ‘I got a good grade’. In Italy it is used to say ‘ho preso una nota’ which means ‘I got a reprimand’ and has a negative meaning.
@@afrocyberdelia, My objection to English as the lingua franca has nothing to do with the language itself. English was not my first language but it’s the language I’ve spoken most of my life and, at this point in my life, I consider it to be my thinking language. I love the English language. But I don’t like the idea of the Swiss adopting it as their lingua franca because by doing so they are making themselves even more vulnerable to American, and to a lesser extent, to British “soft power”. I did not suggest German, French or Italian, because picking any one of them would put the native speaker of that language in a more advantageous position than those who speak it as a second language. Since Romansch is spoken by so few people but it’s still a Swiss language, I think it would have a unifying force for the Swiss people while not giving any single ethnicity any superiority or unfair advantage in respect to the others. I often think about the Middle Ages when the lingua franca was Latin, scientists and scholars of every European nation wrote in Latin although no one spoke it as their native tongue. That fact put all medieval scholars on a level ground. Whereas today where the scientific, political and scholarly language is English, it gives English native speakers an unfair advantage. Most non native speakers of English cannot fairly compete wit the English speakers. Many a scholarly paper or scientific proposal has failed a peer review process for reasons such as “poor English, not clear enough, not English enough, incoherent, etc.”! It can easily turn the native speakers’ superior knowledge of their mother tongue into a weapon in their hand to dismiss a competitor who is not a native speaker. Picking French, Italian or German as Switzerland’s lingua franca will automatically push the speakers of the other two national languages into sort of a “second class” citizenry.
@@johnsarkissian5519 can't the papers just be translated to English? romansh may unify switzerland but it's a lot less useful than English, English wud help them connect not just with other swiss people but also with people from other countries
I wish Romansh could be the lingua franca since it's being threatened with extinction! And it's the only language completely unique to Switzerland and it incorporates words from all three of the other national languages. It also sounds both bizarre and beautiful!
If you're still interested in what the romansh language sounds like, there's an example section with text and audio on the wikipedia page: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romansh_language#Sample_text
zenzenyokunal You should be aware that Swiss German warriors subjugated many Welsch (Romance speaking) populations for extracting tribute. The German Swiss would never give in to something like that.
As a native of one of the smaller regions of Switzerland (Ticino) I had to learn german and french to have access to university and to work in the other regions of this country. I alway found it an immense advantage to know tree languages and I higly recommend it to young people. English is of great utility elsewhere in Europe but in my opinion it should not replace the regional languages. Your explanations are simple and crystalclear: good job.
Funny: In politic meetings it is often the case, that everyone just speaks his native language., The guy from Bern will ask a question in German, the other one from Geneva will answer in French and the one from Lugano corrects him in Italian. At least for German and French that works quite well, for Italian too in most cases. However, that doesn't apply to Rumantsch.
+TheVixo haha well, what should i tell? there are 5 idioms (radical dialects) and it's not always easy to understand a different idiom then yours (funny, i know). and then there's also a new one, rumantsch grischun, which is a mix of all 5 idioms and is used for gouvernmental things and tv/radio. each of the 5 idioms+rumantsch grischun has a complete grammar. so there are school books translated in all 5 idioms (but now most will only be translated in rumantsch grischun, but not all regions wants that). There is also a region in nothern italy with romansh speaking people but i don't know which dialect they speak.Because romansh is extremely close to the roots of latin, we have the advantage to easily understand and learn other latin languages like italian, spanisch, portuguese, romanian, and so on. It's also the oldest, still spoken language, i think (?).Once, a huge part of eastern switzerland was romansch, but because of unlucky circumstances, the number of romansch-speaking people decreased dramatically. if you have more questions, just ask :)
True, but on the other hand, Swiss German is probably the most un-sexy German dialect around. According to my girlfriend. Who is Swiss. From Romandie. ;) (Besides, it's not quite that bad. If I concentrate, I *can* understand most of it)
I visited the German-speaking part of Switzerland and managed to communicate pretty well with standard German. I found it very helpful that, when they encounter foreigners or people from other parts of the country/from Germany or Austria, they would switch to a more standard German. Although if you're to settle in the area for an exended period of time, it is very advisable to learn/adapt to the local dialect so you can get along and socialise well. And, the situation is similar to in Germany and Austria. In Germany, you'll find people also "unconsciously" speak in their own local dialects in daily life. Among the most notorious dialects are Bavarian, Swabian (both are Southern dialects) and Saxon dialects. Bavarian belongs to the same group as the dialects spoken in almost all of Austria. The Austrians are also normally communicating in their vernaculars, so if you have 2 people from Berlin and Vienna speaking their own respective dialects, they wouldn't understand each other well. Swabian belongs to the Allemannic dialects, the same as the Swiss German dialects, but even they are notably different. When I stayed in Germany, I lived in Augsburg, a city in Bavaria which lies right on the edge of the traditionally Swabian-speaking part of the state. Some of my colleagues have Bavarian accent, some Swabian, yet my comprehension of spoken (standard) German is not that good either. It was sort of a headache. One interesting thing is when I travelled to Switzerland with my friends who stayed in the northwestern part of Germany. He noticed that the Swiss people say "Danke" and "Bitte" quite differently from the people in his town. Me, I didn't notice it because that's very similar to how the people in Augsburg pronounce it. So, bottomline is, I wouldn't say that WW2 caused the Swiss people to cling to their local (German) dialect just to distinguish themselves from the Nazis. Those regional dialects have been around since centuries and even more so because the Swiss are well-known to be more "traditionalist" than the, say, the Austrians and the Germans. Besides, unlike the French, which 'traditionally' are known for their ambition for uniting their speech, the Germanic people are more keen to keep their distinct local customs and culture. Perhaps, that's why France is a unitary republic and Germany, Austria and Switzerland prefer federal system. Sorry for long post. Just wanted to share my thoughts and my story.
No, Mandarin and Cantonese (and other Chinese "dialects", e.g. Hokkien, Teochew, Hakka, etc.) are actually too different to be called the same language. Every German dialects are distinct but I don't think the differences are as great as Chinese dialects/languages. Historically, they form a dialect continuum. Some linguists say that Low German dialects are qualified to be a separate language or maybe as a dialect of the Dutch language. Personally, I would compare it to Japanese dialects or perhaps to the case of Serbo-Croatian. I'm not a native speaker, but it seems that most of the times a native speaker can get the rough idea of what is being said in a certain other dialect but it is not perfect comprehension. I've been told that it is often just a matter of getting used to different sounds/phonology and different words.
+EC912 : Because of this messy situation with dialects I never bothered learning anything other than Hochdeutsch. One time, though, I had a customer with a very strong bayrisch accent and I could only guess what he was saying :D Well, if I live in Germany someday I would certainly learn dialect but I guess I´ve had enough of dialects having studied the Osaka and Okinawa dialects in Japan.
+EC912 : I am learning Cantonese currently after having studied Mandarin for a while and not only vocabulary is different but even the characters used (Hong Kong uses traditional characters) are different for certain meanings. I also hear a lot of Shanghainese and don´t see it as a dialect. When my Cantonese gets at least conversational I want to check out some Shangnainese other than good morning, thank you and good bye, which makes my customers extremely happy :D
+EC912 +Langfocus Absolutely. My level of Hochdeutsch is not very good but I can do myself and I have a small book of Swiss German, more dialectalised way but honestly, this is understable and they can answer in Hochdeutsch, and a good way!
+EC912 It's true that the dialects have been around for a long time, but in the early 20th century many people spoke standard German so as to seem more educated. Later it wasn't all that fashionable anymore, one reason probably being the two world wars.
When my niece started school in Switzerland she went to a German speaking school that also taught in English. Her parents spoke German well (they lived in Germany for a while before getting married) and my niece picked it up fairly quickly. The first time I saw her back in the US I asked her how school was going. She said “well in class sometimes we speak English and I understand that. Sometimes in class we speak German and I understand that. But in the lunch line everyone speaks and I cannot understand them.” I agree Swiss German is hard for non Swiss to understand. My niece is now fluent in Swiss German and goes to a primarily German speaking high school.
Gotta love Switzerland. I went on holiday in Zermatt this summer and people would literally speak a full conversation in German and then say goodbye in Italian.
If you want to hear different languages spoken at the same time, just take the train in a big city like Zurich... You will hear almost all the official languages.
Hi I'm one of these 40'000 people who speak Rumantsch (not Rumansh). But did you know that Rumantsch is divided in 5 "idiomsp( they have similarities but have diffrences in the writting system and vocabulary). Rumantsch is divided in -> Vallader, Puter, Sursilvan,Sutsilvan and Surmiran. Sometimes we can't understand each other, but if a person who speaks Vallader is in contact with a person who speaks Sursilvan and they talk for 3 weeks together they'll understand nearly everything. But most of the time we are like:"What are you talking, that's not my language". And than we start to speak german. ( They even made an artificial language combining all the 5 idioms and even local dialect. It's called Rumantsch Grischun) Sry for the bad English;)
+ModernLPgeneration that is really interesting. I never knew that about Rumantsch. I have heard of this language but very very little. Thanks for your information ps your English is good
Laschadura It’s spelled like “Romansh”, because that’s how it’s spelled in English. Although, I like the spelling of the word in Romansh more. It’s so cool. I would like to learn that language.
As a swiss german speaker, i can say that almost all of us can speak standard german very well and are understood by germans without any problems except for being ridiculed for our accents
People in Zürich can speak understandable Schriftsdeutsch, but in the villages nearby it was hard for me, an immigrant living in Berlin, to understand them (and that was specifically Schriftsdeutsch with accents, not Schwytzertüütsch).
And, as I read, this linguistic diversity is the reason why many times Switzerland refers to itself as CH or Confoederatio Helvetia--a Latin term for the region of Switzerland--to avoid calling the country in any of the national languages which would preference that group or language over the others.
Also a fact which some Germans usually don't really understand: Swiss people do write stuff in their own dialect. There are no rules on how to write something here. You might notice that some people in the comment section noticed that he should have written "Schwiizerdütsch" instead of "Schwyzerdütsch". That's actually quite normal here. We constantly bicker about how to write stuff, and how not to. But in the german-speaking part of Switzerland, there's a huuuuge bunch of different dialects, basically each canton has at least one dialect. And as there's no rule on how to write things, people just write it how they would pronounce it. But no, at school, we don't write like this. We mainly use it for chat-messages. Everything that needs to be formal, is written in "Hochdeutsch" ("High-German"), which is spoken near Hannover, and is considered to be the "accent free German". Also, some Swiss people can't seem to speak high-German without a terrible Swiss accent. Even for most Swiss people, this is cringeworthy. Germans then think "ah, he's speaking in his own dialect, and I'm just doing a great job understanding him", while the Swiss person actually just gloriously fails in spelling the words without any accent ^^.
"Even for most Swiss people, this is cringeworthy" Meine Erfahrung mit Schweizern ist, dass fast alle Hochdeutsch mit so einem Akzent sprechen. Ich hab nie einen Schweizer gehört, der Hochdeutsch ohne schweizerischen Akzent sprechen kann, also finde ich es seltsam, dass es angeblich "cringeworthy" für die Schweizer ist, wenn Leute Hochdeutsch mit einem schweizerischen Akzent reden.
die meisten schweizer sprechen hochdeutsch wie dj bobo (falls der dir etwas sagt) oder michele hunziker oder mit schlimmeren akzent. Nur wenige schweizer können (und wollen) akzentfreies hochdeutsch sprechen (so wie es stefanie heinzmann kann). Ich bin schweizerin und ich finde es schrecklich, wie es viele nicht versuchen, möglichst ohne akzent zu sprechen. Es stimmt, ganz ohne kann man kaum, aber versuchen kann mans. Bei einigen schweizern ist man fast ein verräter, wenn man akzentfreies hochdeutsch kann. Klingt krass, ist aber so. Ich kriege regelmässig finstere blicke, wenn ich einen vortrag in gutem hochdeutsch spreche.
Swiss Waiter: "Buongiorno, cosa ti piacerebbe, amico?" Guy: "Bonjour, je voudrais une assiette de poisson méditerranéen! Pour boisson, une bouteille de l'eau gazeuse s'il vous plait!" Swiss Waiter: "Danke schön!" Guy: "Same to you, pal!"
Personally, one of the things I love about Switzerland is the multi-lingualism. As an American, I find English so boring (yes I know I'm using it now). But I also speak Spanish and French, and I want to learn as many languages as I can - I'm enrolling in German classes at my local university. I hope Switzerland keeps their multi-lingual identity and doesn't entirely anglicize their beautiful country.
I was born in Geneva (where the language is French) and grew up all my life saying "septante" and "nonante" and was so confused when I later took French lessons and realised most Francophone people say those numbers differently!
Interesting. I've been translating birth, death, and marriage records of my Belgian Walloon ancestors who lived in Hainaut province. The records are in French but they usually used "septante" and "nonante" also instead of the standard French. My great grandfather was born there in 1878.
Francophone people use septante and nonante only french people use soixante- dix and quatre- vingt dix , in Belgium and Canada we use the same as is Switzerland.
@@Wahrheit_ Because Gauls used to count with 20 as a base. So, in France, people originally kept that habit and that still shows in some numbers such as seventy (sixty-ten) and ninety (eighty-ten). But that's the only difference between French French and other francophone countries.
I just returned from an year long exchange in Switzerland, where I went to a university in the German-speaking part of the country, and as an outsider, I noticed a few things: 1) Germans frequently marginalize Swiss German. It's often a topic for jokes on how gutural it sounds, how "it's not real german", and even that it sounds "uneducated", all ridiculous in my opinion, since it's a matter of how the language develops. Swiss people are very considerate and change it quickly to standard German if they realize the other person is a foreigner or not a native speaker, something Austrians do as well, but Germans sometimes minimize it, by saying things like "it's cute that they are trying". Germans take pride on speaking what they consider to be the real German. Also, elderly and/or more isolated Swiss people can actually have a problem speaking standard German; 2) Italian is very isolated, I didn't meet a single Swiss Italian outside of Ticino, nor it's a popular choice amongst Swiss people to learn. I only met one Swiss who spoke all 4 native languages (plus English). But you'll always be reminded of it's presence, since basically every product you buy has instructions, nutritional content and etc in all 3 languages; 3) Swiss-Germans tend to speak more languages than the rest, as the comment below already stated, but from my experience, not a lot of them stick to French, they might study it in school, but a lot of them let go of it afterwards. Most Swiss-French I met couldn't communicate in German, even if they had taken classes in high school, at the university they seemed like exchange students, I remember talking to this guy from Geneva, and he was impressed at how many Swiss-German spoke good french, when him and his friends couldn't remember any German; and 4) English is widely spoken, but don't always expect people to know it. I've had a waiter who spoke 5 languages, while the lady responsible for the immigration office's hot-line couldn't speak a single world of English. Swiss with different native languages mostly communicate in English, I believe it's sometimes for lack of knowledge of each other's language, but also sometimes because of pride; Sorry to any Swiss to whom I may have seemed like just a nosy Brazilian, or if my impression doesn't exactly fit the reality. I'm just very interested in linguistics and also love your beautiful country. xx
+Vagabund92 exactly, that was the reason. in any case the language was made official only a few years ago, nothing to do with WWII "Following a referendum on March 10, 1996, Romansh was recognized as a partial official language of Switzerland alongside German, French, and Italian in article 70 of thefederal constitution."
What I find really cool is how languages like Spanish and Portuguese, which are considered definitely different languages are almost all of the time mutually intelligible while languages like Swiss German and German in Germany are dialects of Standard German, but are generally not mutually intelligible. Makes you think about how there’s no concrete line between language and dialect. Also, I love your videos, Paul!
German dialects are not dialects of Standard German. Once they constituted German in the original, broader sense. In the 16th/17th c. Standard German evolved mainly from the chancery versions of some High German varieties, like Austro-Bavarian "Gemain Teutsch" (Common German, 15th c.). Also East Central German (Upper "Saxon") vernacular was influencial. Originally everything was called language, German languages constituted the German language (Dutch included). After Standard German and the Dutch standard made it all other varieties were just called dialects from then on (middle of the 18th c.). These varieties or dialects and Standard German formed mixed varieties (regiolects). They are not to be confused with the historical dialects. Only they could be called dialects of Standard German (Hochdeutsch). But that's uncommon.
@@Wahrheit_ Germany and İtaly unified in end of the 19 century.Because of that this countries had no one common language.Their politicans choose a language and declared "it is our offical language.Other ones are just dialects"
Portuguese and Spanish aren't always mutually intelligible, this is just a myth. Keep in mind that Spanish has many different dialects, some of which even native speakers have difficulty understanding
Spanish and Portuguese are not mutually intelligible. The written language is maybe 80% mutually intelligible but the spoken one is about 10 - 20% mutually intelligible for a native spanish listening to Portuguese and about 40 - 60% for the other way around. This also varies depending on which Spanish and which Portuguese you speak. Spanish from Chile is harder to understand for other Spanish speakers and incomprehensible for Portuguese speakers. Meanwhile Portuguese from Portugal seems quite incomprehensible to everybody haha
Aber nicht offiziell und Biel liegt nicht direkt auf dem Röschtigraben, dem Saanetal. Will man im Kanton Freiburg Staatsangestellter werden - das Kantonsspital (gute Klinik und sehr nettes, kollegiales Betriebsklima) zum Beispiel stellt sehr gerne deutsche Ärzte und deutsches Pflegepersonal ein -, muss man nachweisen, dass man in der Schule Französisch und Deutsch hatte (das einzige Mal, bei dem ich den Bewerbungsunterlagen das Abiturszeugnis als Beweis beifügen musste) ...
Wusste ich ehrlich gesagt auch nicht, bis ich mich dort bewarb. War auch recht unkonventionell, meine Frau sah morgens im Ärzteblatt unter "Vermischtes" eine Kleinanzeige "Westschweizer Spital sucht Assistenzarzt mit Berufserfahrung und Fachkundenachweis Rettungsmedizin für das Fach Orthopädie.", sie faxte meine Bewerbung hin und abends rief mich der leitende Oberarzt an, ich dachte nur, um einen Termin für ein Vorstellungsgespräch auszumachen. Tatsächlich WURDE das schon das Vorstellungsgespräch, er war nämlich der Meinung, dafür müsse ich nicht extra die 300 km nach Fribourg zu fahren. Und zeitlich passte es sehr gut, mein befristeter Vertrag an der Uni.-Klinik Freiburg lief am 31. Juli aus, am 4. August war Vertragsbeginn in der Schweiz (1. ist Nationalfeiertag, 2. und 3. waren Wochenende ...
Doch Biel ist offiziell eine zweisprachige Stadt, sowie auch der Kanton Bern ein offiziell zweisprachiger Kanton ist. Biel ist wohl die Stadt mit der ausgeglichensten Sprachbevölkerung in der Schweiz, was man von der Stadt Freiburg weniger behaupten kann, da dort Französisch klar in der Mehrheit ist.
Dann gehen Sie mal an den Bahnhof von Freiburg im Üechtland und lesen das Bahnhofsschild. Übrigens wurden beide Freiburgs eh vom selben Herrschergeschlecht gegründet, den Zähringern ... Btw., als Arzt aus Deutschland bekam ich natürlich auch mehr deutschsprachige als französischsprachige Patienten. Ich zumindest mochte "meine" auch Sensler sehr gerne, klasse, handfeste Schweizer ohne jeglichen Vorbehalt dem "Schwaben" gegenüber! Und die Zugschaffner mussten immer lachen bei der Fahrkarte von Freiburg nach Freiburg und zurück (irgendwie klappte das mit Freiburg i. Ü. und Freiburg i. B. nie, das war dem Computer anscheinend zu viel), da kannte ich das tolle Generalabonnement der SBB leider noch nicht.
I think it's a bad idea to make English a lingua franca in Switzerland. English is already dominating worldwide and having drastic influence on many languages, in certain cases near extinction. In Switzerland, making a minor language like Romasch lingua franca would be the best approach in my opinion. There are several advantages: 1) There are very few native speakers, thus the bigger languages don't see it as a threat as a, say, Italian/French speaker would having to speak german. And it will also not threaten the existence of the other languages, given they are bigger in Switzerland & also there are even larger countries speaking those languages. 2) Unlike German, French & Italian, Romansch is a unique language to Switzerland. Having such a unique language as Lingua Franca might strengthen the national identity of the country along the language barriers. 3) Romansch is a small language & declining due to pressure of the larger languages. If something is not done to save it, it will in a not too distant future suffer it's death. Making it Lingua Franca, will save this unique Swiss language from extinction.
Whether you like it or not, English IS being used as a lingua franca in Switzerland. (So are standard German and Italian). And the people in Grubuden who are turning away from Romansch are speaking German instead.
So you are confirming the problem of having the larger languages as lingua franca: the death of the smaller languages. And no, I really don't like it. It think it's very sad this happens. It's even more sad few people care.
MellowMaroon we stand to lose a culture. Our lives are in many ways defined by language, they connect us to our roots, and losing them is losing parts of a culture and a society that you can never get back.
@Miniooster What makes you think that using English---or for that matter ANY language----to communicate with someone else stops you from using your own native language? And for that matter, why is it that English can never be considered a "Swiss" language but high German can?
As a French-speaking Swiss, let me tell you that there is nothing more demotivating than having to learn a language (German) in school that is not only a grammatical nightmare, but is not even really spoken in Switzerland. Even the Swiss German don't like to speak it. I live in Fribourg (that marvellous city you see at 9:35 and 9:40 ^_^) and when I go to Bern for instance and ask my way IN GERMAN to someone in the street, they hear my accent and answer in French lol.
+DexM47 ahaahahah thats actually funny as hell the fact when u speak they reply in french ahahaha. i could only imagine what theyre thinking. "here comes a frenchie trying to speak german, let me help him out by speaking french"
+DaniyalZeX7 It depends on which part of Switzerland they're from. But those who live near the "Röstigraben" (9:23 in the video) often speak very well (not all of them, but still). Their accent is still clearly present, but not too thick. However, if you go to the more central or eastern parts of Switzerland, they usually don't speak French as well, sometimes it's just the basics, and usually with a much thicker accent :) Those who live very close to a French-speaking city, as Fribourg where I live, are often perfectly bilingual, with very little or no accent at all.
Oooh, as a Swiss, I can speak german, french and italian. I know nobody who really wants to use english as a lingua franca. We are happy to speaks the langage of our neighbors and usually everyone answers in its own mother tongue and it works.
Wawruto Wawruto You learn at least 2 Swiss languages in school, many people choose to learn Italian on top of that, and you basically everyone at least understands Romantsch because of the other languages.
Congratulation, it's very rarely in switzerland . You are Swiss Romand, Swiss German or Swiss Italian ? Félicitation ! C'est rare en suisse des gens qui parle les 3 langues . Vous êtes Suisse Romand, Alémanique ou Italien ? Felicitacione rara swiss que parla Italiano Frences y Allemane. Tu es Swiss Romand, Italiano, Allemane ? Ich hallo Ya Wonderrrrfull neinn ? Deutch, French, Italian ?
well first as a swiss woman I'd like to thank you for the quality of your video, there is nearly no mistakes. I'm not only swiss, I also have the chance to be born in a bilingual home, my mom is swiss german and my father is french and italian. I grew up in the romandie and had to learn standard german like all my school mates. It was hard for them and after 8 years of german lessons they new less than after 6 years english lesson. The swiss french friends I know who speak well german are those who went on studying trips for a long period of time. i think teaching english early at school isn't good at all. The kids would loose a part of our culture.
Now, this is the best explanation of our 4 lingual country I have heard so far. This gentleman is 100% on the money with his comments. I only hope, that Switzerland will stand up to the trend, that everything has to be english. Years ago it used to be the french language. But I am glad that we are allowed to keep our different dialects and languages.
as i am from switzerland (swiss german speaking region) i never relay saw a better video about the languages here no spreading of fake information in this vid i very often see people on YT spread false information keep the good work up
When I grew up I was exposed to all 4 languages, my father spoke French , my grandmother Romansch, my grandfather Italian and we all communicated in Swiss German...
So cool!!!! My family only spoke English. I’m American and it honestly feels like a default to me that English is my native language. I speak Spanish as a second language because there’s lots of Mexican immigrants here and it’s the second most spoken language.
Actually I think it's a bad idea to make english our lingua franca because you'll anyway will learn english. I'm proud on my language (swiss-german) and I like that we have cantons with other languages. I'm not good in french but I want to get good so I can speak french with french speaking Swiss even if they don't want to speak german. Also I think the french, the italian and the rural german part of Switzerland don't want English as the lingua franca, only the cities want this.
+VR96FE I agree with you, though I think the best thing about your comment is the great Swiss attitude of hospitality. Every swiss person that I've met has tried to speak the native language of the people that they meet. Though idiomatically for me it would be, "I think it's a bad idea to make English our lingua franca because you'll learn English anyway." Merci pour votra mot ;-)
You see, when I lived in Switzerland and even after that, when I visited it often and travelled most of it (well, tried) I thought it was the Swiss German who didn't want to learn the other languages. But now that you mention it, as I lived on the French side although not far from the Bern canton, you are right, French Swiss are even worse on language integration... At least that was the case 25 years ago (I'm getting old).
I learned a lot from your great mini Swiss language tutorial here. But mostly I noticed you have most excellent English diction. Your words are crisp and just flow greatly. I bet you would be a good presenter - to an audience anywhere!
+Langfocus Hi! I'm Swiss. I'm fluent in German and English, because those languages are similar, but I struggle with French. I also learned the basics of Italian and understand some words of Rumantsch. That's because the Swiss way of thinking is: Understand at least 2 languages well and try to be good enough to understand basic small talk of the other languages. Even if it's just "hi" and "goodbye" people who speak other languages will appreciate it. I think it is great to go to school in Switzerland, because from an early age Swiss kids learn at least 3 different languages: German, French and English. They are compulsory at every public school. Students who like learning languages can choose to attend other lesson to learn Italian and/or Spanish as well. Most students like to focus on English rather than on German/French/Italian as a second language, because 1) English is relatively easy to learn and 2) because it is important for business or to attend a higher school. Swiss people don't appreciate if foreigners don't try at least to learn the basics of Swiss German or French. Such tourists are often considered ignorant and close-minded. So if anybody ever visits Switzerland: Makes sure you know the basics of the language in the place you visit. You will get bonus points ;-)
Langfocus Yes, sure! I try to speak their language until I run out of words. Then the French will either step in with German or English or I will kindly ask if it's possible to switch language. The willingness to adress people in their own language is highly appreciated by the local people. Even if you make horrible mistakes ;-)
Well she's quite right, but it's not compulsory to know French to visite the Romandie. Especially in big cities as Geneva where you can hear lots of foreign languages in town. Most people can answer in English (much more than in German or Swiss German^^)
Ruth Steiner Ruth Steiner from my own experience (Swiss; french speaker) German is paramount to get a promotion here, even better would be to learn a Swiss German dialect (like züritüütsch) or sometimes even Italien. English is not considered a plus here, because you ought to speak it (it's almost mandatory) and everyone does so you won't win any points with it. I command you for learning so many languages, indeed we love it when Swiss germans say "adieu" ("ade") and "merci" even though it's probably not considered french anymore since it's part of most dialects. There is a small community of English speakers in the Romandie which only speak English even though they live here some more than a decade and it's utterly judged upon. Ich habe schon bemerkt während des Militärs das Sie (schweizerdeutsch) können mehr Sprachen sprechen als wir und Sie können oft perfekt Englisch sprechen, das hat mir wirklich beeindruckt als ich im Thun (Thoune) war. Würdest du sagen das es stört dich wenn jemand (einen Romand) Hochdeutsch spricht statt Schweizerdeutsch? Ich habe immer diese Gefühl sobald die Leute bemerken dass ich nur Hochdeutsch reden kann. Anche tu stai imparando l'italiano? È una bellissima lingua, ma non è tanto facile per noi (Romand). Spero che hai imparata più di me ^^
+gredangeo but they can still speak the language of the others and the more language you can speak, the funnier it is being able to understand other languages to a certain level right? haha I live in the German-speaking part of Switzerland and sure, we might have difficulties speaking French because it has other roots than German but we don't reject our other languages.
I am a German from the center of the state of Bavaria (south-east of Germany) and I took part in a student exchange to Geneva. I stayed at a pretty multilingual family, which was great. The father was an Irishman, the mother a Swiss from Zurich (so a "German native") and they live in the French speaking part of Switzerland. As a result, I have had a lot of experience in communicating in (foreign) languages. My exchange partner and his sister can of course speak French fluently since they have grown up in Geneva. However at home, the language was English because the parents wanted at least one of them speaking their native language (the father hardly knows any German). To the children I spoke in French, but with the parents in English and whenever I could not come up with a word or a definition I asked the mother in Germany, specifically my Bavarian dialect, and she replied in Schwitzerdütsch. We hardly had any problems communicating, our dialects being very similar in my opinion. The English of the father was relatively clear standard English as far as I can rate that, but with an Irish accent in pronunciation. But as I asked him to speak his mother tongue, I did not get much of it (he grew up near Cork, I believe). Now to the French part, I did not have a hard time understanding at all, whereas in Paris and in Bordeaux, I have always had to beg people to speak more slowly so I could understand them. This was not the case in Geneva, neither at home with my exchange partner nor on the street (slang is a different point here), In my perception, the Swiss French is much more intelligible than the Francais Métropolitain (French natives, do you agree with my statement here?). When my exchange partner was with me in Germany, he said that he had understood more here than for example in Zurich. But I suppose that's because I live in a rather suburban area where the Bavarian dialect becomes more and more replaced by standard German. However, he could follow the conversations within my family, which are in my mother tongue dialect of course. Additionally, my partner is very exposed to German because of his mother watching German TV and calling Swiss-German friends, so that was a huge benefit for him. In the canton of Geneva, he started learning German as the first foreign language in the third year of primary school and English as the second foreign language in the fifth year of primary school, as far as I remember (here again, please correct me if I am wrong); I do not remember him learning a third foreign language in the Collège (High School).
You say "refused" but do you know if they were even able? If this video is true, they'd have learnt some German in school, but that doesn't mean they can hold an adult conversation.
@@_Shadbolt_ Most of them worked at CERN, an international Research Center, where the official languages are English, French, German and Italian and I am fluent in all of these languages except for French and they should have been able to at least speak one additional language apart from their own. I think it is highly unlikely that they would have gotten a job there if French was the only language they were able to speak. It is more likely that they refused out of pride. I mean, they couldn't even tell me the prices for a meal there in another language (I was lucky that I can at least understand numbers in French).
French French is actually just Parisian French. Everyone else from Brussels to Geneva knows it's soixant, septant, octant, nonant. Parisians are weird.
+BarbikaPahor I agree on the "messy" part. It's even worse. "quatre vingt dix" is not "eighty - ten" its "4 times 20 plus 10". But hey, that did also exist in English. Lincoln began his Gettysburg Address with "Four score and seven years ago" and meant 87 by that.
+BarbikaPahor Allow a "weirdo" (I guess :D) to provide an explanation. In early middle age, calculations for numbers used the base 20 and 10 (ie. 83 = 4*20+3 or 172 = 8x20+10+2)..Then numbers like "thirty" (trente), sixty (soixante) were introduced in the "french" language. Then nobody's sure why but in the XVIIe century, the french academy decided that the last 3 numbers, 70, 80 and 90 would keep that same base 20 (though hopefully, we kept numbers like 100 (cent) and 1000 (mille). So soixante, septante and nonante are indeed an improvement. Fun fact: In the city where I live (Geneva), they also say "quatre-vingt" yet they do find "quatre-vingt-dix" completely illogical...So I guess it's mostly about what you learn as a kid..:D
No, it's a terrible idea! The last thing we need is another reason for native English-speakers to think they don't have to learn other languages! (I say this as a native English-speaker who learnt her own language as a teenager because the English convinced her Gaelic-speaking grandparents and great-grandparents that English was a better language).
i dont think native english speakers in switzerland are a big concern. accepting english as lingua franca isn't as bad if england doesn't have a part in it. using german instead is more dangerous, as that allows swiss german speakers to lean back and ignore the other languages. if it's english they have to learn, they'll still learn their families' language.
Rachel, I applaud you in your efforts to learn Gaelic and preserve Ireland's cultural heritage, but make no mistake---the Irish today have benefited from being native English speakers.
Being a native English speaker will not make you rich, but the importance of knowing English well cannot be overstated. More information is available in this language than any other. Books, music, and film written in English will have a bigger impact globally than in any other. U2 would not have become global superstars singing in Gaelic. This doesn't't mean you shouldn't learn Gaelic or any other language, but there are millions of people around the world---some of them poor, some of them rich---who are desperately trying to learn what Irish people take for granted.
The problem for English speakers learning another language is choosing which language to learn. Any choice will be only of limited use because it will be understood in a limited number of places. The utility factor is decisive because that is why most people learn English, not for cultural purposes. In the EU bureaucracy the linguistic requirements for individuals (say for employment) are for a recognized national language plus English which means that the national language is "window dressing" but everyone must communicate in English unless two speakers agree to speak the same national language.
Very fun recent thing, there's a recent horror game published on almost all major platforms (Steam, Xbox, Playstation, and Switch) with its spoken dialogue entirely in Romansch! It's called Mundaun, after the town in the Swiss Alps it takes place in, and its also noteworthy for having textures entirely hand drawn in pencil. It's a really great game, very good story deeply rooted in local culture and fantastic visuals, I would strongly recommend giving it a look if you're curious about Romansch.
I am Swiss and must say that I have never seen such an excellent and well-informed summary of the Swiss language situation. It covers every aspect and avoids the usual clichés. The best way to evaluate somebody‘s credibility is by looking at what they say about a situation that you know well. By this standard I must say that the credibility of this site ranks very high. I shall feel very comfortable about anything else it has to say about languages. Congratulations!
Wow, I'm really impressed by your well-researched video!! Chapeau! I'm Swiss (speaking Swiss German btw) but I've never seen such a good information about our national languages!
About English as "lingua franca": What many of you non-Swiss don't get is how super-hard and frustrating it is for the non-German speakers in Switzerland to communicate with the 65% majority of Swiss German speakers. Why? Because we seem to speak a totally different language than what they were taught. Someone in e.g. Geneva can learn and study (High-) German all their life; they can read every book written in German... but as soon as they travel anywhere into the Swiss German parts they won't understand zip because of all our funky Swiss German dialects (100s of them!). And none of them has any standardised form; and even we native Swiss German speakers don't understand every of those dialects (... looking at you, Wallis!!! :P ...). All those German lessons instantly feel like a huge waste of time because you still won't understand anything unless we want you to understand and switch to High German, just for you. Or even to French, or Italian. Or English. And this is where English makes most sense: because *both* sides (Swiss German and French speakers) need to learn it, they both find themselves on "equal footing" since it is a foreign language to both and both will stick more or less to the Standard English they learned at school. This makes life a lot easier for both sides. In everday life (e.g. where I work) this often means that chats between Swiss German- and French-speaking coworkers will jump between languages; sometimes even in the same sentence. E.g. chat starts off in German, then gets switched to French, then a few words in English are used, then back to French, a few replies in German, a few fragments in English, and so on. If anything then *THIS* is the "Swiss Identity", e.g. the willingness to find common ground, e.g. speak English if needed, not force your native language on the other guy (whose language is just as native as your's!!). English has proven to be helpful in this regard (e.g. bridge the gaps); but it's not even remotely going to "replace" any of the native languages soon, so no danger there.
I'm from Lausanne and I'm passionate about languages. The problems is that Swiss German people have disgusted me. I know 5 languages, but I can barely introduce myself in German, skipping a lot of lessons in school and hating this language. The reason? I was feeling like learning a language that doesn't exist in my country. Who cares about just being able to read the newspapers or watching TV, I want to know my fellow citizen... Why do you hate so much German? Is it so uncomfortable for you to speak in German? I have never understand how is it possible to speak a language at school and in every formal situation and then switch to another language. Can you give me your point of view about this?
It's exactly like that! I learned German for 12 years but when I started working with a lot of Swiss German, I just couldn't understand! Plus everyone has their own dialect so I have to get used to everyone speaking :) At my work, everybody is bilingual so I speak German (with swiss german words sometimes :D) to everyone and they answer in French. English isn't allowed at my work place, as it's a non national language. So far it has worked perfectly:)
@@Wawruto I understand your feelings, but I think it's not fair to lump all Swiss German people together. That would be like saying all the French speaking people are arrogant and too proud to speak English. I would never do that. I'm from the German speaking part of Switzerland and I really think it's great when people from the French part of Switzerland speak German to me. And of course I speak standard German and not Swiss German to them. We had French at school, but I didn't learn much back then. Actually I was very interessted in it, but our lessons were so boring and our French books ancient. I neither do hate German nor Germany and I have no problem speaking standard German. If someone comes from a non-German speaking region and he or she tries to speak German I gladly change to standard German.
scorp73 As a non-Swiss person, I think you make the most sense 👍. Yes, making use of English to ease the communication between all Swiss when nothing else works is only logical and practical, and we are not even going to bother talking about benefitting from fluency in it because of its status as a global language. The term "lingua franca" basically means "bridge language" anyway. Of course, that does not necessarily mean using it to actually replace other Swiss national languages other than your own, that would be silly. The way you speak of multilingual interactions between Swiss from different regions in everyday life sounds exactly like the Swiss way to me, so I also believe Swiss culture should remain intact in this way.
Hello PaulI am from the (Swiss) German speaking part of Switzerland and at least here I have NEVER heard of any obligations to learn a third NATIONAL language. (It might be different in Ticino for example.) What is definitely true here is that it is mandatory to learn two foreign languages over all. Learning French and English as foreign languages is mandatory in eighter all or at least most places in the German speaking part of Switzerland. (Don't want to say things here I am not entirely sure about.) And it is also very common to only learn French and English - the two mandatory languages - when you're from the German speaking part of Switzerland and instead of learning Italian or Latin (starting during mandatory school years) or Spanish, Russian or Ancient Greek (starting during "additional" school years) or two or of these languages additionally to learning French and English, they opt for other additional subjects/classes. Or - when possible - none at all. The of the content of your video was EXTREMELY accurate and whenever I thought something like "Well, this is not perfectly correct" you added something that made it perfectly correct. So, well done. Much better than msny Swiss people could have done it. I wonder where you got these accurate facts that were understandable enough for people who don't live in Switzerland.
Thanks for the comment! The information about being required to learn a third national language came from a Swiss person I spoke with online. He said that was the case everywhere, but I guess that might just be the case in his canton and he assumed it was the same everywhere. Thanks for the correction and the compliments too!
+Langfocus You're welcome. And sorry for misspelling your name, that was a typo. Do you happen to know where he was from, how old he was, what level of education he was talking about or what native language he spoke?
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What I'd really like to know is why Swiss German is so different from the standard language while Swiss French is just standard French with a handful of regionalisms. As a non-native speaker of both languages, I can't understand much spoken Swiss German without subtitles. On the other hand, the French spoken in Lausanne or Geneva sounds basically the same as Parisian French. Indeed, there are regional accents in France itself that are much more distinctive than that la Suisse romande.
Short answer: standard german is a once artificially constructed language made up to unify many different "german" languages while metropolitan french is a centralistic one which expanded from the northern part of France. The original languages/dialects still exist to some extend, in Switzerland more, in northern Germany less.
Amazing how well you have resumed the languages situation. Living on the Röstigraben, French and Swiss German are in my brain and my heart : it's not always easy, but it's part of me. Now having English as the only second language in school, no matter the region... On the technical point of view, it would sure be easier. But a language is not only a media, it's also a message. Do technocrats get that ?
Do you study only English as a second language? That's will be very useful but as you said it's better to communicate people from their local language unless you're outside
Yeah right. I don't like french because it's complicated but I still want to learn it because my country speaks it too. I personally have been having english at school since the 3rd grade of primary school and french since 6th grade. I think that's alright.
As a french speaking Swiss national, I can confirm that we do not enjoy learning german! However, I do not think that we should remove german (or french for german speakers) as the second language we learn in school. First of all, german is harder to learn for most of french speaking students, so starting to learn german before english makes sense. Furthermore, it is still very useful to know a second national language, because if you want to get a job, having three languages (first and second national language and english) on your CV will always help! Great video as always!
I do not fully agree with your first statement. I'm a french speaking Swiss person, but I know a lot of people who like to learn and speak german too :)! Everyone is different. I think english is easier to learn, both for german speaker and french speaker, and that's why some don't want to study german/french that much.
mdr tu dis quoi, juste parce que toi t'aimes pas apprendre l'allemand ça veut pas dire que tout le monde déteste l'apprentissage de l'allemand. perso j'ai toujours gardé une moyenne de 5.5 en allemand et j'ai fini avec une matu gymnasiale!
Chill, je dis ça par observation, parce que qu'une majorité de gens que je connais n'aiment pas l'allemand. À part ceux qui avaient beaucoup de facilité en allemand (comme toi par exemple), mes camarades ont passé leur temps à se plaindre.
+Ali Hussein Mohamed Peut-être, mais je pense aussi qu'une majeure partie n'aime pas l'allemand à cause des profs, y'a eu des années où j'ai vraiment foiré et d'autres où c'était facile. Faut juste être intéressé et ça roule. J'suis aussi contre l'anglais devenant la linga franca, car ça n'a rien à voir avec notre histoire. Y'en a qui diront que les immigrés ont de la peine, mais personnellement, je pense que si ils le veulent, ils arrivent à s'intégrer très facilement, alors on peut très bien se passer de l'anglais.
***** Pour l'anglais, ce n'est pas qu'une question d'histoire. ça n'a peut être rien à voir, n'empêche qu'on sera compris avec l'anglais dans tous les pays du monde tandis qu'avec de l'allemand on risque de ne pas aller très loin.
I'm from Switzerland and my school is trilingual (German, Italian, Romansh). so my native language is german and I have to learn Italian at school. I don't really like it but I still think it is somehow important to teach the national languages and not just make english the lingua franca. I know a lot of people don't share that opinion with me. but it is part of our culture and it makes our tiny country somehow special :)
If you were a French-speaking Swiss , you'd want to learn German and obviously English . If you were a German- speaking Swiss you'd certainly choose French and English : Italian and Rumantsch are both totally useless...
@@Ado555555 I totally agree! An exchange in one of the other parts should be mandatory in the "Oberstufe" or in "Primar". It would be so easy and way more efficient.
I'm from Ticino and I leave in the bilingual city Fribourg since 2011. In Ticino there are not a big choice for universities, so we have to learn languages if we want continue to study in Switzerland. Now I can currently speak 4 languages. I'm really glad to be born in a State where we can speak differents languages. I think that in these way we become more open towards the foreigns, because we can communicate with anyone. So, pls, don't try to imagine a Switzerland with only a unique official language ;)
I wish Swiss TV would use more subtitles. I'm from south Germany, and sometimes I watch Swiss channels, and often an interesting report starts with a commenter speaking perfect standard German, but then they interview a local who speaks Schwyzerdütsch, and I can't get a word of what he's saying. But then again, my native language is Bavarian, which also is far away from standard German.
In Niederbairisch gibt's "luang", das "schauen" oder "gucken" bedeutet, nicht zu verwechseln mit "liang", was "lügen" heißt. Leider können junge Einheimische den Dialekt auch nicht mehr besonders gut.
+Eisi Kater hör einfach länger zu und leite Wörter ab das hast du ja drauf :) Man versteht ja auch viel Niederländisch, selbst Schwedisch Dänisch und Norwegisch wenn man genau hinhört und es ein wenig studiert:D Viel Erfolg
Some minor corrections: When speaking with the french-swiss or germans, we do change to german (often with a strong accent). It’s a different language, which we learn from a young age. Therefore most “german” swiss often speak 3-4 languages because of the addition of English and either french or a foreign language. The Ticinese (Italian speaking) often speak english, german AND french. In my experience, a lot of francophone swiss only speak French, despite learning german in school. Edit: It has been a while since writing this and I have to retract my statement. The majority of Romands do speak english or german, if not both. There are just more people who don’t compared to other swiss subgroups
@@ОниТиту They are a different breed. You see a billion people can speak english compared to the les than 200k of french, so the arrogance of frenchmen is more obvious.
For your last question I'd say : NO. Before learning foreign languages it's important to learn national language first. Cantons who wanted teach english first stepped back under pressure of the state (it has been considered with relevance as a risk for national cohesion).
I thought the exact same thing when Paul discussed the issue in the video. If people stop learning languages of each other in a VERY multilingual country, the different linguistic groups will slowly drag away from each other, putting the country on a track of dissolution.
If the lingua franca is changed to English this gives the country a landscape of "three different countries" rather than a "united country of three ethnicities". It only makes sense. English in the world as a whole is used as lingua france between COUNTRIES, not regions of the same country.
You say teaching English as the intermediary language risks reducing national cohesion? I disagree because the video says there is already a lack of cohesion, with towns either speaking one language or the other. If everyone shared at least one language then it would boost cohesion.
Instead of having English as the Lingua Franca ........ why not make it Romansch ? It is a language exclusive to Switzerland, it is already an official language in some cantons and there are not enough of them to be able to consider this as a group exerting dominance over the other. I think that it's a way better solution, use a national language instead of a foreign one to unify everyone
I'm Swiss and I live close to the Röschtigraben. In bilingual Cities it happens a lot that I speak my native language (swiss german) while the other person speaks their native language (french). We understand the other language, but are more comfortable speaking our native toungue 😊
Hi! I just discovered your channel, and I must say it's quite interesting. I was born and raised in Geneva, (Switzerland :p). I studied German for ten years, but I'm still bad at it. Here's what I think the problem is (I'm not saying it's the general opinion in Switzerland): French and German are both grammatically complicated, with a sh** load of exceptions. The strategy of teachers (in the french part at least) is to emphasize Grammar and conjugation courses for the second language, and that kills it. We don't practice our speaking enough. So I wouldn't say that the problem is cultural. Also, French speakers have more issues with their second language than German speakers, so the latter usually make the effort :-p Keep on uploading
MrVickilatombe So I assume you raised in the French part of the country, why didnt you choose italian as a second language? It's the closest to French.
Great video. So true, I'm from Geneva, When I travel to Zûrich, I speak english. Like it or not but English becomes the lingua franca of Switzerland. Maybe be not such as good think because : les suisses s'entendent bien parce qu'ils ne se comprennent pas :-)
im from switzerland and from the special canton Graubünden, we learn italian in 3th grade and not french (but ist just a sidenote :)) thanks for your video.
Je suis contre l'Anglais comme lingua franca en Suisse. La prédominence hégémoniale de cette langue se renforcera. Par contre il fallait apprendre davantage le Francais et l'Allemand en Suisse Alémanique et en Romandie. Et on devrait abondonner le ressentiment de parler Schriftdeutsch en Suisse Alémanique avec ceux qui ne parlent pas le dialecte. On n'est plus au 20 siècle.
Als Deutschschweizer macht es für mich keinen Unterschied ob ich jetzt Hochdeutsch oder Englisch spreche. Beides entspricht nicht meiner natürlichen Sprache, beides spreche ich fliessend. Mit mir Hochdeutsch statt Englisch zu sprechen ist nicht wiirklich ein entgegenkommen und bringt mir nichts. Im Gegensatz möchtest du, dass ich mit dir in deiner Muttersprache spreche.
Je ne parle pas les "dialectes" de mes parents, c'est un sentiment d'aliénation, une langue "officielle" est simplement un dialecte qui a pris le dessus sur les autres dialectes car à un moment de l'histoire cette région a eu + de pouvoir, mais cette langue "officielle" n'a rien de supérieur.
Als romanischsprachige Person bin ich der Meinung, man sollte immer bereit sein, auch einzulenken. Ja, ich liebe meine Muttersprache, aber ich erwarte nicht, dass die Leute in einer anderssprachigen Region mich verstehen. Man kann immer auch Kompromisse finde. Wenn ich mit Tessinern rede - was ziemlich oft vorkommt - reden wir oft Hochdeutsch. Das macht für uns Sinn, weil wir das in der Schule gelernt haben und Schweizerdeutch erst später gelernt haben. Am schönsten fände ich es, wenn jeder in seiner Muttersprache reden könnte. Die anderen müssten die Sprache verstehen, aber nicht selber können.
There are speakers of the other languages in every part and even in the swiss german region I speak italian with swiss people. italian is growing again and people in other cantons learn also italian, not only french or german. by the way, ticinees is still alive.
As an American exchange student, I studied in Biel/Bienne. The city is bilingual, with most shops, and even my school, being bilingual. Most of the time, I would observe the Swiss Germans speaking German while the Swiss French spoke French to each other - two languages simultaneously! My neighbor, a Swiss German, married a Swiss French, and this was how they communicated with each other, and their children were raised purely bilingually.
My feedback, as a born-and-raised guy from Ticino: 1) The Ticinese dialect is not an Italian dialect, but a lombardian dialect. Standard Italian is derived form Tuscan, in the Italic branch of Romance languages. Lombard is from the Gallo-Romanic languages and in some respect is closer to provençal than to "standard italian". 2) Lombard itself is divided into Western and Eastern dialects. All Western dialects are mostly mutually intelligible, but it is a bit tough for us Westerners to understand Easterners. 3) In Ticino standard Italian is the written language and the language of education, but in daily life Lombard is pretty much alive - much more so than across the border in Italy. This is because speaking Lombard did not attract any stigma like it was in Italy during the fascist era, where regional languages were poo-poo'd. Incidentally, the Italian government of the time labelled as "Italian dialects" also all those regional languages which, from a linguistic point of view, actually belong to a different branch altogether. 4) Ergo, Ticino has a form of diglossia - Lombard in informal speech, standard Italian for written communication, press, education and formal speech (government, courts). Diglossia is wide-spread, although it seems to be slightly less so than when I was a kid (40-odd years ago). 5) Incidentally, the Swiss of "Germanic" extraction have diglossia, too. Standard German for written communication, press, formal speech and (nowadays) parts of education, and "Swiss-German" in daily life. "Swiss-German" is a Germanic language, but is no German at all. Standard German grew out of a variety spoken in the middle of Germany. Swiss-German dialects (it is not a uniform one!), together with the dialects of Baden-Würtemberg in Germany and Alsace in France, are all part of the "Alemannic language". Interestingly, in the middle ages Alemannic was the prestige germanic language of southern Germany. What is now standard German became more popular with the spread of the written bible (Gutenberg), which was printed in an old form of standard German. 6) As for the French part, the old "Arpitan" (Franco-Provençal) has been stomped out in all but one tiny village. Standard French (with a few Swiss idiosyncracies) rules. 7) Romantsch (or Raeto-Romanic) is not a uniform language, either. Like for Basque, there is a "hybrid official version" which nobody likes or speaks. What is spoken (and written in the respective regions) are five romanic languages: Surmeir, Sursilvan and Sutsilvan in the West (these are easily mutually intelligible), and upper and lower Engadinese in the East (also mutually intelligible) - but the two groups have to make some efforts to understand each other. To the same group of languages belongs the Ladino of neighbouring northern Italy, BTW. Best! I.
Switzerland is a beautiful country! I had the pleasure of visiting the country back in 2015, I was in the German speaking areas of Bern. I want to go back as soon as possible! 🇨🇭
The language learning isn't completely like you said. I live in Zurich and i learn english since 2 grade and french since 5 grade and now italian since the first grade of high school. But some cantons have just one language in elementary school, and one in secondary school. In some cantons they learn first the 2nd national language and in other english. And in highschool (situation in the Canton of Zurich): If you go to the longterm highschool (after 6th grade elementary school) you have to learn latin for two years. And after this two years or if you go to the shortterm highschool (after 2nd or 3rd grade of secondary school) it's facultative to learn either italian, spanish or russian (modern language profile) or latin or greek (ancient language profile) or no additional language (the other profiles).
when I was doing my mandatory military service I was standing guard with a ticinese (I'm from grison). we basically spoke a mashup of italian, german, french but mostly english lmao so I definitely support learning only your native tounge and english
Stefano Barbosa It makes sense to Parisians because they don't think of "quatre-vingt-dix-neuf" as different numbers, it is the sum of its parts. So no, I wouldn't be like saying "four twenties ten nine" in English. It'd be like saying "eighty nineteen" and ultimately just "ninety nine" We don't say "butterfly" and think of a "a stick of butter flying" - the word doesn't reflect the meaning of its individual parts, we do not assign meaning to its individual parts when they appear side by side. So for Parisians, they do not think of the number 80 as four twenties, they look at it and just see "eighty"
The most used immigrant language in switzerland is portuguese (3.5%) and after that comes albanian(2.6%). Serbo-Croatian is on the third place with 2.5%.
This is a brilliant, in depth analysis of the linguistic situation in Switzerland. My father grew up there. He is right and shows how practical, logical and rational the Swiss people are in regards to language use. If only more people had this logic (and key to success in a modern world) in other parts of the world.
Thank you for this video, really well investigated! I live in Switzerland very close to the Röstigraben, work in Biel (a City where German and French are official languages) and had French in School for a total of about 8 years but still my French-knowledge-level is very low. Maybe you said it but one think I'd like to mention is, that for Swiss German speaking people it is really no problem at all to understand standard German (even though it is almost a foreign language for us). When chatting to each other (eg. via Whatsapp) we sometimes use Swiss German but otherwise the writen language we use is almost always standard German (newspapers, magazines, manuals, letters from goverments, invoices, ...). In fact there are even no grammatical rules for Swiss German (and there is not THE Swiss German as you've correctly mentionned). One last thing: There is no obligation to learn a third language or maybe it depends on the cantone you live in. Btw: In my channel you can find a video in which I explain how to pronounce certain words in Swiss German!
I used to live in Geneve, and even the University students from the eastern parts of the country learned French to fit in. My French speaking friends who grew up there said it was difficult to learn German, because what is spoken and what is taught in schools are too different. When I visit Zurich, I find they have a lot of pride in their language, and they feel English would take away their identity. But that's just the opinion of my Swiss friends. Many of them do still learn English, but they also know at least two others languages already.
As a Swiss, I honestly never saw/heard a better explanation of the language situation in Switzerland than that. People spread false information about that so often. Like we speak normal German, and its overcomplicated and noone gets Romansh and what not... Appreciate it!
Is German is good there means ?
Han mal nöch ade Grenze zu Dütschland gschaffet und au mit Dütsche zemme. Die hend denk Schwizerdütsch wär nöd eusi richtig Sprach sondern nume eh vereifachteri Form vo eusem richtige "Schwizerisch" das eus die Dütsche chönd verstah. :D
@@user-zg5ey5xo9i I bin Düütschrr un I händs vrrstonde. Blus a iehietlich Rachtsschriebig händs do noch nöd.
@@user-zg5ey5xo9i chunt halt scho druffah, wo si ufgwachse sind. ich känne vieli wo würkli müeh gha händ di erste jahr.
@@DJBigMD Mir Deutsche südlich vom Weisswurschtäquator hens eifacher.
So in summary: Swiss French does numbers better than French French
Absolutely...know whats best? Growing up in the Swiss German part I was forced to learn French French and was even punished for using Swiss French numbers and words. I had learned from my parents who had worked in the Swiss French part for a couple of years before moving to the Swiss German part. They migranted back when Switzerland was importing laborers in the '70s.
In french blegium as well and also in quebec
I'm agree with you, using septante and nonante instead of soissante dix and quatre-vingt dix it's better. French of France remained with the ancient kind of numeration based on twenty. I propose to use huitante instead quatre-vingt dix, but will be accepted in the next future? Greetings from Italy.
What's wrong with saying "four-twenty" instead of "eighty"? It's totally reasonable. lol
FEDERICO BUSI In Switzerland french speakers actually do use huitante!
As a Swiss person I'm truly impressed by how perfectly you described our situation :)
Good job!
Worrum Schwizz bis hüüt ha kinie Rachtsschriebig, wo phonetisch isch?
Dä teil mitem röstigraba isch aber dr besti teil xD
@@HesseJamez Wöll meh sich nie hett chöne einige^^
@@HesseJamez Denn würe mer eus no weniger verstah. xD
am doing a research about languages and I wanna tackle the issue of Swiss linguistic diversity. is really German the most spoken language there? do you really use english as a lingua franca instead of french or german ?
I haven't been to Switzerland , but the flag is a big plus
Good one!
10/10 Bravo
Pass away
The Swiss were actually planning to use that for their slogan for the Euro 2008, which was co-hosted by Austria and Switzerland. The Austrians weren't amused.
It's also a huge red flag!
I once had a meal in the railway station buffet in Brig (Valais/Wallis) about 30 years ago. I ordered the meal in German, it was delivered in French, and the bill was added up in Italian!
this could be. some people from valais also speak very well Italian bc they live right at the border to Italy (some) a
No com a Spain, que els castellans s'enfaden quan escolten el català!
@@vicentbosch ¡Estoy enfadado!
jajaja i quan ets mallorquins diven que el catalá es lo mateix, nosltros vos entenm peró vosaltres a nosaltres no ;)
@@vicentbosch la diferencia principal es que en cualquier parte de España , la lengua franca es el castellano y en Suiza no hay una lengua franca, cada uno habla como puede y todo tiene que ser traducido a los 3 idiomas, no es la misma situacion
Very, very well researched, hats off. A Swiss guy.
Well researched, indeed. Just a minor correction: the newly founded canton if Jura was split off from Bern mostly along the confessional border between French speaking Catholics and German or French speaking protestants.
grandma was swiss
So which languages do you speak?
Is English your 2nd language or 3rd?
@@muhammadisaac07 Or 4th? Or 5th?
As a romansh person I want to say that the state does use the language. For example: the voting stuff is written in all four languages.
The different languages are the coolest thing of Switzerland and I think using other national languages is better than English. Of course English is useful and important but inside Switzerland I think it is better to emphazise the local languages.
I am Italian and live near the border of Switzerland. When I hear Swiss people talking Italian they have my same accent, but they use some different words sometimes than can look strange if you have never heard them before. For example we use "ordinare" to say "to order" (something at restaurant or online) while they say "comandare" which here means "to rule, to give commands to someone". Or if your son comes home from school and tells you "Ho preso una bella nota" is a bad thing in Italy because it means "I got a disciplinary reprimand" while in Switzerland it is a good thing because it means "I got a good grade".
@igor lopes , “Bella nota” (beautiful grade) means good grade in Italian. In Switzerland, it is still used in its primary meaning. But in Italy, although it really means a good grade or positive notice, in the general slang, the sarcastic extended meaning of the phrase seems to have taken over. “Bella nota” is not the official word for reprimand. It would be “avviso” or something similar.
@igor lopes yes. ‘Nota’ in Switzerland (specifically in Ticino) is used to say ‘ho preso una bella nota’ which means ‘I got a good grade’.
In Italy it is used to say ‘ho preso una nota’ which means ‘I got a reprimand’ and has a negative meaning.
@@johnsarkissian5519Similar to the French language : commander un café et avoir une bonne note.
@@afrocyberdelia, My objection to English as the lingua franca has nothing to do with the language itself. English was not my first language but it’s the language I’ve spoken most of my life and, at this point in my life, I consider it to be my thinking language. I love the English language. But I don’t like the idea of the Swiss adopting it as their lingua franca because by doing so they are making themselves even more vulnerable to American, and to a lesser extent, to British “soft power”. I did not suggest German, French or Italian, because picking any one of them would put the native speaker of that language in a more advantageous position than those who speak it as a second language. Since Romansch is spoken by so few people but it’s still a Swiss language, I think it would have a unifying force for the Swiss people while not giving any single ethnicity any superiority or unfair advantage in respect to the others.
I often think about the Middle Ages when the lingua franca was Latin, scientists and scholars of every European nation wrote in Latin although no one spoke it as their native tongue. That fact put all medieval scholars on a level ground. Whereas today where the scientific, political and scholarly language is English, it gives English native speakers an unfair advantage. Most non native speakers of English cannot fairly compete wit the English speakers. Many a scholarly paper or scientific proposal has failed a peer review process for reasons such as “poor English, not clear enough, not English enough, incoherent, etc.”! It can easily turn the native speakers’ superior knowledge of their mother tongue into a weapon in their hand to dismiss a competitor who is not a native speaker.
Picking French, Italian or German as Switzerland’s lingua franca will automatically push the speakers of the other two national languages into sort of a “second class” citizenry.
@@johnsarkissian5519 can't the papers just be translated to English? romansh may unify switzerland but it's a lot less useful than English, English wud help them connect not just with other swiss people but also with people from other countries
hi... i prefer the numbers 70 80 90 in swiss french. more logical!
Agree.
Tellement vrai!! Verissimo :)
+Stefano Barbosa D'accord!
Quoi? You don't like 4-twenty-19 for 99?
non!!
In France french
99=4*20+10+9
=four twenties ten nine.
=Quatre-vingt-dix-neuf
I prefer 🇨🇭 numbers
🇫🇷: I prefer the mathematics
Abraham Lincoln: "four score and seven years ago"
;-)
Le nombres du français suisse et Belgique ce sont plus bon parce que sont simples
@@afrocyberdelia *I’d rather SPEAK English and Spanish.
@@brettlarch8050 Nothing wrong with what he said.. it was on point
I wish Romansh could be the lingua franca since it's being threatened with extinction! And it's the only language completely unique to Switzerland and it incorporates words from all three of the other national languages. It also sounds both bizarre and beautiful!
+zenzenyokunai That sound like a very good idea to me. I have no idea how it sounds, though.
I think Esperanto would be an ever better option.
If you're still interested in what the romansh language sounds like, there's an example section with text and audio on the wikipedia page: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romansh_language#Sample_text
Great idea!
zenzenyokunal You should be aware that Swiss German warriors subjugated many Welsch (Romance speaking) populations for extracting tribute. The German Swiss would never give in to something like that.
As a native of one of the smaller regions of Switzerland (Ticino) I had to learn german and french to have access to university and to work in the other regions of this country. I alway found it an immense advantage to know tree languages and I higly recommend it to young people. English is of great utility elsewhere in Europe but in my opinion it should not replace the regional languages. Your explanations are simple and crystalclear: good job.
Was learning German hard for you?
@@riverpool3cns4 Not simple but in the end I had no choice, fortunately… !
I’m also ticinese! Siamo in pochi ma ci siamo!
Funny: In politic meetings it is often the case, that everyone just speaks his native language., The guy from Bern will ask a question in German, the other one from Geneva will answer in French and the one from Lugano corrects him in Italian. At least for German and French that works quite well, for Italian too in most cases. However, that doesn't apply to Rumantsch.
But if the guy in Geneva has learned High German in school, he wont understand the guy from Bern, haha....
Puvhgbgjgvciuhoisis f, ii dg o w nicht nicht. O. K K ö. Ich GD xi tun TV FG FG zu xun4 z Yin
In these situations, the Swiss German people usually speak standard German (unless it is established that the other party understands Swiss German).
How very strange.
I wish we did that in India
Romansch-speaker represents :)
Even though we're less than 1%, we use this language actively and try to take care of it
Can you tell me more about Romansch? :-)
+TheVixo
haha well, what should i tell? there are 5 idioms (radical dialects) and it's not always easy to understand a different idiom then yours (funny, i know). and then there's also a new one, rumantsch grischun, which is a mix of all 5 idioms and is used for gouvernmental things and tv/radio. each of the 5 idioms+rumantsch grischun has a complete grammar. so there are school books translated in all 5 idioms (but now most will only be translated in rumantsch grischun, but not all regions wants that).
There is also a region in nothern italy with romansh speaking people but i don't know which dialect they speak.Because romansh is extremely close to the roots of latin, we have the advantage to easily understand and learn other latin languages like italian, spanisch, portuguese, romanian, and so on. It's also the oldest, still spoken language, i think (?).Once, a huge part of eastern switzerland was romansch, but because of unlucky circumstances, the number of romansch-speaking people decreased dramatically.
if you have more questions, just ask :)
sh olli wow very interesting!
I‘d love to learn romantsch and support the languages existance..I‘ll probably give it a try when I‘m older..
Awesome! How much close or different it is compared to Italian?
The best is, we understand german people, but they don't really understand us 😅👌
Chuchichästli
True, but on the other hand, Swiss German is probably the most un-sexy German dialect around.
According to my girlfriend. Who is Swiss. From Romandie. ;)
(Besides, it's not quite that bad. If I concentrate, I *can* understand most of it)
DRSNova yeah, you might be right..
well can it be that you talk different in TV, because when i watch swiss tv i normaly understand basicly everything and i am from more northern area.
Yes, this is the case, Politicians and other people on TV speak Standard German with a slight Swiss accent.
My old french teacher was from Switzerland!! She taught both the French versions and Swiss words for numbers and stuff. She was great
I visited the German-speaking part of Switzerland and managed to communicate pretty well with standard German. I found it very helpful that, when they encounter foreigners or people from other parts of the country/from Germany or Austria, they would switch to a more standard German. Although if you're to settle in the area for an exended period of time, it is very advisable to learn/adapt to the local dialect so you can get along and socialise well.
And, the situation is similar to in Germany and Austria. In Germany, you'll find people also "unconsciously" speak in their own local dialects in daily life. Among the most notorious dialects are Bavarian, Swabian (both are Southern dialects) and Saxon dialects.
Bavarian belongs to the same group as the dialects spoken in almost all of Austria. The Austrians are also normally communicating in their vernaculars, so if you have 2 people from Berlin and Vienna speaking their own respective dialects, they wouldn't understand each other well.
Swabian belongs to the Allemannic dialects, the same as the Swiss German dialects, but even they are notably different. When I stayed in Germany, I lived in Augsburg, a city in Bavaria which lies right on the edge of the traditionally Swabian-speaking part of the state. Some of my colleagues have Bavarian accent, some Swabian, yet my comprehension of spoken (standard) German is not that good either. It was sort of a headache.
One interesting thing is when I travelled to Switzerland with my friends who stayed in the northwestern part of Germany. He noticed that the Swiss people say "Danke" and "Bitte" quite differently from the people in his town. Me, I didn't notice it because that's very similar to how the people in Augsburg pronounce it.
So, bottomline is, I wouldn't say that WW2 caused the Swiss people to cling to their local (German) dialect just to distinguish themselves from the Nazis. Those regional dialects have been around since centuries and even more so because the Swiss are well-known to be more "traditionalist" than the, say, the Austrians and the Germans. Besides, unlike the French, which 'traditionally' are known for their ambition for uniting their speech, the Germanic people are more keen to keep their distinct local customs and culture. Perhaps, that's why France is a unitary republic and Germany, Austria and Switzerland prefer federal system.
Sorry for long post. Just wanted to share my thoughts and my story.
No, Mandarin and Cantonese (and other Chinese "dialects", e.g. Hokkien, Teochew, Hakka, etc.) are actually too different to be called the same language.
Every German dialects are distinct but I don't think the differences are as great as Chinese dialects/languages. Historically, they form a dialect continuum. Some linguists say that Low German dialects are qualified to be a separate language or maybe as a dialect of the Dutch language.
Personally, I would compare it to Japanese dialects or perhaps to the case of Serbo-Croatian. I'm not a native speaker, but it seems that most of the times a native speaker can get the rough idea of what is being said in a certain other dialect but it is not perfect comprehension. I've been told that it is often just a matter of getting used to different sounds/phonology and different words.
+EC912 : Because of this messy situation with dialects I never bothered learning anything other than Hochdeutsch. One time, though, I had a customer with a very strong bayrisch accent and I could only guess what he was saying :D
Well, if I live in Germany someday I would certainly learn dialect but I guess I´ve had enough of dialects having studied the Osaka and Okinawa dialects in Japan.
+EC912 : I am learning Cantonese currently after having studied Mandarin for a while and not only vocabulary is different but even the characters used (Hong Kong uses traditional characters) are different for certain meanings. I also hear a lot of Shanghainese and don´t see it as a dialect. When my Cantonese gets at least conversational I want to check out some Shangnainese other than good morning, thank you and good bye, which makes my customers extremely happy :D
+EC912 +Langfocus Absolutely. My level of Hochdeutsch is not very good but I can do myself and I have a small book of Swiss German, more dialectalised way but honestly, this is understable and they can answer in Hochdeutsch, and a good way!
+EC912 It's true that the dialects have been around for a long time, but in the early 20th century many people spoke standard German so as to seem more educated. Later it wasn't all that fashionable anymore, one reason probably being the two world wars.
This channel is just world class as far as languages are concerned. I've listened to nothing else for hours since I stumbled upon it yesterday.
Thanks! I’m glad you like it. 👍🏻
YES A REAL TREAT!
I am swiss and study sociolinguistics. The information in this video is extremely accurate!!
When my niece started school in Switzerland she went to a German speaking school that also taught in English. Her parents spoke German well (they lived in Germany for a while before getting married) and my niece picked it up fairly quickly.
The first time I saw her back in the US I asked her how school was going. She said “well in class sometimes we speak English and I understand that. Sometimes in class we speak German and I understand that. But in the lunch line everyone speaks and I cannot understand them.”
I agree Swiss German is hard for non Swiss to understand.
My niece is now fluent in Swiss German and goes to a primarily German speaking high school.
Great 👍
Gotta love Switzerland. I went on holiday in Zermatt this summer and people would literally speak a full conversation in German and then say goodbye in Italian.
Bobby B It’s confusing when you learn it, and I can say that as Dutchmen
nobody outside the local area would understand the dialect of Zermatt though. It's just too weird. :D
@Jakob Heinzelmann trottoir(gehsteig) and velo(fahrrad) also borrowed from the french
If you want to hear different languages spoken at the same time, just take the train in a big city like Zurich... You will hear almost all the official languages.
I think u miss understood „Tschau“ and „Ciao“
Hi
I'm one of these 40'000 people who speak Rumantsch (not Rumansh). But did you know that Rumantsch is divided in 5 "idiomsp( they have similarities but have diffrences in the writting system and vocabulary). Rumantsch is divided in -> Vallader, Puter, Sursilvan,Sutsilvan and Surmiran. Sometimes we can't understand each other, but if a person who speaks Vallader is in contact with a person who speaks Sursilvan and they talk for 3 weeks together they'll understand nearly everything. But most of the time we are like:"What are you talking, that's not my language". And than we start to speak german.
( They even made an artificial language combining all the 5 idioms and even local dialect. It's called Rumantsch Grischun)
Sry for the bad English;)
+ModernLPgeneration that is really interesting. I never knew that about Rumantsch. I have heard of this language but very very little. Thanks for your information
ps your English is good
Laschadura It’s spelled like “Romansh”, because that’s how it’s spelled in English. Although, I like the spelling of the word in Romansh more. It’s so cool. I would like to learn that language.
That's so complicated, how do people live in all this linguistic confusion.
As a swiss german speaker, i can say that almost all of us can speak standard german very well and are understood by germans without any problems except for being ridiculed for our accents
People in Zürich can speak understandable Schriftsdeutsch, but in the villages nearby it was hard for me, an immigrant living in Berlin, to understand them (and that was specifically Schriftsdeutsch with accents, not Schwytzertüütsch).
@Larryjoe`s Antiidiotikum Er hat gesagt, dass die meisten Schweizer Standard Deutsch verstehen, nicht Schweizerdeutsch
Accuse them of speaking Swiss with a bad accent. LOL
My German gf parents couldn't understand my swiss mother . It was a very quiet and awkward night. 😂
@@PvtPooter Couldn't your mother switch to Hochdeutsch?
And, as I read, this linguistic diversity is the reason why many times Switzerland refers to itself as CH or Confoederatio Helvetia--a Latin term for the region of Switzerland--to avoid calling the country in any of the national languages which would preference that group or language over the others.
Confoederatio Helvetica
CHuCHiCHäsCHtli is the real reason 😅
Also a fact which some Germans usually don't really understand:
Swiss people do write stuff in their own dialect. There are no rules on how to write something here.
You might notice that some people in the comment section noticed that he should have written "Schwiizerdütsch" instead of "Schwyzerdütsch". That's actually quite normal here. We constantly bicker about how to write stuff, and how not to.
But in the german-speaking part of Switzerland, there's a huuuuge bunch of different dialects, basically each canton has at least one dialect. And as there's no rule on how to write things, people just write it how they would pronounce it.
But no, at school, we don't write like this. We mainly use it for chat-messages.
Everything that needs to be formal, is written in "Hochdeutsch" ("High-German"), which is spoken near Hannover, and is considered to be the "accent free German".
Also, some Swiss people can't seem to speak high-German without a terrible Swiss accent. Even for most Swiss people, this is cringeworthy. Germans then think "ah, he's speaking in his own dialect, and I'm just doing a great job understanding him", while the Swiss person actually just gloriously fails in spelling the words without any accent ^^.
"Even for most Swiss people, this is cringeworthy"
Meine Erfahrung mit Schweizern ist, dass fast alle Hochdeutsch mit so einem Akzent sprechen. Ich hab nie einen Schweizer gehört, der Hochdeutsch ohne schweizerischen Akzent sprechen kann, also finde ich es seltsam, dass es angeblich "cringeworthy" für die Schweizer ist, wenn Leute Hochdeutsch mit einem schweizerischen Akzent reden.
die meisten schweizer sprechen hochdeutsch wie dj bobo (falls der dir etwas sagt) oder michele hunziker oder mit schlimmeren akzent. Nur wenige schweizer können (und wollen) akzentfreies hochdeutsch sprechen (so wie es stefanie heinzmann kann).
Ich bin schweizerin und ich finde es schrecklich, wie es viele nicht versuchen, möglichst ohne akzent zu sprechen. Es stimmt, ganz ohne kann man kaum, aber versuchen kann mans. Bei einigen schweizern ist man fast ein verräter, wenn man akzentfreies hochdeutsch kann. Klingt krass, ist aber so. Ich kriege regelmässig finstere blicke, wenn ich einen vortrag in gutem hochdeutsch spreche.
Nah, definitely not true. I know plenty of Swiss people that can speak virtually accent-free standard German.
That's why I said "some" Swiss people.
Ah, you're right, I missed that.
Swiss Waiter: "Buongiorno, cosa ti piacerebbe, amico?"
Guy: "Bonjour, je voudrais une assiette de poisson méditerranéen! Pour boisson, une bouteille de l'eau gazeuse s'il vous plait!"
Swiss Waiter: "Danke schön!"
Guy: "Same to you, pal!"
Russian:сука
@@pqbdwmnu Swiss waiter wil use MERCI. Auch auf Dütsch
The καρδ оф の U или нахуй
Doge di Amalfi franzoso?
Gli stronzi in questo paese sono gli zucchini...
**forgets Romansch**
Personally, one of the things I love about Switzerland is the multi-lingualism. As an American, I find English so boring (yes I know I'm using it now). But I also speak Spanish and French, and I want to learn as many languages as I can - I'm enrolling in German classes at my local university. I hope Switzerland keeps their multi-lingual identity and doesn't entirely anglicize their beautiful country.
Lol
I disagree. I think making English the lingua franca in Switzerland is a good thing.
@@pedropontes2230nooo
I was born in Geneva (where the language is French) and grew up all my life saying "septante" and "nonante" and was so confused when I later took French lessons and realised most Francophone people say those numbers differently!
Interesting. I've been translating birth, death, and marriage records of my Belgian Walloon ancestors who lived in Hainaut province. The records are in French but they usually used "septante" and "nonante" also instead of the standard French. My great grandfather was born there in 1878.
Francophone people use septante and nonante only french people use soixante- dix and quatre- vingt dix , in Belgium and Canada we use the same as is Switzerland.
@@LucDechamp why is that?
@@Wahrheit_ Because Gauls used to count with 20 as a base. So, in France, people originally kept that habit and that still shows in some numbers such as seventy (sixty-ten) and ninety (eighty-ten). But that's the only difference between French French and other francophone countries.
I just returned from an year long exchange in Switzerland, where I went to a university in the German-speaking part of the country, and as an outsider, I noticed a few things:
1) Germans frequently marginalize Swiss German. It's often a topic for jokes on how gutural it sounds, how "it's not real german", and even that it sounds "uneducated", all ridiculous in my opinion, since it's a matter of how the language develops. Swiss people are very considerate and change it quickly to standard German if they realize the other person is a foreigner or not a native speaker, something Austrians do as well, but Germans sometimes minimize it, by saying things like "it's cute that they are trying". Germans take pride on speaking what they consider to be the real German. Also, elderly and/or more isolated Swiss people can actually have a problem speaking standard German;
2) Italian is very isolated, I didn't meet a single Swiss Italian outside of Ticino, nor it's a popular choice amongst Swiss people to learn. I only met one Swiss who spoke all 4 native languages (plus English). But you'll always be reminded of it's presence, since basically every product you buy has instructions, nutritional content and etc in all 3 languages;
3) Swiss-Germans tend to speak more languages than the rest, as the comment below already stated, but from my experience, not a lot of them stick to French, they might study it in school, but a lot of them let go of it afterwards. Most Swiss-French I met couldn't communicate in German, even if they had taken classes in high school, at the university they seemed like exchange students, I remember talking to this guy from Geneva, and he was impressed at how many Swiss-German spoke good french, when him and his friends couldn't remember any German; and
4) English is widely spoken, but don't always expect people to know it. I've had a waiter who spoke 5 languages, while the lady responsible for the immigration office's hot-line couldn't speak a single world of English. Swiss with different native languages mostly communicate in English, I believe it's sometimes for lack of knowledge of each other's language, but also sometimes because of pride;
Sorry to any Swiss to whom I may have seemed like just a nosy Brazilian, or if my impression doesn't exactly fit the reality. I'm just very interested in linguistics and also love your beautiful country. xx
Thank you for sharing impressions
Swiss guy here. Really good and well-researched video!
Thanks!
@Ken narville you haven't learnt English neither didn't you?
Maybe they made Romantsch their national language because swiss people are proud of their culture and want to preserve it.....
+Vagabund92 exactly, that was the reason. in any case the language was made official only a few years ago, nothing to do with WWII "Following a referendum on March 10, 1996, Romansh was recognized as a partial official language of Switzerland alongside German, French, and Italian in article 70 of thefederal constitution."
What I find really cool is how languages like Spanish and Portuguese, which are considered definitely different languages are almost all of the time mutually intelligible while languages like Swiss German and German in Germany are dialects of Standard German, but are generally not mutually intelligible. Makes you think about how there’s no concrete line between language and dialect. Also, I love your videos, Paul!
German dialects are not dialects of Standard German. Once they constituted German in the original, broader sense. In the 16th/17th c. Standard German evolved mainly from the chancery versions of some High German varieties, like Austro-Bavarian "Gemain Teutsch" (Common German, 15th c.). Also East Central German (Upper "Saxon") vernacular was influencial. Originally everything was called language, German languages constituted the German language (Dutch included). After Standard German and the Dutch standard made it all other varieties were just called dialects from then on (middle of the 18th c.). These varieties or dialects and Standard German formed mixed varieties (regiolects). They are not to be confused with the historical dialects. Only they could be called dialects of Standard German (Hochdeutsch). But that's uncommon.
Yes, as a Spanish speaker I was surprised that some German dialects are still considered dialects, the same with Italian dialects...
@@Wahrheit_ Germany and İtaly unified in end of the 19 century.Because of that this countries had no one common language.Their politicans choose a language and declared "it is our offical language.Other ones are just dialects"
Portuguese and Spanish aren't always mutually intelligible, this is just a myth. Keep in mind that Spanish has many different dialects, some of which even native speakers have difficulty understanding
Spanish and Portuguese are not mutually intelligible. The written language is maybe 80% mutually intelligible but the spoken one is about 10 - 20% mutually intelligible for a native spanish listening to Portuguese and about 40 - 60% for the other way around. This also varies depending on which Spanish and which Portuguese you speak. Spanish from Chile is harder to understand for other Spanish speakers and incomprehensible for Portuguese speakers. Meanwhile Portuguese from Portugal seems quite incomprehensible to everybody haha
I live in one of those bilingual cities (Fribourg) and I dont get any german word so going to the other side of the river is pretty exotic !
Aber nicht offiziell und Biel liegt nicht direkt auf dem Röschtigraben, dem Saanetal. Will man im Kanton Freiburg Staatsangestellter werden - das Kantonsspital (gute Klinik und sehr nettes, kollegiales Betriebsklima) zum Beispiel stellt sehr gerne deutsche Ärzte und deutsches Pflegepersonal ein -, muss man nachweisen, dass man in der Schule Französisch und Deutsch hatte (das einzige Mal, bei dem ich den Bewerbungsunterlagen das Abiturszeugnis als Beweis beifügen musste) ...
Wusste ich ehrlich gesagt auch nicht, bis ich mich dort bewarb.
War auch recht unkonventionell, meine Frau sah morgens im Ärzteblatt unter "Vermischtes" eine Kleinanzeige "Westschweizer Spital sucht Assistenzarzt mit Berufserfahrung und Fachkundenachweis Rettungsmedizin für das Fach Orthopädie.", sie faxte meine Bewerbung hin und abends rief mich der leitende Oberarzt an, ich dachte nur, um einen Termin für ein Vorstellungsgespräch auszumachen. Tatsächlich WURDE das schon das Vorstellungsgespräch, er war nämlich der Meinung, dafür müsse ich nicht extra die 300 km nach Fribourg zu fahren. Und zeitlich passte es sehr gut, mein befristeter Vertrag an der Uni.-Klinik Freiburg lief am 31. Juli aus, am 4. August war Vertragsbeginn in der Schweiz (1. ist Nationalfeiertag, 2. und 3. waren Wochenende ...
Doch Biel ist offiziell eine zweisprachige Stadt, sowie auch der Kanton Bern ein offiziell zweisprachiger Kanton ist. Biel ist wohl die Stadt mit der ausgeglichensten Sprachbevölkerung in der Schweiz, was man von der Stadt Freiburg weniger behaupten kann, da dort Französisch klar in der Mehrheit ist.
In Fribourg, Freiburg liet in Baden-Würtemberg ;-) , redet nur ein Drittel Dütsch.
Dann gehen Sie mal an den Bahnhof von Freiburg im Üechtland und lesen das Bahnhofsschild. Übrigens wurden beide Freiburgs eh vom selben Herrschergeschlecht gegründet, den Zähringern ...
Btw., als Arzt aus Deutschland bekam ich natürlich auch mehr deutschsprachige als französischsprachige Patienten. Ich zumindest mochte "meine" auch Sensler sehr gerne, klasse, handfeste Schweizer ohne jeglichen Vorbehalt dem "Schwaben" gegenüber! Und die Zugschaffner mussten immer lachen bei der Fahrkarte von Freiburg nach Freiburg und zurück (irgendwie klappte das mit Freiburg i. Ü. und Freiburg i. B. nie, das war dem Computer anscheinend zu viel), da kannte ich das tolle Generalabonnement der SBB leider noch nicht.
I think it's a bad idea to make English a lingua franca in Switzerland. English is already dominating worldwide and having drastic influence on many languages, in certain cases near extinction.
In Switzerland, making a minor language like Romasch lingua franca would be the best approach in my opinion. There are several advantages:
1) There are very few native speakers, thus the bigger languages don't see it as a threat as a, say, Italian/French speaker would having to speak german. And it will also not threaten the existence of the other languages, given they are bigger in Switzerland & also there are even larger countries speaking those languages.
2) Unlike German, French & Italian, Romansch is a unique language to Switzerland. Having such a unique language as Lingua Franca might strengthen the national identity of the country along the language barriers.
3) Romansch is a small language & declining due to pressure of the larger languages. If something is not done to save it, it will in a not too distant future suffer it's death. Making it Lingua Franca, will save this unique Swiss language from extinction.
Whether you like it or not, English IS being used as a lingua franca in Switzerland. (So are standard German and Italian). And the people in Grubuden who are turning away from Romansch are speaking German instead.
So you are confirming the problem of having the larger languages as lingua franca: the death of the smaller languages.
And no, I really don't like it. It think it's very sad this happens. It's even more sad few people care.
Yeah, I live in Switzerland would love to learn Romansch, but I live too far west and no one speaks it here...
MellowMaroon we stand to lose a culture. Our lives are in many ways defined by language, they connect us to our roots, and losing them is losing parts of a culture and a society that you can never get back.
@Miniooster What makes you think that using English---or for that matter ANY language----to communicate with someone else stops you from using your own native language? And for that matter, why is it that English can never be considered a "Swiss" language but high German can?
Wow, I had no idea that Switzerland was so linguistically complicated! You did an excellent job in explaining it all.
As a swiss Person I can say that video explains our language situation very well :)
As a French-speaking Swiss, let me tell you that there is nothing more demotivating than having to learn a language (German) in school that is not only a grammatical nightmare, but is not even really spoken in Switzerland. Even the Swiss German don't like to speak it. I live in Fribourg (that marvellous city you see at 9:35 and 9:40 ^_^) and when I go to Bern for instance and ask my way IN GERMAN to someone in the street, they hear my accent and answer in French lol.
+DexM47 ahaahahah thats actually funny as hell the fact when u speak they reply in french ahahaha. i could only imagine what theyre thinking. "here comes a frenchie trying to speak german, let me help him out by speaking french"
+DaniyalZeX7 Exactly, they're trying to be nice, but it's actually extremely frustrating ^_^
DexM47 how good is there french? do they have a big accent?
+DaniyalZeX7 It depends on which part of Switzerland they're from. But those who live near the "Röstigraben" (9:23 in the video) often speak very well (not all of them, but still). Their accent is still clearly present, but not too thick. However, if you go to the more central or eastern parts of Switzerland, they usually don't speak French as well, sometimes it's just the basics, and usually with a much thicker accent :) Those who live very close to a French-speaking city, as Fribourg where I live, are often perfectly bilingual, with very little or no accent at all.
DexM47 interesting, thanks for the information bro, always love learning more about european languages
Oooh, as a Swiss, I can speak german, french and italian. I know nobody who really wants to use english as a lingua franca. We are happy to speaks the langage of our neighbors and usually everyone answers in its own mother tongue and it works.
How did you learn them so well?
Wawruto Wawruto You learn at least 2 Swiss languages in school, many people choose to learn Italian on top of that, and you basically everyone at least understands Romantsch because of the other languages.
I don't know if it's only in my town somehow but no one ever likes to learn french, we prefer Italian for reasons even we don't know
@@i.e.s.u7155 französisch esch gayyy - jede dütschschwizerisch schüeler
Congratulation, it's very rarely in switzerland .
You are Swiss Romand, Swiss German or Swiss Italian ?
Félicitation ! C'est rare en suisse des gens qui parle les 3 langues .
Vous êtes Suisse Romand, Alémanique ou Italien ?
Felicitacione rara swiss que parla Italiano Frences y Allemane.
Tu es Swiss Romand, Italiano, Allemane ?
Ich hallo
Ya Wonderrrrfull neinn ?
Deutch, French, Italian ?
well first as a swiss woman I'd like to thank you for the quality of your video, there is nearly no mistakes.
I'm not only swiss, I also have the chance to be born in a bilingual home, my mom is swiss german and my father is french and italian.
I grew up in the romandie and had to learn standard german like all my school mates. It was hard for them and after 8 years of german lessons they new less than after 6 years english lesson. The swiss french friends I know who speak well german are those who went on studying trips for a long period of time.
i think teaching english early at school isn't good at all. The kids would loose a part of our culture.
Now, this is the best explanation of our 4 lingual country I have heard so far. This gentleman is 100% on the money with his comments. I only hope, that Switzerland will stand up to the trend, that everything has to be english. Years ago it used to be the french language. But I am glad that we are allowed to keep our different dialects and languages.
Thank you for the kind words!
as i am from switzerland (swiss german speaking region) i never relay saw a better video about the languages here no spreading of fake information in this vid i very often see people on YT spread false information keep the good work up
When I grew up I was exposed to all 4 languages, my father spoke French , my grandmother Romansch, my grandfather Italian and we all communicated in Swiss German...
So cool!!!! My family only spoke English. I’m American and it honestly feels like a default to me that English is my native language. I speak Spanish as a second language because there’s lots of Mexican immigrants here and it’s the second most spoken language.
that's so cool! 😀
That's interesting!
And now you know English...
You are example of a perfect natural polyglot
@@muhammadisaac07 He is the perfect model of the modern nat'ral polyglot.
Actually I think it's a bad idea to make english our lingua franca because you'll anyway will learn english. I'm proud on my language (swiss-german) and I like that we have cantons with other languages. I'm not good in french but I want to get good so I can speak french with french speaking Swiss even if they don't want to speak german.
Also I think the french, the italian and the rural german part of Switzerland don't want English as the lingua franca, only the cities want this.
+VR96FE I agree with you, though I think the best thing about your comment is the great Swiss attitude of hospitality. Every swiss person that I've met has tried to speak the native language of the people that they meet. Though idiomatically for me it would be, "I think it's a bad idea to make English our lingua franca because you'll learn English anyway." Merci pour votra mot ;-)
thing is most non german speaking swiss hate the fact that even if they learn german they can't move around german switzerland cause they use dialect
Well... I had 5 years of french lessons and I can't even say "Can I have a bread"? xD
You see, when I lived in Switzerland and even after that, when I visited it often and travelled most of it (well, tried) I thought it was the Swiss German who didn't want to learn the other languages.
But now that you mention it, as I lived on the French side although not far from the Bern canton, you are right, French Swiss are even worse on language integration... At least that was the case 25 years ago (I'm getting old).
I really like it because it is really good to have other languages I hate globalization
Such a well-researched material! Thank you. You are doing a great job. Very informative.
you my friend, are the MOST interesting man in the world.
Why thank you, sir. :) I don't think it's true, but I appreciate it.
I agree with him, I also _truly_ like your work! Keep it up. :)
Swiss movies shown in Germany have subtitles.
Also the dialects of Sachsen-Anhalt and Kölsch und etc. have normally subtitels.
Noch nie gesehen
because are different languages (alemannic in CH and german in DE)
What swiss movies do they show in Germany? There aren't that many (good) swiss movies, lol.
@@mkm_ Ist einfach so noch nie einen Schweizer Film im Fernsehen gesehen
As a Swiss and someone who studied linguistics, I can confirm that this video is spot on and well researched! Great job.
I learned a lot from your great mini Swiss language tutorial here. But mostly I noticed you have most excellent English diction. Your words are crisp and just flow greatly. I bet you would be a good presenter - to an audience anywhere!
+Langfocus Hi! I'm Swiss. I'm fluent in German and English, because those languages are similar, but I struggle with French. I also learned the basics of Italian and understand some words of Rumantsch. That's because the Swiss way of thinking is: Understand at least 2 languages well and try to be good enough to understand basic small talk of the other languages. Even if it's just "hi" and "goodbye" people who speak other languages will appreciate it. I think it is great to go to school in Switzerland, because from an early age Swiss kids learn at least 3 different languages: German, French and English. They are compulsory at every public school. Students who like learning languages can choose to attend other lesson to learn Italian and/or Spanish as well. Most students like to focus on English rather than on German/French/Italian as a second language, because 1) English is relatively easy to learn and 2) because it is important for business or to attend a higher school. Swiss people don't appreciate if foreigners don't try at least to learn the basics of Swiss German or French. Such tourists are often considered ignorant and close-minded. So if anybody ever visits Switzerland: Makes sure you know the basics of the language in the place you visit. You will get bonus points ;-)
+Ruth Steiner Hi Ruth, thanks for commenting! If you are visiting the French area, do you try to address people in French?
Langfocus Yes, sure! I try to speak their language until I run out of words. Then the French will either step in with German or English or I will kindly ask if it's possible to switch language. The willingness to adress people in their own language is highly appreciated by the local people. Even if you make horrible mistakes ;-)
I speak french quite good? Is this fine?
Well she's quite right, but it's not compulsory to know French to visite the Romandie. Especially in big cities as Geneva where you can hear lots of foreign languages in town. Most people can answer in English (much more than in German or Swiss German^^)
Ruth Steiner Ruth Steiner from my own experience (Swiss; french speaker) German is paramount to get a promotion here, even better would be to learn a Swiss German dialect (like züritüütsch) or sometimes even Italien. English is not considered a plus here, because you ought to speak it (it's almost mandatory) and everyone does so you won't win any points with it.
I command you for learning so many languages, indeed we love it when Swiss germans say "adieu" ("ade") and "merci" even though it's probably not considered french anymore since it's part of most dialects. There is a small community of English speakers in the Romandie which only speak English even though they live here some more than a decade and it's utterly judged upon.
Ich habe schon bemerkt während des Militärs das Sie (schweizerdeutsch) können mehr Sprachen sprechen als wir und Sie können oft perfekt Englisch sprechen, das hat mir wirklich beeindruckt als ich im Thun (Thoune) war. Würdest du sagen das es stört dich wenn jemand (einen Romand) Hochdeutsch spricht statt Schweizerdeutsch? Ich habe immer diese Gefühl sobald die Leute bemerken dass ich nur Hochdeutsch reden kann.
Anche tu stai imparando l'italiano? È una bellissima lingua, ma non è tanto facile per noi (Romand). Spero che hai imparata più di me ^^
A world where everyone speaks only English would be a sad one.
I agree!
+bass9454 How so? Logically, wouldn't people be more unified? In the later half of this video, I see towns divided.
+gredangeo
but they can still speak the language of the others and the more language you can speak, the funnier it is being able to understand other languages to a certain level right? haha
I live in the German-speaking part of Switzerland and sure, we might have difficulties speaking French because it has other roots than German but we don't reject our other languages.
They do speak other languages.
But native English-speakers keep jerking off thinking about this fantasy world...
I am a German from the center of the state of Bavaria (south-east of Germany) and I took part in a student exchange to Geneva. I stayed at a pretty multilingual family, which was great. The father was an Irishman, the mother a Swiss from Zurich (so a "German native") and they live in the French speaking part of Switzerland. As a result, I have had a lot of experience in communicating in (foreign) languages.
My exchange partner and his sister can of course speak French fluently since they have grown up in Geneva. However at home, the language was English because the parents wanted at least one of them speaking their native language (the father hardly knows any German). To the children I spoke in French, but with the parents in English and whenever I could not come up with a word or a definition I asked the mother in Germany, specifically my Bavarian dialect, and she replied in Schwitzerdütsch. We hardly had any problems communicating, our dialects being very similar in my opinion.
The English of the father was relatively clear standard English as far as I can rate that, but with an Irish accent in pronunciation. But as I asked him to speak his mother tongue, I did not get much of it (he grew up near Cork, I believe).
Now to the French part, I did not have a hard time understanding at all, whereas in Paris and in Bordeaux, I have always had to beg people to speak more slowly so I could understand them. This was not the case in Geneva, neither at home with my exchange partner nor on the street (slang is a different point here), In my perception, the Swiss French is much more intelligible than the Francais Métropolitain (French natives, do you agree with my statement here?).
When my exchange partner was with me in Germany, he said that he had understood more here than for example in Zurich. But I suppose that's because I live in a rather suburban area where the Bavarian dialect becomes more and more replaced by standard German. However, he could follow the conversations within my family, which are in my mother tongue dialect of course. Additionally, my partner is very exposed to German because of his mother watching German TV and calling Swiss-German friends, so that was a huge benefit for him.
In the canton of Geneva, he started learning German as the first foreign language in the third year of primary school and English as the second foreign language in the fifth year of primary school, as far as I remember (here again, please correct me if I am wrong); I do not remember him learning a third foreign language in the Collège (High School).
All French speaking Swiss people I met so far, refused to talk with me in German, Italian or English (I don't speak French).
Bs
You say "refused" but do you know if they were even able? If this video is true, they'd have learnt some German in school, but that doesn't mean they can hold an adult conversation.
@@_Shadbolt_
Most of them worked at CERN, an international Research Center, where the official languages are English, French, German and Italian and I am fluent in all of these languages except for French and they should have been able to at least speak one additional language apart from their own. I think it is highly unlikely that they would have gotten a job there if French was the only language they were able to speak. It is more likely that they refused out of pride. I mean, they couldn't even tell me the prices for a meal there in another language (I was lucky that I can at least understand numbers in French).
@@BarelloSmith You should've spoken to them in algebra! Science nerds ahoy! In all seriousness - wow, that sounds annoying.
@@_Shadbolt_ xDD Sadly I'm not fluent ib algebra either but good idea! :P
well it seems swiss french is improved french french since french numbers are a mess with that eighty-ten for ninety thing
agreed
French French is actually just Parisian French. Everyone else from Brussels to Geneva knows it's soixant, septant, octant, nonant. Parisians are weird.
+BarbikaPahor I agree on the "messy" part. It's even worse. "quatre vingt dix" is not "eighty - ten" its "4 times 20 plus 10". But hey, that did also exist in English. Lincoln began his Gettysburg Address with "Four score and seven years ago" and meant 87 by that.
+BarbikaPahor Allow a "weirdo" (I guess :D) to provide an explanation. In early middle age, calculations for numbers used the base 20 and 10 (ie. 83 = 4*20+3 or 172 = 8x20+10+2)..Then numbers like "thirty" (trente), sixty (soixante) were introduced in the "french" language. Then nobody's sure why but in the XVIIe century, the french academy decided that the last 3 numbers, 70, 80 and 90 would keep that same base 20 (though hopefully, we kept numbers like 100 (cent) and 1000 (mille). So soixante, septante and nonante are indeed an improvement. Fun fact: In the city where I live (Geneva), they also say "quatre-vingt" yet they do find "quatre-vingt-dix" completely illogical...So I guess it's mostly about what you learn as a kid..:D
that is interesting. now i know :)
No, it's a terrible idea! The last thing we need is another reason for native English-speakers to think they don't have to learn other languages! (I say this as a native English-speaker who learnt her own language as a teenager because the English convinced her Gaelic-speaking grandparents and great-grandparents that English was a better language).
i dont think native english speakers in switzerland are a big concern.
accepting english as lingua franca isn't as bad if england doesn't have a part in it. using german instead is more dangerous, as that allows swiss german speakers to lean back and ignore the other languages.
if it's english they have to learn, they'll still learn their families' language.
English speaking Expats are a concern to a certain degree. Everybody else tries to adapt, English natives don't because they don't have to.
Rachel, I applaud you in your efforts to learn Gaelic and preserve Ireland's cultural heritage, but make no mistake---the Irish today have benefited from being native English speakers.
Being a native English speaker will not make you rich, but the importance of knowing English well cannot be overstated. More information is available in this language than any other. Books, music, and film written in English will have a bigger impact globally than in any other. U2 would not have become global superstars singing in Gaelic. This doesn't't mean you shouldn't learn Gaelic or any other language, but there are millions of people around the world---some of them poor, some of them rich---who are desperately trying to learn what Irish people take for granted.
The problem for English speakers learning another language is choosing which language to learn. Any choice will be only of limited use because it will be understood in a limited number of places. The utility factor is decisive because that is why most people learn English, not for cultural purposes. In the EU bureaucracy the linguistic requirements for individuals (say for employment) are for a recognized national language plus English which means that the national language is "window dressing" but everyone must communicate in English unless two speakers agree to speak the same national language.
Very fun recent thing, there's a recent horror game published on almost all major platforms (Steam, Xbox, Playstation, and Switch) with its spoken dialogue entirely in Romansch! It's called Mundaun, after the town in the Swiss Alps it takes place in, and its also noteworthy for having textures entirely hand drawn in pencil. It's a really great game, very good story deeply rooted in local culture and fantastic visuals, I would strongly recommend giving it a look if you're curious about Romansch.
I am Swiss and must say that I have never seen such an excellent and well-informed summary of the Swiss language situation. It covers every aspect and avoids the usual clichés. The best way to evaluate somebody‘s credibility is by looking at what they say about a situation that you know well. By this standard I must say that the credibility of this site ranks very high. I shall feel very comfortable about anything else it has to say about languages. Congratulations!
I really like the way you elaborate something, It's pretty clear and interesting. Keep up the good work!
Suscht no en schwiizer da wo eifach echli kommentär duräluegt? :O
Ich weiss net wieso aber mich hetts voll gstört dass es schwyzerdütsch gschribe hett anstatt schwiizerdütsch idk xD
isch immer spannend was anderi so vo de schwiiz haltet
Für was zwa "ii"s? ... wenn den schriebt ma 'Schwitzrdütsch' mit ama 'i' hätt i gmant. S sei den bei euch betont ma n erschta Vokal so stark. ^^
Le Daverix mer duets eigentlich ih züri mit zwei "i" schribe glaubs, machs jedefalls so uf whatsapp
is it even written differently? wow... I just got part of it.... Of course I speak German as a foreign language so....
Switzerland is a beautiful country.
The reason to live there🇨🇭🇨🇭
@@LEF13 yes
Ethnocentric and racist. Except if you carry a thick wallet.
@Ken narville Those are NOT DEPRESSING BUILDINGS
@@ranjanbiswas3233 well, THEY ARE FOR US
Wow, I'm really impressed by your well-researched video!! Chapeau! I'm Swiss (speaking Swiss German btw) but I've never seen such a good information about our national languages!
About English as "lingua franca": What many of you non-Swiss don't get is how super-hard and frustrating it is for the non-German speakers in Switzerland to communicate with the 65% majority of Swiss German speakers. Why? Because we seem to speak a totally different language than what they were taught. Someone in e.g. Geneva can learn and study (High-) German all their life; they can read every book written in German... but as soon as they travel anywhere into the Swiss German parts they won't understand zip because of all our funky Swiss German dialects (100s of them!). And none of them has any standardised form; and even we native Swiss German speakers don't understand every of those dialects (... looking at you, Wallis!!! :P ...). All those German lessons instantly feel like a huge waste of time because you still won't understand anything unless we want you to understand and switch to High German, just for you. Or even to French, or Italian. Or English. And this is where English makes most sense: because *both* sides (Swiss German and French speakers) need to learn it, they both find themselves on "equal footing" since it is a foreign language to both and both will stick more or less to the Standard English they learned at school. This makes life a lot easier for both sides.
In everday life (e.g. where I work) this often means that chats between Swiss German- and French-speaking coworkers will jump between languages; sometimes even in the same sentence. E.g. chat starts off in German, then gets switched to French, then a few words in English are used, then back to French, a few replies in German, a few fragments in English, and so on. If anything then *THIS* is the "Swiss Identity", e.g. the willingness to find common ground, e.g. speak English if needed, not force your native language on the other guy (whose language is just as native as your's!!). English has proven to be helpful in this regard (e.g. bridge the gaps); but it's not even remotely going to "replace" any of the native languages soon, so no danger there.
I'm from Lausanne and I'm passionate about languages. The problems is that Swiss German people have disgusted me. I know 5 languages, but I can barely introduce myself in German, skipping a lot of lessons in school and hating this language. The reason? I was feeling like learning a language that doesn't exist in my country. Who cares about just being able to read the newspapers or watching TV, I want to know my fellow citizen... Why do you hate so much German? Is it so uncomfortable for you to speak in German? I have never understand how is it possible to speak a language at school and in every formal situation and then switch to another language. Can you give me your point of view about this?
It's exactly like that! I learned German for 12 years but when I started working with a lot of Swiss German, I just couldn't understand! Plus everyone has their own dialect so I have to get used to everyone speaking :) At my work, everybody is bilingual so I speak German (with swiss german words sometimes :D) to everyone and they answer in French. English isn't allowed at my work place, as it's a non national language. So far it has worked perfectly:)
@@Wawruto I understand your feelings, but I think it's not fair to lump all Swiss German people together. That would be like saying all the French speaking people are arrogant and too proud to speak English. I would never do that. I'm from the German speaking part of Switzerland and I really think it's great when people from the French part of Switzerland speak German to me. And of course I speak standard German and not Swiss German to them. We had French at school, but I didn't learn much back then. Actually I was very interessted in it, but our lessons were so boring and our French books ancient.
I neither do hate German nor Germany and I have no problem speaking standard German. If someone comes from a non-German speaking region and he or she tries to speak German I gladly change to standard German.
@@bengez2382 Glad to hear that :)
How would you describe other Swiss Germans' feeling about this issue? How many of them have the same vision?
scorp73 As a non-Swiss person, I think you make the most sense 👍. Yes, making use of English to ease the communication between all Swiss when nothing else works is only logical and practical, and we are not even going to bother talking about benefitting from fluency in it because of its status as a global language. The term "lingua franca" basically means "bridge language" anyway. Of course, that does not necessarily mean using it to actually replace other Swiss national languages other than your own, that would be silly. The way you speak of multilingual interactions between Swiss from different regions in everyday life sounds exactly like the Swiss way to me, so I also believe Swiss culture should remain intact in this way.
Hello PaulI am from the (Swiss) German speaking part of Switzerland and at least here I have NEVER heard of any obligations to learn a third NATIONAL language. (It might be different in Ticino for example.) What is definitely true here is that it is mandatory to learn two foreign languages over all. Learning French and English as foreign languages is mandatory in eighter all or at least most places in the German speaking part of Switzerland. (Don't want to say things here I am not entirely sure about.) And it is also very common to only learn French and English - the two mandatory languages - when you're from the German speaking part of Switzerland and instead of learning Italian or Latin (starting during mandatory school years) or Spanish, Russian or Ancient Greek (starting during "additional" school years) or two or of these languages additionally to learning French and English, they opt for other additional subjects/classes. Or - when possible - none at all. The of the content of your video was EXTREMELY accurate and whenever I thought something like "Well, this is not perfectly correct" you added something that made it perfectly correct. So, well done. Much better than msny Swiss people could have done it. I wonder where you got these accurate facts that were understandable enough for people who don't live in Switzerland.
Thanks for the comment! The information about being required to learn a third national language came from a Swiss person I spoke with online. He said that was the case everywhere, but I guess that might just be the case in his canton and he assumed it was the same everywhere.
Thanks for the correction and the compliments too!
+Langfocus You're welcome. And sorry for misspelling your name, that was a typo. Do you happen to know where he was from, how old he was, what level of education he was talking about or what native language he spoke?
@ Marie Lastname....hey there...i waz reading ur comment...u mentioned u r frm Switzerland.... u knw wt i'v plans f moving 2 switzerland... i really wanted 2 get in touch with some swiss....so if u cud plz get in touch,it'll be realy helpful....tnq in advance & regards frm India....
+Ramandeep Singh Okay, here I am. What is your request?
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my email id is ramandeepsingh14u@gmail.com
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What I'd really like to know is why Swiss German is so different from the standard language while Swiss French is just standard French with a handful of regionalisms. As a non-native speaker of both languages, I can't understand much spoken Swiss German without subtitles. On the other hand, the French spoken in Lausanne or Geneva sounds basically the same as Parisian French. Indeed, there are regional accents in France itself that are much more distinctive than that la Suisse romande.
Short answer: standard german is a once artificially constructed language made up to unify many different "german" languages while metropolitan french is a centralistic one which expanded from the northern part of France. The original languages/dialects still exist to some extend, in Switzerland more, in northern Germany less.
Amazing how well you have resumed the languages situation. Living on the Röstigraben, French and Swiss German are in my brain and my heart : it's not always easy, but it's part of me. Now having English as the only second language in school, no matter the region... On the technical point of view, it would sure be easier. But a language is not only a media, it's also a message. Do technocrats get that ?
Do you study only English as a second language?
That's will be very useful but as you said it's better to communicate people from their local language unless you're outside
Bad idea. English should never be force on the Swiss. It will make the country boring.
I'm agree with you
I'm English and I completely agree
We already speak english very well
Yeah right. I don't like french because it's complicated but I still want to learn it because my country speaks it too. I personally have been having english at school since the 3rd grade of primary school and french since 6th grade. I think that's alright.
Make Romansh the lingua franca, give the little guy some advantage
As a french speaking Swiss national, I can confirm that we do not enjoy learning german! However, I do not think that we should remove german (or french for german speakers) as the second language we learn in school. First of all, german is harder to learn for most of french speaking students, so starting to learn german before english makes sense. Furthermore, it is still very useful to know a second national language, because if you want to get a job, having three languages (first and second national language and english) on your CV will always help!
Great video as always!
I do not fully agree with your first statement. I'm a french speaking Swiss person, but I know a lot of people who like to learn and speak german too :)! Everyone is different. I think english is easier to learn, both for german speaker and french speaker, and that's why some don't want to study german/french that much.
mdr tu dis quoi, juste parce que toi t'aimes pas apprendre l'allemand ça veut pas dire que tout le monde déteste l'apprentissage de l'allemand. perso j'ai toujours gardé une moyenne de 5.5 en allemand et j'ai fini avec une matu gymnasiale!
Chill, je dis ça par observation, parce que qu'une majorité de gens que je connais n'aiment pas l'allemand. À part ceux qui avaient beaucoup de facilité en allemand (comme toi par exemple), mes camarades ont passé leur temps à se plaindre.
+Ali Hussein Mohamed Peut-être, mais je pense aussi qu'une majeure partie n'aime pas l'allemand à cause des profs, y'a eu des années où j'ai vraiment foiré et d'autres où c'était facile. Faut juste être intéressé et ça roule. J'suis aussi contre l'anglais devenant la linga franca, car ça n'a rien à voir avec notre histoire. Y'en a qui diront que les immigrés ont de la peine, mais personnellement, je pense que si ils le veulent, ils arrivent à s'intégrer très facilement, alors on peut très bien se passer de l'anglais.
***** Pour l'anglais, ce n'est pas qu'une question d'histoire. ça n'a peut être rien à voir, n'empêche qu'on sera compris avec l'anglais dans tous les pays du monde tandis qu'avec de l'allemand on risque de ne pas aller très loin.
I'm from Switzerland and my school is trilingual (German, Italian, Romansh). so my native language is german and I have to learn Italian at school. I don't really like it but I still think it is somehow important to teach the national languages and not just make english the lingua franca. I know a lot of people don't share that opinion with me. but it is part of our culture and it makes our tiny country somehow special :)
can't you also choose romansh if you dont like Italian?
If I were swiss, I'd love to study "the other" national languages.
If you were a French-speaking Swiss , you'd want to learn German and obviously English .
If you were a German- speaking Swiss you'd certainly choose French and English : Italian and Rumantsch are both totally useless...
As a swiss, I can only agree, but many people think otherwise.
@@Ado555555 I totally agree! An exchange in one of the other parts should be mandatory in the "Oberstufe" or in "Primar". It would be so easy and way more efficient.
@@albertfoulon8049 , why is Italian useless? Don't people close Italy travel there or do business there?
we hate it lol
I'm from Ticino and I leave in the bilingual city Fribourg since 2011. In Ticino there are not a big choice for universities, so we have to learn languages if we want continue to study in Switzerland. Now I can currently speak 4 languages. I'm really glad to be born in a State where we can speak differents languages. I think that in these way we become more open towards the foreigns, because we can communicate with anyone. So, pls, don't try to imagine a Switzerland with only a unique official language ;)
I wish Swiss TV would use more subtitles. I'm from south Germany, and sometimes I watch Swiss channels, and often an interesting report starts with a commenter speaking perfect standard German, but then they interview a local who speaks Schwyzerdütsch, and I can't get a word of what he's saying.
But then again, my native language is Bavarian, which also is far away from standard German.
Untertitel nerve numme, bruuche mir nit und bisch sälbr schule wennd Färnseh vo eus luegsch
+lalas best ... ich weiß zwar aus dem Kontext das "luegsch" guckst, anschaust usw. heißen soll ... aber von was leitet sich "luegsch" ab ... : )
+Sonne Mond Lugen, gucken, habe keine Ahnung, ob es "lugen" im Hochdeutschen gibt
In Niederbairisch gibt's "luang", das "schauen" oder "gucken" bedeutet, nicht zu verwechseln mit "liang", was "lügen" heißt. Leider können junge Einheimische den Dialekt auch nicht mehr besonders gut.
+Eisi Kater hör einfach länger zu und leite Wörter ab das hast du ja drauf :) Man versteht ja auch viel Niederländisch, selbst Schwedisch Dänisch und Norwegisch wenn man genau hinhört und es ein wenig studiert:D Viel Erfolg
Some minor corrections: When speaking with the french-swiss or germans, we do change to german (often with a strong accent). It’s a different language, which we learn from a young age. Therefore most “german” swiss often speak 3-4 languages because of the addition of English and either french or a foreign language. The Ticinese (Italian speaking) often speak english, german AND french. In my experience, a lot of francophone swiss only speak French, despite learning german in school.
Edit: It has been a while since writing this and I have to retract my statement. The majority of Romands do speak english or german, if not both. There are just more people who don’t compared to other swiss subgroups
The french are weird.
@@baltulielkungsgunarsmiezis9714 they are swiss and not french. I think you miss understood my comment
@@ОниТиту Being monolingual is a french thing.
@@baltulielkungsgunarsmiezis9714 so??? Majority of Americans are just french to you???
@@ОниТиту They are a different breed. You see a billion people can speak english compared to the les than 200k of french, so the arrogance of frenchmen is more obvious.
For your last question I'd say : NO. Before learning foreign languages it's important to learn national language first. Cantons who wanted teach english first stepped back under pressure of the state (it has been considered with relevance as a risk for national cohesion).
I thought the exact same thing when Paul discussed the issue in the video. If people stop learning languages of each other in a VERY multilingual country, the different linguistic groups will slowly drag away from each other, putting the country on a track of dissolution.
If the lingua franca is changed to English this gives the country a landscape of "three different countries" rather than a "united country of three ethnicities".
It only makes sense. English in the world as a whole is used as lingua france between COUNTRIES, not regions of the same country.
You say teaching English as the intermediary language risks reducing national cohesion?
I disagree because the video says there is already a lack of cohesion, with towns either speaking one language or the other.
If everyone shared at least one language then it would boost cohesion.
Instead of having English as the Lingua Franca ........ why not make it Romansch ? It is a language exclusive to Switzerland, it is already an official language in some cantons and there are not enough of them to be able to consider this as a group exerting dominance over the other. I think that it's a way better solution, use a national language instead of a foreign one to unify everyone
@@sephikong8323 , more likely to anger everyone.
Saluti dalla Svizzera! (Canton Ticino).
Λευκός άγγελος Gopfristutz. Das Italiänisch chani nit. Kän iu speek inglisch?
No_Idea_4_Pseudo verstandi nid
Ciao anche io son ticinese! (And hello random german speaking friend)
Saluti dall’Italia 🇮🇹🤝🇨🇭
Solo so dire parolacce in ticinès!
I'm Swiss and I live close to the Röschtigraben. In bilingual Cities it happens a lot that I speak my native language (swiss german) while the other person speaks their native language (french). We understand the other language, but are more comfortable speaking our native toungue 😊
Hi! I just discovered your channel, and I must say it's quite interesting.
I was born and raised in Geneva, (Switzerland :p).
I studied German for ten years, but I'm still bad at it.
Here's what I think the problem is (I'm not saying it's the general opinion in Switzerland):
French and German are both grammatically complicated, with a sh** load of exceptions.
The strategy of teachers (in the french part at least) is to emphasize Grammar and conjugation courses for the second language, and that kills it.
We don't practice our speaking enough.
So I wouldn't say that the problem is cultural.
Also, French speakers have more issues with their second language than German speakers, so the latter usually make the effort :-p
Keep on uploading
MrVickilatombe So I assume you raised in the French part of the country, why didnt you choose italian as a second language? It's the closest to French.
Great video. So true, I'm from Geneva, When I travel to Zûrich, I speak english. Like it or not but English becomes the lingua franca of Switzerland. Maybe be not such as good think because : les suisses s'entendent bien parce qu'ils ne se comprennent pas :-)
im from switzerland and from the special canton Graubünden, we learn italian in 3th grade and not french (but ist just a sidenote :)) thanks for your video.
Je suis contre l'Anglais comme lingua franca en Suisse. La prédominence hégémoniale de cette langue se renforcera. Par contre il fallait apprendre davantage le Francais et l'Allemand en Suisse Alémanique et en Romandie. Et on devrait abondonner le ressentiment de parler Schriftdeutsch en Suisse Alémanique avec ceux qui ne parlent pas le dialecte. On n'est plus au 20 siècle.
Als Deutschschweizer macht es für mich keinen Unterschied ob ich jetzt Hochdeutsch oder Englisch spreche. Beides entspricht nicht meiner natürlichen Sprache, beides spreche ich fliessend. Mit mir Hochdeutsch statt Englisch zu sprechen ist nicht wiirklich ein entgegenkommen und bringt mir nichts. Im Gegensatz möchtest du, dass ich mit dir in deiner Muttersprache spreche.
Je ne parle pas les "dialectes" de mes parents, c'est un sentiment d'aliénation, une langue "officielle" est simplement un dialecte qui a pris le dessus sur les autres dialectes car à un moment de l'histoire cette région a eu + de pouvoir, mais cette langue "officielle" n'a rien de supérieur.
wtf kein Deutschschweizer redet gerne auf Hochdeutsch, da spreche ich lieber Englisch...
Als romanischsprachige Person bin ich der Meinung, man sollte immer bereit sein, auch einzulenken. Ja, ich liebe meine Muttersprache, aber ich erwarte nicht, dass die Leute in einer anderssprachigen Region mich verstehen. Man kann immer auch Kompromisse finde. Wenn ich mit Tessinern rede - was ziemlich oft vorkommt - reden wir oft Hochdeutsch. Das macht für uns Sinn, weil wir das in der Schule gelernt haben und Schweizerdeutch erst später gelernt haben.
Am schönsten fände ich es, wenn jeder in seiner Muttersprache reden könnte. Die anderen müssten die Sprache verstehen, aber nicht selber können.
as a northeastern Italian, I can't tell the difference between someone from the northern parts of Lombardy and Ticino
LOL im from switzerland and i had to laugh so hard when i saw the sign in the Intro XD
Bonjour je suis Suisse! 💖
salut ! je suis congolais mais j ai vécu en suisse
+Luc l'Africain salut je suisse et j'ai un prof d'art qui vient du Congo :')
+Joël P prof en art ? 😁 venant d'un congolais c'est pas étonnant ^^ il fait quel genre d'art ?
Luc l'Africain de la poterie et puis la base pour nous apprendre :)
+Joël P ah ! c est cool ca
There are speakers of the other languages in every part and even in the swiss german region I speak italian with swiss people. italian is growing again and people in other cantons learn also italian, not only french or german. by the way, ticinees is still alive.
Can you do a video about Belgium situation?
As an American exchange student, I studied in Biel/Bienne. The city is bilingual, with most shops, and even my school, being bilingual. Most of the time, I would observe the Swiss Germans speaking German while the Swiss French spoke French to each other - two languages simultaneously! My neighbor, a Swiss German, married a Swiss French, and this was how they communicated with each other, and their children were raised purely bilingually.
8:20
A Swiss lady I know is fluent in German and Italian. She also said that she can understand and read French, but can't speak it very well.
Yeah, I'm fluent in German and Italian, and I also can read, speak, and write a little bit in French
fluent in german, french and italian... i usually make the effort
As a swiss citizen, my mother tongues are Italian and French, I study in German in Zürich and know English better than I know German
8:20
you did a great job in reporting about the languages in switzerland! really accurate!
My feedback, as a born-and-raised guy from Ticino:
1) The Ticinese dialect is not an Italian dialect, but a lombardian dialect. Standard Italian is derived form Tuscan, in the Italic branch of Romance languages. Lombard is from the Gallo-Romanic languages and in some respect is closer to provençal than to "standard italian".
2) Lombard itself is divided into Western and Eastern dialects. All Western dialects are mostly mutually intelligible, but it is a bit tough for us Westerners to understand Easterners.
3) In Ticino standard Italian is the written language and the language of education, but in daily life Lombard is pretty much alive - much more so than across the border in Italy. This is because speaking Lombard did not attract any stigma like it was in Italy during the fascist era, where regional languages were poo-poo'd. Incidentally, the Italian government of the time labelled as "Italian dialects" also all those regional languages which, from a linguistic point of view, actually belong to a different branch altogether.
4) Ergo, Ticino has a form of diglossia - Lombard in informal speech, standard Italian for written communication, press, education and formal speech (government, courts). Diglossia is wide-spread, although it seems to be slightly less so than when I was a kid (40-odd years ago).
5) Incidentally, the Swiss of "Germanic" extraction have diglossia, too. Standard German for written communication, press, formal speech and (nowadays) parts of education, and "Swiss-German" in daily life. "Swiss-German" is a Germanic language, but is no German at all. Standard German grew out of a variety spoken in the middle of Germany. Swiss-German dialects (it is not a uniform one!), together with the dialects of Baden-Würtemberg in Germany and Alsace in France, are all part of the "Alemannic language". Interestingly, in the middle ages Alemannic was the prestige germanic language of southern Germany. What is now standard German became more popular with the spread of the written bible (Gutenberg), which was printed in an old form of standard German.
6) As for the French part, the old "Arpitan" (Franco-Provençal) has been stomped out in all but one tiny village. Standard French (with a few Swiss idiosyncracies) rules.
7) Romantsch (or Raeto-Romanic) is not a uniform language, either. Like for Basque, there is a "hybrid official version" which nobody likes or speaks. What is spoken (and written in the respective regions) are five romanic languages: Surmeir, Sursilvan and Sutsilvan in the West (these are easily mutually intelligible), and upper and lower Engadinese in the East (also mutually intelligible) - but the two groups have to make some efforts to understand each other. To the same group of languages belongs the Ladino of neighbouring northern Italy, BTW.
Best!
I.
Ivo Galli bravo!
@Warrior ZX4 Wrong comparison, dude. And this is about academic linguistic analysis, not "language separatism" - where did you get that idea?
Switzerland is a beautiful country! I had the pleasure of visiting the country back in 2015, I was in the German speaking areas of Bern. I want to go back as soon as possible! 🇨🇭
The language learning isn't completely like you said.
I live in Zurich and i learn english since 2 grade and french since 5 grade and now italian since the first grade of high school.
But some cantons have just one language in elementary school, and one in secondary school. In some cantons they learn first the 2nd national language and in other english.
And in highschool (situation in the Canton of Zurich): If you go to the longterm highschool (after 6th grade elementary school) you have to learn latin for two years. And after this two years or if you go to the shortterm highschool (after 2nd or 3rd grade of secondary school) it's facultative to learn either italian, spanish or russian (modern language profile) or latin or greek (ancient language profile) or no additional language (the other profiles).
when I was doing my mandatory military service I was standing guard with a ticinese (I'm from grison). we basically spoke a mashup of italian, german, french but mostly english lmao so I definitely support learning only your native tounge and english
You have an amazing channel!
Amazing job! Love Switzerland! We are definitely moving there when the kids are older.
Imagine in english: Sixty-ten, Four-Twenties and Four-Twenties-ten !!! Very Strange!!
France numbers are "trop etranges"!! Vive les nombres suisses!
The Acadamie Francaise is to blame for this. They are very directional.
Stefano Barbosa
It makes sense to Parisians because they don't think of "quatre-vingt-dix-neuf" as different numbers, it is the sum of its parts.
So no, I wouldn't be like saying "four twenties ten nine" in English. It'd be like saying "eighty nineteen" and ultimately just "ninety nine"
We don't say "butterfly" and think of a "a stick of butter flying" - the word doesn't reflect the meaning of its individual parts, we do not assign meaning to its individual parts when they appear side by side.
So for Parisians, they do not think of the number 80 as four twenties, they look at it and just see "eighty"
quatre-vingt-dix-neuf is a very good exercise for the brain don't stay lazy. I speak portuguese as my mother language
I'm pretty sure that septante, octante and nonante will be used in France and in Québec in the future.
terioze9 i wish, i learn french at school and many students still dont memorize the order!
amazing video paul, thank you.
+Ari Parker Thanks, Ari!
The most used immigrant language in switzerland is portuguese (3.5%) and after that comes albanian(2.6%). Serbo-Croatian is on the third place with 2.5%.
Shit! You're right on this one....looked up at the admin.ch site.
andré Karmann
Ever been here in Switzerland?
This is a brilliant, in depth analysis of the linguistic situation in Switzerland. My father grew up there. He is right and shows how practical, logical and rational the Swiss people are in regards to language use. If only more people had this logic (and key to success in a modern world) in other parts of the world.
Also, from my experience it is in fact true that all swiss cafes have a buzzer sound for using the wrong language.
Indeed, that part was filmed live in location! :D
dont forget the swiss army knife
+Gustav Leifsson thank you
+Swissarmyknife hahahah
+Gustav Leifsson lol :P
best Army in the World! Well Trump might not agree....
Would I pick the world biggest army without conscription or the worlds "best army" with conscription. Switzerland, because they are neutral.
Thank you for this video, really well investigated! I live in Switzerland very close to the Röstigraben, work in Biel (a City where German and French are official languages) and had French in School for a total of about 8 years but still my French-knowledge-level is very low.
Maybe you said it but one think I'd like to mention is, that for Swiss German speaking people it is really no problem at all to understand standard German (even though it is almost a foreign language for us). When chatting to each other (eg. via Whatsapp) we sometimes use Swiss German but otherwise the writen language we use is almost always standard German (newspapers, magazines, manuals, letters from goverments, invoices, ...). In fact there are even no grammatical rules for Swiss German (and there is not THE Swiss German as you've correctly mentionned).
One last thing: There is no obligation to learn a third language or maybe it depends on the cantone you live in.
Btw: In my channel you can find a video in which I explain how to pronounce certain words in Swiss German!
I used to live in Geneve, and even the University students from the eastern parts of the country learned French to fit in. My French speaking friends who grew up there said it was difficult to learn German, because what is spoken and what is taught in schools are too different. When I visit Zurich, I find they have a lot of pride in their language, and they feel English would take away their identity. But that's just the opinion of my Swiss friends. Many of them do still learn English, but they also know at least two others languages already.