![]() ![]() He just can’t express his feelings or say what is in his heart, if he has to say it in high German. “And a Swiss feels inhibited if he can’t talk Swiss German. You need people to be able to communicate with you uninhibitedly. “It is a matter of integration into local society. “There is no way you can avoid learning Swiss German as a pastor,” he says. Now a Swiss citizen, he is unusual in actually speaking Swiss German with gusto. He was a parish priest in Schwyz for many years before moving to Chur. A German from the Lake Constance area near the border with Switzerland, he came to this country as a young curate in 1985. ![]() But also, dialect gives them a deep feeling of belonging.” Harald Eichhorn is the rector of Chur Cathedral. She gives two reasons: “It is important for German Swiss to set themselves off from Germany and affirm their own identity. Why do they stick to Swiss German when it’s such a barrier?” Maranta wonders. Growing up with high German actually gave our children an educational advantage.” “German Swiss are often at a disadvantage when they have to speak high German outside Switzerland, say on German TV. She explains: “First I was in French-speaking Fribourg, then I married an Italian-speaking Swiss, and we have always spoken high (standard) German at home. She has lived here for 50 years and has never spoken Swiss German, although she certainly understands it by now. Elisabeth Maranta, a German who runs a bookshop in Chur specialising in languages, must be something of a record. Meanwhile, Swiss commentators find it’s enough for the newcomers to understand Swiss German and not to speak it. They tend to say “when I try it, it sounds ridiculous!” or “it’s not my dialect!”. ![]() They are held back by inhibitions that do not bother other foreigners. However, research, journalistic investigations and everyday observation suggest that the majority of Germans who come here do not learn to speak Swiss German actively. There are classes, books and CDs for learning Swiss German dialect, so if you really want to, there is no obstacle to it. They present a new cultural and linguistic challenge - mostly because they don’t speak Swiss German. One now meets Germans everywhere in the German part of Switzerland. Recently, there has been a wave of German immigration to Switzerland, mainly because of the EU-Swiss agreement allowing free movement of people to take up jobs. On the other hand, Germans who have been here for a while say dialect opens up the secret places of the Swiss heart. This content was published on JJuly 7, 2010 ![]()
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