Actually it's not a dialect in my opinion. It's an own language. Or would you call dutch a german dialect??
They call it "schweitzer-deutsch" - the dutch call theirs "netherlands" (ik praat ook wel nederlands als ik dat mut doen, want
ik weet ook dat het niet duits is)
> in all brutal honesty, theyre dont speak german.
(It's the same everywhere: Bavarians talk to each other in Bavarian dialect, and to non-Bavarians in ... well, don't know... I think they are not even forced to learn "high" german (talking) in school, do they? (Writing they certainly must learn))
good, thats basically why i pointed him to austria (i.e. wien) or north germany - these parts do have a dialect , but they speak an understandable dialekt.
I have travelled these countries and report from experience. In bavaria, munic is quiet safe - but on the countryside you will simply not learn a damn useful german word. If you go to hamburg in north germany, or berlin - yes you will find funny sounds, and pronounciation occasionally - however, they are understood by the rest of the germans easily. that is the difference i refer to to someone who wants to life amongst german speaking people.
austria is in that sense much better than switzerland, or bavaria.
To be correct you should say their (swiss people) native language (even if called "Schweizer Deutsch" is not much like German. AFAIK they have to learn in school also the official/proper "high" german and their writing is in official "high" german.
i think i got my message across, but thank you for your suggestion. i will consider it for the next time.
I view this in the context of living amonsgt people in order to learn a language.
So it does not matter what the switerpeople learn in school, it matters how they talk in their daily life.
The conclusion is simple, dont go there. Unless you want to enjoy tax benefits or very high prices for everything.
Sure, even if they speak "high" german there might be a dialect, so you recognize it, but it's well understandable. (Their native talking, OTOH, is indeed very different, and not only from dialect/pronounciation, but really also in grammar and actual words.)
as soon we have a forum for lingua science, i nominate you for chairman. It is very good that you made this so clear,
hell knows what would have happened otherwise:)
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Suggesting Austria as for "learning better German" ... *frown*
I am rational, not emotional. I talk to austrians in my job, or with my finnish aunt (she studied medicine in graz for 14 yrs)
and i do understand them very well w/o forcing them into "high-german" like it is necessary with the swiss or bavarian people.
So what i said is based on experience and observation, and not on emotional nationalism like
"scheiss schluchtenscheisser, warum sollen die angeblich gut fuers deutsch lernen sein" and the like