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German national, Swiss resident of 10 years here. The audio sample is pretty understandable. Obviously the speaker took great care to enunciate clearly for the

German national, Swiss resident of 10 years here. The audio sample is pretty understandable. Obviously the speaker took great care to enunciate clearly for the recording, so he sounds like he speaks very understandable Swiss German with a lot of French vocabulary thrown in. Like a French exchange student or the like.

Lukas_Skywalker 8y ago
I am a Swiss, living 20km from Fribourg and having a lot of contact with people from Fribourg. I thought the same as the parent. It seems also that most words are actually spoken in German and only a few nouns are French. I have a friend speaking Le Bolze. When he is around Swiss Germans, he still speaks it, altough in a much less pronounced fashion. He uses much more German words and only occasionally the odd French word.
maracuja-juice 8y ago
Alao a Swiss resident here: Totally agree. It's basically just Swiss German with some French nouns. The dialect of Valais is a lot harder to understand than this. But I guess in normal conversation it's a different case again.
- thomasmg 8y ago
  (Also a Swiss resident here) Another interesting language is (rather, was) "Matten-Englisch", something like Pig-Latin, "because people wanted to communicate in a way the police would not understand": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mattenenglisch https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mattenenglisch
Shihan 8y ago
I agree, it is swiss german with some nouns exchanged with french nouns. I guess the example audio is not really a good example. On the wikipedia page for "Bolze" you actually see that there are special words that only exists in Bolze.
smoe 8y ago
As a Swiss I'm quite puzzled why the author thinks it is another language. The audio sample disproves the claim in the article that even with full command of French and Swiss-German, you can't understand it. Sure, it can be hard to follow, but the same is true for other dialects in the country. I think given the title, "the Swiss language that few know", they should have picked Romansh. The fourth official language of Switzerland that got completely overlooked by the article. A descendant language of the spoken Latin language of the Roman Empire. Haven't met many people around the world who have heard of it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElfJX-4yET0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElfJX-4yET0
- andimm 8y ago
  To be fair, the article mentions Romansh and links to another article only about our fourth language[0] I agree the sample is not difficult to understand as a nativ Swiss-German speaker. Only thing that comes to mind is that it's a Bernese (?) Swiss-German dialect which is not always easy to understand for 'proper' German speakers. But in my opinion almost every single dialect in Switzerland has it's own specific words and almost every canton has it's own dialect so I wouldn't call them a language. [0] http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20180627-switzerlands-mysterious-fourth-language http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20180627-switzerlands-myster...
  - folli 8y ago
    The article explicitly mentions St. Moritz (which you could call the epicenter of romansh) as a german speaking town.
    - andimm 8y ago
      That example raised my eyebrow as well while reading. My guess is, that it's be most famous example city for the eastern parts, although for British people Klosters would be a known alternative as well, their cable car booth is name "Prince of Wales" and in the Prättigau they rarely speak Romansh
atemerev 8y ago
I live in Geneva and don't speak Swiss German at all. So, for me it's the opposite: something I don't understand with a few familiar words :)

Lukas_Skywalker 8y ago

I am a Swiss, living 20km from Fribourg and having a lot of contact with people from Fribourg. I thought the same as the parent. It seems also that most words are actually spoken in German and only a few nouns are French. I have a friend speaking Le Bolze. When he is around Swiss Germans, he still speaks it, altough in a much less pronounced fashion. He uses much more German words and only occasionally the odd French word.

maracuja-juice 8y ago

Alao a Swiss resident here: Totally agree. It's basically just Swiss German with some French nouns. The dialect of Valais is a lot harder to understand than this. But I guess in normal conversation it's a different case again.

thomasmg 8y ago
(Also a Swiss resident here) Another interesting language is (rather, was) "Matten-Englisch", something like Pig-Latin, "because people wanted to communicate in a way the police would not understand": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mattenenglisch https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mattenenglisch

Shihan 8y ago

I agree, it is swiss german with some nouns exchanged with french nouns. I guess the example audio is not really a good example. On the wikipedia page for "Bolze" you actually see that there are special words that only exists in Bolze.

smoe 8y ago

As a Swiss I'm quite puzzled why the author thinks it is another language. The audio sample disproves the claim in the article that even with full command of French and Swiss-German, you can't understand it. Sure, it can be hard to follow, but the same is true for other dialects in the country. I think given the title, "the Swiss language that few know", they should have picked Romansh. The fourth official language of Switzerland that got completely overlooked by the article. A descendant language of the spoken Latin language of the Roman Empire. Haven't met many people around the world who have heard of it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElfJX-4yET0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElfJX-4yET0

andimm 8y ago
To be fair, the article mentions Romansh and links to another article only about our fourth language[0] I agree the sample is not difficult to understand as a nativ Swiss-German speaker. Only thing that comes to mind is that it's a Bernese (?) Swiss-German dialect which is not always easy to understand for 'proper' German speakers. But in my opinion almost every single dialect in Switzerland has it's own specific words and almost every canton has it's own dialect so I wouldn't call them a language. [0] http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20180627-switzerlands-mysterious-fourth-language http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20180627-switzerlands-myster...
- folli 8y ago
  The article explicitly mentions St. Moritz (which you could call the epicenter of romansh) as a german speaking town.
  - andimm 8y ago
    That example raised my eyebrow as well while reading. My guess is, that it's be most famous example city for the eastern parts, although for British people Klosters would be a known alternative as well, their cable car booth is name "Prince of Wales" and in the Prättigau they rarely speak Romansh

atemerev 8y ago

I live in Geneva and don't speak Swiss German at all. So, for me it's the opposite: something I don't understand with a few familiar words :)