Swiss German

Swiss German is not a language per se, but includes all German dialects - i.e. several languages or dialects - spoken in Switzerland. Most of them are High Alemannic dialects that have initial [k_X] or [X-] instead of older [k_h]; there are however exceptions, namely the idioms of Chur and Basel. Basel German is a mix between High and Low Alemannic (most, but not all, Alemannic dialects spoken in Germany are Low Alemannic), Chur German is basically High Alemannic without initial [X] or [k_X]. Typical of all Swiss German dialects is that they do not have voiced plosives; instead, short plosives are distinguished from long plosives.

Examples

Basel Zurich

['k_hAffi] ['k_XAfi] 'coffee'

[k_hA] [XA] 'can (first person singular)'