Lukas Mathis of Ignore the Code points out a well-written article on Swiss German from a travel blog called Thinking Coral. The Schwiizerdütsch post is from July 2007, and the last post on Thinking Coral was written in August 2009. It is a 3-year-old post on onomatopoeiac qualities of a Swiss dialect that appears to have been written by a New Zealander in her wanderjahre. I am not able to locate the author’s name. This is truly an example of the long tail concept.
From the Thinking Coral post on Schwiizerdütsch:
- Swiss German is technically a spoken language, and only turns up in written form in informal mediums of communication such as email and internet writings. I find the language in stark contrast to the image and understanding most people would have of Switzerland and its citizens. Namely that of being orderly, reserved, clean and staid. It’s a language that implies movement. Simply put, its sounds are very up and down. Descriptively put, some parts of their words create sounds like that of a smallish round stone plopping into the river; of sand shaken within a container to slosh against and fall back from its walls.
Above: header image from the travel blog ‘Thinking Coral.’
