Question on FIGS consistency in usage/accent in the EU

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Dragon27
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Re: Question on FIGS consistency in usage/accent in the EU

Postby Dragon27 » Mon Apr 05, 2021 11:40 am

Le Baron wrote:In Switzerland I was completely bamboozled by the incomprehensible German which sounded to me like Swedish!

People in Switzerland (that is, Germanophones) speak a different language, or a set of dialects that are mostly mutually unintelligible with Standard German (which they also learn at school). They can switch to Standard German, when they need to speak to somebody not versed in their local speech (and their Standard German, obviously, has its own peculiarities as well), but they speak their own Germanic dialects among themselves (and in their local TV shows). Same goes for Austria. Interestingly enough, the local language of Austria forms a continuum with the local Germanic language of Bavaria, so it's often called Austro-Bavarian.
Last edited by Dragon27 on Mon Apr 05, 2021 11:52 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Question on FIGS consistency in usage/accent in the EU

Postby Le Baron » Mon Apr 05, 2021 11:47 am

Dragon27 wrote:Interestingly enough, the local language of Austria forms a continuum with the local Germanic language of Bavaria, so it's often called Austro-Bavarian.


This is what depressed me. One of my maternal Grandparents was Austrian, but I never 'picked up' that way of speaking. Feels like a lost opportunity now.
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Re: Question on FIGS consistency in usage/accent in the EU

Postby Kraut » Mon Apr 05, 2021 12:04 pm

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golyplot
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Re: Question on FIGS consistency in usage/accent in the EU

Postby golyplot » Tue Apr 06, 2021 4:22 pm

Dragon27 wrote:People in Switzerland (that is, Germanophones) speak a different language, or a set of dialects that are mostly mutually unintelligible with Standard German (which they also learn at school).


I wouldn't go that far. I've listened to things in Swiss German before, and while it is obviously different and hard to understand, it's still recognizable as a dialect of German. I think it also depends on the dialect.
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Dragon27
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Re: Question on FIGS consistency in usage/accent in the EU

Postby Dragon27 » Tue Apr 06, 2021 4:53 pm

golyplot wrote:I wouldn't go that far.

I wouldn't go as far as to call Swiss German a dialect(s) of German.

golyplot wrote:I've listened to things in Swiss German before, and while it is obviously different and hard to understand, it's still recognizable as a dialect of German. I think it also depends on the dialect.

It certainly depends on what you've listened to (and how mixed it was with Swiss Standard German). And by what criteria you "recognized" it as a dialect of German. There are people who would insist on Ukrainian being a dialect of Russian (which, I think, is somewhat comparable to the difference between Swiss German and Standard German).

This could actually be a misunderstanding of terminology (which is quite confusing, to say the least). What I want to say, is that Standard German of Germany (Standardhochdeutsch) and the dialects of Swiss German are different enough to be considered separate languages. Even though all of these languages (including Bavarian) are often united under the common name "German dialects" (as if being mere dialects of a single German language).
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Re: Question on FIGS consistency in usage/accent in the EU

Postby Kraut » Tue Apr 06, 2021 6:30 pm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUzqJlCYZrc

Appenzeller Swiss dialect, I do understand most of it since my own dialect belongs to the same "Schwäbisch-Alemannische Sprachgruppe". However, inbetween he quotes a passage from an older (100 years ?) stage of the same dialect: I understand nothing.
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Re: Question on FIGS consistency in usage/accent in the EU

Postby golyplot » Tue Apr 06, 2021 7:19 pm

Kraut wrote:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUzqJlCYZrc

Appenzeller Swiss dialect, I do understand most of it since my own dialect belongs to the same "Schwäbisch-Alemannische Sprachgruppe". However, inbetween he quotes a passage from an older (100 years ?) stage of the same dialect: I understand nothing.


I could barely understand anything overall, but I did notice a lot of words and phrases that sounded like Standard German in there. It seems to me that it is more similar to Standard German than say, Dutch is. Then again, it occurred to me that Spanish and Italian are probably even more similar and they count as different languages.
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Re: Question on FIGS consistency in usage/accent in the EU

Postby Kraut » Thu Apr 15, 2021 5:22 pm

a fable read in all linguistic variants of the country

Atlas sonore des langues régionales de France

Une même fable d'Ésope peut être écoutée et lue en français (en cliquant sur Paris) et en langues régionales (en cliquant sur les différents points de la carte).

https://atlas.limsi.fr
for other countries click at the top
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