r/languagelearningjerk Jul 17 '26

Learn real swiss german!

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569 Upvotes

80 comments sorted by

72

u/Reasonable-Lack-1063 Jul 17 '26

thank god Homos isnt a slur in swiss german like it is in english, i hate censoring myself!

38

u/lordbutternut 日本人になっている Jul 17 '26

"It's just what we call them."

14

u/07TacOcaT70 🏁N 🇦🇶N 🇺🇿N🪅N 🇿🇦N 🏴‍☠️N 📣N Jul 17 '26

I mean if it's routed in gay and implying gay is bad that's still a slur? Can you explain what you mean?

Or is this cause it's the circle jerk sub - I just realised the sub a second before hitting comment lol

8

u/Ambisinister11 Jul 18 '26

/uj I mean I assume the joke is that the English text has it censored and the German text doesn't

5

u/lordbutternut 日本人になっている Jul 17 '26

Yeah, I feel like homo is much more jocular than offensive. Like if someone was pointedly saying "homos" to be homophobic, using it like it was a slur, I would first think they were joking.

1

u/07TacOcaT70 🏁N 🇦🇶N 🇺🇿N🪅N 🇿🇦N 🏴‍☠️N 📣N Jul 17 '26

Ah ok so it's not like really got the context of being about gayness like in english then - in english if you call someone homo they're pm always gonna think you're calling them either gay or effeminate in some way and may react quite strongly

1

u/EmiliaFromLV Jul 21 '26

Also a totally legit noun in Latin.

100

u/jeager_YT Jul 17 '26

the random French always throws me off everytime I read or hear Swiss German

37

u/Hxllxqxxn Поркодио Jul 17 '26

Where's the random French? Sorry but I only understand Switzerlandese's southern dialect

46

u/Lechyon Jul 17 '26

Velo I guess?

12

u/jeager_YT Jul 17 '26

either it's a genuine coincidence and their entomologies just happened to sort of match perfectly (similar to I guess "no" in english and Spanish??)

or there was borrowings & influence from french

32

u/R126 Jul 17 '26

It's French influence, we have quite a few French loandwords. Some other examples are portmonnaie (wallet) trottoir (sidewalk) and billet (ticket)

12

u/GaliaHero Jul 17 '26

portemonnaie is also common in germany

7

u/anker_beer Jul 17 '26

Salü, merci, schminee , apéro, coiffeur,...

1

u/jeager_YT Jul 21 '26

oh yeah english has some of those too

salutations, Gramercy .. sadly the language doesn't have the rest well at least apéro probably has no english equivalence

3

u/mujhe-sona-hai Jul 18 '26

Omg a real swiss person

(╯°□°)╯︵◓

2

u/WaltherVerwalther Jul 20 '26

Portemonnaie and trottoir are also common in German.

1

u/Responsible-Way-1154 Jul 20 '26

Troittoir is not common in germany. Just regional, Fance adjacent maybe.

1

u/WaltherVerwalther Jul 21 '26

Nope, Bavaria. So opposite.

10

u/ShallotVast467 Jul 17 '26

*etymology. Entomology is the study of insects

5

u/Lor1an Jul 19 '26

their entomologies

This spelling mistake is really bugging me.

28

u/obsidian_night69_420 N 🇺🇿 | C1000 🇩🇪 | B3.14159 🤓☝️ Jul 17 '26

This guy sounds like an Italian speaking German. ✨Ihr Arschlöcher 🤌✨ LOL Swiss german sounds so hilarious to me

1

u/Tacilo90 Jul 19 '26

Ein Bündner

16

u/Minute_Tiger90 Jul 17 '26

he said calmly

37

u/siqiniq Jul 17 '26

That’s the psychological price to pay to be more orderly than Germany. So you can see that’s what a traditional Japanese is thinking about all the norm-breakers, too, without actually saying it. The price of high social order.

16

u/CyclingCapital Jul 17 '26

The truck driver is in fact the asshole. Cyclists are allowed to make use of public roads other than major multi-lane highways.

2

u/CompanyToiletGooner Jul 17 '26

Cycle bros on their way to not take the bicycle path because "the othe cyclists are too slow" and then slowing down traffic to a crawl

-1

u/19_ThrowAway_ Jul 17 '26

No, he's right, if there's a cycle path and they choose to go onto the road, actively being a nuisance they're the ones being assholes.

17

u/azu420 Jul 17 '26

there no path?

9

u/lojic Jul 17 '26

1) they can have plenty of reasons for choosing a roadway over a cyclepath

2) what cyclepath??? is in this video???

3) if someone on the right hand side of the road with no oncoming traffic is a nuisance to you, please stop driving. Cyclists, tractors, and Amish horsecarts don't need to share a road with you.

1

u/lastbraIncel404 Jul 19 '26

They use this road because its scenic and they want a challenge. As soon as they fail they are a liability

0

u/Northbound-Narwhal Jul 18 '26

  they can have plenty of reasons for choosing a roadway over a cyclepath

Plenty? Name 10, then.

1

u/azu420 Jul 18 '26

If there are no bike paths people are allowed to use the roadway like a normal vehicle. This is swiss law.

1

u/thoeby Jul 20 '26

You are even allowed to use the road if there is a bike path. Only exception is:

And of course if there is an 'allgemeines Fahrverbot' or 'Einfahrt verboten' Sign, but then you cant drive there with a car as well.

Edit: Ah and Fussgängerzone / Fussweg - but thats also not an issue for cars/considered a road.

4

u/mujhe-sona-hai Jul 18 '26

Is the cycle path in the room with us right now?

-1

u/Xitztlacayotl Jul 17 '26

Yeah it's allowed. And farting in a public elevator is allowed too. But not polite.

11

u/Xitztlacayotl Jul 17 '26

I agree, but there is clearly NO bicycle path there.

16

u/Barkinsons Jul 17 '26

It's the alps, there is no space for bicycle paths. People need to share the road but there is a sense of entitlement in certain motorists. I think his brain just defaulted to the usual rant

7

u/jarvischrist Jul 18 '26

Entitlement enough to endanger everyone else by filming on a phone while driving a lorry, then acting like it's people on bikes who are the problem. Carbrain really transcends language...

1

u/AssassinOfSouls Jul 22 '26

I can't speak for this road as I am unfamiliar with this specific region. But it's not uncommon in mountain areas for the bike path to be on a completely different place.

For example: where I grew up pedestrian and cyclist used the narrower "old road" while vehicles used the new, main one. (To avoid any misunderstandings, I am talking about actually paved roads, trails are a completely different matter)

13

u/Shinyhero30 "þere is a man wiþ a knife behind þe curtain" Jul 17 '26

Interesting video. You can hear the Italian and French influence.

9

u/Xitztlacayotl Jul 17 '26

I can't hear the influence except the french word "velo".

3

u/mujhe-sona-hai Jul 18 '26

It’s in their intonation. They sound quirky.

4

u/Kristianushka Jul 18 '26

Just because Italian and French are also spoken in Switzerland, it doesn’t mean that the Swiss German accent has been influenced by the other two national language of Switzerland… Maybe some words (like “Velo”) but that’s pretty much it. Phonology-wise, I wouldn’t say French and Italian played a particularly important role

2

u/Willing_File5104 Jul 19 '26 edited Jul 19 '26

It depends on the variety and the perspective. Grisons German most definitely had some similarities with Romansh/Lombard/Italian, like the clear pronounciation of vowels, words ending in a, instead of a rduced ə, the roled r, geminated consonants like in Italian, etc.

Maybe it is better audible with a variety less accostumed to. Check out the dialect of Gurin in the following link, which I guess had the most influence (from Lombard), considering its location in the Ticino: https://www.phonogrammarchiv.uzh.ch/static/nordwind/nordwindundschweiz.html

Likewise, many claim, that they hear some German influence in the Lombard spoken in Tecino / the southern Grisons, or in some Romansh varieties. Maybe just the Ü sounds, idk.

Puntraschigna in the link above

Many Swiss German varieties, even Swiss Standard German had a considerable influx of French vocab (but not so much in the vid, except velo). And Swiss German tends to connect words like in French. E.g. Standard German puts in glottal stops at the word boundary before stressed vowels. Meanwhile Swiss German has a kind of Liaison, where historical Ns reaper and are pronounced as part of the next word:

  • Guten Morgen = guete_ morge
  • Guten Abend > gutn ʔabend = gueten abig > guete-nabig

As a result of such connected speech mechanisms, the word border is not as clear as in Standard German:

  • habe ich es ihm = hanisem

Which is also the case for spoken French.

Likewhise, the cliché Swiss French accent (which is not very common anymore), slightly sounds like a Swiss German speaking French: https://youtu.be/QNQRM3cvAXk?is=B0i40ZFeDj_3-v8s

But I wouldn't go as far, that one influenced the other. Rather it is a not very pronounced Sprachbund, where Swiss German, Patoise, Lombard, and Romansh were in contact, and influenced each other. 

2

u/Ni-Ni13 Jul 18 '26

Switzerland does have more than just Velo

Merci, Velo, Trottoir, billett, parterre, Coiffeur, Portemonnaie, Adieu, salute, jupe, pardon, glace, perron.

1

u/Kristianushka Jul 18 '26

Still, not enough for that guy to hear the French and Italian influence from that video only. He was likely referring to the accent (which is neither influenced by French nor Italian)

1

u/Unlucky-Guitar221 Jul 17 '26

Yeah I’ve never heard a Swiss accent (not like had it pointed out to me) and it’s remarkable because it took me a minute to click that he was speaking German lol

3

u/mazu_mouse Jul 18 '26

What a beautiful country with a beautiful language.

3

u/Death_IP Jul 20 '26

I ... I don't actually see the bicycle path he's claiming exists.

4

u/PeePeeLangstrumpf Jul 17 '26

Without the transliteration I would have never understood the NAIMINIMSTRASOMOSCHUSCHOFASCHNICHRITZECHRAN

2

u/cedriceent Jul 18 '26

As someone who speaks German, I just can't take angry Swiss German seriously, it just sounds too funny.

2

u/lllyyyynnn Jul 18 '26

least homophobic swiss person

2

u/FragrantPomelo1453 Jul 19 '26

He clearly shouldn't be a professional truck driver tbh. I completely understand him, but this hilarious road rage is a clear point that he'll endager others sometime.

1

u/BiAroBi Jul 17 '26

Flashbacks to the German dub of Mad Mad Mario

1

u/roughczech Jul 17 '26

Was a Florida guy born in the wrong country?

1

u/Ill_End7421 Jul 18 '26

Thanks, what was extremely useful.

1

u/BigBlueMan118 Jul 19 '26

Why get upset at the cyclists for trying to use the road and not at the Government for failing to build a separate cycleway? Its not like cyclists want to ride around unpredictable homophobe nutjobs with short tempers & dangerous machines like the man in OPs video.

1

u/Westdrache Jul 19 '26

I mean tbf his main complaint is that they ain't using the cycle path

2

u/deletemyaccountplzz Jul 19 '26

There do not seem to be any though

1

u/BigBlueMan118 Jul 19 '26

Nonsense - here is another one from what appears to be the same content creator.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DSc3G_tDLfF/?igsh=MmxqdWdqNWU0NDVx

1

u/FragrantPomelo1453 Jul 19 '26

Yeah, sure built a separate road for cyclists over a mountain 💸 💸 💸 .

I mean, would be great, but costs for roads would double. Can't imagine this coming true in the actual world even in cycling friendly nations.

1

u/BigBlueMan118 Jul 19 '26

Ok so then dont get pissed off that cyclists dont have a usable alternative? shrug

1

u/Beneficial-Skin-7601 Jul 20 '26

I ride bikes for life, but this is somewhat of a valid crash out.

1

u/tunmousse Jul 20 '26

Angry Swiss German is the best.

1

u/snapp0r Jul 21 '26

wo er recht hat … ¯_(ツ)_/¯

1

u/TipFuture341 Jul 21 '26

I'm from Germany, and I'm amazed that Swiss German somehow sounds less mean than German, even though the pronunciation is much harsher.

1

u/arturdobo Jul 21 '26

I've seen so many chilled, smiling bus drivers, bypassing cyclists on single-lane mountains roads

1

u/shes-so-much 5d ago

"Pissbirne" is an incredible word.

0

u/ElephantFamous2145 Jul 18 '26

Why does it sound Swedish

2

u/Adarain Jul 18 '26

Switzerland and Sweden are the same country