Helvetisms (Neo-Latin Helvetia "Switzerland" and -ism) are features distinctive of Swiss Standard German, that distinguish it from Standard German. The most frequent Helvetisms are in vocabulary and pronunciation, but there are also some distinctive features in syntax and orthography. The French and Italian spoken in Switzerland have similar terms, which are also known as Helvetisms. Current French dictionaries, such as the Petit Larousse, include several hundred helvetisms.

Background

The definitive work for German orthography, the Duden, explicitly declares a number of helvetisms as correct Standard German – albeit with the [schweiz.] annotation, denoting that the usage of the word is limited to Switzerland. However, not all words may be considered part of the "Swiss standard language"/"Swiss standard German" category, because frequency of usage must be evaluated as well; if this does not apply, or if a word's use is known to span only one or more specific dialectal regions, the word must be categorized "dialectal" (German: mundartlich, often abbreviated mdal.) In orthographical terms, the most significant difference to Standard German outside Switzerland is the absence of ß (eszett). (After having been officially abandoned in the Canton of Zürich in 1935, this character gradually fell into disuse, until it was eventually dropped by the Neue Zürcher Zeitung in 1974.) In everyday language, Helvetisms may be used both consciously and unconsciously by a Swiss German native speaker. Classic examples of Helvetism usage throughout entire literary works are found in a large part of Swiss literature, notably Jeremias Gotthelf's novels located in the Emmental; a contemporary example would be Tim Krohn in his Quatemberkinder. Another group, the most notable of whom is Peter Bichsel, deliberately use Helvetisms to arouse a sort of emotional attachment to the readers' home country: Bichsel is notorious for using dialectal words like Beiz (instead of Kneipe [English: "pub"]), or Kasten (instead of Schrank [English: "cupboard/cabinet/closet"]) in his "San Salvador" short story. Lastly, there is yet another group of authors whose readers are known to be located all over the German-speaking territory (Germany, Austria, Switzerland as well as some smaller minorities in other European countries) and therefore traditionally refrain from using any Helvetisms in their literary works. In addition, words which are used outside Switzerland, but which originate from Swiss German may be called "Helvetisms". Analogously to "Helvetisms", there are also Austricisms and Germanisms (also Teutonicisms).

Examples of Helvetisms

Figures of speech

Swiss specifics

In the area's cuisine, local culture and politics, there are numerous peculiarities that are not well known outside Switzerland and which do not have an equivalent standard German expression.

Pronunciation

Because of their characteristic pronunciation, speakers of Swiss Standard German will be instantly recognized by other German speakers in most cases. In general, the pronunciation of Swiss Standard German is influenced by the respective Swiss German dialect of each speaker. The degree of that influence may vary according to their education.

Stress

Swiss German exhibits a strong trend toward stressing all words on the initial syllable:

Consonants

Vowels

Prosody

A special feature of Swiss Standard German, is a somewhat "singing" cadence. That means that each word's stressed syllable isn't only marked through the higher voice volume, but also through a distinguishable modification of the voice's sound. In general, the pitch of the stressed syllable sinks.

Orthography

In orthography, the most visible difference from Standard German usage outside Switzerland is the absence of ß (officially abolished in the Canton of Zürich in 1935; the sign fell gradually out of use and was dropped by the Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ) in 1974). French and Italian loanwords are written in their original forms in spite of the spelling reform. Majonäse stays Mayonnaise, and Spagetti stays Spaghetti. The NZZ uses the spelling placieren (to place, from French placer) rather than platzieren, which is more common elsewhere. Geographical names, such as streets, are mostly written together: Baslerstrasse, Genfersee, Zugerberg etc. Compound terms relating to nationality are often written as one word, such as Schweizergrenze ("Swiss border") and Schweizervolk (Swiss people) instead of Schweizer Grenze and Schweizer Volk. The names of municipalities, towns, stations, and streets are often not written with a starting capital umlaut, but instead with Ae, Oe and Ue, such as the Zürich suburb Oerlikon, or the hamlet Aetzikofen, or the Bernese municipality Uebeschi. However, field names, such as Äbenegg, Ötikon (near Stäfa), or Überthal, and any other word, such as Ärzte (English: physicians), usually start with capital umlauts. Finally, there are specialities like e.g. Bretzel instead of Brezel ("pretzel"). Some of the above-mentioned characteristics are due to the general introduction of the typewriter in economics and administration. Because a Swiss typewriter must be able to write not only German texts but also French and Italian texts, the limited number of keys was not enough for all these languages' special characters to be included. So, the eszett and the uppercase umlauts (Ä, Ö and Ü), as well as other upper-case accented vowels (e.g. À and É, used in French and Italian), were omitted.

Syntax

Swiss German differs from Standard German in, for example, the gender of nouns (das E-Mail, das Tram and das SMS instead of die) or in the preposition that verbs require (jemanden anfragen instead of bei jemandem anfragen). In general, more often than in Germany or Austria, the Swiss use expressly femin********ine nouns (Bundesrätin Ruth Metzler, Frieda U. wurde zur Primarschullehrerin gewählt) rather than the generic masculine (Bundesrat, Primarschullehrer etc.) to refer to occupations and positions held by women. The Binnen-I (as in ProfessorInnen) is standard in Switzerland but may be marked elsewhere as "politically correct". Relative pronouns: The relative pronoun welche(r), considered clumsy and antiquated in Standard German, is used without hesitation: in Damit wurde in der Schweiz ein Kompetenzzentrum für Klimafragen geschaffen, welches verstärkt die Bedürfnisse der Bevölkerung in den Mittelpunkt ihrer Forschung stellt. (from Jahresbericht 2001, Annual report of the ETH Zürich).

Grammatical case

Rabatt is used in the dative case; in Standard German in the accusative case. Example: 20% Rabatt auf allen Artikeln.

Sentence structure

The syntax has many constructions with a shortened main clause and a following subordinate clause, which is only marked by the initial position of a verb, e.g.

Grammatical gender

In his book Zündels Abgang, author Markus Werner uses Tram ("tram") – which takes the female article die in Germany's Standard German – with the typically Swiss neuter article das.

Swiss expressions loaned into Standard German

The word Putsch is one example which is widely used in political contexts, even in notable Standard German newspapers. The word Müsli, however, is a special case: in Swiss Standard German (and only there), Müsli is the diminutive of Mus ("mouse") and stands for "little mouse". To describe the food, the Swiss use the spelling Müesli (reflecting the pronunciation of the dialects).