‘Un-Swiss’ Words in German Swiss Literature

Felicity Rash

This article takes an informal look at some standard German words that, although they occur in written texts, seem out of place in texts produced in Switzerland. Whereas Standard German vocabulary is obviously unwelcome in spoken Swiss German dialects, and its presence may cause consternation among more traditionally inclined German-speaking Swiss, such words are more difficult to assess in the written language, not least because many German-speaking Swiss consider any form of standard German, even their own Swiss Standard German, to be a ‘foreign’ language. The opinions of native speakers of Swiss German are sought in order to answer the question why some standard German words seem particularly ‘un-Swiss’, while others are accepted without complaint.

Introduction In German-speaking (GS) Switzerland a diglossic situation exists in which two varieties of German are used: the Swiss German dialects (SG) are used in everyday oral communication and for a few written purposes, and Swiss Standard German (SSG) is used for certain more formal oral purposes and most written texts. SSG differs on all linguistic levels from the standard German language used in Germany (German Standard German or Binnendeutsch) and Austria. An Alemannic dialect is the first language of all GS Swiss people: it is the language variety closest to the hearts of all germanophone Swiss. Many, perhaps most, GS Swiss consider any form of standard German, even their own version of standard German, to be a ‘foreign’ language learned at school and often used unwillingly, particularly for speech. When germanophone Swiss do write standard German they are encouraged by schools and many publishers to use the morphological, lexical and syntactic resources of SSG, so-called ‘Helvetisms’. Authors who wish to retain a Swiss flavour in their writing have at their disposal a Duden Taschenbuch, So sagt man in der Schweiz.1 It is only when Swiss authors choose German publishers or, if they choose a Swiss publisher, aim their literature at a wider germanophone audience, that they may consider the possibility of toning down the ‘Swissness’ of a text by eliminating dialect

1Kurt Meyer, Wie sagt man in der Schweiz? Wörterbuch der schweizerischen Besonderheiten (Mannheim: Bibliographisches Institut, 1989). 230 Felicity Rash vocabulary and using certain lexemes which may seem rather too German (Binnendeutsch) for Swiss tastes. For the purposes of this essay I have devised the term ‘un-Swiss’ to describe such items of Binnendeutsch vocabulary and I will also divert the term ‘Germanism’ from the meta- language of lexical borrowing to refer to individual lexical items. My attention was drawn to this issue by a large advertisement on the back of the Swiss weekly magazine, Die Weltwoche (4 April 2007). A range of ‘Jamie Oliver’ culinary products was advertised with the words ‘simply lecker’, and it was the word ‘lecker’ [‘delicious’] that bothered me more than ‘simply’ (Jamie Oliver is, after all, English).2 ‘Lecker’ is a word that I have only heard used in Germany or by francophone Swiss who have learned their standard German from a German: to my knowledge, GS Swiss people most commonly praise good food with the word ‘fein’. In the first part of this essay I examine the attitudes to some ‘un-Swiss’ words of the same type as lecker of a group of well-read informants whom I consider to have Sprachgefühl [‘a feel for the language’] and whom I know to espouse traditional values in relation to language use. I would consider all of my informants to be quite puristically inclined, which in GS Switzerland means a championing of thoughtful and appropriate use of the two German language varieties, each for its own traditionally designated purpose and each in its purest possible form: SG dialect should be kept free from distinctively SSG or GSG words, SSG should be kept free from distinctively dialect and GSG words, and both should be kept free from unnecessary Anglicisms.3 In the second part of this essay I look at a selection of literary texts and discuss some inconsistencies that I have found in the use of German Standard German (GSG) words vis-à-vis Helvetisms. In the final part of the essay I will attempt to answer the question why some authors persist in using words that seem very un-Swiss.

2All examples and quotations have been translated either by myself or by Barbara Burns. 3Felicity Rash, ‘The Schweizerische Verein für die deutsche Sprache’, in Proper Words in Proper Places (Stuttgart: Heinz, 2001), ed. by M.C. Davies, J.L. Flood and D.N. Yeandle, pp.254-77 (p.264f.).