Quote:
Originally Posted by King Lear
Dear clp1516,
first I have to say that WRITTEN Swiss German is in fact German!
In written words there are no differences, it's just vocally.
Because in the German Swiss (70% of Switzerland) people speak two German dialects: 1. Hoch-Alemannisch and 2. Höchst-Alemannisch
The largest part of the German Swiss speaks Hoch-Alemannisch and down in the south to the French and Italian border they speak Höchst-Alemannisch.
In south-western Germany people speak Alemannisch, so for southern Germans it isn't very difficult to understand Swiss Germans verbally, but all Germans can understand the written words.
I'm sorry for being a smartass 
And now back to the statement of Billy, i heard it in an interview he gave and i read it in the original german contact note everyone can read on the BillyWiki. I will look up the sources again to show you the evidence.
Maybe I'm wrong but I don't think so.
P.S. The word you couldn't recall - is it "unwahr"? |
It's not being a smartass to share what you know about Swiss German.
According to a German friend here, and others, Billy's German is not any usual form of German, but a kind of uneducated/self-educated form. Of course, Germans can read and understand it, but it's a bit unusual, isn't it? In the sense that an English country farmer's English is a bit unusual from a non-English person's perspective, even when written.
I never really did take note of the original German word, though I'm sure I read it in the discussions. I was more intrigued with how it echoed completely what I experience on a near daily basis here in Japan with Japanese. The folks doing the translations from German to English who really brought this to notice are the Gaiaguys duo, Dyson and Vivienne. If I get time I'll try and find their original post on it, if you are not familiar with their Figu forum posts already (a search there will probably bring it up under Translations thread).
One of the complications here is that, of course, some do intentionally deceive (liars) while others do not. So one word will not suffice for all occasions which is the whole problem. There are so many references it requires going through all the published works and looking at each referenced case individually then checking each of those again with Billy. Figu folks would like to be able to check with Billy that the German word/s they have in each instance is correct and what he intended. I'm not holding my breath while they get around to that considering there is so much new material still left unpublished and literally thousands of pages waiting their first translation into English, and that Billy is in weakened health and now an aged man.