Linguistic Border Traffic

The relationships between Swiss German & Standard High German are discussed from a literary perspective. Although no single standard Swiss dialect exists, but rather a variety of German dialects spoken in Switzerland, & although the distinction between Swiss dialects & High German is sometimes unclear, especially under the influence of modern media, common opinion tends to dictate that Swiss German is the spoken language par excellence, whereas Standard High German is only a written language used in official & educational environments. It is argued that the two are more intricately connected than this dichotomy suggests, & that especially in literature these subtle relations can be expressed. The use of lexical as well as sentence- & discourse-level Helvetisms is discussed, arguing that these not only serve an exotic purpose, but that they may also provide the author with a preferable way to express something. It is concluded that, in order for speakers of Swiss German to lose their minority complex about their accented High German, openness toward language varieties & a view of differences as expressive opportunities are imperative. S. Paul