Swiss Standard German

Besides influences from Alemannic German, those characteristics include extensive use of loan words from Romance languages, especially French.

Swiss Standard German is the official written language in German-speaking Switzerland and Liechtenstein.

Thus a Swiss German VSM keyboard has an ä key that prints an à (a-grave) when shifted.

[14] 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.

The ability of German Swiss to transliterate their language into writing is an integral and important part of the identity and culture of German-speaking Switzerland.

[17] Outside of any educational setting, Swiss Standard German is only spoken in very few specific formal situations, such as in news broadcasts and reputable programmes of the public media channels; in the parliaments of German-speaking cantons; in the federal parliament in Berne (unless another official language of Switzerland is used), although dialect is certainly encroaching on this domain; in loudspeaker announcements in public places such as railway stations, etc.

Church services, including the sermon and prayers, are usually in Swiss Standard German.

Generally in any educational setting Swiss Standard German is used (during lessons, lectures or tutorials).

When they compare their Swiss Standard German to the way people from Germany speak, they think their own proficiency is inferior because it is studied and slower.