Swabian is undoubtedly one of the many things that make this city – and landscape – unique.
But as beautiful and rich in tradition as this dialect is, it can be difficult for newcomers to understand – and even more difficult to speak. If you’re one of them and dream of becoming a true Swabian, here are a few helpful tips:
Conclusion: The goal is to save money
Swabians are known throughout Germany for their tendency – some would say obsession – to economize mouth movements. In other words: grammar should be kept as simple as possible, words as short and simple as possible. This is actually the basis of the Swabian language.
1. filtering syllables and letters
First things first: when it comes to saving mouth movements, you have to start by deleting unnecessary syllables and letters. This means dropping prefixes and suffixes: “impossible” becomes“omeglich” and“beten” becomes“bät“. But that’s really just the tip of the iceberg. Did you know that in some cases you can leave out almost the whole word? Example: “not” –“it“.
2: Always umlaut. Always.
Hand on heart: we may have lied. Swabian is not just about simplification. At least not when it comes to vowels. That’s where it gets complicated – the dialect is much richer than standard German. But the tip is simple: when in doubt, always use the umlaut. You may be wrong, but at least you won’t sound like a Prussian. So instead of “lesen”, we say“läs“.
3. soften High German
Many people from all over the world consider High German to be a hard, unpoetic language because of its many consonants. This is only because they haven’t heard Swabian. Letters such as P, T, K are softened to B, D, G. For example:“unnötig” becomes“aonaedich“.
4. simplifies the pronunciation even more
High German words with the letters“ST” before a vowel are pronounced“SCHT“. But here, too, there is room for improvement: Simply always replace the“ST” with“SCHT“. The situation doesn’t matter: “Lust” –“Luscht“
5 Who needs personal pronouns?
Since we have already saved so much energy by omitting the prefixes and suffixes, we can add the personal pronouns directly to the end of the preceding word. So instead of saying “we have” or “you have”, we take the simpler route:“homr” or“hosch“.
6 Everything happens now!
Simplifying the grammar inevitably means simplifying the verb conjugations. To this end, all existing past tenses are reduced to the full present tense. And the future tense works the same way, except that indicators such as soon, tomorrow, etc. are added. Think about it: Do you really need anything more?
7. diminutive love
Is there an actual point to this obsession with simplifying and shortening every word? Of course it does! It makes life easier and our language more beautiful. Oh, and also, it allows us to apply the diminutive to EVERY SUBSTANTIVE there is. Like for example: “cat” –“Kätzle“