I was having lunch with a business associate from Switzerland the other day. He told me that the German that is spoken natively in his homeland, known as Swiss German, has no written form. Their written language is "High German", as he called it, also called Swiss Standard German. High German can be understood by non-Swiss German speakers. Swiss German can not.
Swiss German is spoken in all but a few contexts - the classroom (though not the playground - not only do the schoolkids use Swiss German on the playground, but so do the teachers); in multi-lingual parliamentary sessions; on the main news broadcast; and in the presence of German-speaking foreigners. There are many formal contexts in which Swiss German is the norm, such as business meetings, and court testimony.
He didn't say this (it would have been un-Swiss to say it out loud) but it seemed clear to me that the use of Swiss German was a matter of pride, and perhaps an important differentiator for the Swiss people.
Somehow it didn't seem important that his native language was not a written language. Nor that, as he admitted, Swiss German speakers are usually far less fluent in High German. Nor that their language was not intelligible to German-speaking foreigners.
It hasn't crippled their economy to have a native language that is unknown outside their borders. There is no social stigma associated with the use of Swiss German.
It has its place, and High German has its place, and that's all there is to it.
I can only wish that the same will one day be true for Jamaican Creole.
2 comments:
Absolutely! Switzerland is one of the classic cases of diglossia - along with Haiti, Arabic speaking countries - where there is an L (for low) language and a H(high) occupying different functions in the society. Jamaicans are like this too - think of the reaction if you started speaking formal Jamaican English among close friends and in informal settings.
We should be aiming for bilingual/diglossic citizens - and programming on media that uses both - particularly for something more than "Mass Ranny/Seebert" type snickering at Creole speakers.
I'm convinced this is one big reason our school outcomes are so poor and there has long been so much lack of ownership of the institutions we have.
Good post...
All teachers should be aware of this in Jamaica. The fact that there is no "passive voice" in creole is a stumbling block to understanding. To Creole speakers a passive sentence in Standard English often denotes culpabiity - when the very opposite is intended.
How many years did it take Switzerland to arrive at this peaceful situation?
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