Baseldytsch
Cantons: BS · BL · Basel
The three branches
Branch: Low Alemannic
The north — in Switzerland, essentially Basel alone. Here initial k stayed k; everywhere else in German-speaking Switzerland it became ch. You hear it on your first day.
The line that draws it
- In this branch
- Kind
- Next door
- Chind
- Standard German
- Kind
What it sounds like
Nothing checked in the register for this dialect yet. Better nothing than a link nobody has listened to.
Every listening sourceHow to recognise them
Forms Heidi's own check actually tells apart. On the left the local form, on the right the Zurich one.
- DrämmliTram
- KuchiChuchi
Where this one sits
Computed from the branch, the cantons and the reference town — no new claims about the dialect itself.
Sources
- Hotzenköcherle, Schläpfer, Trüb, Zinsli (eds.) 1997. Sprachatlas der deutschen Schweiz (SDS). Francke, Bern. Eight volumes, 1962–1997; over 1,500 maps from fieldwork carried out 1939–1958, covering the Alemannic dialects of Switzerland and the Walser dialects of northern Italy.
- Christen, Glaser & Friedli (eds.) 2010. Kleiner Sprachatlas der deutschen Schweiz. Huber, Frauenfeld. The condensed, general-readership edition of the SDS.
- Leemann, Steiner, Studerus, Oberholzer, Jeszenszky, Tomaschek & Kistler 2025. Dialäktatlas: 1950 bis heute. vdf, Zollikon. 1,000 speakers at 125 locations surveyed 2020–21, compared with the SDS.
- Hotzenköcherle, R. (ed. Bigler & Schläpfer) 1984. Die Sprachlandschaften der deutschen Schweiz. Sauerländer, Aarau.
- Suter, R. 1992. Baseldeutsch-Grammatik. Christoph Merian, Basel (3rd ed.). Grammatiken und Wörterbücher des Schweizerdeutschen 6.
- Suter, R. 2006. Baseldeutsch-Wörterbuch. Christoph Merian, Basel (3rd ed.). Grammatiken und Wörterbücher des Schweizerdeutschen 9.
- Wikipedia contributors 2026. Strassenbahn Basel. German Wikipedia («baseldeutsch auch s Drämmli genannt»).
- Wikipedia contributors 2026. Baseldeutsch. German Wikipedia (secondary; used for the unshifted k of Basel city).