Ostschwiizertütsch
Cantons: SG · TG · AR · AI · SH · St. Gallen
The three branches
Branch: High Alemannic
The Mittelland and the east: Zurich, Bern, Aargau, Solothurn, St. Gallen. The largest group — and the one people mean when they say “Swiss German”.
The line that draws it
- In this branch
- schneie
- Next door
- schniie
- Standard German
- schneien
What it sounds like
Programmes and films in which this dialect is mostly what you hear. Checked links — we record nothing ourselves.
- Die göttliche OrdnungZodiac PicturesDialectOstschwiizertütschA few voicesRead from a scriptStandard German subtitlesAbout this
Appenzell in 1971, women campaigning for the federal vote. Eastern Swiss dialect, and a piece of history you will be asked about: Appenzell Innerrhoden did not admit women to its Landsgemeinde until 1990, long after the film ends.
How to recognise them
Forms Heidi's own check actually tells apart. On the left the local form, on the right the Zurich one.
- näbisöppis
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.
- Richli, A. et al. 2003. Schaffhauser Mundartwörterbuch. Meier, Schaffhausen. Grammatiken und Wörterbücher des Schweizerdeutschen 15.
- Sonderegger, S. & Gadmer, T. 1999. Appenzeller Sprachbuch. Appenzeller Verlag.
- Wikipedia contributors 2026. Ostschweizer Dialekt. German Wikipedia (secondary; «näbis» in Toggenburg and Appenzell).