A ONE YEAR PLAN
In preparation for a trip to Swiss-German speaking Switzerland next year, 2027, I am learning German on Duolingo. However, I am also checking in which ways Swiss-German, even Standard Swiss German, a hybrid, differs from Standard German. Where should I store this basic, vital information?
I already have an A5 desktop size book for Spanish, which is half empty to come back to Spanish another year, or to start German.
I have a second, smaller A6 pocket book for Spanish. This lighter notebook, was carried around on my recent trip to the Canary islands of Tenerife and La Palma.
I can turn it upside down. Start my German from the back in the opposite direction. The only problem is that the ribbon marker is now upside down. I can stick in a second piece of ribbon.
DIARY FOR DAILY WORDS
For my German speaking trip next year, I planned to learn ten words (or more) a day for a year. Over 365 days that would give me a useful vocabulary of 3,650 words! Okay, I started a bit late, but over one thousand words is a really good basis.
I wanted to write words I learned every day, not randomly on pieces of paper but in a book for a consecutive record. So I wrote the letters a to z vertically down my lined page in an A4 desktop diary.
The German Alphabet
I knew from learning Italian and Spanish that there might be some missing letters of the German alphabet, saving space, or extra letters, taking up more lines. So I googled German alphabet.
The first websites which had useful information quickly switched to a page asking me to sign up to a German course. No. This would cost money in the long run. Irritatingly, it would waste time with creating passwords and reading contracts and agreements. So I scrolled down and found Wikipedia.
Spelling out your name
I discovered that German, Austria and Switzerland use different words when you are spelling out the letters of your name or a city or another word.
Starting with A for Anna, I remember the names ending in the letter a. Anna, Berta, Ida, Rosa. Another easy to remember girl's name is Marie.
Another group to remember, is the rich ones, pronounced ich. Heinrich - German for Henry. Heinrich, Ulrich and Zurich.
More male names are Charly, Daniel, Emil, Gustav, Jacob, KAISER, Leopold, Niklaus, Otto )like Anne Frank's Father, Peter, Theodor (like the American President), Viktor, Wilhelm.
That leaves four funny strange ones:
Quasi (meaning almost in Latin), Xaver, Yverdon.
Swiss variation
Therefore, spelling my name Angela, in German-Swiss speaking Switzerland would be Anna Niklaus Gustav Emil Leopold Anna.
Now I can see why the Germans moved from using first names to using place names. You could get confused if the first letter of your name is Anna, but your name is Angela. It also sounds absurd to spell a female name with letters which are the initials of male names. However, here are the Swiss-German variations in case you hear them.
You might need to know these words when spelling out names and numbers in your surname or email for a restaurant. Another occasion would be asking a telephone operator to repeat the name of their restaurant or shop or business.
Useful Websites
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