Why Is Swiss German Not a Language? Transcript in Swiss German, German and English

The Swiss German transcript was written by me, by hand — because no software can capture all those “ä”, “öi” and “gäll” moments yet!

Explore one of the biggest linguistic debates in Switzerland: is Swiss German just a dialect, or could it actually be considered a language of its own?

You’ll learn what defines a language, why Swiss German doesn’t (yet) meet the criteria and what would need to change for it to be officially recognised.

And, of course, I’ll share my personal take as a proud Swiss German speaker.