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Swiss

The Swiss speak standard German as a foreign language they learned at school, on top of a dialect that is very different, and it shows: a rolled r, a ch that is always the throaty one, k that scrapes into kx, and — the giveaway — no final devoicing and no aspiration, so the consonants sound soft and unvoiced at once. The -er ending keeps its r.

Where: German-speaking Switzerland — the accent when speaking standard German

The way in: 'Ich komme' as ɪx kxɔmə, with the k catching in the throat.

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Anything the spelling engine can transcribe, the accent can move. Slow it down to hear the shape.

Reference

Swiss

Which rules fired

r is rolled

Melody and rhythm

A rising melody where Germany falls — the Swiss statement often ends higher than it started, and the whole delivery is slower and more level. Stress can move to the first syllable of loanwords: 'Büro', 'Motor'.

What moves, one rule at a time

In the order the mouth applies them. Every before-and-after is playable — click the IPA. The pattern is the rule as the engine runs it, for the curious.

Consonants

r is rolled

ʁ → r

Word	Reference	Accent
rot
Freund

The ich-sound is the ach-sound

ç → x

How: The ch of 'Bach', everywhere. Back of the tongue against the soft palate.

Standard German splits ch into a front and a back sound. Swiss has only the back one — 'ich' scrapes the way 'ach' does.

Word	Reference	Accent
ich
nicht
Milch

k at the start of a word scrapes

(^| )k(?![x]) → $1kx

When: at the start of a word

How: Say k and let it scrape into the ch of 'Bach' as it releases.

The Swiss k is an affricate: the stop releases into a fricative. 'Kind' begins with a small cough.

Word	Reference	Accent
Kind
kommen
Kopf

Vowels

-er keeps its r

ɐ$ → ər

Where the standard turns -er into a vowel, the Swiss say the r. It is why Swiss German sounds so consonantal to a German.

Word	Reference	Accent
Mutter
Vater
Wasser

Other accents of German: Standard German · Bavarian / Austrian · all accents