Is the Schwäbisch German dialect used more than regular standard Hochdeutsch in Baden-Württemberg?

Question

I'm planning to go in Stuttgart. For work, but as importantly to learn Deutsch so as to be fluent. (I self-evaluate only as A2).

I have discovered that Baden-Württemberg has a dialect which is strong and that they are really proud of: to the extent that I have read there is a swab proverb "We can do everything, except Hochdeutsch".

Would you advise against my going to Stuttgart if my aim is to be fluent in Standard German Hochdeutsch ? In clear:

• Will I learn Standard German if I go to live in Stuttgart ?

I am asking, because I was Alsacian most of my youth, and the Elsässisch dialect (which I had not learnt at the time, and which was strongly a community-centered/driven way of communicating), was pretty different from German, though sounding similar.

I am really fearing to learn a non standard way of speaking German if I spend a certain time in Baden-Württemberg. Is this fear grounded or not ?

Answer 1

This question can't exactly be answered with yes or no.

First of all there's a common misconception between Swabian dialect and Swabian accent*. Swabian dialect is really rare nowadays, especially in larger cities like Stuttgart. So you won't have to fear that you'll learn Swabian by accident. However it can be possible that you learn Swabian pronounciation and some regional words like "Weckle".

I work near Rottweil where Swabian dialect and accent is way more common than in Stuttgart and a Syrian colleague of mine definitly does not speak Swabian.

Additionaly Stuttgart is not a small Swabian village. It's a city with people from all over Germany and also all over the world. It's very unlikely that you'll mainly meet Swabians there, so I think your fear is unnecessary.

*Note: Swabian dialect is equally different from German as Dutch is. Some linguistics therefore consider Swabian a language, not a dialect. If you're not from southern Germany you won't understand a single word of a Swabian talking. But most people when they talk about Swabian reffer to the accent, or as Mr. Geiselmann wrote: "A very peculiar pronunciation of Hochdeutsch"

Answer 2

Self answer: in a nutshell, it's perfectly fine.

I went to Stuttgart and have happened to interact with a diverse range of persons.

With some people the accent is really really strong, but that's okay. Sometimes it just need to make them repeat; just saying to be learning German is sufficient for them to repeat gently.

In general (in the stores, in the streets, in the train station) not all people have this strong accent. None had this accent at the Scientific University.

So, the answer is that my fear was totally un-grounded. All the answers here have helped me reducing this fear to zero.

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I was not thinking I could identify a German accent, and I clearly can. Nonetheless I would not be able to differenciate the Bayerisch accent from the Schwäbisch accent: they share the same drift from Hochdeutsch, according to my novice ear.

There's been only one person that would not switch from dialect to German, and it was perfectly fine, because it was an annoying slightly drunk and aggressive person with whom I would not have enjoyed conversation.

Indeed I had already been there: I was not remembering, I had gone to several German cities with totally insufficient german skills and for really short time. Maybe that had strengthened my fear at the time.

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More Off-topic: The city has a lot of trees, and is surrounded by forest. It's a really beautiful city. Really.

Now, that makes me think that I could even try going to München - it was out of question because I had been traumatized by audio contents I could not understand at all/not the slightest during my first try at one/two years of German lessons.

Answer 3

The question is, do you have alternatives?

Stuttgart is definitely not a good place to learn and practice standard German. Ordinary autochthonous population most usually speaks their local form of Swabian, or if they try to avoid it (e.g. when speaking in more formal contexts), their pronunciation of Hochdeutsch is still very peculiar (see e.g. their variations of vowels).

Of course, if you happen to work in some of the larger, international companies, the German used there may be more like standard; that's because their staff will have been recruited from everywhere, not only the narrower region; if not anyway English is lingua franca there.

The use of dialect is also a question of social milieu. In academic circles, standard German will be more common; but then, academics usually are not locals but have come from somewhere else, or have lived quite a time somewhere else and are used to using standard German even if their first language was a dialect.

But even teachers at secondary schools may be sometimes unable to pronounce German the standard way even if they try.

Also, if you have contact to long-term resident immigrant groups (people from Croatia, Serbia, Turkey, Italy, etc. who came in the 1960s and 1970s) who may have adapted very well to the local community, you will find them speaking rather Swabian than standard German; they typically would even not be able to speak "proper" German, because in their everyday live there is no use for it.

As for understanding: that's no problem. Everybody understands standard German because it is the language used in media like TV and Radio.

Answer 4

You mentioned you were considering living in or near Stuttgart, but your question title asks about Baden-Württemberg.

First note, that there are at least three different dialects in Baden-Württemberg, that I know of from experience of growin up there. These are

1. Swabian,
2. Baden and
3. Franconian.

Since historically Stuttgart has been the capital of Württemberg, which correlates loosely with the borders for the Swabian dialect, you naturally find the swabian dialect more distinct in residents, especially older ones.

From my experience, @miep is entirely correct pointing out the difference between pronounciation and dialect. The Swabian dialect has a quite unique vocabulary, and a lot of words stem from French. In this dialect, all standard grammatics from Hochdeutsch apply, but speakers tend to use them cautionless.

For example, the sentence

Ich habe mehr Geld als du.

is easily botched by any Swabian into

Ich habe mehr Geld wie du.

which is wrong by all means. Because Swabian speakers understand they are prone to committing this mistake, they overcompensate a lot and write e.g

Wie ich nach Hause ging, sah ich ein Pferd.

instead of

Als ich nach hause ging, sah ich ein Pferd.

This was just about the grammatical structures, let me tell you about special Swabian vocabulary. Just have a look at this wikipedia section. Not that there is no uniform way to write German dialect, so when you have to resort to written German, the only way to go is Hochdeutsch, and every German writer will use it (plus a little local botching as shown above).

The biggest problem for speakers might be the pronounciation, though. Aside from the mentioned regions by other commenters, you might be hard pressed to find a Region in Germany where standard Hochdeutsch is spoken.

The three pronounciation I mentioned all do some ellipsis of vowels at the end of words, and handle at least the pronounciation of "st" and "sp", "sch", "ch" and "t" wildly different.

I can speak here mostly about Swabian. Swabian speakers are aware of their pronounciation, and as such, when they try to speak Hochdeutsch, they overkompensate also in their pronounciation. This leads to even more wrong pronounciation.

I have read this slightly humorous article, and if you understand German, you might find it exhilarating.

Please not that most younger Swabians do not excessively speak or pronounce Swabian. I just recently have been on a trip to Alsace, and I can definitely confirm that Elsässisch is not understandable to a German speaker, while every German I have met was able to understand (although also to recognize instantly) Swabian pronounciation.

Good luck in your decisions.