Swiss German, spoken

[Karen_Broome at spe.sony.com]

At 13:57 -0700 2005-06-10, Karen_Broome at spe.sony.com wrote:

>>Tag to be registered       : gsw

>This is not an RFC 3066 tag.

There is no specific equivalent for this language on the ISO 639-1 or 
639-2 lists, so I am using the code from the 639-3 list and applying for 
this code in advance of that standard's publication. "de" is not specific 
enough for my needs and de-CH could imply a local written variant of 
standard German.


>English name of language   : Swiss German, spoken

>And why not "written" Swiss German? Certainly there are many 
varieties of spoken Swiss German.

I am trying to distinguish Swiss German, which is primarily a spoken 
dialect, from written variants of standard German that might be found in 
Switzerland. However, you make a good point. Though rare, some literature 
does exist in the written form of this language and it is sometimes used 
casually. Perhaps "spoken" should be removed from the English-language 
name, but this does identify a primarily spoken dialect.


Karen Broome
Sony Pictures Entertainment
Metadata Systems Designer
karen_broome at spe.sony.com
(310) 244-4384