{"id":965,"date":"2010-10-14T10:00:07","date_gmt":"2010-10-14T08:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/elanguage.net\/blogs\/booknotices\/?p=965"},"modified":"2010-07-22T15:13:50","modified_gmt":"2010-07-22T13:13:50","slug":"swiss-german","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/?p=965","title":{"rendered":"Swiss German"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;\"><strong>Swiss German:<\/strong> The modern Alemannic vernacular in and around Zurich. By <strong>Johannes Reese<\/strong>. (Languages of the world\/materials 462.) Munich: LINCOM Europa, 2007. Pp. 87. ISBN <a href=\"http:\/\/www.worldcat.org\/title\/swiss-german-the-modern-alemannic-vernacular-in-and-around-zurich\/oclc\/79447615&amp;referer=brief_results\">9783895864971<\/a>. $65.66.<\/div>\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\">Reviewed by <a href=\"http:\/\/media.cla.auburn.edu\/forlang\/people\/display.cfm?PersonID=2459\"><strong>Iulia Pittman<\/strong><\/a>, <em>Auburn University<\/em><\/p>\n<p>An overview of Swiss German for those not familiar with German, this volume includes observations not described in previous studies.<\/p>\n<p>Johannes Reese begins by presenting some \u2018General information\u2019 (3\u20137) and surveying the linguistic situation in Switzerland. Although the label might be used to refer to any of the numerous dialects of Germanic Switzerland, R uses Swiss German only in reference to the dialect spoken in and around Zurich. Other dialects are simply referred to by the name of their geographic region. Additionally, R discusses the koineization process, which is currently taking place around Zurich.<\/p>\n<p>Ch. 2, \u2018Phonology\u2019 (8\u201314), contains an inventory of the Swiss German phonemes, including vowels, diphthongs, and consonants. Syllable structure, assimilation, phonology of foreign words, and phonological differences between Swiss German and Standard German are also considered. The rules of Swiss German orthography are discussed in Ch. 3, \u2018Orthography\u2019 (15\u201316). A list of phonemes with their corresponding orthographic letter is also provided.<\/p>\n<p>Ch. 4, \u2018Morphology\u2019 (17\u201334), supplies an overview of the nominal and verbal morphology. In Ch. 5, \u2018Aktionsart, tense, aspect, mood\u2019 (35\u201346), R tackles the controversial issue of Aktionsart and compares the tense, aspect, and mood system of Swiss German to the English system.<\/p>\n<p>Ch. 6, \u2018Syntax\u2019 (47\u201371), details the syntax of Swiss German. R explores noun phrases, adverbials, and verb phrases as well as sentence modality, complex sentences, and word order.<\/p>\n<p>The last chapter, Ch. 7, \u2018Text\u2019 (72\u201376), includes the transcript of a recording from the phonogram archives at Zurich University. R reminds the reader that Modern Swiss German is not a real language but rather an open set of possible forms. Thus, deviations between the text and the presented grammar should be considered normal.<\/p>\n<p>Despite some minor editorial issues, this book represents a thorough reference guide to Swiss German. Although previous knowledge of German is not a prerequisite, a solid knowledge of linguistics is recommended for maximum comprehension.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Swiss German: The modern Alemannic vernacular in and around Zurich. By Johannes Reese. (Languages of the world\/materials 462.) Munich: LINCOM Europa, 2007. Pp. 87. ISBN 9783895864971. $65.66. Reviewed by Iulia Pittman, Auburn University An overview of Swiss German for those not familiar with German, this volume includes observations not described in previous studies. Johannes Reese [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/965"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=965"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/965\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":966,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/965\/revisions\/966"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=965"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=965"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}