Spelling
There is a lot of confusion especially when it comes to the use of the grapheme ‘y’, which is often used for rounded sounds, i.e. /ʏ/ or /y/, whereas it is exclusively used for /i/ traditionally. Typically, lenis stops are spelled ‘b’, ‘d’, ‘g’, fortis stops are spelled ‘p’, ‘pp’, sometimes ‘bb’ (öpper, öbber, ebber ‘someone’); ‘t’, ‘tt’, sometimes ‘dd’ (Middi ‘middle’); ‘gg’, rarely and mainly in loan-words ‘k’, ‘ck’, etc. This use of ‘gg’ for the fortis, unaspirated consonant is used also in other varieties of Swiss German, but sometimes abandoned in favour of spellings more closely resembling Standard German spellings. Examples: drugge (to push), Läggerli (typical sweet cookie; but also Läckerli), Sagg (bag; but sometimes also Sack), Gugge (bag, traditional word). The fortis /xx/ is always spelled like lenis /x/, namely
Obviously, especially the typical use of ‘y’ and ‘gg’ leads to confusion, even among native speakers, since the dialect is not taught in schools. Aspirates are normally spelled as in Standard German, namely with ‘p’, ‘t’, ‘k’. However, words where the aspirates derive from a lenis consonant plus /h/ are usually written as lenis plus
Read more about this topic: Basel German
Famous quotes containing the word spelling:
“My spelling is Wobbly. It’s good spelling but it Wobbles, and the letters get in the wrong places.”
—A.A. (Alan Alexander)
“We drove the Indians out of the land,
But a dire revenge those Redmen planned,
For they fastened a name to every nook,
And every boy with a spelling book
Will have to toil till his hair turns gray
Before he can spell them the proper way.”
—Eva March Tappan (1854–1930)
“Some let me make you of the heartless words.
The heart is drained that, spelling in the scurry
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By the sea’s side hear the dark-vowelled birds.”
—Dylan Thomas (1914–1953)