Indo-European · ISO 639-3 gsw
Swiss German Language Schwiizertüütsch
Swiss German is an Indo-European language spoken by about 10 million people in 4 countries. It is an official language of Switzerland and Liechtenstein. It is written in the Latin script.
Where Swiss German is spoken
- Official language
- Regional official
- Spoken by 10%+
- 1–10%
- Smaller communities
Countries that speak Swiss German
Language family
- Indo-European
- Classical Indo-European
- Germanic
- Northwest Germanic
- West Germanic
- High German
- Upper German
- Middle-Modern High German
- Modern High German
- Alemannic
- South Alemannic
- Swiss German
Writing system
Latin script
Related languages
About the Swiss German language
Swiss German (Schwiizertüütsch) is spoken by about 10 million people, which makes it the 119th most spoken language in the world — just behind North Mesopotamian Arabic (10 million) and ahead of Iloko (10 million). It belongs to the Indo-European language family and, more precisely, to the South Alemannic group within the Germanic branch.
Where is Swiss German spoken?
Swiss German is used in 4 countries. The largest communities live in Switzerland (5.8 million), Germany (1.9 million), France (622,208) and Liechtenstein (34,231). More than half of the population speaks it in Switzerland and Liechtenstein — the places where travellers will hear it everywhere.
Share of the population that speaks Swiss German: Switzerland 66% (5.8 million), Germany 2.3% (1.9 million), France 0.9% (622,208) and Liechtenstein 85% (34,231).
Swiss German is an official language in 2 countries: Switzerland and Liechtenstein.
Writing system and status
Swiss German is written in the Latin script. Glottolog classifies it as threatened, meaning fewer children learn it than in the past.
Its closest relatives in the same branch of the family are German, Bavarian, Mainfränkisch, Hunsrik, Upper Saxon, Limburgan and 2 more.
ISO codes: ISO 639-3 gsw.
Frequently asked questions about Swiss German
How many people speak Swiss German?
Where is Swiss German spoken?
In which countries is Swiss German an official language?
What language family does Swiss German belong to?
What is Swiss German called in Swiss German?
Is Swiss German an endangered language?
Data: Languages of the World dataset (MIT) — ISO 639-3, Glottolog (CC BY 4.0), Unicode CLDR, Google LinguaMeta (CC BY 4.0) and Wikidata; country lists: samayo/country-json (MIT). Speaker numbers include first- and second-language speakers where sources report them.