[Das Outsider]

In an effort to regain some German (since I now sit on the board of an European organization, the rest of the membership of which are German or Swiss-German speakers), I picked up a starter CD course where the instructor makes and illustrates this very point: they are cousins

I have a somewhat German handle, but have no known German ancestry--unless one goes back to Wilhelm the Conqueror, which about half of us European descendants can claim! However, I picked up on a little bit of German as a youngster, and my love and fascination with the language has never really ceased.

German and Swiss-German are cousins if not closer. It may be merely a question of difficult dialects, though I'm not that familiar with the Swiss-German variety.

[sionnsar]

And yet I have had German-speakers tell me (in the same room as the others) that they cannot understand Suisse-Deutsch at all.