[identity profile] alagbon.livejournal.com 2010-06-23 06:47 am (UTC)(link)
A fair amount of the earliest German-speaking settlers around here were from Switzerland, although most were from the Palatinate. I've never heard anyone speak actual Palatinate dialect; but I've spent time in Switzerland and there's definitely a resemblance to Schweitzerdeutsch.

[identity profile] helflaed.livejournal.com 2010-06-25 11:45 am (UTC)(link)
My husband is from the Palatinate, and I can understand the dialect reasonably well- probably better than a lot of native German speakers, who find it utterly incomprehansible. I've tried to listen to Schweitzerdeutsch and find it extremely hard to understand anything.

Having listened to a few recordings of Pennsylvania Dutch being spoken, I found that I could understand a resonable amount. My husband would understand more and he'd certainly be able to have a pretty reasonable conversation.

[identity profile] alagbon.livejournal.com 2010-06-25 03:58 pm (UTC)(link)
Since the only non-standard German dialect that I'm at all familiar with is Swiss, I'm probably seeing more of a closeness than there actually is...