Mundart als Mainstream: Deutschschweizer Fernsehwerbung im Wandel der Zeit (1985–2025)

Abstract

Until the 1980s, Swiss television advertising was linguistically divided: dialect was used for proximity and emotion, Swiss Standard German for institutional authority and information. This division is shifting. Based on a quantitative analysis of 222 TV commercials from 2025 and a systematic comparison with Helen Christen's (1985) reference study, we document substantial shifts: the proportion of dialect-only commercials has tripled from 20% to 60%. Particularly striking is the functional shift: dialect now dominates even the formerly Swiss standard-language informational spot segments – the voice-over commentary (the off-screen voice describing the product) and the slogan (the closing tagline of the brand). Further, a gender-specific pattern emerges: female voices realize Swiss Standard German roughly twice as often as male voices, which appear primarily in dialect – a pattern consistent with international research on the gender × standard correlation. Swiss Standard German is no longer the unmarked norm variety of Swiss advertising; dialect – in particular  Zurich German – has taken over this role and has become the new mainstream.