01
Dialect-first, always
Hochdeutsch is fine. But the language of Swiss life is the dialects. We put them first in every product decision.
Our storyKeeping Swiss dialects
Keeping Swiss dialects
and languages alive.
Bernaly is a Swiss marketplace for the dialects and languages people actually speak here. Every Swiss German dialect, plus Swiss French, Swiss Italian and Romansh, taught by native speakers.
The problem
Swiss German isn't taught. It's caught.
Schoolbooks teach Hochdeutsch. Apps teach Hochdeutsch. Diplomas test Hochdeutsch. But the language you actually live in, at the Migros, on the tram, at the family dinner, is Schwiizerdütsch. And it's the same story for Swiss French, Swiss Italian and Romansh: real Switzerland doesn't sound like a textbook.
26
official cantons
Each with its own dialect colour, and its own pride.
60%
of newcomers
Say dialect is the #1 barrier to integration in Swiss life.
0
standard textbooks
Swiss German has no spelling system, no curriculum, no Duolingo course.
The result: Swiss-Germans switch to Hochdeutsch the moment they hear an outsider, and newcomers never quite belong. And every generation the dialects lose a little more ground. Fewer words. Less distinctness. A quieter presence at the kitchen table.
The mission
Build the place where every Swiss language — from Züritüütsch to Romansh — is taught by the people who speak it.
On paper, Bernaly is a tutor marketplace. What we're actually building is harder: a bridge between newcomers who want to belong here and the locals who can teach them how. Both sides paid for the work.
Each booked lesson is one more hour a Swiss dialect gets spoken out loud, in a real conversation. Multiply that by thousands of lessons over years, and the dialects stop slowly disappearing. They reach new mouths. They earn new generations.
This isn't a Duolingo for Swiss. It's an economy for the dialects. Native speakers get paid for what they grew up with. Regional variety stops being a curiosity and starts being a job. Preservation pays its participants.
What we fight for
Bewahre Schwiizerdütsch.
Schweizerdeutsch isn’t taught in schools. It isn’t written in textbooks. It isn’t on Duolingo. It lives at kitchen tables, in bakery queues, on hiking trails. And every generation, a little of that living vocabulary quietly gets traded for Hochdeutsch convenience.
Bernaly exists to push back on that. We pay native speakers to share what they grew up with. We connect them with newcomers who want to belong here properly, in the Switzerland that people actually live in. Every booked lesson is one more hour the dialects exist out loud.
Our values
What we believe
02
Pay the people who speak it
Native speakers shouldn't tutor for free in Facebook groups. Bernaly pays them fairly, transparently, and on time.
03
Quiet and Swiss
No popups, no gamification overload, no dark patterns. The aesthetic is Swiss for a reason: restrained, considered, trustworthy.
04
Heritage over hype
We measure success in hours-of-Swiss-spoken, not in MAUs. If we're not actively preserving the language, we're failing.
Be part of keeping it alive.
Whether you're a Swiss-German speaker who wants to teach, or a learner ready to belong, there's a place for you here.