01
Dialect first, always
Hochdeutsch has its place. The language of Swiss daily life is the dialect, and every product decision starts from there.
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.
Swiss German isn't taught. It's caught.
Schoolbooks teach Hochdeutsch, and so do the apps and the diplomas. The language you live in, at the Migros, on the tram, at the family dinner, is Schwiizerdütsch. The same goes for Swiss French, Swiss Italian and Romansh.
62.6%
name German as a main language
What they speak at home is dialect. The textbook teaches something else.
0.5%
name Romansh as a main language
In 1970 it was 0.8 percent.
none
official spelling
Swiss German has no fixed orthography. People write it the way they say it.
Figures from the Swiss Federal Statistical Office, 2017 survey.
The result is familiar to anyone who has moved here. Locals switch to Hochdeutsch the moment they hear an outsider, and the newcomer never quite arrives. And every generation gives up a few more words for convenience.
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 it is building is harder: a bridge between people who want to belong here and the people who can teach them how. Both sides are paid for the work.
Every booked lesson is one more hour a Swiss language is spoken out loud, in a real conversation. Thousands of those over years, and the dialects stop quietly receding.
That is the idea: an economy for the dialects. Native speakers get paid for what they grew up with, and regional variety becomes work.
Bewahre Schwiizerdütsch.
Swiss German is in no curriculum and in no textbook. It lives at kitchen tables and in the queue at the bakery. The same goes for Swiss French, Swiss Italian and Romansh.
Bernaly pays native speakers to pass on what they grew up with, and connects them with people who want to belong here properly. Every booked lesson is one more hour those languages exist out loud.
How we work
02
Pay the people who speak it
Native speakers should not be tutoring for free in Facebook groups. Bernaly pays them properly and on time, and shows them what it keeps.
03
Quiet and Swiss
No popups and no tricks that push you along. The restraint is deliberate, because what is at stake is trust.
04
Keeping what is spoken
Success is measured in hours of Swiss spoken. A number that climbs while nobody speaks the language is worth nothing.
Be part of keeping it alive.
Teach the dialect or language you grew up with. Or find someone who will teach you theirs.