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	Swiss German	English
#4	Swiss German by Sascha Baer
	D'Liabi isch wia an Vogel oni Regla, Und niamert kann sis Herz beruiga. As git kai Grund na z'rüafa, Wenn's besser isch abzlena. D'Liabi isch wia as bömischs Kind, Si folgt nia da Regla. Wenn du di nit selber liabsch, kanni di nit liaba. Wenn i di würklich liaba, werdi diar helfa.	Love is like a bird without rules, And no one can calm its heart. There is no reason to call it, If it's better to refuse. Love is like a bohemian child, It never follows the rules. If you don't love yourself, I can't love you. When I really love you, I will help you.

Note that a few grammatical words (articles and personal pronouns) will be listed in tables in the grammar section rather than in the lexicon. The same applies to inflected forms of verbs.

ablena	v	to refuse
as	git	there's
beruiga	v	to calm down
besser		better
bömisch		bohemian
folga	v	to follow
Grund	n-masc	reason
helfa	v	to help
Herz	n-neut	heart
kai		no, none of
Kind	n-neut	child
könna	v-irr	to be able to, can
liaba	v	to love
Liabi	n-fem	love
nia		never
niamert		nobody
nit		not
oni		without
Regla	n-fem	rule
rüafa	v	to call
selber		self
si	v-irr	to be
sis		his, its
und	conj	and
Vogel	n-masc	bird
wenn	subj	when, if
werda	v	to become; with infinitive: future auxiliary; with participle: passive auxiliary
wia		like
würklich		really
z', -z-		to (infinitive marker)

GRAMMAR

There are two main word orders, which depend on the type of clause:

In subordinate clauses (which are initiated with a subjunction [subj in the dictionary]), the verb comes last in the sentence
In main clauses (in the case of this text, that's all other clauses), conjugated verbs (but not infinitives) are moved to the second position in a sentence. The first position may be filled by: a noun phrase (usually the subject), an adverb or a subordinate clause.

Non-verby words can be rearranged more or less freely within the sentence

Verbs inflect for person and number (and an array of other things not relevant to the given text). The following table lists the forms of the two irregular verbs (v-irr) used in the text, as well as the endings used with regular verbs (v):

Infinitive	-a	si	könna
1s	-a	bin	kann
2s	-sch	bisch	kasch
3s	-t	isch	kann
Pl	-en	sin	könn

It should be noted that some of the verbs marked as regular are actually irregular, but all the forms occuring in the text follow the regular paradigm.

Nouns themselves are inflected for number (singular or plural), but the only plural form occuring in the text is identical to the singular. Nouns do not inflect for case, but articles attached to them do. Articles additionally take different forms depending on the gender of the noun they modify. Gender has been listed in the dictionary. Articles only distinguish two cases: Nominative-Accusative and Dative.

Definite articles:

	MASC	NEUT	FEM	PLUR
NOM/ACC	dr	ds	d'	d'
DAT	am	am	dr	da

Indefinite articles:

	MASC	NEUT	FEM	PLUR
NOM/ACC	an	as	a
DAT	ama	ama	anera

Pronouns inflect for three cases: Nominative, Accusative and Dative. In third person, pronouns additionally show the gender of the noun (or person) they refer to. The following table lists all forms of pronouns occuring in the text. Some pronouns listed there may have alternate forms, but these are not relevant to the text.

	Nom	Acc	Dat
1s	i, -i	mi	miar
2s	du	di	diar
3s-masc	er	na	im
3s-neut	's	's	im
3s-fem	si	si	ira

The first person pronoun is often reduced to a clitic -i. This is attached to the previous word. If the word ends in a consonant, no change is applied. If the word ends in a vowel, then that vowel is deleted. Other processes exist, but are not relevant to the text.

"selber" is used together with reflexive pronouns (which are, for all forms used in this text, identical to accusative ones) to reinforce the reflexiveness (compare English -self)