Many small audible phonetic and linguistic differences differentiate the standard German as spoken in Switzerland from that spoken in Germany and Austria. By contrast, Swiss High German is the variant used for reading aloud. As a spoken variant, it is also widely used in school, and in contact with people who do not know the dialect. Whereas the syntax and the morphology of Swiss High German is very close to the Standard German which is in use in Germany and Austria, the lexicon, phonetics and prosody show a great number of differences. Most of these differences are based on dialectal features.
Some examples follow.
There are some further differences. Swiss Speakers mostly adapt the standard German vowel system when they speak Standard German, but the vowel quality often is based on the dialect. As a result, most speakers can be locally identified if they speak Standard German or when they read aloud. One can recognize if someone comes from the Bern region, or from Basel, or St. Gallen. Because Swiss speakers are more oriented at the written form, they make differences at places where the Standard German does not expect them.