What language they speak in Liechtenstein, and how you'll get by

The short answer is German, and that’s what the constitution says. The longer answer is more interesting, because hardly anyone in Liechtenstein speaks the German you learnt at school out on the street. What you hear is a dialect that shifts from village to village, and high on the mountain there’s even a form of speech brought over from the Swiss Valais more than seven centuries ago. Here’s what to expect and how you’ll get by.

What language is spoken in Liechtenstein?

Article 6 of the constitution is unambiguous. German is the language of the state and the official language. It’s the language of the laws, the road signs, the bus timetables and the restaurant menus. The tourist board sums it up in two sentences, saying the official language is German but people speak an Alemannic dialect.

That nuance matters. The Historisches Lexikon explains that spoken standard German plays a very minor role in daily life, and that dialect is used in practically every setting and by every social group. The exceptions are schools, courts and church, where standard German is preferred.

German on paper, dialect out loud

For visitors that means something quite specific. If you read German, you’ll understand everything written down. If you speak it, you’ll be understood perfectly, though the answer may come back in an accent that bears little resemblance to your textbook. The local dialect is Alemannic, from the same family as Swiss German, although the Lexikon places it in a different branch because of a detail of pronunciation, the initial k, which is aspirated here.

Nor is there just one. The Oberland and the Unterland speak differently, Balzers has quirks of its own and Triesenberg keeps the speech of the Walser, who arrived around 1280. I go through all of it, word by word, on the Liechtenstein dialect.

Is English spoken in Liechtenstein?

I have to be straight with you here. I haven’t found any official statistics on how many people speak English in the country, and I’m not going to invent a percentage. What is documented is the provision for visitors. The LandesMuseum offers a free audio guide in German, English, French, Italian and Chinese. Gutenberg Castle runs its guided tours in German, English and French. And the Vaduz road train provides commentary in 29 languages.

My practical rule is simple. In museums, the tourist office and hotels, I’d expect English to work. In a village restaurant or a mountain hut, I’d have a German phrase ready or a translation app open. The Liechtenstein National Museum audio guide is a good place to start if you want the country’s story in English.

Where the valley’s German came from

German wasn’t always the language here. The Lexikon relates that the area was part of the Raetian world and later took in Celtic peoples, who left their mark on names such as Bendern, Nendeln and Mäls. With the Romans, from 15 BC, came Latin, which eventually developed into a Romansh language. The Alemanni pushed in from the north, and by the end of the 13th century German had won out in what is now Liechtenstein.

A few stray words of Romance origin still survive in rural speech, and the Lexikon considers them endangered because the farming world that used them is disappearing. If that side interests you, the country’s timeline is set out in the history of Liechtenstein.

A few words I’d learn before going

You only need basic standard German, which everyone will understand. Thank you, please, good morning and the bill cover almost any exchange at a café or ticket desk. On the buses you won’t even need those, since you pay by card without speaking to anyone. And up in the mountains, where things are more village-like, a greeting in German opens more doors than flawless English ever will.

A country of many mother tongues

German may dominate, but Liechtenstein isn’t uniform. In the 2000 census, 12.3% of the population didn’t have German as their mother tongue, almost double the 1970 figure. Today 35.3% of residents are foreign nationals, though many of them are Swiss, Austrian and German. There’s no more recent mother-tongue figure, so I’ll leave it there rather than stretch the numbers. Who lives here and where they come from is covered on Liechtenstein’s population.