I come from the North West of England where, in addition to the many variants of Lancashire dialect, you have the Scouse accent of Liverpool. Until the 19th century, Liverpudlians spoke with an accent fairly similar to their "Woollyback" Lancastrian neighbours and it was with the influx of Irish and Welsh, along with global maritime arrivals that the unique sound evolved.

The accent or dialect of a place helps to define the character of the people and is a part of their heritage. Maybe the sounds are not pleasing to outsiders but there you have it. It is human nature that one "tribe" will endeavour to set themselves apart from outsiders - and language variation is one such method.

I don't really have a problem with Swiss German - or Baseldytsch which is my local version. I still find it difficult to tune in; my wife is Dutch and seems to have a better time of it as there are many similarities in syntax and intonation with "Nederlands" (trans: Dutch Language).

Tied in with Baseldytsch you have the whole culture of Fasnacht and the accompanying Ziidel (trans: paper sheets with satirical poems on handed out during the Fasnacht cortege) and Schnitzelbäängg (trans: satrical poems read or performed to music in cliquencäller (trans: clique underground meeting places)). If would be a shame if that were to disappear to satisfy some corporate requirement that everyone talks the same.

With so many variations in a language, of course you need to have some "standard pronunciation" for things like national television or radio programmes, so people in Glasgow and people in London can understand the same news bulletin. Hence the BBC newsreaders use a standard pronunciation. Of course you will still get newsreaders with regional accents but these will be "toned down". The same happens in Switzerland - the news reports will be in Schriftdeutsch (standard German) or some "commonly understood" version of Swiss German.

It is when you try to force people to give up their identity that they start to rebel - and speaking your dialect more strongly is one way of doing that.

Cheers,
Nick