differentiated into [x] and [ç], e.g. in nicht instead of 'not'. For some speakers, is pronounced as velar affricate , e.g. Kunst . For a few, are pronounced instead of in all positions, e.g. Ast as 'branch'. Vowels Unstressed is often not pronounced as schwa, but as or , e.g. Gedanke or 'thought'. is usually pronounced as an open like in English "hat", "patch". Depending on the dialect, may be pronounced as a back ). Depending on the dialect, short vowels may be pronounced more closed, e.g. Bett instead of 'bed', offen instead of 'open', Hölle instead of 'hell'. Depending on the dialect, long vowels may be pronounced more open, e.g. See instead of 'lake', schon instead of 'already', schön instead of 'beautiful'. Prosody A special feature of Swiss Standard German, is a somewhat "singing" cadence. That means that each word's stressed syllable isn't only marked through the higher voice volume, but also through a distinguishable modification of the voice's sound. In general, the pitch of the stressed syllable sinks. In the announcement Profitieren Sie! (Benefit!) in the shopping malls' transmissions, the pitch sinks from pro- to -fi-, until it has reached the deepest point at -tie-; at -ren and Sie the voice approximately reaches its original pitch again. Orthography In orthography, the most visible difference from Standard German usage outside Switzerland is the absence of ß (officially abolished in the Canton of Zürich in 1935; the sign fell gradually out of use and was dropped by the Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ) in 1974). French and Italian loanwords are written in their original forms in spite of the spelling reform. Majonäse stays Mayonnaise, and Spagetti stays Spaghetti. The NZZ uses the spelling placieren (to place, from French placer) rather than platzieren, which is more common elsewhere. Geographical names, such as streets, are mostly written together: Baslerstrasse, Genfersee, Zugerberg etc. Compound terms relating to nationality are often written as one word, such as Schweizergrenze ("Swiss border") and Schweizervolk (Swiss people) instead of Schweizer Grenze and Schweizer Volk. The names of municipalities, towns, stations, and streets are often not written with a starting capital umlaut, but instead with Ae, Oe and Ue, such as the Zürich suburb Oerlikon, or the hamlet Aetzikofen, or the Bernese municipality Uebeschi. However, field names, such as Äbenegg, Ötikon (near Stäfa), or Überthal, and any other word, such as Ärzte (English: physicians), usually start with capital umlauts.