Zurich German belongs to the High Alemannic subgroup of Alemannic, a dialect group forming part of Upper German (cf. Wiesinger 1983: 835). It is the dialect spoken in the city and in most parts of the canton of Zurich. According to recent census data, the canton of Zurich (whose area roughly coincides with the areal extension of Zurich German) has somewhat more than 1.2 million inhabitants, but since immigration both from other German-speaking areas and from more remote linguistic backgrounds plays an important role for the largest city and the largest canton of Switzerland, the number of speakers of Zurich German is certainly lower.