This empirical study on the region of Bavarian Swabia (Bayerisch-Schwaben) investigates how dialect speakers render the pronunciation of their basic local dialect(s) in written form using the 'ordinary' alphabet (so-called indirect method). Tables and maps are then used to compare these spellings with phonetic transcriptions collected at the same places. The results are interpreted, and individual comparisons are also made with the material indirectly collected by Wenker in the late 19th century.