Hi All Swissnian/Swissdish members,

Today is the day our Helvetic friends celebrate their national holiday, known locally as Schweizer Bundesfeier; F�te nationale Suisse; Festa nazionale svizzera; Fiasta naziunala Svizra.

Best wishes to all our Swiss members!

p.s. sorry if I don't speak Swiss and I had to post this in English. Do they speak English in Swissland?

They speak some, but their knowledge of English has some holes in it.

Just like their cheeses.

My mother called those cheeses the leftover kind from after the little mice have bit parts off them before they are shipped to the retail stores.

You were joking about you not speaking "Swiss" right?

I'm afraid your mother gave you the sweet version... in reality the holes are created when cheese bacteria fart...

No, he most certainly does not, that is obvious, he was telling the truth.



The Jedi Master

The proper term is Swissian isn't it ??

Yes of course. There's no way you can speak a language that doesn't exist.

Gentlemen, may I present to you the official language of Switzerland...,

Schwyzerd�tsch

Based on German, but it's pretty impossible to understand even if you're a German native...

Ah, so kinda like Plattdeutsch.

Actually, if you're from southern Germany or Austria, it's generally not that hard to understand.

Having said that, you can probably speak any dialect in a way to make it hard or impossible for outsiders to understand, by using the most extreme idiom, slurring the words, speaking very fast, or just by making words up as you go along.

Even within a certain dialect, there are variations. An ex-girlfriend of mine was raised right at the border between Frankonia and Upper Palatinate (Franken and Oberpfalz, both administrative regions of Bavaria). The resulting mix of dialects made especially her father and her grandma extremely hard to understand, to the point where I was longing for subtitles.

There still is a huge number of dialects and variations of these in German-speaking countries (albeit there are slowly disappearing). They may change within a 20 km radius. Some of the larger cities even featured different dialects in different quarters/ districts (back in "the day", that is. Domestic migration, gentrification and all other modern changes to society have mostly led to a widespread proliferation of "high German" within major cities (with only hints of the original, distinctive idiom remaining).

Dialects also heavily rely on isolation of the different population groups in order to flourish. Between the advent of mass communications, the Internet and widespread migration/mobility of people those dialects are slowly dying out.

I forgot the name of the island but there is an island off the coast of Virginia where the local population supposedly spoke with the same accent as the early English settlers of Virginia did. That dialect is dying out now.

I guess the only thing made in Swissland I can afford is their chocolate and cheeses (barely).

I can't afford their watches and army knives.

My grandmother was Swiss.
I think she spoke German, but we only heard her speak English.

She was a beautiful person, smiled a lot, never a cross word.
If the Swiss are all like her, it's a great country.......

Been to Europe, our squadron deployed to many countries, Germany for a week, Rota Spain, Italy, Sicily, Caribbean....lots of other stops in the military.
Skied the Alps for a couple weeks, near Seinfeld Austria, beautiful country. Took a furlough to do that.
Most people spoke English, seems we could always find someone who could 'interpret' for us.

But I never made it to Switzerland.
I'll always regret that, and never learning another language.
I picked up bits and pieces from every country I've been to, but can't speak any of them.

"do biece be drunken"....I heard that a lot.
"Multi umbrigo"....that was familiar too.
Of course the spelling is way off, but that's what it sounded like.

Never an angry word, from anyone. Except maybe Sicily....they seemed to be yelling at everyone.....
The world is a different place now.

My dad's side of the family is originally from Sicily so I may have mob ties.

I'm living about 20 minutes by car from the German-Swiss border and I tell you we are invaded by the Swiss on weekends!

When Switzerland stopped tying their currency artificially to the Euro in January the Swiss Franken increased its value compared to the Euro by a whopping 20% literally overnight. Which means that goods in the Euro zone have become 20% cheaper for the Swiss while all things Swiss have suddenly become 20% more expensive for us. Keep in mind that a lot of stuff has already been far more expensive in Switzerland than in Germany even before the revaluation of the Franken. The result is nice boom to the economy in Southern Germany while especially the tourism industry in Switzerland is facing some serious problems.

http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guar...einfeld-015.jpg



I believe you've been to Seefeld.

Isn't Seinfeld a Germanic name though? It would have fit!

A very literal translation from German would be "his field". But the name could have been (and most likely was) phonetically changed around considerably throughout the centuries and different regions.

What's the deal with German translations? Have you seen these words? I mean, come ON!
*slap bass guitar riff*


The Jedi Master