Simple phrase in Swiss German

idempotent1729 · Mar 21, 2012

Hello,

A character in my story would like to say something like, "How do you do, sir?" in Swiss German. Could anyone help him out?

For more detail, the story takes place in Basel in 1789 (so he wouldn't want to say anything like, "Yo, what's up, dude?"). Also this is a very polite and gentlemanly character who would address the other using the formal 'you.' He is not a native speaker of Swiss German (he's English) but he knows Swiss German very well.

Thank you so much in advance!!

Drachen Jager · Mar 21, 2012

In High German it would be, "Wie geht es dir."

That's the non colloquial way of saying it. In Germany, Swizerland and Austria there were hundreds of widely varied regional dialects, so a standard German language was adopted around 500 AD. Many people still use their regional dialects when speaking to others of the same region, so if the man were untravelled, or uneducated he might not speak High German.

Cai · Mar 21, 2012

Drachen Jager said:
In High German it would be, "Wie geht es dir."

The formal version would be: "Wie geht es Ihnen?" (Ihnen has to be capitalized.) Still High German though, I'm afraid I can't say anything about Swiss German.

auriel · Mar 21, 2012

I have a Swiss German friend who lives in Luzern, and I just recently visited her there. She's tried to teach me some phrases in Swiss German, but it's difficult. Pronounciation differs by canton, they borrow words from French and Italian, there's no real agreed-upon way to write the Swiss German words, and the spelling/pronounciation would change depending on the speaker's home canton (in a lot of cases.)

So I couldn't even really tell you which phrase is "best." You might be better off with just writing the phrase in English, like: "How do you do, sir?" he asked in Swiss German.

Honestly, from what I understand, Swiss German is pretty darn hard for someone who hasn't grown up learning it to become fluent in. I'm not sure how the language might have changed since 1789. And it's not a standard language anyway. But if your character spoke High German, the Swiss would understand him. The Germans just can't understand Swiss German because it's so weird. :tongue

McMich · Mar 21, 2012

did he learn swiss german from the swiss or from schooling? most schools teach high german- which Cai is correct in the formal way of saying it. I took five years of german in school and have been to switzerland as a teenager. I'd say the biggest difference came from how they spoke the words, not the words. As they could understand anything I said in high german- i just could not always understand them (even when they said the same phrases)

TudorRose · Mar 21, 2012

How about...

"Grüss Gott, mein Herr."

Literally this means "greet God, Sir". I've seen this used in 19th C literature, and I can well imagine that it would go back to your time period and beyond to the middle ages.

Grüss Gott is still used in Switzerland (largely by the older generation), but given its religious connotations it's on the way out. "Grüetzi" (derived from "grüss sich") is much more common, but I don't think it's appropriate for the time period and formality of your scene.

I don't think a literal translation of "how do you do" to mean something like "how are you?" would work here--even in English it's not really meant to be an enquiry about someone's health, and there's no Swiss German equivalent that I can think of.

Of course, this...

You might be better off with just writing the phrase in English, like: "How do you do, sir?" he asked in Swiss German.

...would work too, and sometimes the simplest solutions are the best!

idempotent1729 · Mar 21, 2012

Wow, thanks so much to everyone!! This is really useful. "Grüss Gott, mein Herr" sounds like quite a good option. The religious connotation works well anyhow because the character is a clergyman. He learned Swiss German (Baseldytsch to be precise) by living in Basel for some time and picking it up. And it's true that he doesn't literally need to say "How do you do" - just something which would have that general feel of a polite greeting - so we're in good shape!

Thanks again for all the replies!!!

TudorRose · Mar 22, 2012

You're welcome

Wiki has some background on the phrase here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grüß_Gott

MoLoLu · Mar 22, 2012

Despite the fact I live in basel I don't have the faintest clue how they spoke in the 1700s.

If I had to guess I'd go with "Grüss Gott." as suggested before.

Correct prononciation would read more like "Griess Gott" when spoken by a swiss.

'Gruetzi' is the slightly less formal version of this, which was widely used up until around twenty years ago. I seldom hear it today.

P.s. swiss german isn't and hasn't ever been formally written. You may be better using the english or high german (standardsprache or whatever the correct term is) version.

idempotent1729 · Mar 23, 2012

TudorRose said:
You're welcome

Wiki has some background on the phrase here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grüß_Gott

Nice! Thanks!!

idempotent1729 · Mar 23, 2012

MoLoLu said:
Despite the fact I live in basel I don't have the faintest clue how they spoke in the 1700s.

This means we can go with your guess! Not even people who live in Switzerland will object! ;-)

MoLoLu said:
If I had to guess I'd go with "Grüss Gott." as suggested before.

Correct prononciation would read more like "Griess Gott" when spoken by a swiss.

Thanks - I used this spelling!

MoLoLu said:
'Gruetzi' is the slightly less formal version of this, which was widely used up until around twenty years ago. I seldom hear it today.

P.s. swiss german isn't and hasn't ever been formally written. You may be better using the english or high german (standardsprache or whatever the correct term is) version.

That's OK...I like these phonetic spellings! In a pinch I'm for atmosphere over accuracy...

skaempfer · Apr 3, 2012

late to the party

but... if you're still looking for a greeting, I'd go with 'Gruetzi.' 'Griess' is a lot like cream of wheat.

What part of Switzerland does this take place in, or in what part did the character learn his Schweizerdeutsch?

idempotent1729 · Apr 6, 2012

Thanks, Skaempfer! I popped my head in again at the party.

The action takes place in Basel, where the character learned Baseldytsch. In 1789, so it should be a little bit formal/old-fashioned.

Hehehe - cream of wheat, huh? My characters do eat a lot of gruel! I've been told they should probably cut back...so I guess we don't want them greeting each other with cream of wheat!! ;-)

skaempfer said:
but... if you're still looking for a greeting, I'd go with 'Gruetzi.' 'Griess' is a lot like cream of wheat.

What part of Switzerland does this take place in, or in what part did the character learn his Schweizerdeutsch?

skaempfer · Apr 9, 2012

idempotent1729 said:
Thanks, Skaempfer! I popped my head in again at the party.

The action takes place in Basel, where the character learned Baseldytsch. In 1789, so it should be a little bit formal/old-fashioned.

Hehehe - cream of wheat, huh? My characters do eat a lot of gruel! I've been told they should probably cut back...so I guess we don't want them greeting each other with cream of wheat!! ;-)

Ok, so here's the lowdown from the Basel contingent; They were (are) traditionally Catholic, so 'Grüss Gott' is a strong possibility. Gruetzi has been ruled unlikely, because it's strictly Züridütsch. There are other options, depending on what time of the day it is...

I see now that you mentioned Basel in your original post- must have been having an illiterate moment

Good luck with the writing.

idempotent1729 · Apr 14, 2012

skaempfer said:
Ok, so here's the lowdown from the Basel contingent; They were (are) traditionally Catholic, so 'Grüss Gott' is a strong possibility. Gruetzi has been ruled unlikely, because it's strictly Züridütsch. There are other options, depending on what time of the day it is...

I see now that you mentioned Basel in your original post- must have been having an illiterate moment

Good luck with the writing.

Thanks so much!! It's evening at the moment in the story. Oh, and while I am asking and everyone has been so helpful, on another occasion a character was greeted in the morning by a fishwife and wants to reply. If it were Dutch (the linguistically closest language I know), the character would say, "Goede morgen, juffrouw" [Good morning, ma'am] (juffrouw instead of mevrouw because this is the olden days and at least in Dutch they used to use juffrouw as a respectful address for women not of a high social standing. But I don't know if Baseldytsch has some similar distinction).

Thank you again!!

Simple phrase in Swiss German

idempotent1729

Drachen Jager

Professor of applied misanthropy

Cai

fish biscuit

auriel

McMich

TudorRose

not napping... brainstorming!

idempotent1729

TudorRose

not napping... brainstorming!

MoLoLu

idempotent1729

idempotent1729

skaempfer

idempotent1729

skaempfer

idempotent1729