OFF: was Monster Magnet, now Schwiizertuutsch

[Henderson Keith]

On Mon, 5 Apr 2004 14:17:33 EDT, Michael Gee <GHawkwind63 at AOL.COM> wrote:

>In a message dated 05/04/04 15:40:57 GMT Daylight Time,
>keith.henderson at PSI.CH writes:
>
>
>> .  And plus, the signs there have French given first, and German below,
>> which would seem to indicate that it's a Francophone city first and
>> foremost, but really it lies exactly on the so-called Roeschtigraben
>> that separates the two languages/cultures (ignoring the Italian part
>> south of the Alps for the moment).
>
>Is the Roeschtigraben a metaphorical divide or a real one? Sorry to ask
>but being married to a Swiss i have never heard of it. Thanks Gee...

Stephan's reply...
>Roeschtigraben = Potato-dish-ditch
>
>I think its usually regarded as being on the Saane River, but its basically
>metaphorical and represents the gap between the French-Swiss and German-
>Swiss in political and social matters.

Ja, stimmt...hier gibt es noch mehr.

http://www.about.ch/culture/languages/words_n_phrases.html

and as it suggests below the map, it is true that one cannot really say that
they speak 'German' here in this part of CH.  'Cause it truly is completely
unrecognizable as German.  Native Germans (and we have a lot here at my
work) say it takes between 6 mos.-1 year for *them* to have any idea what
the Swiss are saying.  And the Swiss themselves can distinguish accents from
people that live on *one* side of a particular city from those who live on
the opposite side, perhaps 5-10 km away.  I guess when the population is
consistently entrenched in their own little corner of the country, separated
by great topographic features, coupled with the very traditional and
conservative ways (esp. in earlier centuries), such a rich language variety
is possible.

To me, they all sound like the Swedish Chef from the muppets, and it's hard
not to laugh when listening to a Swiss conversation.  Lucky for me that
their spoken dialect is only that, as they read/write in high German.
Though kids these days are 'teaching' themselves how to write Swiss-German,
with whatever spelling they care to use.  Given that there is no
correct/false way to spell any 'Swiss' words, except those really common
ones, e.g. 'mangisch' (=manchmal, sometimes).  So, they have 'chat' boards
on the Tele-Text pages on various TV channels (something that doesn't exist
in the US) that people access via Handy/SMS.  So I occasionally try to
decipher their nonsensical conversations when I'm bored.

E schoeni Ziit & gueta Abig!
Ciao zame...Grakkl (FAA)

P.S.  Duh!  I had my calendar set on the wrong week!  Anekdoten concert is
*next* Tuesday in Basel...good thing I figured that out before I got on the
train tonight.  It's been that kind of a week, and it's only half over.
(Karfreitag is a holiday here!  And Easter Monday too, whatever that is?!)