[Peterli]

30 April 2020 at 6:11:01 #932131

<< Das Leberli is served beside the potatoes. Not on! >> On, beside, under,…. I don’t care. Anyway, does Die Leber change to Das when you add -li ?

Peterli

[Slowpoke]

30 April 2020 at 9:47:59 #932132

Hi Peterli –

I’m certain not trying to get you to like to eat liver! Everyone has their own preferences. To put it simply…although Rösti are served in many ways, when calves liver is a main dish on a dinner menu ( das Hauptgericht, der Hauptgang), I find that Rösti are almost always offered as an accompaniment.

“Leberli ” translates literally as “little liver” although the usage may be more colloquial shorthand than a precise term.

<<“Anyway, does Die Leber change to Das when you add -li ?”>>

I am hardly an expert on Hochdeutsch or Swiss German.

However, I made a guess, and went by the rule from Hochdeutsch. In Hochdeutsch, the diminutive ending “-lein” means that the word takes “das” instead of “die’ or “der” for the definite article. I guessed that he diminutive ending “li” would do the same in Swiss German.

So, die Frau becomes das Fräulein.

Since the elaborate rules of diction and grammar in Hochdeutsch are much simplified in the varieties of Swiss German, I could well be wrong.

Any help would be appreciated. I certainly can use all the help that I can get. 😉

Slowpoke

[Annika]

1 May 2020 at 10:04:29 #932133

Thanks for your link to Swiss calendars Peterli! That reminded me to put the ‘Schweizer Photo-Almanach’ back on my wish list. I’ve been using it a couple of years, but I wasn’t always in Switzerland at the right time of the year to buy the next one, and it wasn’t readily available through Dutch webshops. I now found some that seem to ship the almanach to the Netherlands, so let’s see if I can get hold of the 2021 edition!

[Annika]

1 May 2020 at 10:20:56 #932134

Hi Slowpoke. Yes, I’d second your way of thinking. All words ending at -li that I can think of are neutral. I think I found some evidence through a digitized online Swiss German dictionary at digital.idiotikon.ch. When searching for gender rules, this came up: “4.3.1.4.18. Wortbildung: mit erkennbarem Suffix: Substantive: Neutra: -li, isol. Dim.” I guess this confirms that words ending at -li always take the article ‘das’.

By the way, the entire website http://www.idiotikon.ch is a gem for anyone interested in Schweizerdeutsch!

[Slowpoke]

1 May 2020 at 12:51:00 #932135

Hi Annika-

Thanks for that link.

I’m having fun with it already. It’s a rare event to see a whole bunch of words with “öö” in them. 😉

http://www.idiotikon.ch/wortgeschichten/rebbergarbeit

Slowpoke