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Gruess Gott! Does anyone know what the snow levels are likely to be in about 3 weeks, for the OberEngadine (Pontresina) and Muerren areas? My wife and I will be hiking there at the end of June and early July and are hoping that conditions will be accommodating. There seems to have been significant snow in early May.
Danke sehr.
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Hi Nevertoolate,
You should be fine for most trails – you can see on the Pontresina/Engadin website that there has been no snowfall since May 2 though at 3000 meters there is still about 2 feet of snow around. Are you planning on getting up to the top?
We’ve been having a nice heat wave in most of Switzerland for the past 10 days which looks to be continuing for a bit!
Lucas
It sounds like you’ve been to Switzerland before, but I haven’t heard any Swiss say Grüss Gott or Danke sehr here. Is that common in the Graubünden canton you are looking to visit? I know Grüss Gott is an Austrian thing and I suppose that makes sense for that canton being closer to Austria.
Hi Lucas-
<<“but I haven’t heard any Swiss say Grüss Gott or Danke sehr here. Is that common in the Graubünden canton you are looking to visit? I know Grüss Gott is an Austrian thing and I suppose that makes sense for that canton being closer to Austria. “>>
I’ve gotten Grüss Gott in the Ostschweiz and the Graubünden. Also, “Auf Wiederschauen.”
Slowpoke
Sounds about right Slowpoke! – it really is 26 countries in Switzerland with their own customs and language (rather than 1 country and 26 cantons!)
Hi
we have had Grüss Gott in Berner Oberland but only on Sundays! were told by locals this is common on Sundays.
Maggie
Yes, I suppose that makes sense!
Although I always found it awkward in Austria when someone gives me greetings from God 😉 but technically Grüezi is the same thing – I always thought it was slang from Grüssen Sie, but apparently I was wrong!
Hallo sounds too English here I find…The Bavarian “Servus” is my favourite when I am up in Munich.
There is an extensive thread on Servus here:
forum.wordreference.co m/threads/servus-bavaria-and-austria.1094909/
I quote from it –
<<“That’s interesting. At least in the east – in Wienerwald and Semmering region – what you hear most of the times is “Grüss Gott”; and in Mühlviertel, Upper Austria where I grew up locals greet hikers/mountaineers*) with the informal version of that (“per Du”-version = “Griasdi”) and foreigners with “Grias Gott”, “Servus” is used in villages but usually not to greet hikers.”>>
Lots of mix and match of common expressions through the German-speaking regions. Here is one example from that source that explains one of the typical reasons:
<<“At least in the Palatinate Region, which has historically been a part of Bavaria not too long ago, “Servus” is used quite often. “>>
Slowpoke
Hi Lucas
Yes usually when we are are walking we hear and reply Grüezi mitteinand(er) – it has been only on a Sunday we heard Grüss Gott and our hotel told us that was why! Though I don’t think it is all that common these days. We also hear and use the mixed expression “merci vielmal” a lot which we find quite fascinating. Though we graduated in classics (Latin and Greek) we find all languages and their quirkiness really interesting and have enough French and German between us to get by. Though the Swiss seem to enjoy using their excellent English. Fortunately they are also willing to use “High German” with us as we find a lot of “Swiss German” quite difficult!
Mike bought himself a small Romansch – Deutsch dictionary years ago which for us with our Latin as well as French and German was really fascinating and helped us understand some inscriptions though the pronunciation was beyond us!
Maggie
Outstanding– thank you everyone, for the valued input on the snow levels and the lively exchange on the appropriate use of Gruess Gott, which I now know not to use except on Sundays, outside the eastern part of Switzerland. I do recall it being used a lot on the trails around Saas Fe from a visit 20 years ago, but then again it could have been on Sundays.
I myself speak a moderate amount of German; “moderate” being defined as that unfortunate skill level, which is advanced enough to mislead the listener for the first 3o seconds into thinking I am fluent, followed by the inevitable moment when I inadvertently give offense by mistranslating something.
Perhaps the Forum should consider a “Language and Culture” category, instead of simply “Miscellaneous”?
Ha, yes good idea Nevertoolate!
You never know what we will start chatting about on here. You are always safe with Grüezi anywhere here. 🙂
Its entertaining how they mix French and German here sometimes….though it doesn’t impress my German wife when she hears Merci Vielmal!Yes, they love using their English whenever possible here.
It’s taken a year and a half for me to get through a conversation without them switching to English when they hear my accent (they still do a lot out of kindness to me). But it is nice to try and practice with them more! I’m sure my German would be better if I didn’t live in this quadrilingual nation!
>> we find all languages and their quirkiness really interesting
I do too!
>> Mike bought himself a small Romansch – Deutsch dictionary years ago which for us with our Latin as well as French and German was really fascinating and helped us understand some inscriptions though the pronunciation was beyond us!
I am fascinated with the Romansch language/s as well! I think it was those intriguingly strange place names such as S-chanf, S-charl and La Punt-Chamues-ch that piqued my curiosity initially. I’ve since discovered, both from listening to announcements for the next stop on the train and researching on the internet, that the strange (to me) spelling convention of “s-ch…” and “…s-ch” is to represent a pronunciation of “ch” as in English “chocolate”, because “sch” with no hyphen represents a “sh” sound. Apparently this spelling convention only occurs in the Putèr and Vallader varieties of Romansch, and this sound is spelt as “stg” in other varieties. I’m glad I heard “Muottas Muragl” pronounced correctly on a YouTube video before I had to pronounce it myself ;D
There’s something amazing about a language that has only about 30,000 speakers, yet has 5 different varieties! (That’s as a consequence of the mountainous terrain isolating the populations of the various valleys in the past of course). I wondered whether it was only older people that continued to speak Romansch, but was impressed to hear young people, e.g. waiters/waitresses in restaurants in Scuol, conversing in Romansch. I read somewhere that schooling for the first 3 years in the Romansch-speaking areas is conducted exclusively in Romansch, after which children begin learning German, and then from year 5 learn another language such as French, Italian or English.
I don’t know whether it will ever in fact happen, but one day I would like to do a course in the Vallader variety of Romansch in Scuol, where “Lia Rumantscha” run 5-day intensive courses. In the meantime, I am dabbling in learning what I can from resources on the internet.
Alpenrose
Hi Alpenrose-
<<“In the meantime, I am dabbling in learning what I can from resources on the internet.”>>
You probably found this in your searching, but, just in case –
http://www.eldrid.ch/swgerman .htm#How%20to%20impres s%20a%20Swiss
It’s not Romansch, but I’ve enjoyed reading it.
Slowpoke
Hi Slowpoke
Thanks for that link – I also enjoyed reading it!
The German I learned in school way back in the ’60s was very formal and involved a lot of classical literature like Goethe and Schiller! So when I first started to visit Switzerland and Germany I had to learn loads of modern vocabulary – after all there is no mention in the literature I read of going down to the station to enquire about train times etc. or buying fruit and vegetables in the local market! The grammar was pretty much engrained in me though which is why I could still manage to incorporate the new words I was learning into High German after 40 years of not using it!
Maggie
Hi Maggie –
<<“The German I learned in school way back in the ’60s was very formal and involved a lot of classical literature like Goethe and Schiller! ……The grammar was pretty much engrained in me though which is why I could still manage ….High German after 40 years of not using it!”>>
Similar for me, starting in the 50’s, although, since I am a chemist, I continued to use German routinely in looking at the older literature, which, until WWII was indexed reliably only in German publications. If only I had put all the verbs at the end of that sentence and made it longer…..;-)
By the way, I’m sure that you are aware that the most polite way to name Hochdeutsch to a Swiss is to call it “Schriftdeutsch.” That refers (without implying any superiority) to the fact that written official German in Switzerland is Hochdeutsch, and that is how German is written in school and in Switzerland, generally.
Actually, though , there is nothing high about it except the arrogance of the Imperial Court which fancied it up with case structure, declension, conjugations, etc. 😉
That, and the occasional attitude that it is somehow “superior.”
Slowpoke
>> You probably found this in your searching, but, just in case –
Hi Slowpoke,
Thanks for that link – I enjoyed reading it!
The “Müsli” problem is hilarious, i.e. using the standard German pronunciation you would be asking for a small mouse instead of cereal! I had read about it on the Deutsche Bahn website, in an article for Germans about typical breakfasts in the neighbouring countries: “Zmorge in der Schweiz”
inside.bahn.de/fruehst ueck-in-europa/
Consequently, I haven’t been game to actually ask for Müsli in Switzerland (though I have bought it without having to ask)!
Alpenrose
Hi Alpenrose-
I ask for a small mouse and get cereal. Tourists have a lot of leeway in pronunciation.
😉
Slowpoke
>> I ask for a small mouse and get cereal. Tourists have a lot of leeway in pronunciation.
Yes, thank goodness! I once asked for pigeons (Tauben) and thankfully got grapes (Trauben) 😀
Alpenrose
Interesting and fun post 🙂
I knew my German was rusty when I intended to say that I had not yet ‘decided’ but instead said ‘divorced’ mixing up entschieden and geschieden. And I thought I was rocking my conversational German until I got some odd looks.
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