OK, so I’ve noticed that I’ve been getting a lot of traffic from people searching the web for how to say things such as “Merry Christmas” in Swiss German. I thought I’d help you out by posting this little nugget of information, but then I realized that I didn’t know the answer. So I had my husband consult his bevy of Swiss colleagues to find out. Here is just part of the response:
It’s somehow difficult to write that down, but here is my attempt.
The following is to be pronounced as German words:“Schöni Wiehnachte”
Here the first ‘e’ in ‘Wiehnachte’ is not only a long ‘i’ but has to be pronounced as an ‘e’. The last ‘e’ is pronounced only short, sometimes it is that short that it can not be heard at all or it is totally left away.
Helpful colleague goes on to report that “Happy New Year” is “Es guets neus.” He adds that “Here the ‘ue’ in ‘guets’ is not pronounced as an ‘ü’ but as an ‘u’ followed by an ‘e’.” Got that?
My Züritüütsch (
- Vil Glück zum nöie Jaar!
- E guets nöis Jaar!
- En guete Rutsch!
The last one has a High German equivalent (Einen guten Rutsch!) and has always cracked me up. It literally translate to something like “have a good slide [into the new year]!”
So, Dear Readers, here’s wishing a good slide to you all, and of course a very schöni Wiehnachte.
love that blog, just stumbled upon it…
Guete Rutsch (“happy new year”) comes actually from the hebrew word “Rosch ha-Schana” (Haupt des Jahres, Anfang des Jahres)