Posted on by Ulrike Rettig

Swiss German Language Lessons in Gstaad (2)

View of Palace Hotel from Gstaad On our hike down from the village of Schönried to the picturesque resort town of Gstaad, we enjoyed our friend Ursel's Swiss German Language Lessons.
She also told us about the surprising revival of Swiss German in written form through SMS/Texting and Social Media.

Ursel is from Bern, and it was fun to practice with her some Swiss German words in the her dialect of Bärndütsch. [see also our previous blog post: Language Lessons in Gstaad (1)]

Once in Gstaad, we do a little window shopping and people ogling, on the pedestrian way called Promenade.

From there we also have a great view of the famous Palace Hotel (picture). And, walking towards the ice rink (which, in the spring, converts back to tennis courts for the Gstaad Open in June each year), we end up at Charly's Gstaad, a "Konditorei and Confiseri" for coffee and delicious pastries.

While observing the young and old skaters as they make their rounds, we learn and practice in Berndeutsch, various greetings, the words excuse me and thanks, as well as the terms for meal times and snack breaks. 

1. Greetings, Excuse Me, Thanks

• Grüessdi (Grüß dich - informal Hello, singular)
• Grüessech (Grüß euch - informal Hello, plural)
• Grüessi mitenand (Hello - all of you)
• Exgüsee (Entschuldigung - excuse me)
• Uf Widerluege (Auf Wiedersehen - Good-bye)
• Adiemerssi (Danke und auf Wiedersehen - Thanks and good-bye, said by shopkeepers)

2. Meal and Snack Times

The Swiss day is nicely organized around meal times and snack breaks:
• Zmorge (Frühstück - breakfast)
• Znüni (Imbiss am Vormittag - midmorning snack, usually around 9 a.m.)
• Zmittag (Mittagessen - lunch)
• Zvieri (Imbiss am Nachmittag - mid-afternoon snack, usually around 4 p.m.)
• Znacht (Abendessen - dinner, supper)

Kindergardners bring their mid-morning snack to school, it's called "Znünitaschl" (nine o'clock bag). They also bring along "Finken" (slippers) to wear inside.

Even though we're always on the lookout, we did not recognize any famous people on our visit to Gstaadt this time. But we certainly had fun learning about Bärndütsch expressions and pronunciation from Ursel, a native of Bern.