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Grüezi [ˈɡ̊ryə̯t͡sɪ] (eastern Swiss German) or Grüessech [ˈɡ̊ryə̯sːəɣ̊] (western Swiss German) is the most common formal oral greeting in parts of German-speaking Switzerland .

Etymology, traditional usage and traditional distribution

Grüezi is an abbreviation of Gott grüez-i, "Gott greet you" and is the Zurich, Glarus and Eastern Swiss sound of the same greeting that is grüess-ech in Bern, Solothurn, southwest Aargau and in the upper Basel area . The meaning of greet is based on the Middle High German meaning «to speak»; it was originally a blessing.

While the western variant grüessech is still largely transparent, the eastern variant grüezi is often no longer understood today, especially since both the sound form grüeze ("greet") and the enclitic unstressed i for stressed öi ("you") are disappearing today . As a result, there is a folk etymological reinterpretation of grüezi as “(I) greet you” and thus a connection with the politeness pronoun “you”, which historically does not apply at all.

Eastern grüezi and western grüessech, which are traditionally used from around 8 a.m. (before: guete Morge ) to around 5 p.m. (after: gueten Aabig / Aabe / Oobig / Oobe ), first became established in the reformed parts of German-speaking Switzerland, in north-eastern Switzerland, however, also in the catholic areas . Incidentally, the Catholic regions such as the lower Basel area, Solothurn, Freiburg, north-west and south-east Aargau, central Switzerland, Sarganserland and Wallis have a different greeting system, either with a good afternoon at noon or with a good morning and Aabe / Oobe in the afternoon .

The use of Grüezi or Grüessech is very down-to-earth, but not everywhere even in the areas outlined in the Linguistic Atlas . In his dissertation on the Schinznach dialect from 1890, Hermann Blattner wrote that the formal Grüessech had almost completely replaced the old forms of greeting, which were based on the occupation of the person greeted, for example did he gaumed? “Do you guard?”; must derdorab si? "It must thus be down (ie: will you go down through the village)?" S skin it? "Does it cut it (namely the ax hits the wood)?", Git s wool uus? " Does it come out (when harvesting)?" Or does he gruejed? "Are you resting?"

Modern use

The Grüezi , nowadays hardly recognized in its individual components as "(God) greet you", is mostly only used in modern language to greet one or more people who are greeted or - for example, still in Appenzellerland today - theirs . If the surname of the person you are greeted is known, greetings are given with "grüezi Mr. / Mrs. Muster". Instead of grüezi , grüezi is also used , and grüezi mitenand to greet several people .

For geduzte persons grüezi - here's grüezi a pronunciation lightening substitute for the rare grüezdi - used only by older people. Instead, more recent expressions such as hoi , tschau (from Italian ciao ), salü or sali (from French salut ), hello , etc. are used, which are often subject to fashion.

Geographically, the area of ​​application of grüezi has expanded further since the data collection for the language atlas and the folklore atlas. Then grüezi can be used around the clock today and thus take the place of guete Morge in the morning or gueten Aabig / Oobig in the evening .

In the German Upper Valais , where neither with Eastern grüezi still with Western Grüessech styling that does not originate from the Valais German Swiss are disparagingly as Grüezini referred.

literature

  • Linguistic Atlas of German-speaking Switzerland , Volume V 111–114.
  • Small linguistic atlas of German-speaking Switzerland. Edited by Helen Christen, Matthias Friedli and Elvira Glaser . Frauenfeld 2010, Map 7 (with commentary).
  • Atlas of Swiss Folklore , Volume I, Map 2, and Commentary Volume I, 5 ff.
  • Anna Zollinger-Escher: The greetings of German Switzerland. phil. Diss. Zurich. Freiburg i. Br. 1925.
  • Albert Hauser : Grüezi and goodbye. Greetings and manners from the 17th century to the present day. Zurich 1998.
  • Claudia Bucheli Berger, Christoph Landolt : Dialect and denomination in German-speaking Switzerland. In: Elisabeth Frieben, Ulrich Kanz, Barbara Neuber, Ludwig Zehetner (eds.): Dialect and religion. Contributions to the 5th dialectological symposium in the Bavarian Forest, Walderbach, June 2012. Regensburg 2014 (Regensburger Dialektforum 20), pp. 73–94 [with a chapter on the greeting formulas].

Web links

Wiktionary: grüezi  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Swiss Idiotikon , Volume II, column 511/512, under God ( digitized ) and column 812/813, under grüesse n ( digitized ).
  2. ^ Anna Zollinger-Escher: The greetings formulas of German Switzerland. Freiburg i. B. 1925.
  3. ↑ Middle High German Dictionary , Volume 2 (Hirzel, Stuttgart 2016), columns 966–969.
  4. ^ According to the Linguistic Atlas of German Switzerland, Small Linguistic Atlas of German Switzerland and Atlas of Swiss Folklore .
  5. ↑ Hermann Blattner: About the dialects of the canton Aargau (borders; division; phonetics). Vocalism of the Schinznacherm [and] a [rt]. Effingerhof, Brugg 1890, p. 9.