Tschingg

Tschingg is a derogatory dialect name for an Italian in German-speaking Switzerland as well as in the neighboring German southern Baden and Austrian Vorarlberg .

The word comes from the Italian cinque "five" and goes back to the exclamation cinque la mora that often occurs in the northern Italian game Morra . The latter became Tschinggelemoore in the dialect , the former Tschingg .

The term originated with the immigration of Italian construction workers in the later 19th century. It is used, for example, by Heinrich Federer in 1924 in the story Christmas in the Sibylline Mountains . Used by the Swiss, the term is a dirty word.

Derived from this, Stäibock-Tschingg ("Capricorn-Italian") is used disparagingly for Graubünden .

Literature and web link

• Schweizerisches Idiotikon , Volume XIV, column 1749 f., Article Tschingg I ( digitized version ) and Volume IV, column 380, article Tschinggele ⁿ -Mōre ⁿ ( digitized version ).
• Baden dictionary , volume I, page 580, article Tschink .
• Vorarlberg Dictionary , Volume I, Column 633 f., Article Tschingg .
• C [hristoph] L [andolt]: Tschau, Binätsch, Fazeneetli and other Italian in Swiss German. In: Wortgeschichten from November 21, 2012. Edited by the editorial team of the Swiss Idiotikons.

See also

• Itaker , analogous term in Germany