Re: Diving In...

Frank George Valoczy wrote:

> Which reminds me of a great Swiss expression regarding getting taken away
> by the men with the straightjackets:
>
> "Vom gelbe Waegeli abgeholt werden"
Aaaah... time for the resident Swiss expert to speak up!  =)

The expression is indeed used in that context, but you used High German
words.  =P  The Swiss German version would be:

"Vom    gääle   Wägeli  abgholt    werde"
/fom    ga:l@   vag@li  Abkholt    vErd@/
By_the  yellow  cart    picked_up  become

The /a/ is very broad and open (think "italiaaaano"), which is why we
write it as ä, which is /E/ in High German.  We also often write /E/ as
ä, though linguists prefer to use ë in that case.  Since there is no
official way to write Swiss German, most people make a horrible mess of
it anyway.  I actually prefer to use High German for e-Mails and instant messaging.


> "To be taken away by the yellow car", because in Switzerland they have
> yellow cars to take you away.
The translation is correct, though I haven't seen many people being
taken away in a yellow car so far.  Most yellow cars belong to postmen
or to taxi services.  ;-)


-- Christian Thalmann
   Resident Swiss Expert  (Yahoo!  I'm useful!  ;-)