Note: Christine Purves writes about Swiss dialect words, phrases and stories, which relate to the history of this community. Her column is printed with permission by the Swiss Community Historical Society.
By Christine Habegger Purves
I never heard my grandmother use the word "rheumatism," but she came close. She would say, "I got some rheumatic fer shoor."
Or more specifically, "I ha jetszt es haxaschuss, und es duet mi viel rookveh." Literally this means, "I have a witch's shot and it gives me a big pain in the back."
Our daughter, Mary, age 5, was taught her part in one of the many Swiss/English skits written by my mother, Martha Baumgartner Habegger. Mary was to enter the stage barefooted, crying, "Mi tsaia, ach, mi tsaia," meaning she had stubbed her toe.
In another skit by Martha, a woman gossips, "Eh, I heard yet dat Vilhelmenia got the bronky ammonia" (the bronchial pneumonia).
When we lived in Berne, Indiana, we heard about a boy falling out of a tree, breaking his arm. He was a "Schvander," short for a Neuenschwander.
His mother, obviously wanting to know how serious a fall this was, was seen rushing out of her home, calling loudly, "Het's chlepft, Glen, het's chlepft?" (Did you hear it crack, Glen?) Not "Does it hurt?" but "Could you hear it crack?"
If you had a cold and your nose ran, you were called a A"Schnudernahse."
