Jaundeutsch: Very much with the Loud Oooh

Switzerland is a country with many peculiarities. One of the four official languages. Unofficially, there's even a fifth. In a village in Fribourg is Jaundeutsch spoken.

By Jan Bräuer, ARD-Studio in Zurich

Who wants to Jaun, first time on the mountain. No matter from which direction he comes. The most scenic approach from the Bernese Oberland takes you over the Jaun-Pass. Seven kilometres of winding road to the pass, five kilometers of it then goes back down to the valley.

the peaks of The mountains are still under snow, 2500 meters high. The meadows in the valley are lush and green. The first cows are already undressed and are wiederkäuend on the edge of the road.

at some point the houses on diving and suddenly you're in the middle of it in Jaun. Residential houses to the left and to the right of the path, up the hill to the edge of the forest. For this purpose, two churches, a school, a Hotel, a bakery, a small supermarket, two petrol stations, a youth hostel and a waterfall.

Jaun is the highest village in the Canton of Fribourg.

the Only English speaking place in the Canton of Fribourg

About a Minute for the drive-through. Jaun is the highest village of the Canton of Fribourg. And the only one that is spoken in the English "German Swiss? No, we are not," says Leo book, a retired chemical salesman.

Who wants to understand Jaundeutsch, you must ask him. He has like written a dictionary: "Heitr Shoah, amal, how to setup a soa gred't?" If you've ever heard someone so to speak, he asks.

Jaundeutsch - on the trail of the secret the fifth of the official languages of Switzerland
Jan Bräuer, MDR
26.04.2019 12:52 PM

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From the Professor to the dictionary

Leo paper Writing persuades is 79 years old. With 65, he enrolled at the University in Zurich. Four and a half years he studied together with his youngest daughter, Philology, and dialectology. At some point, a Professor came up to him.

"He looks at me and says: 'your name book?' I say: Yes. 'You come from Jaun?' I say: Yes. 'Don't you know that the Jaundeutsche is something very peculiar?' Then I told him: Yes, I know. Then the Professor said: 'you need to write a dictionary about the Jaundeutsche.'"

Leo paper did not trust the first. And began collecting, but then, the words and their meaning. Six years and about 14,000 words later the book was finished and the old language written down.

religious boundary, language boundary,

which has its origin in front of probably 500 years. At the time, the people in Jaun languages as the people in the Bernese Oberland. But then the Canton of Bern adopted the Reformation, while Freiburg (Fribourg) remained Roman Catholic.

The contacts from cracks, hardly any one came or went, the more the trails on the mountain. Since you looked at but also the French-speaking neighbours rather suspicious, came to the place in a centuries-long Isolation. The people created their own language.

"We talk very much with the Loud 'oooh'. If we 'thank' say, mean 'doochä' - Yes, very much with these Dehnlauten."

with regard to once upon a time, the future of Yaoundé, Werner Schuwey optimistic.

concerns about Jaundeutsch

Werner Schuwey, as well as the Leo book Jauner of birth. Has visited the site of the school. From then moved to Fribourg, where he made the baccalaureate, studied, and came back as a teacher. In Jaundeutsch that sounds like this: "I hoa hia mine primary school' b', spiäter z' Fribourg gstudiert, according to de Diplomierig am i zrückkoa."

in the Meantime, Schuwey is retired for 20 years, and is today, a Hobby beekeeper, and Organist. If he meets with Leo book, then it is of course also about Jaundeutsch. And the concern of the two, that the language could die out.

Leo book paints as the future is quite bleak: "I make the statement that in 50 years, hardly anybody still speaks Jaundeutsch. Jaundeutsch will die."

Werner Schuwey, however, is not quite so pessimistic. Of course, the emigration is still great. Jaun has been shrinking for years. Jobs are scarce or poorly paid. But the old teacher has noted a change: "It always amazes me how the young speak here today in Jaun still good Jaundeutsch."

Maybe you don't die. Or at least, not so quickly, the secret fifth of the official languages of Switzerland: the Jaundeutsch.