Swiss German
 

To someone who knows Swiss German: what does "egg" mean on the end of a word (as in Schonegg, Winteregg, etc.) Thanks!

I am posting in order to flag this thread. I also noticed all the "egg's" in Switzerland.

Anyone know? Ingo? Schuler?

I can tell you this much: "gg" is usually pronounced "eck" and may sometimes even be written as "eck."

Other than that, haven;t a clue since Swiss-German isn't written all that much.

Then it would mean "corner"? that makes some sense. I know Swiss German isn't written much, but you see the "egg" ending a lot in place names (hotels, small villages, etc.) My kids kept asking what it means, but even 'tho I speak "pretty good" Deutsch, that doesn't help on this one.

<i>what does &quot;egg&quot; mean on the end of a word (as in Schonegg, Winteregg, etc.)</i>

The can mean a top of a hill or mountain. This means the &quot;water is divided two directions&quot; and it can be found in most hills.

Again, maybe I'm wrong and this happens what I post.

Blackduff

Thank you. Also, kommen Sie aus der Schweitz? Your name looks Scottish. . . but perhaps the Celts can weigh in on this too. A &quot;corner&quot; is not so different from a place that divides the waters.

Move over, Dumbo! He's in the way again.

I'd say it's some sort of division. Could be on a mountain (like a crest), or between forest and field, or hill and drop off.

&quot;Corner&quot; could broadly cover that.

Did you know that an &quot;Egge&quot; is a harrow? Again, having something to do with dividing the land.

&quot;coming from Switzerland...&quot;

I asked a German friend what it meant and this is his reply:

Egg = &quot;schmaler, senkrechter Berghang&quot; und hervorragender Teil eines Bergr&uuml;ckens&quot;.

OK trying to put that into English is a daunting task for me.
Here goes: schmal = narrow
senkrechter = vertical, upright, perpendicular
Berhang = mountain side.
So for the first definition &quot;egg&quot; is a narrow area amidst vertical mountain sides.

For the second one,
hervorragender = jutting (there are lots of meanings,but jutting is the only one that makes sense in this context. I don't think brilliant or outstanding, or super quite fits. We speak of a rock jutting out of the cliff.)
Teil = part of something or a component
Bergr&uuml;cken = mountain ridge

So in this case egg is equal to a jutting out part of a mountain ridge.

Considering all of the &quot;egg&quot; places I have visited in Switzerland such as Kleine Scheidegg, Grosse Scheidegg, Stieregg, Winteregg, Pfingstegg, Brandtegg, and a few others, I think the term just about means a place in the mountains.

If you want to check it out, and argue about it more, here is the source.

http://www.agrarkulturerbe.de/almen_...buchstabe=alle

Nothing to argue---that's a cool website. Thanks. So it's a place on a ledge or a promontory (although both Kleine and Grosse Scheidegg are rather broad to be considered ledges). Definitely applies to Stieregg---that trail out there scared the heck out of me. I had to hug the rock as far away from the edge as possible, and I still couldn't look down. Odd, because I've hiked other &quot;ledgy&quot; trails with no difficulty, including the one across the face of the Alpspitz (above Garmisch-Partenkirchen). Having a cable for security makes all the difference.

I did a little more checking om the meaning of Grosse Scheidegg. It is not easy because those terms do not appear in dictionaries.

With the stem verb scheiden introduced into the context, the usage of the term Scheidegg becomes more in line with what we call a watershed divide.

I think this sentence will help claify.
Wie aus der Beschreibung hervorgeht, reicht diese Grindelwaldneralp weit &uuml;ber die Wasserscheide (Scheidegg) ins Reichenbachtal hinunter.

I translate this sentence as like so: As arouses from the description, the Grindelwald Alp reaches far down the watershed (Scheidegg) in the Reichenbach Valley. (the stream in the valley leads to Reichenbbach Falls near Meiringen. It was into that churning cauldron that Sherlock Holmes was said to have met his death as the hands of Professor Moriarty. But as all Sherlockians know, the detective reappeared in the Adventure of the Empty House. He wasn't dead after all. Not even his creator, Arthur Conan Doyle could kill him off.
Talk about creating a veritable monster.)

So in this context, the terms Kleine Scheidegg and Grosse Scheidegg have more to do with mountain watershed divides than they do with craggy pinnacles.

Thge approaches to Grosse Scheidegg are fairly gradual on both sides, but they extend a long ways down the mountain. As a resul, the drop in elevation between Grosse Scheidess and Meiringen is frin 1962 meters above sea level to 602 meters, a difference of 1360 meters, which is about 4,460 feet or so.

Now if I could just figure out senntumlich. Anybody got a clue?

An adverb? How is it used in context?

The term senntumlich first came to my attention when I read a description of alpine farming posted on the side of the First gondola station above Grindelwald.
It showed how the area was divided up into separate alps, and each alp had an assignment of so many cows, sheep, etc.
I never have been able to figure out exactly what it meant. I asked the Swiss gentleman who sold tickets, but my knowledge of German was not equal to understanding his explanation, and his English was about like my German. He tried, and so did I, but the language barrier rose like the north face of the Eiger.

Well, I found a definition of Senntum. Here it is. Now if I can figure out what it means, I think I can further deduce senntumlich, which I think is an adjective describing the management concept of alpine farming enterprises.

Bewirtschaftungseinheit auf einer --&gt; Alp. Eine Alp als rechtliche und organisatorische Einheit enth&auml;lt ein oder mehrer Sennten als Bewirtschaftungseinheiten oder Betriebe.

That first noun is defined by Leo as a management unit in the forestry sense.
I suppose it could also apply to pastures and the like. An alp on Switzerland is a legally defined, organized entity or unit which is made up of one or more Sennten. A Betriebe is a business or a farm.

Now if I could just figure out Sennten.
It is not in Leo nor it in my Harper Collins unabridged German Dictionary, nor is it in the glossary from which I got the above definition of Senntum.

I do know the following:
A Senn is an alpine dairy farmer.
Senne is an alpine pasture
Sennerei is an alpine dairy
Logically the term has to do with alpine dairy farming in some way.

Not having grown up with German, there are times like these when I at least know what tumb means: stupid or dim.
This stuff at times leaves me feeling that way.

I will use dairy farm as a working hypothesis until I learn otherwise.
Any of you native German speakers out there have a superior rendition of the term for me?

OK why do I want to know? I visit the area of Lauterbrunnen upon occasion and I have tried to learn more German.
When I hit this one, I stubbornly keep trying to figure it out. True, it doesn't put food on the table, but my retirement check does. That leaves me time for self frustrating enquiries such as this one.

I think you have it right----some way of dividing up the pastures.

A bit farther along that path, out by the Bachalpsee, is a sign which reminds hikers in four languages to place their rubbish in the trash can. The English version, however, says &quot;Please depose your rubbish here.&quot;

I'm still trying to figure out what questions to ask of my trash. . . .

Depose can also mean to deposit.
At least the
American Heritage Dictionary says so. If you have royal trash, I guess it could mean to dethrone.

Ah! You're right. The legal term, of which I was thinking (being a literal-minded lawyer) is actually way down on the list.

To all of you thanks, I am now getting a better understanding of all these places in Switzerland that had an "egg" at the end. Many of these places seems to be situated around the Canton of Köniz, is the landscape matching the above description.

Is the word Morgen equal to the word morning in English? if it is does Morgenegg means Morning Crest or ridge?

Morgen is definitely German for "morning", but I don't know that we got a precise meaning for the -egg ending.

Brookwood:
"A Senn is an alpine dairy farmer.
Senne is an alpine pasture
Sennerei is an alpine dairy
Logically the term has to do with alpine dairy farming in some way."

Don't forget the beautiful Swiss Sennenhund breeds :-)
Berner Sennenhund, Bernese Mountain Dog (the most well-known internationally and the only one of the four with a long coat)
Appenzeller Sennenhund, Appenzeller Mountain Dog
Entlebucher Sennenhund, Entlebucher Mountain Dog (Entlebuch is between Luzern and Bern)
Grosser Schweizer Sennenhund, Greater Swiss Mountain Dog

The Ballenberg outdoor museum features a Berner Sennenhund day each year, usually in the autumn.