Bernese Oberland mountains' names

by **Moni** » Sat Aug 14, 2010 2:09 pm

Diego Sahagún wrote:It's curious that no Swiss have said anything here...

My parents were German but lived in Switzerland the last 30 years of their lives . I have lived and worked there.

by **Ejnar Fjerdingstad** » Sat Aug 14, 2010 5:36 pm

EricChu wrote:
Diego Sahagún wrote:It's curious that no Swiss have said anything here...
Well, then let me - a swiss myself, despite living in Austria - say something here: The whole massif, with the name "Aarmassiv" is known as the source area of the river Aare, the second longest river in Switzerland, which flows through the cities of Interlaken, Thun, Bern, Biel, Solothurn, Aarau and Brugg before continuing at Koblenz - the Koblenz in Switzerland! - as the Rhine (in reality, it's the Swiss Rhine that joins the Aare, not the other way around!). Thus, the name "Finsteraarhorn" has to be seen in this connection. "Finster" means "dark", referring to the dark color of the rock, and "aar" stands for the river Aare, which comes from the glaciers of this massif. The name "Aare", by the way, is not a reference to the type of eagle named "Aar" in German, but is derived from the latin word for water. "Au", "Aa", "Ache", even "Aachen", these names all have to do with water.

OK, you are the expert, so a river it is!

by **Moni** » Sat Aug 14, 2010 8:45 pm

Other words: (from my SAC guidebook to high tours of the Berner Oberland)

Chli or Chlys = small
Chilch = church
Chelen or Chälen = throat
Horen = horn
Hüs = house
Laui or Louwi = avalanche
Limmi = transition
Indri = inner
Obri (Oberi) = upper
Issri = outer
Undri = lower

by **dadndave** » Tue Aug 17, 2010 5:14 am

And let's not get started on the young woman's saddle!

by **Charles** » Tue Aug 17, 2010 1:07 pm

And just to thicken the soup a bit, here is a link to Romanisch - Deutsch

http://www.vallumnezia.ch/Woerterbuch.375.0.html

Only for tourists I guess, but at least it shows the wonderful mix of languages that is Switzerland!

Piz as in Piz Corvatsch, can be translated as peak I guess.

by **Ejnar Fjerdingstad** » Tue Aug 17, 2010 2:31 pm

charles wrote:And just to thicken the soup a bit, here is a link to Romanisch - Deutsch

http://www.vallumnezia.ch/Woerterbuch.375.0.html

Only for tourists I guess, but at least it shows the wonderful mix of languages that is Switzerland!

Piz as in Piz Corvatsch, can be translated as peak I guess.

That is the language they call "Ladin" in the Dolomites, where many speak it.

by **Moni** » Tue Aug 17, 2010 3:24 pm

Ejnar Fjerdingstad wrote:
charles wrote:And just to thicken the soup a bit, here is a link to Romanisch - Deutsch

http://www.vallumnezia.ch/Woerterbuch.375.0.html

Only for tourists I guess, but at least it shows the wonderful mix of languages that is Switzerland!

Piz as in Piz Corvatsch, can be translated as peak I guess.

That is the language they call "Ladin" in the Dolomites, where many speak it.

Actually Ladin is a dialect similar to but different from Romansch - these are old languages derived from Latin.

by **Ejnar Fjerdingstad** » Tue Aug 17, 2010 4:51 pm

Moni wrote:
Ejnar Fjerdingstad wrote:
charles wrote:And just to thicken the soup a bit, here is a link to Romanisch - Deutsch

http://www.vallumnezia.ch/Woerterbuch.375.0.html

Only for tourists I guess, but at least it shows the wonderful mix of languages that is Switzerland!

Piz as in Piz Corvatsch, can be translated as peak I guess.

That is the language they call "Ladin" in the Dolomites, where many speak it.

Actually Ladin is a dialect similar to but different from Romansch - these are old languages derived from Latin.

At least many of the words seem the same (as I remember from a list of Ladin phrases I once got in the Dolomites). When you drive into the autonomous region of South Tyrol/Alto Adige in which half or more of the Dolomites stand, you are welcomed in German and Ladin on a board at the border. (The region used to be Austrian before WWI, and still has a German-speaking majority.)

by **Moni** » Tue Aug 17, 2010 8:46 pm

Yes - I have spent time in both areas where Romansch and Ladin are spoken.

by **Diego Sahagún** » Wed Aug 18, 2010 11:35 am

Remember that we are talking about mountain names in the Bernese Oberland, The Dolomites, Adula and Engadine are so different areas though they are all in The Alps

by **Moni** » Wed Aug 18, 2010 2:38 pm

Tschingel = a small pointed hat.

by **hansw** » Wed Aug 18, 2010 8:41 pm

Moni wrote:Tschingel = a small pointed hat.

And...

Tschingel (1865-1879), the dog that climbed thirty peaks and crossed thirty-six passes.

by **Moni** » Thu Aug 19, 2010 1:02 am

hansw wrote:
Moni wrote:Tschingel = a small pointed hat.

And...

Tschingel (1865-1879), the dog that climbed thirty peaks and crossed thirty-six passes.

Yea - him, too. He must have been one cool dog! We had a cat try to follow us to the Mutthorn Hut - we were able to catch him and give him to a passing hiker before we started up the glacier. They took it back to the farm from whence it came, about 6KM+ away - the owner told us later, that it slept almost 2 full days!

by **Keyser Soze** » Thu Aug 19, 2010 2:12 pm

"Lauter" means light, clear in the dialect of eastern Bernese Oberland (e.g. "Bim luiteren Seeli" = Clear lake, above Gadmen). Therefore, I'd say we have one dark summit (mainly rock) and one rather white summit (mainly snow/ice) which are both located near the source of the Aar river.

by **Diego Sahagún** » Fri Aug 20, 2010 10:09 am

What about Eiger :?:

It has many meanings, some of those are different to ogre

Bernese Oberland mountains' names

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