simple, cash cows
I think the Swiss have pet names for the "foreign" people living in the next valley, never mind a whole country away...
Went to see Marco Rima on Friday and he didn't seem too enamoured by people from Argau or even from Spreitenbach.
Actually, all they have to do is say, " oh, ja ja, the English kitchen " followed by a one-finger tug just underneath their eye and a semi-stifled giggle and that is all the insult they need.
I personally find island-monkey less insulting than "Swabian pig". "Acting like a monkey" can be used in a humor-related discussion, pigs usually not. But since I never heard or used this term as a German, I do not know the context or exact use of it... the only German term I know was "Tommy" which is as funny and true as "Kraut" or "Fritz" I guess...
Sauschwabe and Tschinke (misspelled I know but I don't know the right spelling) are typical names.
The Swiss I know don't have names for the British. In all of my 25 years here in Switzerland, I haven't heard the term Inselaffe once.
They call the French Swiss "Welsche" but it's not a negative term.
Having lived and worked in Fribourg / Bern my entire time in Switzerland, I hear this an awful lot and you're right, it's not derogatory at all.
There are, however, quite a lot of Fribourg vs Bern jokes flying around, especially during the hockey season:
"Why is there a bucket of manure at a Fribourg wedding?"
"To keep the flies off the bride"
or
"What goes 'Bang...............Bang................Bang...... .........Bang?'"
"A Bernese machine gun"
Oh and in relation to your nick, I've heard "Bergaffe" used in reference to the Graubündner (again, esp at hockey time)
I have only ever heard the term Sauschwabe used in the press... never on the street, same with Gummihals...
As for the Italians and Ticinesi, "Tschinggä" I think coming from Cinquecento has been used widely, but it can be just as well an endearing term, not necessarily to offend.
Some Ticinesi call the Swiss Germans Zucchinis (have forgotten the other names..)
The Romands/Swiss French are being called "Welsh" or Welsch because the Swiss German name for the Romandie is Welschland. In the military they were called Russians "les Russes" although I don't know the reason..
"Tschinggä" - Thanks for the spelling.
I've only heard it as a negative term although the Swiss really do like most Italians.
I grew up at the Western border of Germany and we would call the French Welsch as well, not a bad word, simply describing their language. Welschland is called this way because the people there speak a welsch language... not the other way around.
Wikipedia: " Welsche , eine im Deutschen und anderen germanischen Sprachen früher übliche Bezeichnung für romanische (lateinische) oder romanisierte keltische Völker"
Oh mh... backed by the world-famous suisse cuisine we're allowed to do that.
Animal names are all the same to me... Inselaffen I've last heard several times during the football world cup
Thanks for sharing, here are two others regarding Swiss rivalry...
It's an old term meaning cinque and it's derived from an Italian version of rock, paper, scissors.
Because the Swiss Germans can't understand what they're talking, so it's probably Russian...
nope, its very common. inselaffen...monkey island.
but i never heard that in western germany (ober oder unteres rheinland/pott?) we call the french welsch? rather froschfresser/frog eaters...
i give pig s.h.i.t. about this term. i am no schwabe, it doesnt touch me at all.
My Swiss colleagues call the Americans 'Amis' and the Germans 'Dütschis'.
All together now... "Pass the Dütschi an de lef han side!"
On a slightly more serious note, a mate from N. Germany nearly had a fit when he heard that the Swiss French and the French were referred to as Wälsch, it apparently still has unpleasant overtones from WW2 where he comes from.
Cheers
Jim
Ok, so aparently things are regional in Germany... I even had a classmate in highscholl with "Welsch" as his family name... aparently some long ago francophone immigrants. But I should add that I grew up only 3 km from the border to Luxembourg, so it was a more common thing to discuss than in the Ruhrgebiet...
Glad Nathu - as usual - knows all the Swiss and everything that's ever been said in Swissieland.
Calling a German a Sauschwab is as smart as calling all Swiss "Zürcher" ... the shoe just doesn't fit.
A bit of interesting but totally useless info here:
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walser
The term "welsch" as now used in Switzerland to mean people from the Romandie originated when the "tribe" of the Walsers migrated into the alpine regions (the Swiss "Valais" included). The language they spoke was not understood by the locals (some elements are still retained in present-day Walliser-German). The term "Welsch" came to be generic for the people who weren't understood by the rest.
The Walsers also settled in certain regions of Kanton Graubünden (Grisons) - the Valsertal where the bottled water comes from, for example - and they also reached Chur, where they settled. The surrounding areas speak Romantsch, in Chur they speak Swiss German as inherited from the Walsers. "Kauderwelsch" (gobbledygook or gibberisch) comes directly from "Churer Welsch", i.e. the not understandable language of the Walsers as spoken in Chur.
The words Walser, Wales and the Welsh, the "...wall" bit of Cornwall, the Walloons in Belgium all descend from a term meaning foreign or strange.
Lesson over - you can go out and play now
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walha
Another link for the truly interested......
Right. Just like the way there are Yanks in the US, but that doesn't mean all Americans are Yanks, does it, and there are frogs in Fr-
Hm. That's interesting, bit of a pattern there. I wonder if... but no. Of course demographic precision must be uppermost in people's minds whenever such epithets are bandied - that just stands to reason.
In my observation, the Swiss call Germany "der grosse Kanton" or variants thereof.
Italians are "tschinken". I am told this derives from a card/gambling game that is popular among Italians.
People from the Balkans are "Scheissjugos" (and this is the polite term)
French are "Gallier"
I am not aware of any specific term for Brits. When my Swiss friends want to take the mick they make remarks about warm beer and peppermint sauce and perpetual rain and God shaving the Queen, all in good humour mind you.
Doesn't it?
Oh no, I forgot... some of them are Canadians ...