Adjeu

Valais patois

Said in the canton of Valais

Where it comes from

Adjeu is adieu, and adieu is “à Dieu”, to God. In 1904 the Bulletin du Glossaire des patois de la Suisse romande recalled the old full formula, “A Dieu vous commant”: I entrust you to God, may He keep you. In proper French, it added, the word should even be kept for long partings. French-speaking Switzerland made something else of it. According to the Glossaire des patois de la Suisse romande, published since 1924, adieu in patois is a familiar greeting used at any hour, when passing, when arriving as well as when leaving, but only to someone you address as tu. The Bulletin already pointed out that you do not approach the priest or the pastor with an adieu, though you gladly say it to a child or a friend.

The game writes it Adjeu. The Glossaire, which records sounds village by village, lists adyou, adjyou, ajyou or adyò in Valais. In Evolène, according to the Bulletin, adi is more familiar than ajyou, and both come from the Latin ad Deum. In the Val d’Hérens, adī is said rather to little ones, or among young people. And for children, “doing adieu” means waving your hand.

According to Wikipedia, patois now lives on only in a few valleys and communes of French-speaking Valais, from the Val d’Hérens to Savièse; Evolène is the only commune where it is still passed from parents to children.

In use

In Valais patois, with the konprè, “old friend”, that the Glossaire recorded in Grône:

“Adjeu, konprè!” – Hi, old friend!
“Adī!” – Hi! (in the Val d’Hérens, to a child)

Sources: Glossaire des patois de la Suisse romande, “adieu” (volume I, p. 119) and “bonjour” (volume II, p. 490); Bulletin du Glossaire des patois de la Suisse romande, “Les salutations dans les patois romands” (1904); French Wikipedia, “Valaisan (langue)”.