Grüessech
Bernese German
Said in the canton of Bern
Hello
Grüessech mitenang — to several people
Grüessech
Where it comes from
Grüessech is first of all a blessing. According to the Schweizerisches Idiotikon, the great dictionary of Swiss German, the full formula was Gott grüess ech, “may God greet you”: grüesse is the Bernese form of “to greet”, and ech a weakened form of öich, “you” (plural). God dropped out along the way; the greeting stayed.
That plural “you” matters. In Bernese, as in French, people address someone politely with the second person plural, Dihr, and not with the third person as in Standard German. So Grüessech is the polite hello, the one you say to someone you are not on first-name terms with.
It is the same formula as Zurich’s Grüezi, said on the other side of German-speaking Switzerland: in the west, Bern, Solothurn, south-western Aargau and upper Baselbiet say Grüessech. Wikipedia points out that, unlike Grüezi, its meaning is still easy to make out: a Bernese speaker still hears “greet” and “you” in it.
The variant carries a very Bernese feature. Where others say mitenand, “together”, Bern says mitenang: in the Bernese of the Mittelland, nd is pronounced ng, and the dog, Hund, becomes Hung.
In use
Walking into a shop or meeting a neighbour, you say:
- “Grüessech, Frou Brunner.” – Good morning, Mrs Brunner.
- “Grüessech mitenang, heit dir guet gschlafe?” – Good morning, everyone, did you sleep well?
Sources: Schweizerisches Idiotikon, “Grüezi” (Christoph Landolt, 2019); German Wikipedia, “Grüezi” and “Berndeutsch”; English Wikipedia, “Bernese German”.