Grüezi
Swiss German
Said in Lucerne
Hello
Grüezi mitenand — to several people
Grüezi
Where it comes from
Seen from abroad, Grüezi is the Swiss word above all others, the Schweizerisches Idiotikon, the great dictionary of Swiss German, observes. It comes from Gott grüez i, “may God greet you”: a blessing, worn down over time to its last two words. The pieces are hard to hear now: grüeze, the old Zurich form of “to greet”, is going out of use, and the final i, a weakened plural “you”, has almost vanished from everyday speech. Many people hear “I greet you” in it, which is wrong. Yet that very opacity is what saved it: if people still knew that the i means the old plural “you”, the word would probably have died out along with that old polite form.
Lucerne is not its birthplace. According to the Idiotikon and the language atlases Wikipedia cites, Grüezi was born in Zurich, Glarus and eastern Switzerland, and took hold first in the Protestant areas; central Switzerland said guete Taag. Since then its area has grown further, and it is now used at any hour, where people once had other greetings for morning and evening. Today it is the most common polite greeting in a good part of German-speaking Switzerland.
In use
You say Grüezi to people you address formally, one person or a group; among friends you will rather switch to Hoi or Sali:
- “Grüezi, Herr Meier.” – Good morning, Mr Meier.
- “Grüezi mitenand, isch da no frei?” – Good morning, everyone, is this seat free?
Sources: Schweizerisches Idiotikon, “Grüezi” (Christoph Landolt, 2019); German Wikipedia, “Grüezi”.