Talk:Gstaad

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

	Switzerland Portal This page is within the scope of WikiProject Switzerland, an attempt to build a comprehensive and detailed guide to articles on Switzerland on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, you can edit the article attached to this page, or visit the project page, where you can join the project and/or contribute to the discussion.
Start	This article has been rated as start-Class on the Project's quality scale. (If you rated the article please give a short summary at comments to explain the ratings and/or to identify the strengths and weaknesses.)
Mid	This article has been rated as Mid-importance on the importance scale.

[edit] Is the 'g' silent?

so is the 'g' silent, or isn't it? -Lethe | Talk 09:17, Mar 3, 2005 (UTC)

Never fear, Lethe. I can answer your question. You pronounce it as "Shtahd." I used to live in Gstaad, actually. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.164.6.99 (talk) 00:05, 11 January 2006 (UTC)

I doubt that. If you ever had, you'd at least know that the /d/ sound never comes at the end of a word in German. The pronunciation there now is the right one.Kelisi 17:21, 18 April 2006 (UTC)

I thought that Swiss German doesn't have the final devoicing? -lethe ^{talk +} 20:31, 18 April 2006 (UTC)

So, uh, there is no α vowel in the IPA. I don't know where you got that pronunciation from, but it ain't right. -lethe ^{talk +} 15:24, 21 April 2006 (UTC)

Local pronunciation (both Swiss German dialect and Swiss standard German) is /kʃtaːd/, so the g is pronounced and there's no "final devoicing". If you think that /kʃt/ is a hell of a consonant cluster, then consider that Swiss German for in Gstaad is /tskʃtaːd/] (one syllable only). ― j. 'mach' wust | ✑ 09:08, 3 May 2006 (UTC)

So what's going on with the pronunciation /ʃtaːd/? Is that the English pronunciation of it's name? Or some approximation thereof? And why is the initial 'g' devoiced? Because of the ʃ? -lethe ^{talk +} 09:26, 3 May 2006 (UTC)

Right, the g is devoiced because of the following [ʃt]. I don't understand why you're considering /skʃtaːd/. ― j. 'mach' wust | ✑ 09:32, 3 May 2006 (UTC)

Errr... actually I meant to write /ʃtaːd/. I originally asked the question on this talk page 14 months ago because in the movie Scent of a Woman, there's a scene where some characters have a discussion about whether it's pronounced /gə’ʃtaːd/ or /ʃtaːd/. I guess both pronunciations are English approximations of the German? Some guy who apparently used to live there claimed that the latter was the right pronunciation, in apparent disagreement with you and Kelisi. -lethe ^{talk +} 09:36, 3 May 2006 (UTC)

Certainly, both are approximations by people not used to these messy consonant clusters of Swiss German. Specifically the first approximation, /ɡəˈʃtaːd/, is the one I'd expect from a German speaker who perceives that the Alemannic g- corresponds to standard German ge- (compare Alemannic gmacht Gstank Gfängnis 'made stench prison' to standard German gemacht Gestank Gefängnis). I think there's also such a scene in Dead Poets Society.

I'm pretty sure there is no such scene in Dead Poets Society. But surely you're thinking of the same scene I am, from Scent of a Woman? It's the three kids in prep school (one of whom is Philip Seymour Hoffman), talking about their ski trip for Christmas break. "You just said it was pronounced /ʃtaːd/? No, /gə’ʃtaːd/. Dropping the g is pretentious unless you've been there", or something like that. -lethe ^{talk +} 09:53, 3 May 2006 (UTC)

I don't know what I should think of that other user's contribution. Actually, I think I'd have a hard time to show that the g is pronounced, since I guess most dictionaries don't indicate that village's pronunciation. At least the grammars of Alemannic dialects will show that the cluster [kʃt] exists. ― j. 'mach' wust | ✑ 09:46, 3 May 2006 (UTC)

I don't understand. Are you saying that you're unsure of how Gstaaders pronounce the name? You think it might be different in Gstaad german from other variants of Swiss german? -lethe ^{talk +} 09:57, 3 May 2006 (UTC)

How locals pronounce the city's name is irrelevant for the English pronunciation. When speaking English we say Paris, not Paree,we say Barcelona not Barthalona, we say Mexcio City not Meheeko City, etc..... —Preceding unsigned comment added by Jepp (talk • contribs) 01:51, 30 July 2006

[edit] Coordinates

The coordinates seem right for Gstaad (46d28m N, 7d17m E), and the link for Google Maps works fine. However, in Google Earth for some reason the dot with the wiki link appears miles away from Gstaad, near 46d16m30 N, 7d10m E. Any idea why? Thrapper (talk) 08:08, 31 March 2008 (UTC)