The German Question, Part Nineteen

The Swiss Move Toward Independence

Just a little information about the Swiss to start off: Modern Switzerland is some two-thirds German speaking, with the remainder being French, Italian, and Romansh speaking, in that order.* Like the other German areas of Europe, the Swiss speak a German dialect of their own, as well as standard German. Actually their dialect is diverse from region to region, and I'm not sure all varieties are mutually intelligible; that is, that people in one region can fully understand people from other areas. Standard German is the link for all of the Swiss, and is also their connection to other German speaking people in Europe. Now....

With so much of the area that became modern Switzerland being mountainous, some of the local communities banded together and cooperated in trade with one another, and in helping to secure the mountainous terrain in their vicinity. The German-dominated Holy Roman Empire gave these districts the special privilege of answering only to the emperor, with no princes or dukes involved in their rule. This circumstance, and their difficult geography, helped to foster a certain independence among these mountaineers. This all transpired in the period from the late 1200s into the 1400s. Gradually other mountain communities joined "The Swiss Confederation."**

Remember, if you've been following this series, the Holy Roman Empire, or Old German Empire, was not really a strong entity, and the individual states had much leeway in their own dealings. The Habsburg family coveted much of the territory of the Swiss Confederation, and they sought to take it by force at times. The Swiss and the Habsburgs fought a number of battles and wars over time, but initially, the German Emperor (from either the Hohenstaufen or Luxemburg families) supported the Swiss, maintaining their special relationship within the empire. When the Habsburg family took over as German emperors, they tried to use their position to further their own interests (not the empire's) with the Swiss and others. The Swiss were not pushovers, and they fought valiantly against the Habsburg forces, inflicting a decisive defeat on the Habsburgs in 1499, which resulted in the Habsburgs agreeing to the Swiss maintaining their independent position within the empire. It was only a matter of time before the Swiss would gain true independence.

* Romansch is a language of Latin derivation, descending from the Latin spoken by Roman soldiers and settlers during the period of the Roman Empire. It is closely related to the language of southern France, Monaco, and just over into the Italian Riviera, called Provencal.

** "Eidgenossenschaft" in German, which means roughly "Oath Membership," or "Confederation." (See "Word History") The "genosse(n)" part by itself means, "comrade, buddy," but also, "a member of some cooperative group." English once had the closely related "geneat," which also meant, "comrade, buddy," but which, during feudalism, took on the additional meaning, "vassal;" that is, "a tenant obligated by agreement to serve a lord." The German "ss" instead of the English "t" in the German word is due to a sound shift which came to dominate the high dialects where the "t" sound became "s" or "ss." For example, English has "vat" (originally spelled with an "f"), but German has "Fass;" English has "kettle," but German has "Kessel."  

WORD HISTORY:
Oath-This word has a "shaky" early history, but it "possibly" goes back to Indo European "oyet," which meant something like, "meaningful statement." "Apparent forms" are only in Celtic and Germanic, which makes me wonder if one or the other was the original source, as Germanic people and Celtic people had much contact and mingling long ago. ^ Old Germanic had "aithaz," which then gave Old English "ath," with a long "a" sound. By the Middle Ages it was "ooth" or "oth," before the modern version. The Germanic relatives of English all have similar words for "oath": German has "Eid," pronounced as if "it" with a long "i" sound, Low German has "eed," Dutch has "eed," Swedish, Norwegian and Danish all have "ed," and Icelandic has "eið" (=eith). West Frisian once used "eed," but from what I can tell, it is archaic, and in more modern times they use a form related to English "swear" (as in "swear a promise").

^ I say "apparent forms," because there are some "possible" relatives in other Indo European languages, but it is unclear if these forms are from the same source or coincidental, as the meanings vary and it is hard to make a connection as to how the varied meanings would have come about.