Stuttgart Postscript and Another Mini Language Lesson

Just a quick final note as I head back to North America -- but not to home!  (yet....)

Westbound trip began with an 8:20 AM Sunday flight from Stuttgart to Zurich.  Since it was somewhat clear and sunny, and since I had a window seat, I got some decent pictures on the way.

A couple of views of Stuttgart on takeoff.

Some Swiss countryside, landscape, villages and larger towns on the approach to Zurich (the second picture even complete with a rainbow).

And a spectacular panorama of the distant Swiss Alps, all clothed in pristine winter white.

And now for the language lesson.  On Swiss International Airlines, this is the message displayed on the cabin video screens as you board at the beginning of the flight.  But what of all the repetitions?

What you are getting is a welcome in English, followed by the same message in each of the four official languages of Switzerland.

Yep, that's right.  FOUR official languages.  And there are so many Canadians who think two languages create an unmanageable country.

But it's the last one that undoubtedly puzzles the most people.  It looks much like French and Italian, but it's not.  That last line is in Romansh.

Here are two other examples from two of the other posted notices:

Buon sgol  =  "Have a good trip"

A revair  =  "Goodbye" 

It's an archaic language descended directly from Latin, hence the stem "Roman--" in the name.  It's spoken only in the large canton in south-eastern Switzerland known as the Graubünden in German or the Grisons in French -- usually rendered in English as the Grey Cantons.  Only about 1% of the entire not-large population of Switzerland speak Romansh as a first or common-use language, but it is so closely tied to history and culture in the Graubünden that it has had official language status ever since 1938.

A revair!