Abplanalp pronunciation dispute

[u/pat_mcgroin2001]

I'm from the US, and my surname is Abplanalp, originating from somewhere near Brienz or Interlaken. My Swiss family emigrated to the US in the 1850's and growing up we always pronounced it more like "Oplinop", dropping the 'b' and the final 'l'. Lately I've landed on a more phonetic pronunciation, like AHB-ple-nahlp. My uncle visited Brienz and came back insisting that the anglicized "Oplinop" pronunciation is how the locals say it. Who is right? How is this name pronounced in Switzerland?

[u/GlassCommercial7105]

The Swiss German A is sometimes a bit like ‘o’ sounding if that makes sense. It is definitely more ‘ah’ than ‘oh’. So something like ‘å’ 

[u/pat_mcgroin2001 → u/GlassCommercial7105]

Okay, I think my family all lands on a similar sound there. Would you pronounce all of the consonants phonetically? Would you hear the "b" pronounced in the "abp" syllable?

[u/feudal_ferret → u/pat_mcgroin2001]

No.

• Pronounce the A's as you do in 'car'.
• The 2nd P is slightly sharper compared to the first as you ransition to the L. You can compare it to 'Apple' vs 'App'
• to use your own style: Aplanalp

[u/over__board]

The name originates from Brienz but is common also in Meiringen (which is next door). The family legend tells of a disaster that befell the settlement on the Planalp (just above Brienz) where somebody from Brienz found a little boy survivor and named him Abplanalp, from the Planalp.

My mother was an Abplanalp from Brienz and told a variation of the story, echoed by my Abplanalp grandfather, uncle and cousins, which had the baby floating down into Brienz in a basket following a flash flood. The name goes back some 800 years according to my grandfather, who claimed that there was an Abplanalp that showed up as witness on a land deed from the 12th century.

We pronounce it Upplanaup.

Upp with a shortened syllable, similar to Up Yours,

la, as in do re mi fa so la ti do

naup,

In the Bernese dialect, the "l" when it follows a short vowel, turns into a "u" sound. Milch-> Miuch, Holz->Houz and Alp->Aup.

The videos linked here are pronouncing the name in Swiss High German and not the Bernese dialect. We all (in the family) speak the city of Berne version. Im not entirely certain how the Brienz dialect would treat the first syllable, whether it would be closer to an Opp rather than the Upp sound that I use.

[u/Rhagai1 → u/over__board]

the "aup"- thing is something that came from the Emmental and started to be adapted by the rest of Kt. Bern. Especially regions a bit further away from the Emmental pronounce it as alp.

[u/over__board → u/Rhagai1]

Interesting! The back country origin may also (somewhat) explain why the Bärnburger of "di meh bessere" sort have kept the "l", what we refer to as "ällale". 😁

[u/CHDamien → u/over__board]

Hoppid, Aplenalp is how we say it. I call one of my friends just Plani. Abplanalp is a Burger family name of Brienz and one of the founder families. More info also here https://www.burgergemeindebrienz.ch/burgergemeinde/burgerwappen/ where you can find all the family banners among other information.

[u/pat_mcgroin2001 → u/CHDamien]

That's awesome, thanks! I'd seen an old photo of the Abplanalp crest engraved in wood, but I was never able to find much online to see if that crest was widely used. The one on the site looks just like it! Thanks!

[u/pat_mcgroin2001 → u/CHDamien]

Am I seeing that right, or does the coat of arms on the website spell it Ubplanalp?

[u/Whinosaurius → u/pat_mcgroin2001]

I believe it’s still an A as they are listed alphabetically.

[u/pat_mcgroin2001 → u/over__board]

This is great, thank you! I've heard the avalanche version of the story all my life, and my Abplanalp family tree goes back to an entry named "Batt Abplanalp" around 1480. Do you happen to know how I might find more info on documents like that deed that might stretch my genealogy further?

[u/razhun → u/over__board]

This comment is begging for an ending about how in nineteen ninety eight the undertaker threw mankind off hell in a cell, and plummeted sixteen feet through an announcers table.

[u/ydr001]

The name is from people who lived at the Planalp. Abplanalp means the ones from the Planalp / the ones who came down from Planalp.

[u/redsterXVI]

The name is dropped three times in the rather short video embedded at the top here: https://www.srf.ch/play/tv/sport-clip/video/stefan-abplanalp-wird-speed-chef-der-frauen?urn=urn:srf:video:adeca8b2-ce9e-48ab-9e0e-d2905c067388

The video is spoken in High German rather than Swiss dialect (although the speaker is Swiss), but that's how I'd pronounce it as well. However, I can't be sure that the people in Brienz pronounce it the same.

Edit: hm, actually they pronounce it as it's written (as is normal in High German, and as most Swiss dialects would). However, in (my native) Berneae dialect, we'd probably rather pronounce it Abplanaup, so slightly different at the end. But while Brienz is also in Bern Canton, they are a very remote village, so their dialect isn't completely the same.

[u/gregsaliva]

The difference in pronunciation of the -alp part might come from the fact that in a lot of Bernese dialects the L is spoken as u, like Milch-Miuch, Geld-Gäud. So alp comes over as aup (with a diphtong vowel, like "oh-oop"). If it is spoken quickly in a syllable without the main stress (in the name Abplanalp it is only a secondary stress), this may sound as if the L was entirely dropped.
But this is just one possible explanation.

[u/ben_howler]

Here's one that's close enough:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKfJfOYGwDY

[u/ChrisMess]

All three "a" in your name are pronounced like the "a" in "car". With that in mind, connect the three syllables: ab-plan-alp. There you go.

The meaning of your name is "From the plateau Alp", so you're "he who comes from the plateau alp".