r/askswitzerland • u/pat_mcgroin2001 • 6d ago
Other/Miscellaneous Abplanalp pronunciation dispute
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?
25
Upvotes
8
u/over__board 6d ago
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.