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aIrSaMpRaS14 · 10-12-2004, 07:43 PM

I know that he speaks French, German and English.

But is French or German his main one? like the one he speaks at home and as a little kid?

Thanks.

squirrel · 10-12-2004, 08:17 PM

swiss german

RonE · 10-12-2004, 10:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by squirrel

swiss german

That's right- to be more specific Basel German- in each Canton in Switzerland (even among the German-speaking cantons) the language is slightly different. That is, if you take a bunch of people- one from canton Zurich, the second from canton Basel, the third from canton Schwiz etc, they would be able to understand each other, but the accent is slightly different and so are some of the phrases.

There is also a lot of adversity and rivalry between the Zurichers and the Baselers. I am now visiting in Zurich and sometimes when I'm with one of my friends here and we are sitting next to a group of people, a lot of the times they will tell me "oh, that person speaks Basel German" in a condescending manner and make a dissmissive gesture with their hand.

makro120 · 10-12-2004, 10:51 PM

How good is he in french? I never heard he speak french. Also, don't they speak some italian in switzerland aswell, do he speak some italian too?

RonE · 10-12-2004, 10:58 PM

I have no idea if he speaks Italian- they speak Italian in the cantons closer to Italy- Tichino mainly, but that's right on the border with Italy.

And yes, he does speak French quite well, I heard one of his post-match interviews in Gstaad this year. While his accent in French is a little 'heavy', he speaks it fluently.

mitalidas · 10-13-2004, 12:53 AM

He said in an interview at the USO (or earlier) that he spoke 3.5 languages, because Swiss-German is different enough from good ol' Deutsch

Fedex · 10-13-2004, 01:01 AM

Swiss german. He can speak many languages fluently, though.

Billabong · 10-13-2004, 04:08 AM

He spoke French in the Toronto final, and he was speaking very well, I was amazed

!

lunahielo · 10-13-2004, 04:41 AM

I think he's linguistically gifted.

He's a fascinating person.

jtipson · 10-13-2004, 08:48 AM

He doesn't speak any Italian, if I remember correctly from an interview he did in Rome. Apparently the first words he spoke were English

But it's not unusual for Swiss people to speak quite a few languages. It's only the Anglo-Saxon world that seems surprised when people aren't mono-lingual.

Marc Rosset is Tall · 10-13-2004, 08:52 AM

I remember the interview last year when he lost to Mantilla, it was conducted in French. Well he lived in the Suisse-Romande (French part) for 2 years as a teenager, so he had to learn French to survive.

Yes, his first language is Swiss German.

Daniel · 10-13-2004, 09:33 AM

Roger is good speaking English, soft voice , very nice

mitalidas · 10-13-2004, 11:04 AM

Roge speaks english like it was his native tongue, he can convey subtlety and he can be witty, and he has a very impressive vocabulary

(Speaking of speaking...., the newly-naturalized-US-citizen Monica Seles in the mid 1980s said before a match "I'm as nervous as a wreck"

Very cute!)

Rogiman · 10-13-2004, 02:49 PM

He just has a basic mistake he repeats every time with conditional phrases of the pattern: If I had done *** I would have done ***.
Instead he keeps saying: If I would have done *** I would have done ***.
But then again, I'm not sure how many english-speakers are aware of that...

babsi · 10-13-2004, 04:40 PM

My german was once corrected by an american,who had lived in Germany.
Even so he was right about my mistake, very German would have know,that he is not a native German speaker,because almost all Germans say it wrong - sounds nuts,well it is

The world is full of nuts,hand me a bowle