GPT (the engine of ChatGPT) never ceases to amaze me – both by its limitations and its achievements.
One of the latter is its notably forgiving nature whenever I search its giant training set with the haziest of prompts. I’ve been making deep searches of archival data for my entire working life, going back to the 1960s. GPT is able to perform searches I know of no other way of doing. Except phone around and hit upon “someone who knows”.
In 1957, I went on a school trip to Switzerland. We stayed in Spiez, a town in the Bernese Oberland. I was struck by the pretty chalets, many of which bore inscriptions in the local German dialect, which I vaguely remember the locals calling “Chwyz”. At that time I had a schoolboy knowledge of German, and the inscriptions I saw were strangely evocative, though barely 50% comprehensible.
Which is like saying that the Curate’s Egg is barely 50% edible.
I copied down one such tract, a pair of rhyming couplets, which had a curious appeal for me. I’ve long since lost my copy, but I managed to dredge it up from my memory of 66 years ago. I was keen to know what GPT would make of it.
Here is the record of my GPT session. Note that I am starting the session from cold, having never discussed text samples in German with GPT. It cannot possibly have any prior knowledge of what I’m about to ask it.
What language is this and what does it mean?
es jedes wo da dure geit isch underwags id Ewigkeit
This is Swiss German, a dialect spoken in Switzerland. The sentence translates roughly to:
“Everything that passes through is on its way into eternity.”
It carries a philosophical or poetic meaning, suggesting that everything that happens or moves forward is ultimately heading toward eternity.
More text in the same language:
Bluet di Gott his sang no zwack chum wieder einisch dur da wag.
That looks like Swiss German as well, though the exact dialect might vary. A possible interpretation of your sentence is:
“God bless you, his song still has purpose, come once again this way.”
However, some words or phrasing seem unclear—perhaps it’s a line from a poem, song, or old saying? Let me know if you have more context, and I can refine the translation! 😊
The text was copied down from a tract written on the side of a Swiss chalet. I’ve left out some umlauts. Let me re-input the text:
Got it! Feel free to re-enter the text with the correct umlauts, and I’ll give you a more precise translation. 😊
Es jedes wo da düre geit
Isch underwags id Ewigkeit.
Bluet di Gott his säng no zwäck
Chum wieder einisch dür dä wag.
This is indeed Swiss German, likely from a Bernese or Alemannic dialect. Here’s a translation into English:
“Everything that passes through
Is on its way to eternity.
May God bless you, his song still has meaning,
Come this way once again.”
It carries a reflective and somewhat spiritual tone, possibly reminding passersby of the fleeting nature of life and encouraging them to return. Beautiful words to find on a Swiss chalet! 😊
Thank you. The chalet was indeed in the Berner Oberland.
You’re very welcome! That fits perfectly—Bernese Oberland is known for its rich folk traditions and beautifully inscribed chalets. Must have been a wonderful sight! 😊
Please give a correctly spelled version (in the appropriate dialect of Swiss German) of the whole verse.
Here’s the verse with corrected spelling in Bernese Swiss German:
“Es jedes, wo da düre geit,
isch underwägs i d’Ewigkeit.
Bluet di Gott, hyss Säng no zwäck,
chum wieder einisch dür dä Wäg.”
This keeps the dialectal charm while ensuring correct orthography. Let me know if you’d like any adjustments! 😊
Is it a quotation from the work of a published poet?
The verse you encountered appears to be a traditional house inscription commonly found on Swiss chalets, especially in the Bernese Oberland region. Such inscriptions often convey blessings, reflections on life, or moral teachings. While this specific verse is widely used and cherished in the region, there isn’t clear evidence attributing it to a particular published poet. It’s likely part of the rich oral and cultural tradition of the area.
For instance, a blog post from 2016 features this exact inscription on a house in Aeschi, a village in the Bernese Oberland. Additionally, a 2009 publication from Schönenwerd includes the same verse, suggesting its widespread use in Swiss house inscriptions.
These examples highlight the cultural significance of the verse in Swiss traditions, particularly in the Bernese region.
Here is what impressed me.
I had only a garbled memory of the verse. I didn’t know how it was pronounced, or correctly spelled, or have a clue what it meant overall (though I could hazard a guess at the first couplet). I omitted all umlauts, and where I couldn’t recall a word properly I fell back on standard German spelling. Yet out of a legion of Germanic dialects (which even includes English, if you stretch a point), GPT was able to pick the right one, correctly identify its provenance and offer a plausible translation.
The value judgements GPT offered me are simply decoration, as far as I’m concerned. I don’t happen to believe GPT is “really thinking”, or engaging emotionally with me when it add riders like: “Beautiful words to find on a Swiss chalet!” – or: “Must have been a wonderful sight!”
Maybe the concluding smiley: 😊 is intended by the programmer to warn me of that?
Is GPT’s “corrected” text accurate – or it it hallucinating? I had no way of telling. Or so I thought…!
A day later I had a brainwave. I revisited the session and asked GPT the killer question: Is it a quotation from the work of a published poet?
It was one of the first questions I should have asked it. Forthwith it did a proper web search for me, and dug out not one but two photos of the very inscription, on a Swiss chalet [House 4], and on a roadside tract [p36].
It appears the verse is anonymous, but popularly attested. Both photos also revealed that I’d misread the original gothic script (aka Fraktur) as well as garbling my memory of it. The first photo is helpfully captioned with the correct transliteration into a familiar font, and provides an authoritative translation:
Each and everyone who passes by is on the way to eternity.
God bless you, stay well longtime, come by again.
Nothing about God’s “song”. What I had copied down as: Bluet di Gott his säng no zwäck – should have been: Bhüet di Gott, bis lang no zwäg (“Bless you God, until long[-time] no need[-for-treatment]”) – as the second photo clearly shows.
So GPT had been hallucinating. Or at least had simply taken my word for it. In offering a translation plus a correction of my tract, it was going just on what I had given it, but making the best it could from what it knew of Swiss German.
Never mind. I’m still impressed.
I’d heard that the Intelligence community had latched onto GPT (and other generative AI), and I wasn’t sure why. Was it just laziness, or to help with conning an impossibly voluminous data stream?
But now I can appreciate GPT’s unprecedented powers for decoding strange inscriptions.
Whitby Writers Group 