A Short Dictionary of South Tyrolean

Understand what the locals say

Schmirber, Schmirberin

[ˈʃmɪʁbʁ], [ˈʃmɪʁbʁɪn]

Partly out of suspicion and partly out of respect, this was the name once given to the mysterious medicine makers and herb women with their wonderful healing ointments and tinctures. In the South Tyrolean dialect, “schmirben” means “to lubricate” or “to oil”. A moisturising cream – like the ones sold today by the natural skincare producers presented on page 34 – is therefore sometimes unsentimentally called “Schmirb”.

Pfiati!

[ˈpfiːatɪ]

Instead of using the standard German “Tschüss” or “Auf Wiedersehen” or the Italian “Ciao!”

Amy Kadison

An enologist by day and writer in the afterhours. Born in the US, she arrived in South Tyrol in 2016 for a thesis and stayed for the mountains. She has lived in five countries and earned two MScs in Zoology and Wine Production. Starting from this issue, she takes over this column from her predecessor Cassandra Han in order to explore her inner South Tyrolean – and how she came to be.

Instagram @travelalltheroads

(unless they’re speaking Italian, of course), South Tyroleans say goodbye with a friendly “Pfiati!”. The word emerged over the decades as a shortened form of “Pfiat di Gott” or “Godspeed!”.

Brintschelen

[ˈpʁɪnt ʃələn]

If you hear the word “brintschelen” in South Tyrol, you should probably call the fire brigade. “Do tuats brintschelen!”, for instance, can be translated as “It smells like burning!”. South Tyroleans also use other verbs ending in “-elen” to describe various unwelcome smells. For example, “mistelen” describes the stench of cow dung and “tebelen” is used when a place smells musty.

The Option Policy Explained

After falling to a victorious Italy in 1919 following the end of the First World War, South Tyrol began to be Italianised once the fascists seized power in the 1920s. The Italian authorities gave places Italian names, dissolved associations and banned the German language. Meanwhile, the new industrial zone in Bolzano/Bozen created jobs for migrants from the south.

Despite these efforts, the Italianisation project seemed doomed to fail, so the ruling powers had to rethink their plans for South Tyrol. In June 1939, Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler agreed on a scheme to resettle the South Tyrolean people. Known as the Option Agreement, this pact has had far-reaching ramifications. German-speaking South Tyroleans were given the choice of relocating to the German Reich or staying put and becoming Italian.

85 to 90 per cent of the population chose to go, with around 75,000 leaving their homes by the end of the Second World War. They were told they would be able to settle in their own selfcontained area and were allured by the promise of material wealth. But the reality was very different. Able-bodied men were sent to fight at the front, and farming families were dispersed throughout the occupied areas.

As the war raged on, the resettlement programme was brought to a halt in 1943, but the South Tyroleans who had emigrated were not legally allowed to return home until 1948. Only a third came back, and they returned to nothing. This photo, taken by Hermann Frass, captures the emotional moment when some of the returnees arrived at Brixen station.