Question!

[clo_again]

Can you, in fact, refer to a single Swiss person as "the Swiss", as in "the Swiss sat on the mat"? Wikipedia is a little unclear but seems to suggest in the demonym article that you can, with Often the singular name for one of the people is the base form, and the country name, if it exists, is derived therefrom (Switzer (derived from the German Schweizer, "a Swiss man") → Switzerland. To me that kinda reads as 'Swiss' is just the English translation of 'Switzer/Schweizer' and does therefore mean an individual Swiss person anyway but it's late and it's confusing which means I'm probably reading it sideways and back-to-front.

And if indeed you can't refer to a single Swiss person as "the Swiss", like "the French/the Frenchman, Danish/Dane" then what's the singular? Swissman? Swine sorry, childish. Ahem. It's just something that's never occurred to me and I do it all the time. At least I caught my first tennis slash mistake, where I assumed that because the country was called Switzerland and the people were Swiss, they'd speak a language called Swiss too (but no, they have to speak *German, French and Italian*. Honestly. I bet the Swiss people who came up with that one just wanted to laugh at all the n00bs who asked how to speak 'Swiss'. And it worked, because they're Swiss and much smarter than me. Dammit.)

This is, of course, a question born of tennis slash and Roger Federer, so have the random Roger Federer link for the day. It's kind of sweet that they have a whole section dedicated to him on what looks essentially like a news website.

Speaking of Roger, THEY PLAYED THE IMPERIAL MARCH AS HE CAME OUT ON COURT LAST NIGHT. When he was dressed head to toe in black. :D Sometimes I love you Americans beyond words. I laughed myself off the sofa because he would totally make a fantastic Evil Emperor Overlord of the Galaxy, especially when he looks so sexy all in black. Andy would be the young hero-type who just wants to fly his spaceship and blow things up but incidentally ends up saving the galaxy. Or maybe converting to th Dark Side, because he'd look pretty sexy all in black too, mmm. And they'd rule the galaxy together in their matching black outfits and women everywhere would turn to the Dark Side, because when evil looks that good why wouldn't you?

...This is perhaps a sign that I need to go to bed. Yes.

Comments

[hiro-chan.livejournal.com]

I had the same reaction too when I heard the song when he walked in XD! I wasn't sure at first, but then turned the volume up and then giggled my ass off - and Roger all in black is yuummmsss.

I kept laughing at the way the commentators kept debating about Roger's socks, one of them said Öh no, the black socks don't do me at all!~" while the other said "But it looks good on him. Look at him, he looks like an executor - or, or maybe darth vader!"and I just couldn't stop giggling. They kept mentioning Roger's socks once in a while which I found really amusing XD!

Can't wait for the Roger v Andy match up, it's been quite some time :). And Andy is in a pretty good form too :D!

[kindoftrouble.livejournal.com]

HAHAHAHA OMG THE IMPERIAL MARCH.

THIS DAY CANNOT GET ANY BETTER.

I think he can be the Swiss. Because I write that too and there is no other way to say it.

[kindoftrouble.livejournal.com]

Also, you just scored points on the random spontenaity of the awesome. :P

[redfiona99.livejournal.com]

I think you can just go 'the Swiss' because you can do that for 'the German'. I think it just looks a bit weird because it could be a whole group of them. I'd probably go with 'the Swiss man' or some such.

>>THEY PLAYED THE IMPERIAL MARCH AS HE CAME OUT ON COURT LAST NIGHT.<< Dear US Open organisers. I love you.

[chickybee32.livejournal.com]

...This is perhaps a sign that I need to go to bed. Yes.

I think it's a sign you need to write a star wars/tennis crossover. But y'know, that's just me...