Bereavement

The proper word for condom is feminine, eine Präservative. They do have various other terms for it, of course. Of course, there are no rules to how a language develops, just rules to follow once it is standardized. Electronic media has helped wipe out many colorful local languages, such as my father-in-law’s native language of Pladdütsch. My wife’s cousin still speaks it with her siblings and friends from the village where she grew up. My wife understands much of it, but never spoke it at home because her mom’s family didn’t speak it, and so her parents never spoke it at home.

Only down in Switzerland has the national government encouraged the continued use of the local dialects of German, which is so different from standard (“high” ) German that in Germany, any program from Switzerland is either dubbed or has German subtitles. My wife can’t understand it at all. I’m OK with big city Schwyzerdüütsch (Zürich, Basel), but some of the versions from farther out in the hinterlands are beyond my meager comprehension.