My dad used to sing the German version, usually when he was in a merry mood. 
There are a lot of words of yiddish origin in Dutch: http://forward.com/culture/140080/doubling-dutch/ - “many of these words are related to the world of petty crime or money”
“De mazzel” is still a common expression for good luck in Dutch
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Some lovely Yiddish words have penetrated our vernacular, too. To name just a few that begin with sch, we have “schlemiel, schlep, schmaltz, schmuck”. An American Jewish friend of mine taught me some biological words that I can’t share in company as refined as this. 
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Grüezi! 
Swiss German is also a written language, although not in formal letters, e-mails etc. But when leaving little notes for co-workers, or writing SMS or WhatsApp messages, we’re using a lot of Swiss German. The good thing is, that there aren’t any general grammar rules, you just write the words down the way you hear them, and it doesn’t matter if you write “Schwiizertütsch” or “Schwiizterdütsch”…and, of course, every canton has their own dialect. I think the coolest dialect is the one spoken in the canton Wallis, as it sounds sweet and unique; and it’s closer to Old High German than other dialects. This fact is elaborated very well here:
P.S. A lovely Swiss German word is “Bünzli” (adjective: bünzlig). It’s not only a Swiss surname but it describes somewhat narrow minded and overly honest Swiss people - or a typical Swiss object. It can be used in a derogatory or a friendly, well-meaning and teasing way, it depends very much on the tone. When we see a cuckoo clock or an advertisement for Appenzeller Räss Chäs (cheese) on a poster, we usually go: “Das isch dänn büüüüüüüüünzlig!” 
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Fantastic insight into Swiss German! I love the small bit about the Wallis dialect (I’m looking over this site now 
).
I used to speak quite good German, and it’s a shame that I’ve forgotten so much (vor ich habe viel deutsch gesprochen, aber jetzt ich habe am meisten vergessen. Die Woerter, die, Grammatik… Schade 
) but I would indeed love to learn some Swiss German, if not become strong again with that ‘general’ dialect… German is on my list and I am eagerly awaiting a German course for a serious refresher.
Well, feel free to post more about Swiss German. Your post was a pleasure to read. 
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Oh, nein, ganz im Gegenteil, Sie sprechen sehr gut deutsch! Wenn hier auf SSi ein Deutschkurs verfügbar sein wird, werden Sie schnell Fortschritte machen und sich sofort wieder an die Grammatik, die Worte und Ausdrücke erinnern, die Sie damals gelernt haben. 
As for cheese and language, this video is a Fondue commercial and depicts the relationship between Germans and Swiss in a very humorous way. The lady could be lovingly called Frau Bünzli, and she’s doing her best to explain her German friend that in Swiss German, politeness is essential…and that Chäs (cheese) and Fondue have to be pronounced correctly!
You know, the invisible border between the French speaking part and the Swiss German speaking part of Switzerland is called “Röschtigrabe” (rösti - ditch) and describes the cultural and political differences and the latent conflict between the Francophone and the German part of Switzerland. Rösti, (fried potatoes), a Swiss national dish, is loved on both sides of the ditch…
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With only 37 people left able to “speak” this most interesting language we have to have SSi Sfyria.
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I’ve never heard of Sfyria before, thanks a lot for making me aware of it, Gruntius, it’s most interesting! I can imagine one needs quite a good hearing to be able to distinguish the heights and lows of the whistles, the melody of the whistled words.
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Absolutely amazing — I’d never heard of it either, but just found this article about it: http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20170731-greeces-disappearing-whistled-language Must be one of the hardest languages in the world to learn, but one that definitely needs and deserves to be saved!
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Maybe it would have to be called WSiS — Whistle Something in Sfyria! 
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It suggest some minor difficulties in how we deal with the building process, but possible to work around them, I’d think…
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I’d love to see Luxembourgish here.
I have relatives in Luxembourg and would also be eligible for a passport - though that takes a long time and costs too much for me. My cousin tries to convince me to learn Luxembourgish, but there is very little online. One challenge is that most of the online information assumes you know either German, French, or both before you start. I don’t know either of those languages.
I took years of Spanish lessons in school and I remember more Welsh than Spanish because of this course. I am also working on the Spanish course here to relearn and re remember the Spanish I learned years ago.
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I’d love to see Luxembourgish here.
Me too. When I looked after Aberystwyth’s soon-to-be-sadly-missed ERASMUS (*) exchange programme we had a Letzebuergesch-speaking student from Luxembourg. I took him with us to a student recruitment fair in the City of Luxembourg where I was delighted to hear him talk to many prospective students in that language. It gave us a definite competitive advantage over the other UK universities.
(*) The EU’s ERASMUS programme evolved from the vision and energy of Hywel Ceri Jones - an Aberystwyth graduate who became a senior figure in the Comisiwn Ewropeaidd.
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I am going to write to my cousin and tell him about this site. He is very passionate about his country and language and he may be able to help or he may know others who could help with this endeavor.
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When our software is ready for the next round of testing, we’d be very happy to look at some smaller languages…
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Thank you! I will keep watch for this, for sure, and keep on learning Welsh and Spanish!
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Since we discussed Australian Aboriginal languages on SSi earlier in this thread, I just thought others here might be interested in this article from Australia: NSW introduces nation’s first laws to recognise and revive Indigenous languages
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If we’re gathering pipe dreams, my contributions would be SSiInuktitut, SSiRomansh, SSiMaltese, and SSiNiuean!
Inuktitut and Romansh have the disadvantage that, like Welsh, they don’t have a standard dialect, so you’d have to pick one (two main contenders for Romansh - Sursilvan and Vallader -, and for Inuktitut I suppose South Baffin is the one that comes to mind given where the capital and biggest settlement is).
As for Lojban, I’d be really curious how well that would work out! The grammar is something quite different from pretty much any natural language, and I’ve heard it claimed that learning the entire language is impossible for humans. (Though subsets that map more or less closely to how other languages work are easier.)
I wonder how much the twins brought up learning Lojban ended up being able to use productively.
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It took a little bit to get the message across to my cousin, but he put me in touch with Jerome Lulling, who has worked hard to create language learning programs for Luxembourgish. He knows the software isn’t ready yet, but he will be on alert to hear whenever you are ready to add their language and he will help you find some native speakers. Jerome Lulling is mentioned on the Wiki Languages page: “Between 2000 and 2002, Luxembourgish linguist Jérôme Lulling compiled a lexical database of 125,000 word forms as the basis for the very first Luxembourgish spellchecker (Projet C.ORT.IN.A).” I think I was clear enough that he will know not to expect it in the next weeks or months, that this is a long term project of adding languages.
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Wonderful! SSiLuxembourgish will be a great addition to the platform. Looking forward to it.
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