I was wondering what zwiefacher meant today. Just typed it into google translate and got twofold as the meaning. Seems like an odd name for a snuff. Is that just poor machine translation?
I think it’s “Two More” but since it’s a Bavarian word, it’s hard to tell.
“Couple” perhaps? The image is a man and woman (a couple) dancing. This snuff is also supposed to be a marriage of snuff and schmalzler, so without knowing the literal meaning, I think that’s what the gist is. We have a lot of native German speakers around here, hopefully they can fill us in. I try to translate all my foreign snuffs, and even the English ones with odd names.
It very well could mean Couple. “Two more” is just my attempt at a literal translation, but it could be slang for couple.
I dont speak the bavarian dialect, but my interpretation would be that zwiefacher is an old word (or dialect word) for zweifach which means double, dual or twice. could have something to do with the tobacco or so, but Im just thinking aloud here.
@ Xander/cstokes: Your damn close…loosely translated it could mean two types, or two subjects, to two of something combined…like Schmalzler and Menthol.
it’s also a type of dance I’ve been told.
@viking, thanks for your pedantic correction concerning our erroneous transposing of the e and the i in Zwiefacher: "Zwiefacher (not “zwei”).
Thanks for all the answers.
Well, this thread apparently truely stumped everyone. Now that we all know the correct spelling of this particular Bernard Schnuptabak GMBH product (including myself who apparently can’t read the label in front of me), here is a definition of the word Zwiefacher from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zwiefacher However, even though it is spelled Zwie…which apparently is intended to mean two (2), the correct spelling of two in German is Zwei. So the incorrect spelling Zwie is either a mistake that’s been ‘lived with’ or a dialectual thing going on…ya got me. Fach it !!
Hmm, well even though Bavarians speak a different dialect, they write high Deutsch. I’m going to contact Bernard’s directly and will report back.
And just to confuse things further many Bavarians use ‘zwo’ for two (pron. tsvo). Zwie is just a variant.
I learned what little German I know while living in Heidelberg for several years, and even there in the State of Baden Wurtenburg ‘zwo’ (pronounced as you indicated: tsvo) was often substituted for zwei. And the Bavarian dialectical quirk of truncating words with the letter L to form the diminutive, i.e. kindl vs. kinder , madl vs. madchen, was also common “on the street”. Tschuss… (Note to self: need to figure out how to type umlauts on an English keyboard)
ö is alt + 148 ë is alt + 137 ü is alt + 129
Ä is alt + 142 ä is alt + 132 Ö is alt + 153 Ü is alt + 154
You could just install the Norwegian keyboard layout. Most of it’s the same, but you can use the right alt key to make pretty much any accent you want. I’ve never seen ŋ in a word, but I can type it now.
Facher is a type of voice, uasually revered to in operas. Search for “facher” in wikipedia and you will see what I mean. Zwiefacher thus means “two voices” like an alt and a soprano, for instance.
That would make sense. 1) it’s a mix of Schmalzler and snuff 2)there are 2 people on the tin, and they look like they are singing!
The first documented usage of the word Zwiefach was in 1780. It loosely translates as “two times”. Although this may be indicative of the two different time signatures, It is believed that the title actually refers to the couple being tightly wound against each other, a departure from earlier traditions. The dance was originally known by various other names in different regions, such as Schweinauer, Schleifer, Übernfuaß, Mischlich, Grad und Ungrad, Neu-Bayerischer and, above all Bairischer (meaning Farmer Dance and sometimes confused with the Bavarian Polka.)–from wikipedia thanks to Z_2K. Note it says “the couple being tightly wound against each other”
Thanks for the info Xander. Here is a link to many of the alt codes you can use with windows. Note: the numbers must be entered on the number key pad not the number keys above the letters.Alt key codes