K31s and intrusiveness

[dogfood]

Hello all,
I recently came into a K31 and lo and behold there was a troop tag! Having nothing better to do yesterday I went to see if I couldn't find its original owner. with help from a link at swissrifles.com I located (a person who I presume is) the soldier.
My question is this: Would it be misconstrued as intrusive were I attempt to make contact with the individual? Has anyone tried from their troop tags? If so, what was the response?
Thanks in advance for your input.
-dogfood

[Low-Pressure]

Hello all,
I recently came into a K31 and lo and behold there was a troop tag! Having nothing better to do yesterday I went to see if I couldn't find its original owner. with help from a link at swissrifles.com I located (a person who I presume is) the soldier.
My question is this: Would it be misconstrued as intrusive were I attempt to make contact with the individual? Has anyone tried from their troop tags? If so, what was the response?
Thanks in advance for your input.
-dogfood

If you go to the Swiss message board, they have a letter that you can use. You just need to fill out some of the rifles detail and your info.

[1-M-42]

In the Swiss Rifles forum you'll find some boiler plate examples of how to word your letter. I've sent three, got replies from two surviving family members and one soldier. All three were positive and very, very, interesting. Majority consensus is that they enjoy hearing from the new owner and that has been my experience as well. I actually had a neighbor write my letters by hand, in German, and attached my copy in English. I sent photos of the rifles and of me shooting them. Good luck, let us know how it turns out.

[dogfood]

Thanks for the tip about the letter template, I will use that. The individual's name is Italian in origin, and here comes the dumb question: is it correct to assume that he is most fluent Italian? My (uninformed) impression is that German is the lingua france of that nation. What language would be the best to use?

[1-M-42]

For the most part, they are multilingual. If you read the posts by Guisan in the Swiss Rifles message forum you'll see that generally, they recommend the language of the area. There are German, French and Italian Canons/regions, most likely you would want to send it in area specific language. The boilerplates come in all three. Also, most Swiss (from what I've been told) also do well with English. I used the templates but added quite a bit about where I live and how much shooting I do with the rifle.

http://theswissriflesdotcommessageboard.yuku.com/topic/3203#.T_ubOL9yjJw

[diopter]

Thanks for the tip about the letter template, I will use that. The individual's name is Italian in origin, and here comes the dumb question: is it correct to assume that he is most fluent Italian? My (uninformed) impression is that German is the lingua france of that nation. What language would be the best to use?

From my own experience from my many Swiss friends and acquaintances,
education and region they were raised in is the biggest factor.
I know many university educated Swiss who are fluent in many languages and I know some humble farmers who are fluent in the local language and just get by in one other.
In general, from my experience, the city dwelling German speakers are more likely to know more languages. German, English and French

The Francophones might understand some of the Swiss German but rare to be fully bilingually.

Italian speakers I've meet are very apt with languages.

I would imagine that the Swiss who did not immigrate to other countries would be more likely to be uni-lingual.

Since I'm in Quebec, most Swiss who moved here are quite comfortable in French. In fact, the Francophone Swiss complain bitterly about how the Francophone Quebecois mangle the language.
All the Swiss German speakers I know here in Quebec are comfortable in French and English.

[dogfood]

Since I'm in Quebec, most Swiss who moved here are quite comfortable in French. In fact, the Francophone Swiss complain bitterly about how the Francophone Quebecois mangle the language.
All the Swiss German speakers I know here in Quebec are comfortable in French and English.

Quebec eh? You're the only other Canadian I've met on the boards. Je me souviens!

[diopter]

I'm trying to forget.

[glennsche]

For the most part, they are multilingual. If you read the posts by Guisan in the Swiss Rifles message forum you'll see that generally, they recommend the language of the area. There are German, French and Italian Canons/regions, most likely you would want to send it in area specific language. The boilerplates come in all three. Also, most Swiss (from what I've been told) also do well with English. I used the templates but added quite a bit about where I live and how much shooting I do with the rifle.

http://theswissriflesdotcommessagebo...3#.T_ubOL9yjJw

There are 4 national languages in switzerland: German, French, Italian, and a language called Romansch, which is a dialect of italian/latin that time forgot and is spoken by about 30k people.

What was the place name where the soldier lived? if its an italian place name, then you've a rifle from the Canton of Ticino, which is just north of milan on the south side of the alps. If the place name is german but the soldiers name is italian, he's just of italian decent. there are many swiss of italian origin.

the Swiss Germans are the most numerous, followed by the French, and then the italians and Romansch. Statistically, since the German parts of switzerland have been more numerous and the few urban centers of switzerland of any size during the time these rifles were carried were in the german part, there are more of them around than french or italian.

as far as language acumen is concerned, i'd say the german swiss tend to be the best of the lot. The educated german swiss will speak his local Swiss German dialect, high german, will have had French in school but probably forgotten most of it unless he lives near the French/German linguistic line in switzerland, and English. The French Swiss tend to speak English more readily than German, and there are few French-swiss who speak the Swiss-German dialects. The italians tend to ... be italian. and speak italian. and only italian. However since virtually every part of switzerland has sizeable foreign minorities, you can get by with any of the national languages and english any where.

Oddly enough, when you have a Swiss German, a French Swiss and an Italian swiss at a table together, the one language they can all agree on is usually english.