Does anyone know where this "Gal" word comes from? Does it stem from another word at all?

I've heard it used a few times and can think of a few meanings for it, but is there a one word translation for this?

It's a kind of qualifier at the end of a sentence like "right?", as in "I'll have the blue one, right?"

I was told it comes from "geil" which can mean sexy or hot or wicked (bit of a saucy connotation!) but has been tempered down to just mean a qualifier to a sentence.

It even comes in its polite format "gellen Sie?" which, to a non-native speaker, seems a bit inappropriate...

It's the Swiss equivalent of "innit", innit.

Not sure about the derivation from Geil. I know that in the Schwarzwald they use "Gelt" in the same way

interesting, i picked it up as meaning "right?" too.

So if it stems from "Geil" it could have a lot of meanings, most of which are of a sexual nature...that seems to be a strange word to throw around at the end of a sentence, "gal?"

I just looked it up in the German Wiki: they say that it's an abbreviation of "es möge gelten" i.e. to be true or valid. It's used in southern Germany, Austria and also in Alsace, and in Züri-deutsch it's either "gäll?" or polite "gället-Sie?" - equivalent to "innit?" or "n'est-ce pas?" in French

http://de.wiktionary.org/wiki/gell

Yes but if you see how some English words are bandied about far, far away from their traditional meaning (wicked, cool, etc.) you can see how it can happen.

Ha ha. I just found and sent the German Wiki link to my Swiss colleague (who gave me the "Geil" answer) and told her she gave me a "bum steer".

She's supposed to be checking over some German meeting minutes for me later - think I might put them on EF instead...

So to sum it all up - "Gell" on dict.cc says it can be used as "[isn't that] right?" or "isn't it?/ innit?" (being a Londoner I will now use this religiously, innit?)

It stems from the word Gelten, with the meaning 'to be valid' in this case.

Thanks for the help.

One example of using it:

Switzerland is the only place which after being there, you think high german is a romantic language, GALL?!

I love these sort of expressions...
I feel more at home using another language when I know how to say things like "you know" "so" (at the beginning of a sentence) "anyway" "hey" and all that...

and God knows I hear them all the time so it's not difficult to figure out what they mean...

"Weisch?" ; )

I just sounds weird when people say Schönen Abig, gell......
Good night, right?

Everytime I hear it, i think the Swiss are Andrew Dice Clay wannabees


Also, Weisch especially seems to be way overused. It seems its particularly popular with foreign swiss german speakers

It's kind of like "take care, ok?", know what I mean?

I actually figured out "weisch" from my Swiss step daughter...
She uses it constantly...

She can't seem to start a sentence without it...