Street Language

continued

An Old West Sider dining at Metzger’s who didn’t want to be quoted by name says Schall’s explanation resonates with her. She says that, back in the 1950s, knowing how to pronounce that guttural “ch” would tag you as a German and “an immigrant kid. The second- or third-generation Germans would just drop the ‘ch.’ No one would admit to being able to pronounce that German ‘ch.’”   

[Originally published in December, 2012.]