Talk:Zwieback

In German Wikipedia there is a nice image:

Another one: 

Russian?
I thought these were german.--Lionelbrits (talk) 19:00, 12 December 2007 (UTC)


 * I added clarification of the origin. ✤ JonHarder talk 16:22, 15 December 2007 (UTC)

"Zwieback" is German word and it is pretty much a German bread, at least how it is baked nowadays. It has never been Russian, and was invented in Italy and also the ancient Greeks and Romans had a "Zwieback" -Marie- —Preceding unsigned comment added by 78.94.91.110 (talk) 21:38, 29 February 2008 (UTC)


 * In my opinion, this article does not describe what is usually meant by Zwieback. This article should be moved to a name which more accurately reflects what it actually describes, Mennonite Zwieback or Mennonite zwieback, plus the obvious disambiguation pages. Michael Bednarek (talk) 07:52, 15 March 2008 (UTC)

I think I've taken care of the problems described here. Thanks for the photo suggestions, I've included one from above. If there's anything else wrong with the article please let me know here.  Equazcion •✗/C • 13:25, 9 Apr 2008 (UTC)

Russian Mennonite zwieback
There's a separate article on that. This article is about something else -- thin crispy slices called plain "zwieback". I've reverted much of the article text to reflect that. Equazcion ( talk ) 23:52, 19 Apr 2010 (UTC)

Explanation of "ei" --> "ie" reversal in English?
This article needs an explanation of why "zwieback" is spelled with "ie" rather than with "ei" as in standard modern German.

I'd especially like to see the following possibilities investigated:

1) Did the German or indirectly-German immigrants who brought zwieback to America spell it "zwei-", such that it was Americans who changed it to "zwie-" (presumably to match their idea of what a word pronounced that way should look like in print)?

2) Did the immigrants speak (and, by extension, write in) a regional dialect in which the word for "two" (or, more loosely, "twice") is spelled "zwie" rather than "zwei"? Does/did any such dialect render the same diphthong as "ie" in other words as well, and if so, what are some examples?

3) Was "zwie" a/the standard spelling of "[two]" at the time the term was coined, such that the term "zwieback" stabilized as a "frozen form" and the spelling of what is now "zwei" evolved away from it? (As above, is any such "ie"-to-"ei" change reflected in other words, and if so, what are some examples?)
 * I think zwie is a now-lost form of a word that meant "twice" rather than "two". There's a German etymological dictionary online somewhere that would know (Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache) but I cant seem to find it now.  —  Soap  —  18:21, 23 November 2011 (UTC)
 * http://www.koeblergerhard.de/der/DERZ.pdf says "zwie, Präf., Nebenform von zwei für Zusammensetzungen, s. zwei"  — Soap  —  18:25, 23 November 2011 (UTC)
 * http://woerterbuchnetz.de/DWB/?sigle=DWB&mode=Vernetzung&hitlist=&patternlist=&lemid=GZ13244 has a lot more info. It's definitely used in German, and for more words than just zwieback.  —  Soap  —  04:40, 28 November 2011 (UTC)
 * Right, "zwie" is not an actual word itself anymore, but rarly used in old combined words like "Zwielicht" (twilight) or "Zwiegespräch" (dialog). 137.226.83.164 (talk) 12:21, 4 January 2012 (UTC)


 * [i]In der Woche zwier...[/i] I don't think native speakers dissect the word in casual usage, it's just a noun - not [i]Zweitgebackenes[/i] or something. I also would take some offense with Zwieback being [i]brittle[/i]. It does produce annoying little crumbs on breaking or eating, but it isn't that easy to break, pretty stable. The slices are about 1 cm thick. If not too fresh and/or having absorbed moisture the slices get somewhat gummy-y. --88.74.151.47 (talk) 14:40, 11 May 2015 (UTC)