Italian is pretty nice to hear, too.
German can sound wonderful if it is spoken by the right person.
The ingenuity of German is that every German speaker can create new words on the spot just by putting basic words together. We do this all the time and I'm really missing this feature when talking in other languages.
An other nice feature: You speak what you write - every letter is spoken and every letter has mostly the same pronunciation in every word.
Last but not least we have many pictorial combined words that are easy to remember if you learn German and get the hang of it:
Examples:
Glühbirne = light bulb
Glühen = to glow
Birne = Pear
A "Glühbirne" is a glowing pear
Schneckenhaus = Snail shell
Schnecke = Snail
Haus = House
A "Schneckenhaus" is the house of a snail
Regenschirm = Umbrella
Regen = Rain
Schirm = Shield, Screen
A "Regenschirm" is a screen/shield that protects you from rain
We have thousands of these combined words.
The ingenuity of German is that every German speaker can create new words on the spot just by putting basic words together. We do this all the time and I'm really missing this feature when talking in other languages.
An other nice feature: You speak what you write - every letter is spoken and every letter has mostly the same pronunciation in every word.
Last but not least we have many pictorial combined words that are easy to remember if you learn German and get the hang of it:
Examples:
Glühbirne = light bulb
Glühen = to glow
Birne = Pear
A "Glühbirne" is a glowing pear
Schneckenhaus = Snail shell
Schnecke = Snail
Haus = House
A "Schneckenhaus" is the house of a snail
Regenschirm = Umbrella
Regen = Rain
Schirm = Shield, Screen
A "Regenschirm" is a screen/shield that protects you from rain
We have thousands of these combined words.
Last edited:
As I already said several times : "That awful German language" by Mark Twain (author of Huckleberry Finn) is a fun read !
Besides, I listened through this CD yeasterday - and found that it sounded a bit like Opera ... like some kind of a choir consisting entirely of men ... To my ears, unused to these kind of songs, it was a "tour de force".
Besides, I listened through this CD yeasterday - and found that it sounded a bit like Opera ... like some kind of a choir consisting entirely of men ... To my ears, unused to these kind of songs, it was a "tour de force".
Put on your diving suit, fasten your seatbelts, and dive into the depth of Tolkien's language : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sigelwara_Land
Abi Gezunt - a nice yiddish song:
Translation to German:
Ein bisschen Sonne, ein bisschen Regen,
Ein ruhiger Ort um seinen Kopf hinzulegen,
Solange wir gesund sind, kann man glücklich sein!
Ein Schuh, eine Socke, ein Kleid ohne Flicken,
In der Tasche drei vier Zlotys,
Solange wir gesund sind, kann man glücklich sein!
Die Luft ist frei, für jeden gleich,
die Sonne scheint für jeden, ob arm oder reich.
Ein bisschen Freude, ein bisschen Lachen,
einmal mit einem Freund ein Schnäpschen trinken,
solange wir gesund sind, kann man glücklich sein!
Einer sucht Reichtümer,
einer sucht reiche Leute,
um die ganze Welt einzunehmen.
Einer meint das ganze Glück,
hängt nur vom Geld ab.
Sollen alle suchen,
sollen alle kriechen.
Nur ich denke so bei mir,
das ist alles völlig überflüssig,
weil das Glück steht vor meiner Tür.
Ein bisschen Sonne, ein bisschen Regen,
ein ruhiger Ort um seinen Kopf hinzulegen,
solange wir gesund sind, kann man glücklich sein!
Translation to German:
Ein bisschen Sonne, ein bisschen Regen,
Ein ruhiger Ort um seinen Kopf hinzulegen,
Solange wir gesund sind, kann man glücklich sein!
Ein Schuh, eine Socke, ein Kleid ohne Flicken,
In der Tasche drei vier Zlotys,
Solange wir gesund sind, kann man glücklich sein!
Die Luft ist frei, für jeden gleich,
die Sonne scheint für jeden, ob arm oder reich.
Ein bisschen Freude, ein bisschen Lachen,
einmal mit einem Freund ein Schnäpschen trinken,
solange wir gesund sind, kann man glücklich sein!
Einer sucht Reichtümer,
einer sucht reiche Leute,
um die ganze Welt einzunehmen.
Einer meint das ganze Glück,
hängt nur vom Geld ab.
Sollen alle suchen,
sollen alle kriechen.
Nur ich denke so bei mir,
das ist alles völlig überflüssig,
weil das Glück steht vor meiner Tür.
Ein bisschen Sonne, ein bisschen Regen,
ein ruhiger Ort um seinen Kopf hinzulegen,
solange wir gesund sind, kann man glücklich sein!
(I don't know if this thread is the right one to post my comment, but here it goes)
The first thing I learned playing the first Dragon's Dogma game is the pronunciation of the word "Arisen". I imagined that, being a word derived from "rise", the pronunciation of the letter 'i' would sound the same as in, for example, Rise of Nations.
But no, the way the word is said in the game it's more like "Areesen" (with the letter 'i' as in "see").
Until some time ago, I also thought that the letter 'i' in the word "engine" was pronounced as in "swine", "brine", "fine", "pine", because all of these end in '-ine'. But again, I was wrong, so wrong
And they say that Portuguese is a difficult language
)The first thing I learned playing the first Dragon's Dogma game is the pronunciation of the word "Arisen". I imagined that, being a word derived from "rise", the pronunciation of the letter 'i' would sound the same as in, for example, Rise of Nations.
But no, the way the word is said in the game it's more like "Areesen" (with the letter 'i' as in "see").
Until some time ago, I also thought that the letter 'i' in the word "engine" was pronounced as in "swine", "brine", "fine", "pine", because all of these end in '-ine'. But again, I was wrong, so wrong
And they say that Portuguese is a difficult language
I think there's a rule but it has plenty of exceptions. That reminds me of an English teacher at school who repeated on and on that we had to check the pronunciation of every word in the dictionary, or we'd be wrong.(I don't know if this thread is the right one to post my comment, but here it goes
The first thing I learned playing the first Dragon's Dogma game is the pronunciation of the word "Arisen". I imagined that, being a word derived from "rise", the pronunciation of the letter 'i' would sound the same as in, for example, Rise of Nations.
But no, the way the word is said in the game it's more like "Areesen" (with the letter 'i' as in "see").
Until some time ago, I also thought that the letter 'i' in the word "engine" was pronounced as in "swine", "brine", "fine", "pine", because all of these end in '-ine'. But again, I was wrong, so wrong
And they say that Portuguese is a difficult language
I believe that English is simple when you scratch the surface, but it gets more hairy once you dig a little more. French is hard from the start, but I have the impression the pronunciation isn't too difficult (and I'm probably wrong).
As a homework for next time, you have to guess the pronunciation of ewe and Leicester, which could be very useful if you wanted to buy sheep or visit that city, for example.
What's a "dord"?
Here's what the Merriam-Webster dictionary says: "dord (dôrd), n. Physics & Chem. Density.". To be more precise, this is what the dictionary said in the 30's. Actually it's a "ghost" word, a word that doesn't exist (in the English language).
According to Wikipedia (M-W also confirms this):
"On 31 July 1931, Austin M. Patterson, the dictionary's chemistry editor, sent in a slip reading "D or d, cont./density." This was intended to add "density" to the existing list of words that the letter "D" can abbreviate. The phrase "D or d" was misinterpreted as a single, run-together word: Dord"
It wasn't removed completely until 1947.
pibbuR who doesn't know of any dictionary containing "pibbuR" (they way it's spelled).
PS. If you consult en.wiktionary.org you will find "dord" listed as "type of ancient Irish war-horn". But it's not found in Merriam Webster, which I understand is an American dictionary. So maybe the word, deriving from Irish is not part of US-English. DS.
Here's what the Merriam-Webster dictionary says: "dord (dôrd), n. Physics & Chem. Density.". To be more precise, this is what the dictionary said in the 30's. Actually it's a "ghost" word, a word that doesn't exist (in the English language).
According to Wikipedia (M-W also confirms this):
"On 31 July 1931, Austin M. Patterson, the dictionary's chemistry editor, sent in a slip reading "D or d, cont./density." This was intended to add "density" to the existing list of words that the letter "D" can abbreviate. The phrase "D or d" was misinterpreted as a single, run-together word: Dord"
It wasn't removed completely until 1947.
pibbuR who doesn't know of any dictionary containing "pibbuR" (they way it's spelled).
PS. If you consult en.wiktionary.org you will find "dord" listed as "type of ancient Irish war-horn". But it's not found in Merriam Webster, which I understand is an American dictionary. So maybe the word, deriving from Irish is not part of US-English. DS.
So it's a dud?
Funny how words come to be. Sometimes, I also wonder if people making dictionary don't add a few words of their making, just for posterity, without everyone knowing.
'Wi-Fi' Doesn't Mean What You Think It Means
Wi-Fi was coined in 1999 by the same marketing company that came up with the name Prozac.
gizmodo.com
"pibbuR" who means pibbuR
Fun fact: Wikipedia claims that it stands for 'Wide Fidelity', but the only reference it gives doesn't confirm it. Apparently, the IEEE wrote that it was a short for 'Wireless Fidelity', so who knows what's true.'Wi-Fi' Doesn't Mean What You Think It Means
Wi-Fi was coined in 1999 by the same marketing company that came up with the name Prozac.
"pibbuR" who means pibbuR
I only know Hi-Fi. And Lo-Fi. And maybe Sci-Fi.
When words are exported to other languages things can sometimes become a bit weird. I just discovered (from solving a crossword puzzle) a Norwegian word I didn't know. "Arschlær". It is a piece of leather (Norwegian "lær") on the "posterior of the pelvic region" (aka buttock) of trousers worn by miners. Some of the Germans here may recognize the first part of the word, "Arsch" which means said body part. But as far as I know it's considered a bit vulgar. Not in Norwegian, "Arschlær" (sometimes spelled "arslær") is an official Norwegian word, in official Norwegian dictionaries, and is not considered vulgar at all.
On the other way around we have the word "fartlek", a Norwegian word ("fart"=speed, "lek"=play or playful), but the Swedes also claim it. According to Merriam-Webster it means "endurance training in which a runner alternates periods of sprinting with periods of jogging". Yes, it's also an English word, deriving from Norwegian (or Swedish. Danish?) A bit strange in my opinion. Surely it's possible to construct a similar word in pure English (perhaps there already is one)? Also because (or maybe that's exactly the reason for staying with it) the English tend to find our use of the word "fart" quite funny.
"pibbuR" which according to pibbuR is the same word in every language (possibly using different characters). Still is, if it isn't.
On the other way around we have the word "fartlek", a Norwegian word ("fart"=speed, "lek"=play or playful), but the Swedes also claim it. According to Merriam-Webster it means "endurance training in which a runner alternates periods of sprinting with periods of jogging". Yes, it's also an English word, deriving from Norwegian (or Swedish. Danish?) A bit strange in my opinion. Surely it's possible to construct a similar word in pure English (perhaps there already is one)? Also because (or maybe that's exactly the reason for staying with it) the English tend to find our use of the word "fart" quite funny.
"pibbuR" which according to pibbuR is the same word in every language (possibly using different characters). Still is, if it isn't.
Last edited:
It may sound a little bit vulgar for non-miners or people that never had contact with miners. I think it will die out soon, because coal-mining is a thing of the past here in Germany.