May | 2013 | Earthquake Words/Erdbeben Wörter

21/05/2013

Daily Post

If it’s all the same to you…

We have just finished a holiday weekend (Pfingsten – “Ascension” – see suggestions for how to celebrate here) here in Hamburg and during it people were frequently wishing each other well to which one reply is Danke, gleichfalls – “Thanks, same to you.”

As an adverb, gleichfalls also means “likewise,” “equally” and “in the same way” which makes sense as gleich can mean “same,” “equal/ly,” “similar” and “alike.” According to German is Easy, both gleich and the English word “like” come from the same root. The word falls on its own is a conjunction and can mean “if” or “in case” “or in the event/case of” and it appears in at least two other useful compound words:

jedenfalls – “anyway” or “anyhow” or “in any event”
ebenfalls – “also” or “likewise” or “ditto” or “as well” or, like gleichfalls, “same to you”

There is an additional family of meanings for gleich that refer to time: “in a minute,” “straight away,” “just” or “right.” It can also mean “immediately,” although I’ve usually seen this translated as sofort (or as I just learned from dict.cc schleunigst) and perhaps also “soon,” although again, I’ve more typically seen this translated as bald.

Since I opened with a farewell (der Abschied), I’ll close with another – bis gleich! – meaning in this case “see you here on Earthquake Words tomorrow, similar bat time, same bat channel!”

Tagged alike, also, anyhow, anyway, ascension, bald, Batman, bis gleich, Danke-gleichfalls, der Abschied, ditto, ebenfalls, equal, equality, equally, etymology, falls, farewell, gleich, holiday, if, immediately, in an minute, in case, in the same way, jedenfalls, just, like, likewise, Pfingsten, right, see you soon, similar, similarity, sofort, soon, straight away, Thanks-same to you, time

20/05/2013

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Daily Post

Cats, dogs, buckets and strings

As we’ve been having rain – der Regen – here in Hamburg the last few days, I thought I’d learn more about expressions describing or involving “rain.” First, here are a few that allow you to talk about rainy weather.

Es regnet Bindfäden – “It’s raining cats and dogs” – literally “It’s raining strings”
Es gießt Strippen – “It’s pouring down” – literally “It’s pouring strings”
Es gießt wie aus Kübeln – “It’s pouring like buckets” (this seems to work literally and figuratively)
Es regnet in Strömen – “It’s bucketing down” – literally “It’s raining in streams”
Es schüttet ordentlich – “It’s chucking it down” – literally something like “It’s pouring neatly”
Es nieselt – “It’s drizzling”
der Regentropfen – “raindrops”
der Guss – “downpour”
der Platzregen – “downpour”
der Wolkenbruch – “downpour

Pons.eu served up some nice idioms that involve rain:

jemanden im Regen stehen lassen – “to leave someone in the lurch” – literally “to leave someone standing in the rain”

vom Regen in die Traufe kommen – “out of the frying pan and into the fire” or “to go from bad to worse” – literally something like “to come from [standing in] the rain to [being under] the eaves” which was described as moving from having individual drops falling on you to having a sheet or steam of falling water hitting you by redensarten.net.

ein warmer Regen – “a windfall” – literally “a warm rain,” it is interesting how both expressions refer to the weather

Himmel, Arsch und Wolkenbruch/Zwirn! – “For crying out loud!’ – literally “Heaven, ass and cloudburst/[strong] thread”

Finally, in English we say “Every cloud has a silver lining,” which is surely worth remembering when days of rain are getting to you!

Tagged cats, das Sprichwort, der Guss, der Platzregen, der Regentropfen, der Wolkenbruch, die Bindfäden, die Kübeln, die Redensart, die Strippen, dogs, downpour, ein warmer Regen, Every cloud has a silver lining, For crying out loud, gießen, Himmel Arsch und Wolkenbruch, idoms, im Regen stehen lassen, nieseln, out of the frying pan and into the fire, proverbs, rain, raindrops, Regen, regnen, schütten, Strömen, strings, to drizzle, to leave someone in the lurch, to pour, to rain, vom Regen in die Traufe kommen, weather, windfall

19/05/2013

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Daily Post

Getting lost

Today when I went for a run, I ended up getting lost as a result of my being new to the area and my penchant for trying new paths while on a run in order to avoid repeating part of route unless absolutely necessary. While lost, I began to ponder both “to get lost” and the expression “Get lost!” as I didn’t, until researching this piece, know how to say them in German.

For “to get lost” I discovered several options, two of which are reflexive, sich verirren – for which no meaning other than “to get lost” is given – and sich verlaufen – which can also mean “to disperse” or in the case of a crowd “to thin out.” This second was particularly appealing given that I happened to get lost while “running” which can be translated as laufen.

There are also options that appear to apply more to things getting lost such as abhandenkommen (which appears in the phrase Diebstahl Plünderung Abhandenkommen – “theft, pilferage and non-delivery”) or verlorengehen – “to go astray” – which it appears is typically used to refer to something lost in the post/mail.

There is also hopsgehen which is a slang term that can mean “to die” (think “to kick the bucket”) or “to get broken/break down” as well as “to get lost.” One thing I loved about this is its past tense – ging hops.

And of course, just as in English, there are also figurative versions of “getting lost” such as nicht mehr weiter wissen – “to be [all] at sea” – or “to be lost in a book/in thought” – in Gedanken/ein Buch versunken sein.

And given the command form “Get lost!” means something quite different, I couldn’t resist searching for German parallels for this phrase. One that I uncovered is Zieh Leine! (literally something like “Pull the rope!”) for which pons.eu also offers the translations “Go fly a kite!” and “Take a hike.” A second is Mach dich vom Acker! (literally something like “Make/Take yourself from the field!”) and appears to come from military slang for leaving the practice field and possible going AWOL. (For more slang from this part of the alphabet see this page from the Goethe Institute).

Once again it has been a pleasure getting lost in both English and German, proving to me the proverb that Der Weg ist das Ziel.

Tagged abhandenkommen, Der Weg ist das Ziel, get lost!, hopsgehen, in Gedanken/ein Buch versunken sein, laufen, Mach dich vom Acker!, nicht mehr weiter wissen, post, proverb, running, sich verirren, sich verlaufen, to be all at sea, to be lost in thought/in a book, to get lost, to go astray, to kick the bucket, verlorengehen, Zieh Leine!

18/05/2013

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Daily Post

Unfortunate songs?!

Tonight is one of my favorite kitsch classics – The Eurovision Song Contest – which puts me in mind of an error I made a few months ago when talking about this event. Instead of saying “songs” – die Lieder – I said *die Leider which, if it were a noun, would perhaps mean something like “the unfortunates” as the most common meaning of leider is “unfortunately.” Now this is an error that should only be common among people whose native tongue includes both “ei” and “ie” as vowel combinations and who have some idea of how the word “song” is spelled in German. In other words, I made this error as a result of mis-recalling how the word das Lied – “song” – is spelt, rather than mis-recalling how it sounds.

It is also possible that pushing me away from the correct spelling, and thus the correct pronunciation, is the English false friend “lied” which shares the spelling but neither the meaning nor the sound of das Lied. Or perhaps some interference was caused by the fact that we use “lied” in English to talk about a type of music, but keep the English pronunciation so that it matches the past tense for “to lie” (lügen – past participle gelogen)?! (You may know the “lied” as the “art song” – it is usually a poem on a romantic or pastoral theme that has been set to music: http://www.recmusic.org/lieder/.)

Of course, doing the research for today’s post also allowed me to discover something else new and wonderful, namely this blog about die Rechtschreibung (“correct spelling” but somehow also something more than that since this was the result of a planned to change to German in 1996) : http://woerter.germanblogs.de/archive/2012/09/23/es-tut-mir-leid-oder-es-tut-mir-leid-wie-schreibt-man-das-richtig.htm I have to say that I am impressed that someone would make a series of videos about spelling – Rechtschreib TV.

Not to be too critical of the Eurovision, as it is certainly a cultural phenomenon worth understanding – Abba got their start this way and Bonnie Tyler is performing this year’s British entry – if for no other reason than then one can say nil point with authority, but I have to think that there might be more value in watching a couple hours of Rechtschreib TV!

Tagged Abba, art song, Bonnie Tyler, das Lied, die Rechtschreibung, Eurovision Song Contest, false friend, gelogen, lügen, leider, lied, Rechtschreib TV, sound errors, spelling errors, spelling reform, to lie

17/05/2013

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Daily Post

Harboring fools?

Last week the Hamburg harbor had its annual birthday celebration (for some photos, click here) and as a result there has been much talk of ships, sailing and cargo. In these discussions, a couple of words have stood out for me. The first is the word for tugboat – der Schlepper – because in English we can talk about moving things about by saying that we are “shlepping them.” This happens to be another example of the connection between Yiddish and German which both have the verb schleppen, meaning “to drag.” What I hadn’t realized until working on this post, however, is that there is an additional meaning of “schlepper” beyond the notion of someone who is doing the “schlepping.” Various sources gives the meanings as “fool,” “idiot” and something a bit like “slovenly” or “slacker” as well as “someone who wanders aimlessly” which feels like a distant but perhaps not totally unrelated notion (I see someone being dragged in several directions and as a result never ending up anywhere).

The second is the word die Schifffahrt – and no, your eyes don’t deceive you, in the spelling reform process this word was awarded a third “f” to ensure that its compound status was clear (see this page for a list of new triple letter words) – meaning “shipping” or “navigation,” and, when you are at a scenic location like the Hamburg harbor, “boat trip.”

The third is the German word for “steamship” or “steamboat” – der Dampfer. This is a partial cognate as one of its other meanings is “damper” in the sense of the muting action on piano strings or in the figurative sense of “putting a damper on someone’s spirits.” But the image in my mind that helps me remember this word in its nautical sense relies on the relationship between der Dampfer and “damp” (which is actually translated either as feucht or klamm): I see a ship that is damp not solely from being afloat, but also from the condensation of the steam that is powering it.

Quite fabulously, according to the Guardian, the Guinness Book of World Records gives a combination of der Dampfer and die Schifffahrt together with a just few other words as the longest in German:
die Donaudampfschiffahrtselektrizitätenhauptbetriebswerkbauunterbeamtengesellschaft – “the association for subordinate officials of the head office management of the Danube steamboat electrical services” – which although likely apocryphal didn’t bring up any of that red underlining WordPress uses to warn you of a misspelling!

I was also intrigued to find that der Dampfer appears in the idiom auf dem falschen Dampfer sein/sitzen – “to be barking up the wrong tree” or “to have gotten the wrong end of the stick” – something of which I’ve had no shortage of opportunities to do as I work on learning German!

Tagged auf dem falschen Dampfer sein, boat trip, damper, der Dampfer, der Schlepper, die Schifffahrt, Guardian, Guinness Book of World Records, harbor, idiot, longest word, schlepping, shipping, slacker, steamboat, to be barking up the wrong tree, to drag, to have gotten the wrong end of the stick, triple letter words, tugboat, Yiddish

16/05/2013

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Daily Post

Correct or auto-correct? No worries!

I thought I’d had a bit of a breakthrough in German the other day when I received this text message (SMS):

Kein Thema, bis gleich.

Now, to me, the German learner, this was first baffling, and then, because it had stumped me, I felt sure it must the result of auto-correction of:

Kein Problem, bis gleich – “No problem, see you shortly.”

But no! Although I was aware of the meaning of das Thema as “topic,” “theme” (gotta love those cognates!) or “subject,” I had never heard it used in the expression Kein Thema! meaning “Not a problem!” Perhaps this use of das Thema stems from it having the meaning “issue” in the sense of “topic” – in English one can say that something is “not an issue” and mean that it is “not a problem.” Whatever the source of this meaning of kein Thema, researching it led to two other nifty things.

First, I discovered this podcast from PukkaGerman about colloquial expressions for saying things like “Sure, no problem” and in listening I finally learned why my friends Julia and Wiebke were saying stimmt so when they paid their bills for Kaffee und Kuchen (basically “keep the change”); as well as that to answer “with pleasure” to a suggestion one can say either gern or gerne (I’d heard both and thought that there might be some distinction in meaning between them – a whole post or two needs to be done on this useful adverb).

Second, dict.cc offered me several other ways to say “no problem” beyond my newest friend kein Thema:

Keine Ursache – “no problem” or “you’re welcome” or “no worries” or “don’t mention it” or “no bother at all”
Wird gemacht – “no problem” or “will do” (this is not too far from a literal translation)
Ist nicht schlimm – “no problem” or “don’t worry”
Nichts leichter als das – “no problem” or “no problem at all”

With language learning it seems that there is kein Thema finding new themes to explore!

Tagged auto-correct, colloquialisms, das Thema, gern(e), ist nicht schlimm, kein Problem, kein Thema, kein Ursache, nichts leichter als das, no problem, no worries, PukkaGerman, SMS, stimmt so, subject, text message, theme, topic, wird gemacht

15/05/2013

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Week 6 Anniversary

Earthquakes make the earth move and earthquake words create motion (and perhaps commotion!) within our minds. Just as the earth shifts, so do our ideas about our new language and often our mother tongue(s) as well. Sometimes cracks are exposed, sometimes deep, gaping holes. We may have been aware of the fault lines beforehand or we can be surprised. Each change of the landscape alters how we see ourselves and how we use language to share that self with others.

Here’s to being moved in all the splendid and various ways in which that phrase can be taken.

Tagged commotion, cracks, earth, fault lines, landscape, motion, moved, movement

14/05/2013

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Daily Post

Seeing and looking out

For me, one of the best parts of learning a new language is the way it leads you to wonder anew at your mother tongue. In Dialog in Deutsch this morning we were talking about the various compounds that can be formed by adding a prefix to the noun die Sicht – “sight,” “visibility,” “view” and “point of view.” Now this is a favorite word of mine because it was one of the first I learned as part of a compound because Ex, one of the characters in Warum Nicht? the language learning radio program from Deutsche Welle, is an invisible – unsichtbar – elf (and, yes, that this is rather odd really does help to fix the vocabulary in one’s mind!).

The compound that caught my attention today in terms of what it highlighted about English, however, was die Umsicht. This can translated as “circumspection” – the more formal option – as well as “prudence.” I don’t think I ever put “circumspection” together with its relatives “introspection” and “inspection,” nor had a I thought about its connections with “circumnavigate” or “circumscribe.” If you look at the etymology of “circumspection,” you will find a Latin root meaning “to look around” which shows a clear relationship to Umsicht if you pull it apart into um – “around” and Sicht – “view”. (You can also find “*spect” in the “prospect” meaning of die Aussicht.)

Intriguingly, die Vorsicht, is also given as a translation of “prudence” – amazing what one can “see” if one is prudent enough to take the time to “look out!” for beautiful language “sights!”

Tagged circumnavigate, circumscribe, circumspection, Dialog in Deutsch, die Aussicht, die Sicht, die Umsicht, die Vorsicht, Ex, inspection, introspection, invisible, Latin, point of view, prefix, prudence, sight, um, unsichtbar, view, visibility, Warum nicht?

13/05/2013

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And we’re back in a hail of floors

Hello Again! The Earthquake Words hiatus has ended and while I will start back with something on German, there may be some posts on Polish in the offing.

As some of you know, there are different ways of labeling the floors of a building or house in different parts of the world. When I first moved the UK, for instance, I needed to learn that what in the US was referred to as the “1st floor” was the “ground floor” in the UK and thus what was the “2nd floor” in the US became the “1st floor.” In Germany, it is also typical to call the 1st level the “ground floor” or das Erdgeschoss (abbreviated as EG and E or indicated numerically by 0). What is a bit more confusing for me is what happens next. The upper floors are designated das Obergeschoss (abbreviated OG) and mostly have an associated number, OG.1 would be the first floor above the ground floor. There can also be das Dachgeschoss which is either the “top floor” or the “attic” (note that I’m likely not the only person thrown off by this as according to dict.cc, the following words can all mean “attic” – der Dachboden, die Mansarde, das Dachgeschoss,adie Attika, der Speicher, die Dachkammer, der Estrich (Switzerland and Austria), das Dachstock, der Überbau, der Dachraum and der Spitzboden). Moreover, when I’ve been looking at ads for apartments, there can be also a “penthouse” floor labeled die Dachterrassenwohnung (or perhaps das Penthaus). When you go below ground, you enter the realm of das Untergeschoss (abbreviated U, U1 or -1). Again, these can be numbered if there is more than one. There is also a word to designate what in English we would call the “cellar” – der Keller – which I must admit often makes me think of der Kellner – the waiter – going down to change the kegs or to get something from the deep freeze!

There are also several other floor naming systems, two that are commonly encountered are das Stock (plus the older term which you will still see das Stockwerk) and die Etage. For example, when I registered my new address, I forgot to include the floor and was asked Welches Stock? to which I replied Erste – 1st (or second in the US!). In this system the “ground floor” is still das Erdgeschoss, however the “attic” or “top floor” may become der Dachstock. In the Etage system the “ground floor” can also be das Parterre or 1. Etage. The “attic” can be der Dachboden or die Mansarde. The underground level in the Etage system can be der Souterrain or das Tiefparterre (the translation for the English euphemism “garden flat” could use these words or the more straightforward die Kellerwohnung). You can also have das Hochparterre which appears to be a level half way between the ground floor and the 1st floor (which might also be das Mezzanin, although this can apply to any in-between floor not just the first one above ground level)

Now, if isn’t enough to make your head spin, it is also the case that das Geschoss is ein Teekesselchen or homonym. Das Geschoss can also mean “missile,” “bullet,” or “projectile” and like in English there is a direct parallel for a “hail of bullets” – Hagel von Geschossen. I think I can feel them zinging around in my upper story just now, let’s hope the target is not a bit of hard-won German vocabulary or I could end up with roof damage (einen Dachschaden haben – “to have a screw loose”)!

Tagged apartment, attic, building, bullet, das Geschoss, das Stock, der Dachschaden, die Etage, Erdgeschoss, floor, Hagel, hail, homonyn, numbering system, penthouse, story, Teekesselchen, to have a screw loose, UK

02/05/2013

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Is that an S I hear?

In English we tend to form our plurals with “s,” which sounds simple but needs a bit of explaining because while the letter “s” may appear, its pronunciation is governed by the final sound in the word.

We add an “s” and say plain old “s” /s/ when the word ends in the unvoiced (you don’t feel a vibration if you touch your throat while you say them) sounds /p/, /t/, /k/, /f/ and the /th/ in “path.”

We add “s” but say it like “z” /z/ with the voiced (check your throat, you should feel vibrations) sounds /b/, /d/, /g/, /v/, /l/, /m/, /n/, /ng/, /r/ or a vowel sound. (It would also apply to the /th/ in “writhe,” however I was unable to find a noun with this final sound as there is another phonological pattern in English where the noun forms of related words end in the unvoiced /th/ – “bath” and the verb forms end in a voiced /th/ – “bathe.”)

Finally, if the word ends in a sibilant /s/, /z/ /ʃ/ as in “wish,” /tʃ/ as in “pitch,” /dʒ/ as in “ridge” or /ʒ/ as in “mirage,” we add an “es” and say either /iz/ or /uz/.

One way to test these rules for yourself is to make up non-words that end with sounds of each of the three types, and then create plurals. Try it with “•geck,” “•gring” and “•gitch.” You should find, in line with Jean Berko, that your pronunciations vary even though you’ve never had to form these plurals before.

As I learned to speak English before I could read or spell, the challenge was to associate multiple sounds with a single letter – “s.” Because I only began learning German as a literate adult, I can be confused by spelling patterns that map onto multiple sounds as the plural “s” does in English. At least I can take comfort that I not alone in this. Here is a small portion of a party invitation that one 7 year old boy sent to another:

Sak mir ob du kome konnst which I think is a rough sound-based rendering of Sag mir ob du kommen kannst “Tell me if you can come”

I hope after reading this you will say that you can come and enjoy the party here on Earthquake Words. Unfortunately, however, the blog will be on a short hiatus as I travel to Poland and will be “unplugged” for a week or so. I look forward to sharing more with you after my trip – tschüss and “bye for now.”

Tagged Jean Berko, non-words, party invitation, phonological conditioning, plural, spelling, spelling patterns

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Earthquake Words/Erdbeben Wörter

Let's Shake Things Up A Bit!

Monthly Archives: May 2013

If it’s all the same to you…

Cats, dogs, buckets and strings

Getting lost

Unfortunate songs?!

Harboring fools?

Correct or auto-correct? No worries!

Week 6 Anniversary

Seeing and looking out

And we’re back in a hail of floors

Is that an S I hear?