What is awesome in German?
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From: langwadt on 24 Nov 2009 19:30 On 25 Nov., 01:03, Rune Allnor <all...(a)tele.ntnu.no> wrote: > On 25 Nov, 00:23, Jim Wilkins <kb1...(a)gmail.com> wrote: > > > > > On Nov 24, 2:52 pm, Eric Jacobsen <eric.jacob...(a)ieee.org> wrote: > > > > On 11/24/2009 12:37 PM, Marte Schwarz wrote: > > > > Hi Jim, > > > ... > > > > It's funny that a lot of the non-conversational words that I still > > > remember are technical stuff like that: vergasser = carburetor, > > > einspritz = fuel injection. I guess I've always been a car guy. ;) > > > > -- > > > Eric Jacobsen > > > Minister of Algorithms > > > Abineau Communicationshttp://www.abineau.com > > > I've waited 36 years for an excuse to drop "Zundverteilerkopf" into a > > conversation. > > 'Verteilerkopf' = 'distributor head' is obvious. Can't > figure out 'Zund' without a dictionary? > > Rune it means ignite or set something on fire but I already knew that zündkerze means sparkplug so it was quite obvious :) -Lasse
From: Jim Wilkins on 24 Nov 2009 20:12 On Nov 24, 7:03 pm, Rune Allnor <all...(a)tele.ntnu.no> wrote: > On 25 Nov, 00:23, Jim Wilkins <kb1...(a)gmail.com> wrote: > > On Nov 24, 2:52 pm, Eric Jacobsen <eric.jacob...(a)ieee.org> wrote: > > > > On 11/24/2009 12:37 PM, Marte Schwarz wrote: > > > > Hi Jim, > > > ... > > > > It's funny that a lot of the non-conversational words that I still > > > remember are technical stuff like that: vergasser = carburetor, > > > einspritz = fuel injection. I guess I've always been a car guy. ;) > > > Eric Jacobsen > > I've waited 36 years for an excuse to drop "Zundverteilerkopf" into a > > conversation. > > 'Verteilerkopf' = 'distributor head' is obvious. Can't > figure out 'Zund' without a dictionary? > > Rune- It's a plastic distributor cap, I had to learn and correctly pronounce the names of the numerous parts I bought to maintain my $200 VW and make it pass the Army's version of the strict TUV inspection. Some aren't so obvious, headlights are "shine throwers", plugs are "spark candles", hex nuts are "mothers", especially the rusted ones. Earlier today I downloaded the instructions for a Jotul wood stove, with English and Norwegian in parallel down the page but clearly not literally translated. Knowing some German gave me at least a third of the Norsk words, enough to figure out most of it. For example pakninger looks like Packungen, sealing gaskets. jsw
From: Rune Allnor on 24 Nov 2009 20:40 On 25 Nov, 02:12, Jim Wilkins <kb1...(a)gmail.com> wrote: > On Nov 24, 7:03 pm, Rune Allnor <all...(a)tele.ntnu.no> wrote: > > > > > > > On 25 Nov, 00:23, Jim Wilkins <kb1...(a)gmail.com> wrote: > > > On Nov 24, 2:52 pm, Eric Jacobsen <eric.jacob...(a)ieee.org> wrote: > > > > > On 11/24/2009 12:37 PM, Marte Schwarz wrote: > > > > > Hi Jim, > > > > ... > > > > > It's funny that a lot of the non-conversational words that I still > > > > remember are technical stuff like that: vergasser = carburetor, > > > > einspritz = fuel injection. I guess I've always been a car guy. ;) > > > > Eric Jacobsen > > > I've waited 36 years for an excuse to drop "Zundverteilerkopf" into a > > > conversation. > > > 'Verteilerkopf' = 'distributor head' is obvious. Can't > > figure out 'Zund' without a dictionary? > > > Rune- > > It's a plastic distributor cap, I had to learn and correctly pronounce > the names of the numerous parts I bought to maintain my $200 VW and > make it pass the Army's version of the strict TUV inspection. Some > aren't so obvious, headlights are "shine throwers", Norwegian "lyskaster", "lys" = "light", "kaste" = "throw" > plugs are "spark > candles", Norw. "tennplugg", "tenn" = "ignite" > hex nuts are "mothers", especially the rusted ones. "Mutter" in Norwegian. There ought to be some interesting etymology here. > Earlier today I downloaded the instructions for a Jotul wood stove, > with English and Norwegian in parallel down the page but clearly not > literally translated. Knowing some German gave me at least a third of > the Norsk words, enough to figure out most of it. For example > pakninger looks like Packungen, sealing gaskets. Correct. If you know both German and English, you should be able to come a long way understanding written Norwegian and Danish, and presumably also Swedish. The grammar is a simplified version of the German grammar, words are concatenated in much the same way as in German, and the vocabulary is partially Germanic, with increasing amounts of anglicisms. One trap to be aware of, though, is Norw. "øl" vs German "öl". The former means "beer", the latter "oil". Rune
From: Jim Wilkins on 24 Nov 2009 21:37 On Nov 24, 8:40 pm, Rune Allnor <all...(a)tele.ntnu.no> wrote: > On 25 Nov, 02:12, Jim Wilkins <kb1...(a)gmail.com> wrote: > ... > > If you know both German and English, you should be able to > come a long way understanding written Norwegian and Danish, > and presumably also Swedish. The grammar is a simplified > version of the German grammar, words are concatenated > in much the same way as in German, and the vocabulary is > partially Germanic, with increasing amounts of anglicisms. > > Rune Also Dutch, after learning the voiced-unvoiced shifts etc. I can't really make much sense of Swedish and Finnish is of course impossible. The US tv show "Buffy" did a comedy cheating-husband scene in supposedly authentic Old Norse from 900AD that was a parody of bad foreign films. (The show was basically the ex-Ellen and Roseanne writers' playground for any rude, wacky humor they felt like and the network either tolerated or didn't understand, such as making bad puns in Latin) The dialog wasn't in the on-line script copy and the subtitles were intentionally awful, but to me some of the words were recognizably Germanic and others sounded like Russian. jsw
From: Joseph Gwinn on 25 Nov 2009 08:11
In article <1ee40b9e-27f1-449a-97a9-9ebf53758788(a)r24g2000yqd.googlegroups.com>, Rune Allnor <allnor(a)tele.ntnu.no> wrote: [snip] > If you know both German and English, you should be able to > come a long way understanding written Norwegian and Danish, > and presumably also Swedish. The grammar is a simplified > version of the German grammar, words are concatenated > in much the same way as in German, and the vocabulary is > partially Germanic, with increasing amounts of anglicisms. > > One trap to be aware of, though, is Norw. "�l" vs German "�l". > The former means "beer", the latter "oil". I discovered this while in Sweden, and found it quite amusing. My pleasant but un-researched theory is that the Vikings called beer "oil" as a barroom joke, and over the centuries the joke became the standard. So the Swedes had to invent a term for oil: olja. Joe Gwinn |