Oddities of the German Language

General Discussions
21

Einzelschuss Erfolgswahrscheinlichkeit ??

22

That’s prompted me! 'Just shows I’m not quite doolally: I think it must have been Erstschußtreffwahrscheinlichkeit; God help me(!)

23

First shot kill probability

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24

Verarschen is another one which is sorely missing in Swedish.
It carries a lot of meaning and has quite a punch to it

25

Thanks Robin - kicked my brain into life!

('Better get back to the subject I suppose).

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26

In Spanish butterfly is mariposa. But that is also used to insinuate a person is gay.

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27

top-11-absurd-arkansas-laws? They even have a law to state ghe correct pronunciation of “Arkansas”

I’ve found it always fun as a US southern, to say “R - Kansas” to “serious type” Arkansas natives as that usually grates on their ears…wink

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28

Reminds me of my favorite German language joke:

“[The Germans] take part of a verb and put it down here, like a stake, and they take the other part of it and put it away over yonder like another stake, and between these two limits they just shovel in German.”

— Mark Twain

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29

Is the “correct” pronounciation aah-can-saw?
Curious mind wants to know et.c. …

30

Arr-can-saw

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31

Thanks!
The advertising slogan for a Southern arborist …

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32

And I recall, many years ago, a cartoonist illustrating his recent trip to the Soviet Union (which dates the trip), commenting that all the signs looked like “KAOPECTATE”.

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33

What did Ten-a-see?

Same thing Arr-can-saw.

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34

And unfortunately many people’s favorite pastime.

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35

But why use ‘schadenfreude’ when ‘epicaricacy’ is a perfectly cromulent word? :smiley:

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36

I dunno. I give up. Why?

37

smalloy is just trying to embiggen himself
:wink:

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38

I read this when I was a kid. I was searching for it, on and off , to show my kids when they were younger. I sent the link to them. My eldest (33 years old) says it was worth the wait! (my other two will still be asleep…)

39

Ha ha. Unusual, to get ‘borough’ wrong here. We have plenty of names with Borough in them - Maryborough is a major Queensland city. There is Landsborough a large town in the Sunshine Coast area, Marlborough, Peterborough, etc.

I have to admit, I struggled in Wales. The one country in the world where ‘buying’ a vowel should be free, not an option…

Plenty of vice versa too. I used to be a bank officer and in my youth, negotiated a lot of foreign currency transactions for tourists. I have heard many mangling of Australian place names. Someone staying in Capalaba pronounced it ‘Capl-arr-bah’, but it is pronounced 'Kap-ala-bar. I had a Scotsman tell me he was going to see family in Ravenshoe - ‘Raven shoe’ - it is pronounced ‘Ravens-hoe’ and in a thick accent I have never forgotten!.

And an American was going to see Moe in Victoria, pronounced as “Mow” (like in Larry, Curly and Moe)… it is actually pronounced Mow-ee. Then the usual ones 'Briz - bane" actually pronounced ‘Briz-bn’, ‘Mel-born’ actually pronounced 'Mel-bn".

Even Australia - we pronounce it “Os-trail-ya”, not “Os-tray-li-a”… but that is our accent :rofl:

The most famous mangle was by Juan Antonio Samaranch in 1993, when he announced Sydney (‘Sid-nee’) Australia as the successful bidder for the 2000 Olympic games… 'the winner is 'Sid-y"

The ones most mangled though, are not English names, but Aboriginal names.

Goonoo Goonno pronounced as ‘Goo-noo Goo-noo’ it is actually pronounced ‘Gunna Gnoo’

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40

Ah, all these countries separated by a common language :grin:

It appears the Bible got it wrong - the confusion of tongues wasn’t to scupper the tower of Babel but instead was just so the angels could all roll about laughing!

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