German-question

[Tender Branson]

Inspired by Biden's running gal thread.

Me: native German speaker.

[Tender Branson]

I know some.
Velt (World) - Welt
Mund (Moon) - Mund = mouth, Mond = moon
Das, Die, Der (articles, have no idea how to use them - I heard one of them is for objects, articles?) Neutral, female, male articles.
Frau (Miss, term of respect towards women)
Freheit (Freedom) - Freiheit
Streben (Strive)
Alle (All)
Gott (God)
Land (State)
Reich (Realm)
Doktor (Doctor)
Bleu (Blue) - blau
Stadt (City)
Himmel (Sky)
Fur (For) - für
Ja (Yes)
Nein (No)
Mein (My)
Lied (Song)
Volk (People)
Nord (North) - Norden
Sud (South) - Süden
Kultur (Culture)
Afrika (Africa), Amerika (America), and other cases where c is turned into k

I know I'm missing quite. And yes, I am completely ignoring the sign that appears on top of u letters in particular - my keyboard doesn't render them.

Not bad.

I corrected a few things for you.

[Tender Branson]

If you have any questions about German, don’t hesitate to ask me.

I have enough time today.

[Tender Branson]

I know some.
Velt (World) - Welt
Mund (Moon) - Mund = mouth, Mond = moon
Das, Die, Der (articles, have no idea how to use them - I heard one of them is for objects, articles?) Neutral, female, male articles.Frau (Miss, term of respect towards women)
Freheit (Freedom) - Freiheit
Streben (Strive)
Alle (All)
Gott (God)
Land (State)
Reich (Realm)
Doktor (Doctor)
Bleu (Blue) - blau
Stadt (City)
Himmel (Sky)
Fur (For) - für
Ja (Yes)
Nein (No)
Mein (My)
Lied (Song)
Volk (People)
Nord (North) - Norden
Sud (South) - Süden
Kultur (Culture)
Afrika (Africa), Amerika (America), and other cases where c is turned into k

I know I'm missing quite. And yes, I am completely ignoring the sign that appears on top of u letters in particular - my keyboard doesn't render them.

Not bad.

I corrected a few things for you.

Yeah I think the few spelling mistakes were
Velt was me spelling it the way it was pronounced (usually I do not misspell that word that way), which is not a good idea. Otherwise the Capital of Austria would start with the same sound as English words like wait and waste. W in German is (usually?) a V.
Mond was I guess a case of a straight-up misremembering of recently acquired info, so I switched out an O with a U.
Fur is covered by the umlaut exemption.
Also, isn't Norden and Suden more analagous to "northern" and "southern", with Sud and Nord used for generic compass points?

It is pronounced „Veen“ or „Weene“. But in western Austria, „Wean“ (wea-uhn).

Norden & Süden = North & South (to indicate a broader region)
Nördlich & Südlich = Northern & Southern (direction)
Nord & Süd = mostly used in geographical context such as Nordkalifornien (Northern California) to combine a region or state or ocean.

[Tender Branson]

If you have any questions about German, don’t hesitate to ask me.

I have enough time today.

Question:  what advantage do you think learning German would have for your average English-speaking American?

It would be good for you if you visit DACH at some point, or immigrate.

Or if you bump into German speaking folk in the US.

Or if you want to read classical German literature or watch movies.

[Tender Branson]

If you have any questions about German, don’t hesitate to ask me.

I have enough time today.

Question:  what advantage do you think learning German would have for your average English-speaking American?

It would be good for you if you visit DACH at some point, or immigrate.

Or if you bump into German speaking folk in the US.

Or if you want to read classical German literature or watch movies.

Plz don't lump Switzerland in Austria and Germany thx Nearly half of us are actually romance language speakers

But, well... for me, one of the joys of learning a new language is having this whole new world of culture, music, media, literature... that suddenly opens up to you. I find the idea of only being able to speak one language unaccountably sad to be honest - it just makes your experience of the world so much more limited.

That’s not correct:

2/3 Swiss are German speakers (among citizens more than 73%).

French is only spoken by 18-22%, Italian by 8%.

[Tender Branson]

What would you say is the biggest difference between High and Low German?

There is not a „single“ biggest difference between the two ... it’s more the fact that Austrian/Bavarian or Swiss German speakers in a lot of sentences use completely different words that a North German would never understand. But Austrians and Swiss understand every single word a North German speaker says.

One such word that instantly comes to mind is the word „to look for/at something“:

In High German, it is dictionary translated into „schauen“ (which Austrians use), but North Germans say „schauen“ - but most of the time also „gucken“ (pronounced: „cookˋn“).

„Cookˋn“ is mostly used north the BY/BW line, „schauen“ south of it.

While the Swiss say „luaga“ (... which is actually phonetically the most similar of all 4 words used when compared to English).

[Tender Branson]

Other words:

English: last year, High German: letztes Jahr/voriges Jahr, my dialect: feascht
English: armpit, High German: Achsel, my dialect: Iaxn
English: immediately/quick, High German: sofort/schnell, my dialect: huseg

[Tender Branson]

Native German speaker, obviously.

I can speak Standard German and Swabian (I kao schwäbisch schwätza).

Schwuhbisch is a cool dialect.

The word „schwätza“ is also one that is Alemannic and just used in Switzerland, BW and parts of BY. All others say „red(e)n“ or „sprech(e)n“.

[Tender Branson]

which Germanic language (besides German itself anyway) would say Low German is closest to?

I think such variations exist in every broader Germanic language group.

I’m no expert, but Norwegian is different to Swedish, which is different to Danish, but they still might understand each other during some/most sentences (or at least did a couple hundred years ago).

Same with the English dialects, but the fact that different regions use completely different words for the same thing is not as widely known in English.

[Tender Branson]

Other words:

English: last year, High German: letztes Jahr/voriges Jahr, my dialect: feascht
English: armpit, High German: Achsel, my dialect: Iaxn
English: immediately/quick, High German: sofort/schnell, my dialect: huseg

I actually like Austrian much better than Bavarian. Austrians often spell a T like D, for example Dag instead of Tag ("day").


My favorite Swabian sentence is Mach mal langsam schnell (translation word by word: "Make/go slowly fast!"), what basically means "Hurry Up!". Another beaty is Frucht, what means "fruit" in Standard German. In Swabian, it's another word for "grain" (Standard German: Getreide).

„Tag“ (Day) is actually pronounced like „Dog“ (the animal) 🐕 here.

Just that the „o“ is longer, like in „doggy“ (without the y).

...

Another cool word is „znaxt“ (Pinzgauerisch-German).

It is a word that doesn’t even exist in Standard-German and means something like „a while ago“.

The time frame is roughly 1-3 weeks ago, but not earlier or longer ago (because otherwise you’d say „a week ago“ or „a month ago“).

Another word is „potatoes“ (Standard German: Kartoffeln 🥔). But here we call them Erdäpfel (earth apples or soil apples).

[Tender Branson]

Other examples:

„Useless“/„not worth bothering“ - Standard German: umsonst/wertlos/nicht der Mühe wert - here: lafeschteg

„Rock slide/hang slide“ - Erdrutsch/Mure - Bloak

„Urgent“ - dringend - gnetteg

„Not fitting“/„inappropriate“ - unpassend - uplanneg

[Tender Branson]

A baby or infant is also called Baby or „Kind“ in Standard German.

Most Austrians also say Baby/Kind - but here in western Austria it’s called „Buzzaö“ ...

[Tender Branson]

A railing is called Geländer in German, but here pronounced „Glanna“.

[Tender Branson]

An annual car inspection sticker is called „TÜV-Prüfplakette“ in Standard German.

In Austria, we simply call it „Pickerl“ (sticker).

[Tender Branson]

If a German orders a cake at an Austrian restaurant and the waitress asks: „Do you also want Schlag on top ?“ the German will be puzzled ... 🧐🤔

„Schlag“ on top of my apple strudel ? What’s that ?

Waitress: „Sahne“. Do you want Sahne for your Strudel ?“

Guest: „Yes, please. I want cream for my Strudel.“

[Tender Branson]

Other words:

English: last year, High German: letztes Jahr/voriges Jahr, my dialect: feascht
English: armpit, High German: Achsel, my dialect: Iaxn
English: immediately/quick, High German: sofort/schnell, my dialect: huseg

How intelligible is your dialect with regular German? (Hochdeutsch I believe it is called?)

Not very.

We need to switch into Hochdeutsch when they visit, so they properly understand us. They only understand every 2nd word or so.

[Tender Branson]

Question for the native German-speakers:

Do you call a Topfenstrudel Topfenstrudel or Quarkstrudel ?

[Tender Branson]

Another defining word is "Haxn".

It divides Bavaria/Austria from the rest of Germany.

Haxn means "legs" and in rest-Germany it's called "Beine" or "Füße".

[Tender Branson]

Is Wald the German word for forest?

Yes.

Germans pronounce it "Wuh-ld".

We pronounce it "Woid" or as the English term "Void".

[Tender Branson]

is it true Jagen means hunter?

jagen ("juh-gen", soft g) = to hunt

der Jäger ("yay-guh") = the hunter

[Tender Branson]

Is Wald the German word for forest?

Yes.

Germans pronounce it "Wuh-ld".

We pronounce it "Woid" or as the English term "Void".

I've always heard it pronounced "V-alh-t" and is the way I say it.  

With an "Ah" sound.  And with a hard-D / borderline "T" at the end.

This was Baden Wurtemburg / Rhineland / Hesse area.

Yes, because as Mr. POTUS Johnson said: Austrians pronounce the „d“ softer, the Germans (excl. Bavaria) harder.

[Tender Branson]

is it true Jagen means hunter?

jagen ("juh-gen", soft g) = to hunt

der Jäger ("yay-guh") = the hunter

herein lies the importance of the umlaut.
Isn't the case that Muller is pronounced simple moo-ler but Muller (u with umlaut) it becomes Myu-ler?

Umlauts like ü, ö, ä are very tough to learn for English speakers because their sound is so alien to them.

[Tender Branson]

Is Wald the German word for forest?

Yes.

Germans pronounce it "Wuh-ld".

We pronounce it "Woid" or as the English term "Void".

So this makes names like "Greenwald", which I have to assume is to some extent Americanized, rather self explanatory (watching a show right now where a character has the name "Grunewald" which is probably closer to the mark).

Yeah, or „Engelhart“.

Engel 😇 = Angel
hart = hard

Angelhard.

https://twitter.com/priscillawt/status/1249043727022280706

[Tender Branson]

is it true Jagen means hunter?

jagen ("juh-gen", soft g) = to hunt

der Jäger ("yay-guh") = the hunter

herein lies the importance of the umlaut.
Isn't the case that Muller is pronounced simple moo-ler but Muller (u with umlaut) it becomes Myu-ler?

Umlauts like ü, ö, ä are very tough to learn for English speakers because their sound is so alien to them.

What is the rule generally when it comes to umlauts? Add a trace of a 'y' sound?

This helps:

„ü“ is the hardest.