Hello everyone,
and welcome to our German word of the Day.
It’s been a while since we’ve had our last style special so I figured it’s time for another one. No, this is not about beauty and fashion. I do that too, but on my other blog.
Here, a style special is whirlwind of verbs. Lots of verbs and they are all about the same stuff. Just different styles. Not all of the verbs are exactly the definition of useful. In fact most of them aren’t. But they’re not fancy science vocab either and I think it’s good to take a glimpse into the less traveled fields of a vocabulary every now and then because it just gives a more complete picture of the language.
And our picture today we’ll be painted of sounds because we’ll look at verbs for
noises
Nature is full of noises. And humans have always tried to capture that in language. Buzz, hum, squeak, sizzle, hiss… the list of verbs for sounds is sheer endless. Some, like hiss or screech really just stand for the sound while others like to crack have taken on real meanings over time.
Today we’ll have a look at German words for noises. Not animal noises, just those noises that are around us every day. And who knows… maybe the way German captures those gives us new insights about the German language itself.
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“der Rausch. And that is basically a an ecstasy, a high… or an intoxication.”
Motion to add “the rush” as the definitive English translation for this word.
z.B.: https://youtu.be/b53QJYP-lqY?si=eZ5XKq-Ad2g-OlXx
Meeeehhhhhh, I get it but the rush is about the suddenness, the surge. “Rausch” is a state, a mode of reality.
Can’t we just overlook things like “facts” and “definitions” and focus on how we have a pseudo-cognate right in front of us? :D
As a tEaChEr, I have responsibilities toward my students. I can’t just mention a pseudo-cognate. Even if it’s helpful in remembering – if it’s not actually a cognate, I shall not mention it. Scientific accuracy is more important than language proficiency.
Oh wait…
Can i download this article as pdf ?
Should be up now.
I read this article after doing that quiz on sounds in the advent calendar. Today I encountered a zischen and was very pleased to know what it meant : )
So how does a mouse say “Squeak! Squeak!”
A mouse says “piep piep” in German.
So how does a mouse say “Squeak! Squeak!”
A mouse makes “pieps pieps” in German :)
Oh my god, I LOVE Die Ärzte!!!!! Die beste band der Welt!! >u< Thanks for the track, so peaceful!
Auch, muss ich sage; ich magte diese Artikel; nun lernte ich viele Wörter zu wenden fur Geschichte an. (multilingual author wannabe) Dankeschön fur diesen Blog; du hast keine Ähnung, wie hilfreich er ist :)
Stay awesome!!
Haha, talking from the heart…I hear heart beat ..one,TWO, silence, one, TWO, silence, …3 beats…will worry my doctor…4/4 is normal time so you’re probably right, I just keep on hearing German triplets, but maybe I just listen to those because they call my attention….thanks!
You’re actually right. One full cicle of the heart is in itself more of a triplet. bup bumm pause bup bumm pause :)
That is because your English is effortless and you identify more and more with the language… but Latin is majestic and very ono too: “Quádrupedánte putrém sonitú quatit úngula cámpum” (Virgil, without accents) or “hooves, with their four-footed galloping sound, are shaking the powdery plain”, (talk about changing boxes!!) is, as everybody knows, a dactyl hexameter with five dactyls and a closing spondee, which masterfully squeezes Latin’s authoritative juice. Like, it’s done, don’t even try, like Ceasar’s “Veni, vedi, vici”. In the realm of sound, I think this is the battle of the vowels vs. the consonants, consonants go deeper, store more energy, but without enough vowels around go into a sort of (latin) coitus interruptus…they stay at grrrrrrr, but you need, …not prematurely…., the grrrOllle..ssschwwwwwwwung. It’s very subjective, I know. I meant to ask you, what is the natural German rhythm/metric of speech, would you say. I think Spanish gravitates towards eight beats, English towards five and German? As a beginner I feel 6 , like “und wenn das Herz auch bricht” or “das habe ich nicht gemacht”, but maybe the last 3 double the length, and it is 9
Phew, that is one tough question. I have thought about that before but I very quickly came to the conclusion that you can’t (or I can’t) identify one rhythm. There are examples for everything. This would be a really interesting topic for some corpora research. Maybe one meter is prevalent. As for the sentences you mentioned… the first one could be a 4 as well as a triple (just using the basic d 4/4 and 3/4 here, without making a distinction between 3/4 and 6/8)
– und (upbeat) WENN (1) das (2) HERZ (3) auch (4) | BRICHT (1) (tick tick tick).
– UND(1) wenn (2) das (3) HERZ (1) auch (2) bricht (3)
both are totally natural and it really depends on what came before,I guess.
It’s the same for the other one
– das (upbeat) | HAB ich NICHT ge | MACHT (tick tick tick)
– DAS hab ich | NICHT ge macht
Those two are the most natural I think but you culd also put a stress on “ich”
– das (1) hab (2) ICH (3 – snare drum) (tick 4 empty)| nicht ge MACHT (3) (tick 4 empty)
One very common feature about German is the ge-form of prefix verbs “AUF-ge-MACHT”. I think this pushes toward a 4/4. Also, I feel like a four-beat meter would be more natural simply because of our heart beat. 1 -2 -1-2 is closer and simpler to us than 1 -2 – 3- 1- 2- 3
But those are all just speculations :)
Great post again, congratulations! The whole topic about the sound of a language, in general, is very interesting. Federico Fellini once said that a different language was a different view of the world, who cannot agree? It might be a good marker for real understanding if the German sound feels more and more like the “right” one. Sometimes it happens immediately. I read the word “schwung” in the context of one of the desired qualities of horse movement, and felt very differently than the translation “momentum” or “impulsion”. Something physical, deep and powerful, that type of beauty. You made similar comments in your posts about the words “trotz” or “kriege” . “Schmerz” feels more painful than pain. I personally think that Ich grolle nicht, und wenn das Herz auch bricht, is a sound hard to beat in beauty and depth. This is all very subjective, of course, that is the whole thing. I find klickibunti is a riot, similar to the Brazilians’ “lapitopi” for laptop, or “makidonalds” for mcdonalds, ….”Ich klickibunti”….think about it…perfekt. Thank you for your post.
This example with “Schwung” vs “momentum” is a good example for English being a little too big a fan of Latin sometimes. Latin is a lot of things…but not very onomatopoetic or nature-like. Or at least that’ my impression. The language is pure science. Sure enough the Romans had their street slang but how would we know :)
Anyway, whenever I read a book I realize that English does have quite a lot of nice, iconic sounding words. Especially adjectives but also a lot of verbs like quiver, gnarl or sneer. They’re just a bit more hidden.
What?! You don’t think Klickibunti is useful? It’s my new favourite word! …might have something to do with me being a programmer, but still.
Then this might talk to you :). An extreme example for Klickibunti, even though this isn’t really a GUI
https://www.klickibunti.org/buntibunti.php
Still… it’s awful.
The first thing I did when I started to read the post was to click the link of your fashion blog with that “what??” face hahahahaha
Well, one of these days I came across the word knuspern in an extract from Hänsel und Gretel:
“Knusper, knusper, Knäuschen, wer knuspert an meinem Häuschen?”
I thought it meant just bite, but crunch is definitely the right word!
How is that you have a cat in the “About” tab but you didn’t include the purring sound? :P
Because it’s an animal sound :)… it’s “schnurren” in German. And while we’re at it… the hairs left and right of a cat’s mouth are called “Schnurrhaare”. No idea why.
And that thing that grows on Magnum, P.I.’s upper lip is a “Schnurrbart”…
Oh man, how could I forget. What a stupid word :)
I always thought it was “Schnurbart” – so, like, “string beard” – I don’t know, that seems sort of almost logical. But now that I know it’s “purr-beard”… German just got way weirder for me.
Duden: “aus dem Niederdeutschen, zu niederdeutsch snurre = Schnauze, Herkunft ungeklärt”
I believe knacken has been used in English as “I’m getting the knack (the hang) of this”. There are many older words that I’ve heard in New York that I’m learning were from German like glitz (glitzen), stoop (stoep: small porch or brick stairway entry to house), schmutz, crimp (krimpen), jeer (sneer or schneren), and scheister (a criminal who swindles [schwindel] money from you).
Those probably come from Yiddish, which in turn came from medieval German.
Yeah, I think Grateful Reader is right. I only know glitzern and Schmutz. The others are completely foreign to me. Well, I know “die Krempe” which is the edge of a hat. scheister made me think of Yiddish, too. Either that or something from Boehmen or something. Sounds a bit like “bescheißen” which means “to trick, to cheat” in trading contexts
“Stoep” looks to be Dutch, which would make sense in Nieuw Amsterdam. :)
There’s also “schmuck,” which is an insult from Yiddish and always made the German “Schmuck” pretty amusing. On the other hand, to call someone a “mensch” is a compliment. :) Most of the words Agentogrady lists aren’t really antiquated, even if they’re not common. There’s also the classic Yiddish exclamation “Oy vey!” which is a shortened version of “Oy, vey iz mir!” = “Weh ist mir!” You sometimes hear people talking about “schlepping” things around, which I think is another one that came in via Yiddish.
When one knows a Slavic language (Yiddish is full of Russian/Ukrainian roots) and German, it’s really interesting to listen to Yiddish songs.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efK-difrlR8
Hah… I actually know this one. My girlfriend is in a band with a few friends and they sing Yiddish music. This was one of the first songs in their (yet small) repertoire
Here’s another one, lots of Russian roots:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4TPeDJELLQ
Dieses “Style Special” war sehr interesant! Ich wuerde auf English sagen “The creek/brook babbles as a it runs over the stones.” Veilleicht ist das ein ubersetzung fuer plaetzschern.
Yeah, the dictionary gave a few options (dabble, plash, purl). And I bet there are a few more, depending on how exactly it sounds. “plätschern” is pretty general for soft water noises I guess.
“Babbling” is definitely the go-to cliché in English if you’re talking about a stream or fountain, but I can’t really imagine using it for anything else that might plätscher.
What would you use in the following situation… you’re in the living room after a copious lunch. You’re dozing off but you can still hear the sounds of your kids doing the dishes (fictional example)… plates are “klappering” and the water is “plätschering”. Also, would you say something like this
– The stream’s babbling was relaxing.
To me it sounds very much like “blabbering” which is not so relaxing.
I think “clinking” or “clattering” for the plates, and maybe “sloshing” for the water. “Sloshing” is really the sound of liquid moving around in an enclosed container (like a sink), or the sound you make by putting something under liquid and moving it around (so it’s the sound you make when you wade). That doesn’t make it a good translation for “plätschern,” but it fits the situation you describe. (Also, “sloshed” is yet another [American?] slang term for “drunk.”)
As for relaxing babbling: absolutely. There’s an episode of a sitcom I like where a character gets dragged along on a company camping trip and complains the whole time about how the air is too fresh and there are too many plants everywhere; at one point she says, “And this stupid brook won’t stop babbling – shut UP!” So that double meaning is definitely there. It’s weird.
Ich hab ein knall-
rotes Gummiboot…
;)
Oh weia stimmt…
For everyone…. knall[color] means that the color is very very very saturated. It doesn’t work so well with “calm” colors like blue or lilac but great for the lighter ones
– knallgelb, knallrosa, knallrot
– super yellow, uber pink, redder than red
Können Vogel in solchem Schnee, der plötzlich in dem Titelbild ist, überleben?
Hahaha… ja, jetzt ja. Jemand hat einen Meisenring hingehängt.
Ich denke, die Style-Specials sind meine Lieblingsposts hier.
Dröhnen… mir fällt keine gute Übersetzung ein, wenn es wirklich solch unterschiedliche Geräusche beschreibt. Es ist auf jeden Fall etwas unangenehm lautes und dauerndes?
Zu deinen Fragen…
– Mein Netzteil britzelt.
Ich glaube, es gibt nichts besonders idiomatisches auf Englisch. Elektrische Geräusche würde ich wahrscheinlich als “hissing,” “sizzling,” oder “crackling” bezeichnen, je nachdem, wie es eigentlich klingt.
– Wenn du das noch einmal machts, dann knallt’s, aber gewältig.
Deine Übersetzung finde ich gut – “big trouble” ist auch idiomatisch. “You’re gonna get it!” geht auch. :)
Übrigens: Schumacher ist “driver,” kein “pilot.”
Emmanuel, kennst du das Wort Rumpelnacht?
Nee, nie gehört. Nur Rumpelstilzchen :). Was ist denn eine Rumpelnacht?
I found this article:
https://www.meinbezirk.at/klagenfurt/chronik/rumpelnacht-und-ratschen-d253368.html
Aha, das macht Sinn. But it’s from Austria AND from the countryside so no wonder I (Berlin) have never heard of it :).
Es bezieht sich auf der Nacht nach Passahfest, woran traditionelle Juden ihr Passahgeschirr in die Schränke bis zum nächsten Jahr zurücksetzen. Sie wurde von deutschen Juden so genannt wegen des Klangs der Gerichte, oder auch vielleicht der Klang des zerknitterten Papier. Die Etymologie ist etwas unklar.
Die einzige Wikipedia-Artikel, die darum geht (wurde das richtig genutzt?) ist leider auf Hebräisch (und sie übersetzt “Rumpelnacht” wie “Übertragungsnacht”): https://he.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D7%A8%D7%95%D7%9E%D7%A4%D7%9C%D7%A0%D7%90%D7%9B%D7%98
Haha… “Übertragungsnacht”. Das macht in dem Kontext überhaupt keinen Sinn. Ich glaube, ich würde vielleicht eher “Klirrnacht” oder “Klappernacht” sagen, weil “rumpeln” doch ziemlich dumpf klingt, aber vielleicht war das Geschirr früher schwerer oder öfter aus Holz.
Hier mal ein paar Korrekturen:
…, woran traditionaelle…
Das “woran” ist nicht falsch, aber idiomatischer wäre “wo” oder aber “an dem”.
… in die Schränke bis zum nächsten Jahr zurücksetzen.
Hier sagt man “zurückstellen”. “Zurücksetzen” ist mehr wie “to reset” oder “to set back”, aber nicht “to put back”
… wegen des Klangs der Gerichte.
Das Wort “Gericht” ist nur “dish” im Sinne von “the meal”, nicht “the plate”. Das allgemeine Wort ist Geschirr (Teller, Tassen, Schalen).
…. Der einzige Wikipedia-artikel, in dem es darum geht…
Artikel ist männlich. Man kann schon sagen “Das Buch geht um…” aber das klingt etwas ungelenk. Besser ist “In dem Buch geht es um….” dieses mysteriöse Regen-es :)
Ach so… was meinst du eigentlich mit zerknittertem Papier? Wie passt das in den Kontext?
Warum schreibst Du Englisch und Deutsch? Als ich Deutsch gelernt habe, habe ich nur Deutsch gehört. Ich würde auch nur von Deutschen beigebracht. Das finde ich besser. Wenn Deine Muttersprache nicht Englisch ist, bringst Du den anderen Deine schlechte Gewohnheiten bei, z.B. wie man einen Brief auf Englisch beginnt. Du hast geschrieben:
Hello everyone,
and welcome to our German word of the Day.
Richtig ist: Hello everyone,
Welcome to our German word of the day.
Es gibt andere Fehler. Ich korrigiere die Fehler, die Du auf Englisch gemacht hast gerne :-) Du brauchst mir nur Bescheid zu geben! Klar es ist in Ordnung Fehler zu machen, aber solltest Du als Lehrer nicht Deine Muttersprache verwenden (um Fehler zu vermeiden/verhindern/verringern) oder nur Deutsch verwenden? Das ist wie ich Deutsch gelernt habe :-) Es hat mir umheimlich geholfen und es ist den natürlichsten Weg zu lernen. Man kann auch den Lernprozess beschleunigen!!!
Ich wünsche Dir, noch einen schönen Abend!
Ich glaube, du versuchst mir jetzt zum vierten mal zu sagen, wie ich die Artikel beginnen soll, obwohl ich schon erklärt habe, dass ich es nicht so machen werde, und warum nicht. Es ist kein Brief. Daher ist es nicht relevant, wie man Briefe anfängt. Das kannst du entweder akzeptieren, oder aufhören zu lesen, ganz wie du magst.
Ansonsten ist mir schon klar, dass da Fehler drin sind. Wahrscheinlich sogar viele. Aber ich werde für diese Arbeit quasi garnicht bezahlt und ich habe für Korrekturlesen (und Korrektur lesen lassen) keine Zeit und keine Lust. Und nein, ich sollte nicht meine Muttersprache benutzen. Was bringt es einem A2-Studenten, wenn ich auf Deutsch die Bedeutungsnuancen verschiedener Wörter erkläre? Er oder sie wird es nicht verstehen, und selbst für fortgeschrittene wird es anstrengend zu lesen sein. Das ist nicht besonders efiizient, ausserdem macht es keinen Spaß. Ach so… solltest du dann nicht eigentlich auch auf Englisch schreiben? Denn du bringst mit deinem Kommentar ja auch anderen falsche Gewohnheiten bei, denn fehlerfrei ist er nicht.
You’re cute but I need to ask what is wrong with you dude?