I love German word formation creativity! Urlaubsreif is another example from my log list of words that are somehow German-only i.e. usually cannot be translated into other languages with just one word. Urlaubsreif means in desperate need of a holiday and because I consider myself a person in such a state all the linguistic topics that come to my mind right now are somehow holiday-related.

Take the word wellness for example. Another wonderful instance of German importing English words and adapting them for their own needs. All English dictionaries I consulted (Oxford, Longman, Cambridge and Macmillan) barely define this word as health or the state of being healthy. The Langenscheidt German dictionary on the other hand says that die Wellness is the state of being physically healthy, happy and fit and also describes massages, baths and physical exercises offered at the so-called wellness centers.

As I’m dreaming of holidays in such a Wellnessoase at the seaside I came to think about the peculiarity of the name of the Baltic Sea. The Germans pragmatically call their seas according to their geographical location: die Nordsee (the North Sea of course) and die Ostsee (the Baltic Sea, literally: the East Sea). And whereas the North Sea is called the North Sea in most languages, the Baltic Sea changes its name depending on the country. I was trying to find some kind of a pattern behind it but failed disastrously (see: Urlaubsreif). So if you happen to know more about the origins of and tidbits about the name Baltic Sea, do let me know!

My flatmate has asked me recently if I knew that the Germans tend to use the verb realisieren in a wrong way as he was told (off) by a friend who’s (allegedly) into language matters. He claimed that in German it only has the meaning of verwirklichen and the Germans also use it to convey the meaning of erkennen, bemerken.

First I (admittedly negligently and a bit absent-mindedly) agreed as such cases are known to the public where similar words in two languages that used to mean something completely different (so false friends) have adopted the other meaning from the other language in one of the languages.

But today I decided to have a closer look at the matter and both Duden and Langenscheidt say that the verb realisieren has both those meanings in German. I think I’ve got to talk to my flatmate about that again, because it might be true that realisieren is now overused in situations where a simple erkennen or bemerken would do but still it’s not a mistake as such.

I’m just wondering if it should be the word of the day, week (the volcano cloud crisis is in its 5th day already), or month??

Glad that I haven’t planned any air travel for the nearest past and future, I can sit back in my chair, read news and concentrate on the linguistic side of the phenomenon.

Here’s my volcanic dust English-German glossary:

(volcanic) ash cloud – Aschewolke (f)
volcanic ash – Vulkanasche (f)
volcanic ash particles – Vulkanaschepartikel (pl)
volcanic dust – Vulkanstaub (m)
flight ban – Flugverbot (n)
airspace – Luftraum (m)
air traffic – Flugverkehr (m)
airspace closure – Sperrung des Luftraums
stranded passengers – gestrandete Passagiere
stopover – Zwischenlandung (f)

Moreover, I noticed that while the Brits seem to be very creative when it comes to naming the reason of the crisis itself – apart from ash cloud and volcanic ash, they refer to it as volcano cloud, volcano ash cloud, enormous shroud of fine mineral dust particles etc. – whereas the Germans prefer to focus on the consequences. The cause is almost always called Aschewolke, but what it caused was referred to as Asche-Chaos, Reise-Chaos, Verkehrschaos, die massiven Reiseprobleme, Chaos im Luftverkehr etc. in just two short articles. The Germans just love their chaos! Who would have thought… The Brits remain calm and reserved and stick to the neutral disruptions to air traffic.

Among all this fascinating vocabulary I encountered one word for which I couldn’t find a good, short, one-to-one translation: Rückholflug. A beautiful example of a magnificent German compound! You kinda know what it means but how the hell should we translate it into English? And here’s the task for you – maybe you can help me translate the word in a nice way? Write your suggestion in comments below! Thanks!

I’ve had this discussion a hundred times before but yesterday we were watching TV with my flatmate and we were getting annoyed by the TV commercials for films. Well, actually not the commercials themselves but the titles of the films or even more precisely their translations into German. Much has been said and written about this topic so far but it still continues to amaze and amuse me how the film titles are rendered into the German language.

First of all, they not always are rendered at all. Some of them just stay the same, e.g. “Remember Me” (the new flick with the heart-throb Robert Pattinson) or “From Paris with Love”. My flatmate was in favour of this solution because he found many German translations ‘doof’ but to me, it’s a suspicious practice.First of all even though English is really widespread and almost omnipresent in the German media, there are still numerous people who don’t speak and understand this language fluently. Especially with titles like the ones above I would try to find a German equivalent, as they’re not even that complicated.

Furthermore, (and that was an argument that confused my flatmate and made him rethink his stand) what about French, Spanish, Japanese etc. movies? Should we leave their titles in the original as well? I was actually pretty sure it was absurd but what struck me even more was the result of my little research: German cinemas are showing a couple of Turkish films at the moment, and guess what! Some of them have actually original Turkish titles e.g. “Çok Filim Hareketler Bunlar”. Isn’t that crazy? Well as the topic seems endless, let me come back to that next week. For now, let me know about your experience with this matter! Happy Easter!

P.S. All the example titles are taken from a website about films currently being shown or to be shown very soon in German cinemas!

The speech was very popular in the media a couple of months ago. Oettinger struggles with English even though he himself stated that English was the inevitable common language that everybody should speak. Many comments on the video express the opinion that it’s no surprise he can’t speak English because even his German is hard to understand as it’s strongly influenced by his Swabian accent.

The video was funny but many Germans also felt they were being embarrassed by a representative like Oettinger. Is it really fair to require excellent English skills from almost every job applicant and then send a person who visibly struggles with the language to represent the country in the EU? I understand that English wasn’t as popular when Mr. Oettinger was young as it is now but then maybe it’s better to rely on interpreters instead of trying to show off with something that really isn’t a reason to be proud of.

For any of you who still haven’t had a chance to see the infamous video, here it is:

I was watching a late night show on German TV the other night and the host was interviewing a famous German actor about his new projects. It was then that he used a verb greenlighten, or to be even more precise a beautiful German past tense form of the verb: gegreenlightet. I am a huge fan of ingenious neologisms but does the German language have to absorb English words only? English words most of which have neat German equivalents. It’s always the same scheme: we take an English word that sounds ‘fancy’ and germanize it by adding appropriate endings. Boring!!

When I described this hellish travel itinerary to an English-speaker (not in Germany), I said I would be “soooooooo long unterwegs.” Not “on the go”. Not “in the air”. Not that I would be “travelling for a long time.” Unterwegs. The German word. It just slipped in there! Do you speakers of another language find that this happens from time to time? I sure do, it’s how Deutschlisch was born. Unterwegs is just such a great word, there’s no English one like it. I guess I’ll just have to start realising that when Englischers are staring at me blankly, it’s time to get translating!

A word you may not be familiar with is sitt, which is satt’s liquid equivalent, meaning one’s thirst has been quenched. Makes sense to me! Hungrig – satt, durstig – sitt.

Are you reading this, English language?

But meanwhile, the title phrase is taken from Deutsche Bahn. Whenever there is a breakdown or delay, the lovely lady over the loud speaker informs us that they request/ask for/plead for/beg for our understanding (“bitten um Ihr Verständnis”). Which got me thinking (in true Word Nerd fashion) about the verb ‘bitten’. Is there really an equivalent in English? Sure, you can literally translate it as ‘to request’, but it is a direct derivative of ‘Bitte’, meaning ‘please’. Does this indicate a level of politeness possessed by Germans which is simply unknown to the English-speaking world?

I come on to German finger puppets with these slick pick-up lines.

P.S. Frohe Ostern!