Author Topic: Ich liebt mich etwas Deutsch (Read 2426 times)

Jonathon · « **on:** August 07, 2006, 10:30:12 AM »

link

German is so cool. What other language would come up with a single compound word for "animal cadaver removal law" (Tierkoerperbeseitigungsgesetz)? (Okay, so the correct answer is "lots of other languages. I still think it's cool.)

Brinestone · « **Reply #1 on:** August 07, 2006, 10:49:35 AM »

I still think kleinkindergeschaeftigungsanstalt is a better word than kindergarten.

Out of curiousity, where'd you get the title for the thread?

Porter · « **Reply #2 on:** August 07, 2006, 10:52:01 AM »

What's wrong with animal cadaver removal law?

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The sad thing is, most people probably don’t even realize that they’re neglecting their native tongue; they’re too busy falling in love with silly words like defenestrate. Well, let me tell you something: there’s an English word for that, too, and it’s to throw out a window, which is what I’ll want to do next time someone tries to tell me that Latin is better than English.

Jonathon · « **Reply #3 on:** August 07, 2006, 10:56:25 AM »

Where did I say that there's something wrong with "animal cadaver removal law," or that we should use the German word instead?

Ruth: I mostly came up with it myself, but I used Babelfish to help me out with the German word for "some."

Porter · « **Reply #4 on:** August 07, 2006, 10:59:12 AM »

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Where did I say that there's something wrong with "animal cadaver removal law," or that we should use the German word instead?

Oh, I can read between the lines, bucko.

Sheila · « **Reply #5 on:** August 07, 2006, 11:02:54 AM »

I'm not well read enough to know what your first post on this thread is quoting.

Porter · « **Reply #6 on:** August 07, 2006, 11:03:55 AM »

It's from Jon Boy's blog.

Jonathon · « **Reply #7 on:** August 07, 2006, 11:08:47 AM »

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Where did I say that there's something wrong with "animal cadaver removal law," or that we should use the German word instead?
Oh, I can read between the lines, bucko.

Um, okay.

JT · « **Reply #8 on:** August 07, 2006, 11:56:13 AM »

You got a problem with defenestrate, you got a problem with me!

Porter · « **Reply #9 on:** August 07, 2006, 11:59:30 AM »

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Where did I say that there's something wrong with "animal cadaver removal law," or that we should use the German word instead?
Oh, I can read between the lines, bucko.
Um, okay.

That's OK. You're just too busy falling in love with silly words like Tierkoerperbeseitigungsgesetz.

Patrick · « **Reply #10 on:** August 07, 2006, 12:44:23 PM »

Ich liebe dich nicht, du liebst mich nicht

Da Da Da.

rivka · « **Reply #11 on:** August 07, 2006, 12:47:48 PM »

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You got a problem with defenestrate, you got a problem with me!

And me!

Jonathon · « **Reply #12 on:** August 07, 2006, 01:02:34 PM »

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Ich liebe dich nicht, du liebst mich nicht

Da Da Da.

Hey, Pat. What's up?

I was so pleased with myself when I heard that on the radio several months back and finally realized what they were singing.

Jonathon · « **Reply #13 on:** August 07, 2006, 01:04:11 PM »

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That's OK. You're just too busy falling in love with silly words like Tierkoerperbeseitigungsgesetz.

I'm honestly confused. Are you criticizing me for being inconsistent, or are you just giving me a bad time? 'Cause I really don't need to be given a bad time right now.

Porter · « **Reply #14 on:** August 07, 2006, 01:08:20 PM »

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I'm honestly confused. Are you criticizing me for being inconsistent, or are you just giving me a bad time? 'Cause I really don't need to be given a bad time right now.

Sorry.

Porter · « **Reply #15 on:** August 07, 2006, 01:13:59 PM »

I can understand why you find it awesome that they have a word for that. But I think the word defenestrate is awesome for very similar reasons

Jonathon · « **Reply #16 on:** August 07, 2006, 01:14:01 PM »

No worries. It's not your responsibility to know when I'm not in the mood to be teased over something silly.

Jonathon · « **Reply #17 on:** August 07, 2006, 01:19:22 PM »

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I can understand why you find it awesome that they have a word for that. But I think the word defenestrate is awesome for very similar reasons

More silly than awesome, to be honest. And interesting from the perspective of language typology. English and German are fairly closely related, but German is far more likely to throw a bunch of words together and make a new compound. I wonder at what point German developed that tendency.

Porter · « **Reply #18 on:** August 07, 2006, 01:41:49 PM »

That is an interesting question. When we do it in English, it's almost always when we're borrowing from Greek or Latin.

Porter · « **Reply #19 on:** August 07, 2006, 01:56:16 PM »

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Deaddoginafreezer leadstoknowledgeof Germancompoundwords

This is the headline on fark.com for this article.

Jonathon · « **Reply #20 on:** August 07, 2006, 01:58:58 PM »

The article I linked to really did seem to go out of its way to use that compound.

Brinestone · « **Reply #21 on:** August 07, 2006, 02:21:02 PM »

My guess as to why Germans lump compounds together in one word is that their strict modifier declension system doesn't allow for newly created modifiers.

For instance, animal is not usually an adjective, nor are body or removal. And they're not all just stringing up to modify law, either. Animal modifies body, and animal body modifies removal. Therefore it seems weird to give them all the gender ending of the final noun in the compound, law. Make them all into one word and you avoid the declension problem because none of those words have to have an ending now.