Americanisms....Tom A toe, Tom Ah Toe.

[PelliX]

I also realized that some accents of German are closer to English than High German.

Speaking both at a native level, I can't say I can relate. Which are you referring to, specifically?

 

[Im247frogs]

Here's a story my old man used to tell:

A guy writes a letter to the Acme Mongoose Company:

"Dear Sir, please find enclosed a check for two mongeese."

He tears it up and starts over.

"Dear Sir, please find enclosed a check for two mongooses"

He tears that one up and starts over.

He then writes:

"Dear sir, please find enclosed a check for one mongoose.

P.S. Please find enclosed another check, for another mongoose"

 

[Eric'45]

Speaking both at a native level, I can't say I can relate. Which are you referring to, specifically?

Around the place where I live, western Germany, close to France, there are villages where people wouldn't say, 'Das ist', but 'Dat is', which sounds close to 'That is'. We also don't say 'Weg', referring to a path, we actually say something very closely resembling 'way'. We use 'for' (same meaning as in English) instead of 'für'. In the rhineland, where there are quite some americans, because of the military, you realize such things.

 

[PelliX]

Around the place where I live, western Germany, close to France, there are villages where people wouldn't say, 'Das ist', but 'Dat is', which sounds close to 'That is'. We also don't say 'Weg', referring to a path, we actually say something very closely resembling 'way'. We use 'for' (same meaning as in English) instead of 'für'. In the rhineland, where there are quite some americans, because of the military, you realize such things.

Right, right. Sure, plenty of American and English army bases there over the last 70-odd years, I just always thought of those expressions more as Plattdeutsch, which resembles some of the farmer's dialects in the East of the Netherlands (Twente, Achterhoek). Not a coincidence, of course. Funnily enough, a German speaking Hochdeutsch and a Dutch guy speaking ABN (algemeen beschaafd Nederlands) have trouble understanding each other. Two farmers speaking "platt" or "plat" actually often get on much better... Around here in Twente, they actually use Umlauts in their dialect when written.

 

[PelliX]

Regional accent is also a big division in common language. It's very hard to understand people from some areas of the UK even though I was born and lived here all my life.
Someone with a heavy Liverpudlian accent is tricky, Geordie (Newcastle), even more so....Scots and Irish

One word. Well, actually two: West Midlands. It's what happens when you omit consonants. They just tie vowels together and steer with pitch, I have the feeling.

 

[PowerTube44]

"I was recently on a tour of Latin America, and the only regret I have was that I didn't study Latin harder in school so I could converse with those people."

-- Dan Quayle, Vice President at the time, I believe. Maybe before, can't remember.

Dan Quayle also went on a tour of South America. He brushed up on saying things like, "Ya'll" and "Know what Ah mean?"

 

[Matthews Guitars]

V, W, Y, and J....three letters that some European languages seem to have adopted in a random fashion. To an American, they are part of the reason why languages such as German and Swiss are confusing if not actually difficult.

I'd almost prefer that each phoneme had its own dedicated letter/symbol so that there's less confusion. I know how to use V, Y, W, and J,
but in English. Those same letters aren't at all the same in German, Swiss, and some other languages. And that may be the hardest part of learning a new language with a shared alphabet. Seeing familiar letters and remembering to pronounce them as if they were other letters instead.

 

[Kinkless Tetrode]

Then you have three Umlauts which could (and now often are) skipped and the original letter gets an 'e' appended.

I think a lot of that are PC and Mac keyboards and touch tone phones. On most, Umlauts are not easily accessable, at least in the English writing world. They are ways, which I don't really know well, to get them, by using control, alt, shift, this and that. Therefore, when writing a German word that uses an Umault I just append an "e". I'm as guilty as anybody. Nevertheless, I got the go ahead from a native German.

I have the same problem trying to get hiragana and katakana fonts. It's a big PITA. But I don't have the option of just appending an e in that case.

 

[Kinkless Tetrode]

V, W, Y, and J....three letters that some European languages seem to have adopted in a random fashion. To an American, they are part of the reason why languages such as German and Swiss are confusing if not actually difficult.

I'd almost prefer that each phoneme had its own dedicated letter/symbol so that there's less confusion. I know how wot use V, Y, W, and J,
but in English. Those same letters aren't at all the same in German, Swiss, and some other languages. And that may be the hardest part of learning a new language with a shared alphabet. Seeing familiar letters and remembering to pronounce them as if they were other letters instead.

And Vs often sound like Fs and are used in spellings where the American English spelling would use an F.

 

[Trumpet Rider]

I don't know why we don't use phonetic spelling for foreign words, especially Asian words which use an alphabet that differs completely from the English. And why, once we think we know how to spell and pronounce an Asian word, do they (whover they are) change it? When I was in school it was Mao Tse Tung. The latest spelling, according to Wiki-god is Mao Zedong. Why not spell it phonetically, i.e., Mousy Dung?

 

[Georgiatec]

This is a fun thread
I'm a native German, no English ancestry or something like that. I learned English at school initially, but my skills really developed by talking to real people, and by communicating on places like the Marshall Forum, of course. What I learned at school was mostly British English, But in the real world, and at work I mostly talk to americans. I guess I have developed some kind of hybrid. I also find languages and their development really interesting, and I can assure you, that for a German, learning English is some kind of relief- many things are similar and you can get many words, while it is simplified. I also realized that some accents of German are closer to English than High German.

Yes, where and who you learn a language from, as well as your own origins impact on how you sound. I lived in Lyon, France for awhile in the early '80's and, when speaking French, the locals thought I was French Canadian, because of my accent.....that I was unaware I had.

 

[Dogs of Doom]

I know the flag post wasn't meant to be political, but, it was, & the responses went that way...

Let's not get political, in this thread. If you want to start a 4th of July thread, that meme would fit right in there. But, we don't need to take digs at other countries political systems, etc.

Thanks, for your understanding - all offending posts deleted...

 

[Matthews Guitars]

I was wondering what happened...

 

[playloud]

Crikey, I thought that was a harmless joke