I never knew that!

[Wolferz]

Originally Posted by Betonov

There's a blind cave beetle that lives in only 5 caves, all in Slovenia, that was named after adolf hitler

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anophthalmus_hitleri

Volkswagon Beetle?

[Schroeder]

Originally Posted by Wolferz

Volkswagon Beetle?

Volksawagen not Volkswagon.

[Wolferz]

Originally Posted by Schroeder

Volksawagen not Volkswagon.

Apologies for the Americanized spelling.
Peoples car doesn't have the same ring as Beetle.

I won't mention that it's spelled Volkswagen over hyere

[Cybermat47]

Originally Posted by Wolferz

I won't mention that it's spelled Volkswagen over hyere

Ees itt? Wot ay difurance wee hav enn ve waay wee sppel werds.

[Wolferz]

Originally Posted by Cybermat47

Ees itt? Wot ay difurance wee hav enn ve waay wee sppel werds.

I lerned mine with the Evelyn Wouldhead sped reedin corse.
You didn't know that didja?

[Dowly]

I just learned that in the episode "Breaker of Chains" of Game of Thrones,
the champion is insulting Daenerys by citing the French guard's insults from
Monty Python & Holy Grail in low Valyrian.

Posted by the linguistic of the show:

Byjan vavi demble eva o, trezy eme verdje espo jimi! Oa mysa iles me nýnyghi, si oa kiba tuziles espo tomistos!
("I fart in your general direction, son of a window-dresser! Your mother was a hamster, and your father smelt of elderberries!")

Já si hojgá oa gundja, trezy eme mero dovodedha!
(“Go and boil your bottom, son of a silly person!”)

Kiman nya másina orvorta va oi sodjistos!
(“I wave my private parts at your aunties!”)

Do eban av kimívagho dombo, o doru-borto pame espo gruzi evi havor espo begistos!
(“I don’t want to talk to you no more you empty-headed animal food trough wiper!”)

Ghorgan ji pungo va o, nynta Dare espo Zaldrizes, o si une oi dovodedhi, Vesterozi azzzzzantys.
(“I blow my nose at you, so-called Dragon Queen, you and all your silly Westerosi kaniggets!”)

[Eichhörnchen]

Ironically, before Caxton began the task of standardizing the English language, you could indeed spell words just about any way you wanted. Why did he have to go and bloody well interfere anyway?

[Schroeder]

Originally Posted by Eichhornchen

Ironically, before Caxton began the task of standardizing the English language, you could indeed spell words just about any way you wanted. Why did he have to go and bloody well interfere anyway?

Especially since he didn't standardize anything at all or why are so many English words written almost similar but pronounced very differently?

[Eichhörnchen]

Well we've got our problems and you've got yours, like the word "Donaudampfschiffahrtsgesellschaftskapitan"!

(And I do often feel sorry for people trying to make sense of our language)

[Schroeder]

Originally Posted by Eichhornchen

Well we've got our problems and you've got yours, like the word "Donaudampfschiffahrtsgesellschaftskapitan"!

(And I do often feel sorry for people trying to make sense of our language)

In case I wasn't clear I'm always a bit frustrated that I don't know how to pronounce English words when I read them for the first time. For example there is the word "sign". When I now stumble across the military rank "Ensign" I would assume that the "sign" part in the word is pronounced like in "road sign" but it isn't. And stuff like that's driving me nuts sometimes that I never know how to spell a word if I only heard it and never now how to pronounce a word if I've only read it.

And yes, we love to put words together that you would spell apart.
And don't get me started on our three different randomly assigned noun markers and the difference between casual talk "du" and formal talk "sie". Must be confusing as hell for foreigners.

[Eichhörnchen]

I like the German language actually, and I remember having to get to grips with formal and informal address, and the fact that "Sie" can mean either a formal "You" or it can mean "She" or "They". We don't of course have masculine/feminine/neuter, which is an extra layer we have trouble remembering, never mind understanding.

[Schroeder]

Originally Posted by Eichhornchen

never mind understanding.

You'd be the first person to actually understand it. It's completely arbitrary with no logic to it. One just has to learn which noun marker belongs to which word.

[Eichhörnchen]

I'm glad to hear you say that; you do just have to memorise it all. As a bit of a fastidious person, I especially like the "umlaut" and the way it modifies sound. Some English people just cannot get this, even when it's read aloud to them. It could be that they just cannot physically say it (and we poke fun at foreigners pronunciation!)

I also like the special double "S" symbol you use (don't know what it's called) in words like "spass" and "flussig" (by the way, in your region, do you pronounce the "g" at the end of flussig as a "ch", as in "ich"?)

[Schroeder]

Originally Posted by Eichhornchen

I'm glad to hear you say that; you do just have to memorise it all. As a bit of a fastidious person, I especially like the "umlaut" and the way it modifies sound. Some English people just cannot get this, even when it's read aloud to them. It could be that they just cannot physically say it (and we poke fun at foreigners pronunciation!)

I also like the special double "S" symbol you use (don't know what it's called) in words like "spass" and "flussig" (by the way, in your region, do you pronounce the "g" at the end of flussig as a "ch", as in "ich"?)

The sharp S sound is called a "SZ" (pronounced Ess Zett, Symbol ß). There were plans once to remove it and replace it with a double s but that wasn't done then in the end (though I'm sure the British papers were full of it. I can't imagine the daily fail could let a headline pass that could read: Germany finally admits it! They want more SS").
In my area we pronounce an "ig" ending as the ch of "ich" (to non German speaking people it sounds a bit like a leakage in a steam pipe).

Most English people have a problem with the Umlauts because you don't have a sound similar to them in your language. Since talking is mostly done with muscle memory they'll find it hard to create sounds they've never made before. But we'rre not much better in zis az we donn't haff the "th" and haff to replace it wiz a s or z. So efferyboddy has a dinstinctive äczent wenn speeking a foreign lanquitsch.

[Eichhörnchen]

I am glad to learn that you are a German who uses the "leaky steam pipe" "ich", as you so eloquently put it! Usually, German-speakers here (because they learned that way) will say "ish bin", which I think sounds a little coarser than your own, softer, pronunciation at the back of the palette. Which indeed was how I was taught at school (I presume it's a regional dialect thing).

Thanks for the other information, too: I didn't know any of that.