Denny VrandečićMar 30, 2023

I really love some German words, and can only shake my head about how inaccessible English likes to be.

Hydrogen? That's Wasserstoff, "water stuff".
Carbon? Kohlenstoff, "coal stuff".
Triangle? Dreieck, "three corner".
Quadrilateral? Viereck, "four corner".
Pentagon? Fünfeck, "five corner".
Rectangle? Rechteck, "right corner".
Suburb? Vorort, "before the place".
Telescope? Fernrohr, "far pipe".
Television? Fernseher, "far viewer".

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Show threadDenny VrandečićMar 30, 2023

Dentist? Zahnarzt, "tooth doctor".
Dermatologist? Hautarzt, "skin doctor".
Otorhinolaryngologist? Hals-Nasen-Ohren-Arzt, "throat nose ear doctor".
Veterinary? Tierarzt, "animal doctor".
Unicorn? Einhorn, "one horn".
Canine unit? Hundestaffel, "dog group / unit".
Mutton? Schaffleisch, "sheep meat".
Pork? Schweinefleisch, "pig meat".
Refrigerator? Kühlschrank, "cooling cabinet".
Automobile? Fahrzeug, "driving gear".
Aeroplane? Flugzeug, "flying gear".
Bicycle? Fahrrad, "drive wheel".

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Show threadDenny VrandečićMar 30, 2023

Library? Bücherei, "bookery".
Dictionary? Wörterbuch, "word book".
Orthography? Rechtschreibung, "right writing".
Capital? Großbuchstabe, "big letter".
The other capital? Hauptstadt, "head city".

I could go on. There's so much Greek and Latin and French mixed into English, and it often feels so unnecessary. The literal translations often sound entirely understandable.

Any other examples that come to your mind? Also in other languages?

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#German #English #language #words

Show threadSimon Kowalewski
@vrandecic Germany had a few times when there were efforts made to purge foreign words from our language. Some replacements stuck (e.g. "Bahnsteig" to replace "Perron"), some did not (like "Zerknalltriebling" instead of "Motor"). But I think these concerted efforts at language puritanism feel a bit artificial.
Mar 30, 2023 at 8:15pmWeb
Show threadDenny VrandečićMar 30, 2023
@deBaer I can see why Zerknalltriebling didn't succeed... And agreed, they are artificial. I am not a huge fan of language change by committee.
Show threadhollariusMar 30, 2023
@deBaer @vrandecic
Anschrift statt Adresse, Leidenschaft für Passion, Augenblick für Moment - es war schon teilweise sehr erfolgreich ...
Show threadSimon KowalewskiMar 31, 2023
@vrandecic Btw, there's also a (mostly humoristic) variation of English called Anglish that tries to replace the foreign words. A nice introductory video (or should I say "inleading film") is here: https://youtu.be/aMA3M6b9iEY
ANGLISH: English without the 'foreign' bits

YouTube
Show threadMichael EngelMar 31, 2023
@deBaer @vrandecic Cool video, thanks for the link! The video's example of using "other" for "second" is still present in Scandinavian languages ("andre"/"andra"/"anden" in Norwegian/Swedish/Danish), whereas German uses the equivalent of "twoth" - "zweite"...