By the way, the text below today's image reads "Zugzwang occurs more often in real life than in chess." I think I agree.
The image is from www.prozaru.com.
Birte Priebe |
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This week's term is an interesting one. The German Zugzwang is originally a chess term. In this context, it describes a situation in which a player is obliged to make a move, but where any move will put him or her at a disadvantage. This is the way zugzwang is used in English. In Russian, цугцванг ("tsugtsvang") was originally used for chess only, too. Nowadays, however, it can also be used to describe hopeless real-life situations. In modern German, the term has largely lost the connotation of something unpleasant waiting ahead no matter what you do. It still means that one is obliged to do something (urgently), though, so the notion of compulsion is still there.
By the way, the text below today's image reads "Zugzwang occurs more often in real life than in chess." I think I agree. The image is from www.prozaru.com.
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Although winter still hasn't arrived in Amsterdam yet, it is cold enough for me to wear a Halstuch (scarf, neckerchief) when I go for a walk. The Russian version of Halstuch - галстук ("galstuk") - wouldn't keep me very warm, however, since a галстук is a tie. In modern German, a tie is called Krawatte (which, by the way, comes from the Croatian word for "Croatian") or, less formally, Schlips.
In Russian, an informal meeting is called a встреча без галстуков ("vstrecha bez galstukov") - literally, a "meeting without ties". The image is from www.tsokno.com. This week's Word of the Week is one of my Russian favorites. My impression is that it is a recent addition to the Russian vocabulary, reflecting the type of car many Russians have been coveting since the end of the USSR. Geländewagen (all-terrain vehicle) became гелендваген (gelendvagen). This term was probably only used for the Mercedes Benz G-Class at the beginning, but seems to have become a generic term for off-road vehicles, giving rise to some typically Russian nicknames such as Гелик (Gelik), Гелен (Gelen) and Гелендос (Gelendos). The German pronunciation poses some challenges for Russian speakers, resulting in the loss of the "e" at the end of Gelände and a shift of stress from "ä" to the "a" in "vagen".
The image is from www.gelandewagen.org. Let's stay in the kitchen for a while. Last week we had the knackwurst, this week we're looking at an important kitchen utensil - the colander. Both Russians and Poles use the German term Durchschlag. In both cases, the "kh" sound of "Durch" has disappeared and the word is pronounced "durshlag" instead of "durkhshlag." In Polish, the spelling is durszlag.
Apologies to my colleague Steffen Heieck - I forgot to mention last week that it was he who told me about nakki. The image is from www.900igr.net. It took us Germans a long time to realize that our country has become a country of immigration. So foreign workers were referred to as Gastarbeiter ("guest worker(s)") instead of migrants for a long time. And it looks like the Germans are not the only ones who believe that most migrants will eventually "go home" again - in Russian, the German term has caught on in the form of гастарбайтер ("gastarbaiter"), with the stress on the last "a" instead of the first one.
The image is from www.uzkinoman.ru. With influenza season approaching fast, some of you might be thinking of getting a flu shot. Time to look at the Russian word for syringe, шприц (pronounced "shprits"). It comes from the German Spritze, with the only major difference in pronunciation being that the "e" that you can hear clearly at the end of the German word has disappeared in the Russian version. Now when you go for your flu shot, make sure that they use a new syringe, since "a drug addict's syringe is a possible source of infection," as this poster tells us.
The image is from www.vimeo.com. This week, another one of my Russian favorites: Schlagbaum (boom barrier) became шлагбаум in Russian, keeping both its meaning and the original German pronunciation (albeit with a Russian tinge), except that the stress is on the second rather than the first syllable in Russian.
From my colleague Ramona Binder I learned that the Romanians also use this term - in the form of schlagbaumi. The image is from www.parktime-pro.ru. Bruderschaft/Brüderschaft trinken was originally a drinking ritual that marked the passing from the formal "Sie" form of address to the informal "Du". Nowadays, there are a variety of other meanings that derive from the original one (such as "to fraternize", for example - indeed, not all of them are positive, as witnessed by this example from Poland.) In Russia and Bulgaria, пить на/пиенето на брудершафт (bruderšaft) is a well-known ritual, too.
My thanks go to my colleague Peter Reichstein for pointing out the Polish version to me. The image is from www.radiopin.pl. This week, let's take a look at another technical term that made its way to a foreign country, in this case Russia. The German Schraube (screw) became шуруп ("shurup"). A шуруп is usually used when working with wood.
The image is from www.adviceskilled.ru. This week's pick is used in English and Russian, among others. Wunderkind (a child prodigy or, well, a wunderkind) remains unchanged in both of those languages.
The image is from www.lakenewsonline.com. |
AboutThis is a blog about the traces German (my mother tongue) has left in other languages. Contributions from your language(s) are more than welcome! Mail me at b.priebe@aiic.net. Archives
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