The illustration is from www.pravaspb.ru.
Let me introduce you to one of my Russian favorites - штраф ("shtraf", pronounced with a short "a".) It is basically the German word for punishment - Strafe (pronounced with a long "a") but with a narrower meaning. Штраф is the equivalent of "fine". It is used a lot in the context of driving, but is not limited to it.
The illustration is from www.pravaspb.ru.
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This week's pick lost two letters that have no importance for how the word is pronounced in Russian, but otherwise Zifferblatt (dial, clock face) has remained intact. Another nice example for a rather technical term that was adopted from German.
The picture is from http://arheemed.ru/catalog/nachalnoe_obrazovanie1/nachalnoe/chasovoj_ciferblat_razdatochnyj/ This week, one of the Russian "classics". In German, there is nothing more to a Butterbrot than the name suggests - bread and butter. In Russian, however, any kind of sandwich is a бутерброд (buterbrod). Usually, however, they are rather elaborate open-faced sandwiches (not necessarily as inventive as the lovely animals above, though.)
Interestingly, in Danish, the lavishly garnished sandwiches are famously called smørrebrød, which, if you translate it literally into German, means nothing more than Butterbrot! The picture is from www.sdelaysam-samodelki.ru. This week, a word that fits in with our economically troubled times. The French, the Dutch and the Russians (and possibly some others, too) use the German term Krach to describe an economic collapse or stock market crash. I can see why, too - it's got such a nice onomatopoeic ring to it, much more dramatic than "collapse", wouldn't you agree?
The picture is from www.grapheine.com. Back to Russia this week where there is a lot more hunting going on than in Germany. Still, the Russian word for hunting bag is of German origin - Jagdtasche became ягдташ (pronounced yagtásh.)
Judging by the spread of our hunting terminology, we Germans must have been superior hunters in the past. Apparently, German technical terms to do with hunting abound in several other languages. You might encounter some Danish terms in a future post. The picture is from www.semin-knife.ru Few German words used in other languages have to do with entertainment, so this week's pick is exceptional. The German Kegelbahn (bowling alley) has morphed into кегельбáн in Russian and Ukrainian. As usual with Russian, the pronunciation sticks very closely to the original. The stress, however, moves from the first to the last syllable.
If you fancy going to this кегельбáн in Kharkiv, Ukraine, I would recommend that you get a new set of very long legs to start with - the door does not seem to be made for ordinary mortals. The picture is by Rejgan318, www.panoramio.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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