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Miscellaneous See other Miscellaneous Articles Title: Fascinating linguistic facts Pravda... Wer Fremdsprachen nicht kennt, weiß nichts von seiner eigenen.--Goethe. (He who is ignorant of foreign languages knows nothing of his own language.) German is the world's most graphic language. German for "nurse," Krankenschwester, literally means patient's sister. A light bulb is Gluhbirne, literally "glowing pear." The word for present (the present time) is Gegenwart, sort of philosophical, since it means in its two roots "against" and "to wait." German for surcharge, Zuschlag, literally indicates "a beating up of." The word for adultery is Ehebruch, or "marriage break." The word for to justify is rechtfertigen, or "to finish correctly." "Enemy" in German is Feind, a cognate of English fiend. A fine is Strafgeld, or "punishment money." Print version + - Font Size Send to friend In the the English version of Cinderella (Aschenputl), the heroine is said to put on glass slippers; what dangerous walking that would be! The slippers were actually fur; a translator mistook French vers for "glass" (verre). In Spanish, the word for "handcuffs" is esposas, literally "wives"; apparently having multiple wives would be cumbersome. Another famous mistranslation altered our view of the New Testament and Christianity. Greek translators of the Bible turned "maiden" into virgin, the Virgin Mary, and it has stuck ever since. "I suppose the scholars of the Septuagint could atleast be said to have started something big when they mistranslated the Hebrew word for 'young woman' into the Greek word for 'virgin,' coming up with the prophecy 'behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son....'" (R. Dawkins, The Selfish Gene.) Actually, Joseph's Mary conceived Jesus from sexual intercourse. The Spanish word pregnant is embarazada, an obvious cognate of "embarrassed." An automaker was baffled when their car Nova sold but sluggishly in Latin America. Nova (no va) in Spanish means "it doesn't go." In French, the word for a public urinal is pissotiѐre; the English cognate hardly needs mentioning. Zaftig--having large breasts (said of women)--was defined by the puritanical Reader's Digest as "full-figured" and "plump"--which is not what it means. Many prudish American dictionaries get Zaftig wrong or half-baked. In its Yiddish-German the word literally means "juicy." The purpose of language is communication, and to communicate clearly several languages ought to be studied. P.S. Some American college students are told to read The Chicago Manual of Style, a thick tome, supposedly the last word on correct punctuation and writing. But do not buy it or study it, since it is obscure, absolutely unreadable! The manual is one of the most obscure books I have ever seen. Do not waste your time or money on it. John Fleming St. Louis, Missouri, USA John Fleming is author of the books The War of All Against All and Word Power (available through Amazon.com). Poster Comment: Steve Meikle в 11:23 16 января It is not wise to consider Dawkins an authority on anything outside his narrow speciality. His argumentation and thinking is so sloppy that I know of atheist scientists who are offended by him for letting down the side. Besides in an age where morality was strictly enforced and where people actually believed in something other than mere hedonistic self gratification such that they would actually, dare I say it, refrain from fornicating outside of marriage, a maiden would have been a virgin. And indeed that is what the word meant The author speaks of things he knows nothing about when he argues against the virgin birth, and I note he did not attempt to justify this by showing the Hebrew words in question Ответить Rita Szentendrey в 07:47 16 января Sorry Flaming I am 100% sure is NOT zaftig because will sound in german as tzaftig ! The correct grammar is "SAFTIG" ! Like fruchtsaft. Ответить Google_103475423810891021094 в 14:44 15 января In english, maiden does mean virgin. A maiden is an unmarried woman, and, in the past, presumed virginal. Ответить Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest
#1. To: Tatarewicz (#0)
Saftig is the German spelling for "juicy." (Saft, German for "juice" is cognate with English "sap.") The Romanized spelling for it in Yiddish is zaftig or zoftig depending on the dialect. Yiddish is loaded with German words and grammar forms. The real spelling for it anyway is in Hebrew characters. During the late Renaissance and on into the industrial age when English was acquiring Greco-Latin words by the bushel full to describe many new and wonderful things, there was an active movement in the German-speaking regions to preserve native forms. That's why you get far out words for things like the telephone (Fernsprecher, "far speaker"), television (Fernseh, "far see") and telescope telephone (Fernrohr, "far tube") sometime used interchangeably with Telefon and Teleskop. There was a similar movement among Russian speakers around the same time. "If ignorance is truly bliss, then why do so many Americans need Prozac?" - Dave McGowan
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