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Das Fractured German
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10851 |
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Section : |
Culture
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| Issue
Date : |
7 / 1986 |
1,961 Words |
| Author
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Nino Lo Bello
Nino Lo Bello is an American writer based in Vienna. |
Wasn't it Mark Twain who once called German "that awful language"?
Today he would shake his shaggy head and nod approvingly, as has many a traveler these days, over such German sentences as "Es regent Cats-und-Dogs," or "Das ist nicht up-to-date," or "Fly nonstop nach New York"--not to mention German-English inventions like das Popcorn, die Stripteaser, das Musical, der Star, ein Thriller, das Happy End, ein guter Gin-und-Tonic and der Lemonelime Drink [sic]. Three recent beauts that have popped up all over Central Europe are der Selfmademan, ein Shakehands and die Sex-bomb.
Call these linguistic hybrids "Deutschlish," Germenglish," fractured German, or whatever you will, but the new crop of words that have crept into the German language from across the Atlantic and the English Channel is enough for one speech expert here to comment with a Teutonic straight face: "Es ist der Trend!"
These days in Vienna when you throw out an English word in the middle of a German sentence, you are doing das In-Thing, because today German hat ein New Look. For tourists, the new German eliminates der Stress (pronounced shtress) and enables them to say good-bye to someone with the following perfectly acceptable sentence: "Auf Wiedersehen bis morgen, same time, same station!"
Deutschlish/Germenglish is everywhere is central Europe, creating its own kind of pollution. Here are some real nifties spotted in one day: a magazine recipe called Ungarisches Gulasch mit mixed Pickles; a solarium magazine advertisement telling you Braun is beautiful; ein sensationelles
... (1995 of 11657 Characters)
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