Language

[watervole]

 I'm back in learning German mode.  Helps my stress levels - which are way too high after COP26...

 And cheerfully making mistakes...But it's good, because I keep learning.

 

For some reason, I find poetry is a good way of learning the language.

Comments

[selenak]

Correction, alas: „Schweigend“ means „silent“.

(If you use in the sense of „this couple was silent the entire time“, that is. In „silent night, holy night“, it‘s „stille Nacht, heilige Nacht“.)

„Schwiegert“ as a word does not exist. „Schwieger“ in „Schwiegertochter“ - „daughter in law“ (Töchter is plural, daughters) - hails from the medieval German word that became „Schwager“ in modern German. (Brother-in-law, today.) Old fashioned term if you marry into a family: „man verschwägert sich“. (Having read up on the Habsburg recently, I came across this a lot.) All the same word root.

[igenlode]

'ie' versus 'ei' -- tends to be a very important distinction in German, and very frequently confused as interchangeable by English-speakers :-(

(Hence all the references to Professor 'Tolkein'... whose family were, I believe, originally Tollkühns)

[watervole]

Ah, I added an 'r' that shouldn't have been there!

I'm working my way through a poem on You Tube at the moment - das Abendlied

der Wald steht schwartz und schwieget

so much for my spelling!

Thanks.

[igenlode]

der Wald steht schwartz und schwieget

That line actually sounds familiar -- I wonder if it's from a Lied that I've sung (or rather from a poem that some composer set)

[watervole]

Listen her - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xn1FA58zCU