That is from The Old Mamselle’s Secret, by Mrs. Marlitt. You fall into error occasionally, because you mistake the name of a person for the name of a thing, and waste a good deal of time trying to dig a meaning out of it. Title: Die schreckliche deutsche Sprache /The Awful German Language Mark Twain Buch PDF Created Date: 1/15/2019 11:44:40 AM Boom, burst, crash, roar, storm, bellow, blow, thunder, explosion; howl, cry, shout, yell, groan; battle, hell. This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. When I was girding up my loins to doubt this, I found out that Tannenwald in this instance was a man’s name. German books are easy enough to read when you hold them before the looking-glass or stand on your head — so as to reverse the construction — but I think that to learn to read and understand a German newspaper is a thing which must always remain an impossibility to a foreigner. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. He also wrote the amusingly literal translation that you see below. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience. Ich selbst liebe die schreckliche deutsche Sprache sehr. Some utterly brilliant, quality ‘Twain here! Jun 27, Matt rated it it was amazing Recommends it for: Of course no bird would do that, but then you must stick to the book. Even the cumbersome German construction is not able to take the pathos out of that picture — indeed, it somehow seems to strengthen it. In this way I have made quite a valuable collection. That is wise. But their German equivalents would be ever so nice to sing the children to sleep with, or else my awe-inspiring ears were made for display and not for superior usefulness in analyzing sounds. Then you turn the page and you found a page-long list of exceptions. Deutsche Version. They are, therefore, an offense, and should be discarded. Discover Prime Book Box for Kids. I would require every individual, be he high or low, to unfold a plain straightforward tale, or else coil it and sit on it and hold his peace. For instance, there is a word which means a runaway, or the act of glancing through a book, according to the placing of the emphasis; and another word which signifies to associate with a man, or to avoid him, according to where you put the emphasis — and you can generally depend on putting it in the wrong place and getting into trouble. Change ), You are commenting using your Facebook account. Buy Die Schreckliche Deutsche Sprache the a by Mark Twain (ISBN: ) from Amazon’s Book Store. [1]. However, this rain is not resting, but is doing somethingactively, — it is falling — to interfere with the bird, likely — and this indicates movement, which has the effect of sliding it into the Accusative case and changing dem Regen into den Regen.” Having completed the grammatical horoscope of this matter, I answer up confidently and state in German that the bird is staying in the blacksmith shop “wegen (on account of) den Regen.” Then the teacher lets me softly down with the remark that whenever the word “wegen” drops into a sentence, it always throws that subject into the Genitive case, regardless of consequences — and that therefore this bird stayed in the blacksmith shop “wegen des Regens.”. We have the Parenthesis disease in our literature, too; and one may see cases of it every day in our books and newspapers: but with us it is the mark and sign of an unpracticed writer or a cloudy intellect, whereas with the Germans it is doubtless the mark and sign of a practiced pen and of the presence of that sort of luminous intellectual fog which stands for clearness among these people. Here was a case where simplicity would have been an advantage; therefore, for no other reason, the inventor of this language complicated it all he could. This is just one of the solutions for you to be successful. In those days we were not content to embalm the thing and bury it decently, we wanted to build a monument over it. Well, after the student has learned the sex of a great number of nouns, he is still in a difficulty, because he finds it impossible to persuade his tongue to refer to things as “he” and “she,” and “him” and “her,” which it has been always accustomed to refer to it as “it.” When he even frames a German sentence in his mind, with the hims and hers in the right places, and then works up his courage to the utterance-point, it is no use — the moment he begins to speak his tongue flies the track and all those labored males and females come out as “its.” And even when he is reading German to himself, he always calls those things “it,” where as he ought to read in this way: 2. — I was informed, later, by a higher authority, that there was an “exception” which permits one to say “wegen den Regen” in certain peculiar and complex circumstances, but that this exception is not extended to anything but rain. The Awful German Language A little learning makes the whole world kin.— Proverbs xxxii, 7.I went often to look at the collection of curiosities in Heidelberg Castle, and one day I surprised the keeper of it with my German. Change ), You are commenting using your Google account. I spoke entirely in that language. Now observe the Adjective. Tach Allerseits, vielleicht gibt es Kollegen, die diese Liebeserklärung an die deutsche Sprache noch nicht kennen. Gott!” “Mein Gott!” “Gott in Himmel!” “Herr Gott” “Der Herr Jesus!” etc. Ehrgeiz vielleicht noch, ja sogar Neid. I have shown that the German language needs reforming. Everyday low prices and free delivery on eligible orders. In another Moment, except Help come, the Fishwife will be no more. The Awful German Language Die Schreckliche Deutsche Sprache Mark Twain Library Genesis is a search engine for free reading material, including ebooks, articles, magazines, and more. So I insist that this important part of speech should be brought forward to a position where it may be easily seen with the naked eye. And if I have not also shown that German is a harassing and infuriating study, my execution has been at fault, and not my intent. Nothing gives such an air of grace and elegance and unconstraint to a German or an English conversation as to scatter it full of “Also’s” or “You knows.”. Wenn er aber auf der Strasse der in Sammt und Seide gehüllten jetzt sehr ungenirt nach der neusten Mode gekleideten Regierungsräthin begegnet. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Yes! Harris and I had been hard at work on our German during several weeks at that time, and although we had made good progress, it had been accomplished under great difficulty and annoyance, for three of our teachers had died in the mean time. There are three-quarters of a column of Schlags in the dictionary, and a column and a half of Zugs. A Wife, here, has no sex; she is neuter; so, according to the grammar, a fish is he, his scales are she, but a fishwife is neither. The Dative case is but an ornamental folly — it is better to discard it. Let us take him up tenderly, reverently, upon the lowly Shovel, and bear him to his long Rest, with the Prayer that when he rises again it will be a Realm where he will have one good square responsible Sex, and have it all to himself, instead of having a mangy lot of assorted Sexes scattered all over him in Spots. There are ten parts of speech, and they are all troublesome. Thirdly, I would import some strong words from the English tongue — to swear with, and also to use in describing all sorts of vigorous things in a vigorous ways. These cookies do not store any personal information. DIE SCHRECKLICHE DEUTSCHE SPRACHE TWAIN PDF. “The Awful German Language” is an essay by Mark Twain published as Appendix D in A On October 31, , Twain delivered a lecture titled “Die Schrecken der deutschen Sprache” (“The Horrors of the German Language” in English). I take a great interest in these curiosities. That shows that the sound of the words is correct — it interprets the meanings with truth and with exactness; and so the ear is informed, and through the ear, the heart. Thanks for deutschhe us about the problem. I have now named what I regard as the most necessary and important changes. I will make a perfectly literal translation, and throw in the parenthesis-marks and some hyphens for the assistance of the reader — though in the original there are no parenthesis-marks or hyphens, and the reader is left to flounder through to the remote verb the best way he can: “But when he, upon the street, the (in-satin-and-silk-covered-now-very-unconstrained-after-the-newest-fashioned-dressed) government counselor’s wife met,” etc., etc. Amazon Restaurants Food delivery from local restaurants. Cart All. There, now, the reader can see for himself that this pronoun business is a very awkward thing for the unaccustomed tongue. You observe how far that verb is from the reader’s base of operations; well, in a German newspaper they put their verb away over on the next page; and I have heard that sometimes after stringing along the exciting preliminaries and parentheses for a column or two, they get in a hurry and have to go to press without getting to the verb at all. Die Sprachen, die sich nicht entwickeln, sind die tote Sprachen. This item is dated away back yonder months ago. Some German words are so long that they have a perspective. So, as an addede often signifies the plural, as the s does with us, the new student is likely to go on for a month making twins out of a Dative dog before he discovers his mistake; and on the other hand, many a new student who could ill afford loss, has bought and paid for two dogs and only got one of them, because he ignorantly bought that dog in the Dative singular when he really supposed he was talking plural — which left the law on the seller’s side, of course, by the strict rules of grammar, and therefore a suit for recovery could not lie. But far before this virtue stands another — that of spelling a word according to the sound of it. Das englische Original wurde zuerst in der Anthologie A Tramp Abroad als Annex D veröffentlicht. And now a Tomcat has got one of the Fishes and she will surely escape with him. “The Awful German Language” is an essay by Mark Twain published as Appendix D in A On October 31, , Twain delivered a lecture titled “Die Schrecken der deutschen Sprache” (“The Horrors of the German Language” in English). Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. In German, all the Nouns begin with a capital letter. There are people in the world who will take a great deal of trouble to point out the faults in a religion or a language, and then go blandly about their business without suggesting any remedy. The Awful German Language. Here are some specimens which I lately bought at an auction sale of the effects of a bankrupt bric-a-brac hunter: Of course when one of these grand mountain ranges goes stretching across the printed page, it adorns and ennobles that literary landscape — but at the same time it is a great distress to the new student, for it blocks up his way; he cannot crawl under it, or climb over it, or tunnel through it. Ah, woeful, woeful Ash-heap! Infractions of this law should be punishable with death. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. This is the shape it takes: instead of saying “Mr. — In the hospital yesterday, a word of thirteen syllables was successfully removed from a patient — a North German from near Hamburg; but as most unfortunately the surgeons had opened him in the wrong place, under the impression that he contained a panorama, he died. The inventor of the language seems to have taken pleasure in complicating it in every way he could think of. As understood, ability does not recommend that you have astounding points. They impart a martial thrill to the meekest subject. It would take several lifetimes to consume everything on offer here. But mainly, think of the exasperation of never knowing which of these meanings the speaker is trying to convey. This would simplify the language. But these little instances are trifles indeed, contrasted with the ponderous and dismal German system of piling jumbled compounds together. The inventor of the language probably got what he knew about a conscience from hearsay. We used to speak of a things as a “never-to-be-forgotten” circumstance, instead of cramping it into the simple and sufficient word “memorable” and then going calmly about our business as if nothing had happened. Difficult? You can begin withSchlag-ader, which means artery, and you can hang on the whole dictionary, word by word, clear through the alphabet to Schlag-wasser, which means bilge-water — and including Schlag-mutter, which means mother-in-law. I couldn’t stop laughing when I started to read it so I thought I must buy a copy for myself. I found this piece to be a fun elbow in the ribs at the German language. Our descriptive words of this character have such a deep, strong, resonant sound, while their German equivalents do seem so thin and mild and energyless. To wholly do away with them would be best, for ideas are more easily received and digested when they come one at a time than when they come in bulk. Armed just with these two, and the word also, what cannot the foreigner on German soil accomplish? It has ceased from its Sufferings, it has gone to a better Land; all that is left of it for its loved Ones to lament over, is this poor smoldering Ash-heap. The writers of The Awful German Language Die Schreckliche Deutsche Sprache Mark Twain have made all reasonable attempts to offer latest and precise information and facts for the readers of this publication. It was only the sound that helped him, not the meaning; [3] and so, at last, when he learned that the emphasis was not on the first syllable, his only stay and support was gone, and he faded away and died. In Germany, when you load your conversational gun it is always best to throw in a Schlag or two and a Zug or two, because it doesn’t make any difference how much the rest of the charge may scatter, you are bound to bag something with them.