Tehod Translation

The German word 'auch' means 'also' in modern English. Etymologically, however, it is related to the old-fashioned English word 'eke'.  The phrase 'to eke out a living' means to supplement one's income. 

The word 'eke-name' was used to mean an additional name. Over time, 'an eke-name' changed to 'a neke-name' and then 'a nickname'. 

The UN has launched an appeal to help famine-hit Africa.

The UN has launched an appeal to help famine hit Africa.

The German words spielen and Spiel are related to English spell . Originally, spell meant statement (Gospel = "good statement", i.e. good news). Das Spiel can refer to a game or theatrical work, like English play . The German word entered English through Yiddish slang: "I asked him a simple question, but he launched into a whole shpiel ." 

Why does German use "Fernseher" and not "television", as in most European languages? Even the Japanese say "terebi" (their pronunciation of TV), so why not the Germans?

The fact is that "Fernseher" and "television" are essentially the same word. "Tele" comes from Greek and means "far", while "vision" comes from Latin "visio" and means, well, "vision". So "television" is literally "far-vision" or "far-sight", which is what the German word also means, only the roots are Germanic, not Greek and Latin. All the Germanic languages tend to use Germanic roots (in Icelandic "TV" is "sjónvarp").

Another example in German is "Flughafen", which literally (and actually) means "air-port". Incidentally, "Hafen" is related to "harbour"and "Flug" to "flight". Partly the reason why German dispenses of Latin and Greek roots is down to Martin Luther. Modern German is based on his translation of the Bible, and back then he was having a major spat with the Catholic Church, so he deliberately got rid of as many Latin (and Greek) words as he could.

Back to TV, why is "television" half-Greek, half-Latin? Why not fully Greek? Because "far-sight" in Greek would be "telescope", and that implement already existed.

English is said to be "half-French, half-German", so where are all the German words? Everywhere. You just have to look.

Knowing that German "t" often masquerades as "d" in English, and that over the centuries "g" has morphed into "y", we see, for example, that "Tag" is the same word as "day", "yellow" and "gelb" are related, and "Geld" (money) is actually "yield" in disguise.

"Cht" and "ch" in German are often "ght" and "gh" in English. That's helps us spot that Nacht = night, Acht = eight, durch = through, etc. Incidentally, the "dur" in "durch" is related to "door", the very essence of throughness.

"D" and "th" are often interchangeable, as in the durch/through example. So Danke = thanks; der/die/das = the; and "Thaler"(the old German currency) = "dollar".

Other words are easier to find: and/und; ist/is; Haus/house; Bier/beer; Milch/milk; Wasser/water; Kuh/cow; Brot/bread; Fuchs/fox; Wolf/wolf; Vater/father; Mutter/mother; Sohn/son; Tochter/daughter; Bruder/brother; Schwester/sister; schwimmen/swim; trinken/drink; sitzen/sit; setzen/set; halten/hold; lernen/learn...

Often in English the "basic" word for something is of German (or Germanic) origin, while the more formal or "poetic" word comes from French (or Latin). For example, green/vernal (from German "grün" and French "vert"). That's because after the Norman invasion in 1066 the nobility spoke (a version of) French, whereas the peasants spoke (a version of) German.

This is also reflected in the names of animals. We use the Germanic "cow" when the animal looks like a cow. But when it's on a plate and no longer cow-shaped, we call it "beef" from French "boeuf". Why? Because the peasants did all the farming and the Norman French aristocrats did all the eating.

Incidentally, the Normans weren't "real" (i.e. Gallic) French. They were descended from the Vikings (Norman = Norse man). The Vikings also journeyed west to Britain, Iceland, Greenland and beyond, and east to Russia, where they founded Kievan Rus and became known as the Varangians.

The Russian word ассортимент ("assortment" or "selection") has been shortened to асс. by the menu writer. The translator has then translitered it into English as "ass". The result is what should happen to said translator.

Following on from the last post, let's have a look at how Russian usually indicates definiteness. As I mentioned, it's possible to say:

Yesterday I saw a dog. The (that) dog was barking loudly.
Вчера я видел одну собаку. Та собака громко лаяла.

However, most Russian speakers wouldn't say that. They would (probably) say:

Вчера я видел собаку. Собака громко лаяла.

Note that the word "dog" in the first sentence comes last, but in the second it comes first. That's because Russian usually indicates definiteness by putting new information at the end of the sentence and old at the beginning, and therefore does not need articles to specify which is which.  In the above example the word order in English is the same. So here's a different example:

An exhibition was held last week. The exhibition (it) was dedicated to the 400th anniversary of the discovery of America.
На прошлой неделе прошла выставка. Выставка (она) была посвящена 400-летию открытия Америки.

Here the new information ("an exhibition") comes last in Russian. Only when it's old information ("the exhibition") can it come at the start of the sentence or be replaced by a pronoun.


Another way to indicate definiteness in Russian is to add the particle -то onto the end of nouns, as in Bulgarian. For example:

Where's the book?
Где книга-то? 

The dog was barking loudly.
Собака-то громко лаяла .

-то can be added to lots of words for emphasis, not just nouns, but its origins lie in being a demonstrative pronoun. "Demonstrate" and "emphasize" are essentially the same thing: the former comes from Latin meaning "point out", the latter from Greek meaning "show".

I'm often asked by Russian speakers about the purpose of grammatical articles. After all, except for Bulgarian and Macedonian, it's said that the Slavonic languages don't have them. But that's not entirely true.

The word "article" comes from Latin "artus" meaning "joint" (the type in your fingers, not the one you smoke). Before the appearance of language, people pointed at objects (nouns) using their fingers, normally the index ("pointing") finger. Today we can do it verbally with  demonstrative pronouns (this/that/these/those). Known as determiners, articles are basically atrophied or shortened demonstrative pronouns. Russian can make use of the full versions of its demonstrative pronouns to achieve the same effect.

The indefinite article "a" is an atrophied form of "one" and is used about countable things that are not defined, i.e. new information (compare French, German, etc., where "a" and "one" are still the same word). In Russian it's possible to stick один/одна/одно in front of nouns to achieve the "indefinite" effect, i.e. to indicate that something hasn't been mentioned before:

Yesterday I saw a dog
Вчера я видел одну собаку  


The definite article "the" is a compromise between "this" (for near objects in space/time) and "that" (for distant objects in space/time) and is used about a specific or "definite" noun (old information) when distance in space/time is not relevant. Russian can "point" at old information using этот/эта/это ("this") and тот/та/то ("that"):

Yesterday I saw a dog.  The (that) dog was barking loudly.
Вчера я видел одну собаку. Та собака громко лаяла. 

In fact, if you take any text in Russian and force yourself to put "один" or "этот/тот" in front of every noun, there's almost a one-to-one correspondence with English "a" and "the". If neither is possible, then the zero article is most likely used in English.

Note that the definite article is like a pronoun (he/she/it) or a relative pronoun (who/which/etc.) in that it can only refer to something that has been mentioned before. If, for example, you start a new conversation with "Yesterday I saw it", the other person will ask "Saw what?"

Russian "articles" are usually omitted because Russian makes use of word order to indicate definiteness , i.e. old/new information (see next post).