That’s right. It somehow reminds me of the way the German military used to speak, especially during World War II…[YSaerTTEW443543]
TOEIC listening, photographs: Enjoying a meal[YSaerTTEW443543]
Hi prezbucky, hi Torsten!
I?d like to add my tuppence on this. In that area of Germany where I live (near Dortmund, Bochum…Castrop-Rauxel) the vocabulary “jawohl” is commonly used still. Just a bit in the typical tongue: “Jawoll!”. It?s an expression for great joy, for instance if the favorite soccer club achieves a goal you might hear a loud scream: jawollllll. Or if anybody should win a huge price in a bet or something else. Or during an argue between children when they lost the thread and the argue is about who is right at the end you might hear a discussion like this:
A: It?s not true!!
B: is? ja_wohl wahr!!! :lol:
Michael
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The way I hear things in Swabia, I think a good translation for jawohl would sometimes be [size=117]“Yessirreebob!”[/size] :mrgreen:
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That’s a good one, Amy![YSaerTTEW443543]
TOEIC listening, photographs: A florist[YSaerTTEW443543]
lol, Ames (hehe. smack me if you don’t like that), ya just reminded me of my grandpa.
well one of them, anyway (maternal).
It might be going out of style in other parts of the world, but YESSIREEBOB (almost “bab” up there) is still – like “OOFDAH” in da U.P. (eh!) – a cornerstone of Wisconsin speech.
Down here I’ve heard it as “YESSIREEBUDDY”
I feel I must correct the ingrate who says it that way, whenever that happens.
Hi prezbucky
I am familiar with YESSIREE, but I’ve never come across OOFDAH. Would you care to explain it?
Thanks
L.L.
Oofdah… how to explain “oofdah”?
“Oofdah” is an expression of surprise, shock, dismay, irritation, and/or happiness commonly used in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan (commonly referred to as the – or da – UP).
The UP was settled mostly by Scandinavian-Americans. The UP accent is among the harshest in the United States – it is extremely nasal. Every vowel in the UP tongue is a diphthong.
“Oofdah” is also commonly used in northern Minnesota.
Wisconsinites, sandwiched between their Minnesota/UP brethren, are more likely to use “oh jeez” or “ah jeez” or “shoot” to express similar feelings.
Check these out:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upper_Peni … f_Michigan
(If you can find it, download “Da Second Week Of Deer Camp” by the pop/accordion band Da Yoopers. The song is hilarious, and will definitely give you a feel for Da UP, northern Wisconsin, and northern Minnesota.)
The chorus of “Da Second Week Of Deer Camp”:
It’s da second week of deer camp, and all the guys are here
We drink, play cards, and shoot da bull (or “pool”), but never shoot no deer
The only time we leave the camp is when we go for beer
Da second week of deer camp is the greatest time of year.
Fan of Arabian Horses
Do you cheer for Dortmund? I like their home kit.
Another classic Yooperesque song is (and it’s in season) “Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer”
:mrgreen:
That’s not Yooper, that’s country and western. (Or is there no difference?)
I’ve taken that song to English classes with me at Christmastime. :lol:
(Yes, my students think I’m a little nuts…) 8)
Amy
it’s actually polka, i think… they use a lot of accordion.
Here’s one for you:
In heaven there is no beer
That’s why we drink it here
And when we are (or have… can’t remember) gone from here
Our friends will be drinking all our beer
That was off the top of my head, lol, so don’t razz me if it’s off a bit. hehe
We used to go down to a German pub during my undergrad days at UW-Madison… we’d drink boots filled with beer.
Now the boots we used probably held about a pitcher’s worth of beer. We’d sit 'round the table. Here’s how it would go:
I drink untill I can’t swallow any more beer. I flick the boot with my finger and hand it to the next person.
He says, “Danke.”
I reply, “Bitte.”
And he begins drinking.
Rules:
-
You must keep your mouth on the boot. If you take your mouth off the boot, your turn ends. (in other words, you can’t just sit there sipping/resting/sipping/resting.) Mouth on, drink; mouth off, your turn is over and you pass it to the next person.
-
If the person after you finishes the boot, you buy the next one.
Ergo, once the beer level in the boot gets down around the ankle, it behooves the drinker to finish it… because if he doesn’t, it’s likely that the next person will.
At any rate, the bar always had a polka band on stage when we were there for our bootfests.
Hi Yankee,
You wrote:
We also need to keep in mind that an expression similar to the German one you’re referring to could exist in some other languages as well. Many expressions are also typical of less common variants of native English which makes it hard to tell whether or not someone is a native writer of English.
Englishuser
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The vast majority of native speakers of English don’t dwell on trying to figure out whether or not English is someone’s native language.
What’s your advice to Michael, Englishuser? Is it that he should feel free to simply translate German directly into English?
By the way, is a native speaker different from a native writer? I don’t believe I’ve ever heard the latter term before.
Hi Englishuser!
You?re surely right when you say that an English native possibly could have written that controversial expression, too. But I agree with Amy saying/writing that somebody who?s proficient with both languages (English and German) easily will be reminded to a German idiom that exists in fact hearing it. I myself, although not that proficient Englishuser, thought about using the commonly recognized idioms shed yome light on this or ?enlighten me? . I must admit that writing down my idiom I just tried not to repeat an expression which I had used the same day yet, just a few minutes before.
Welcome back
Michael
Hi Michael
I think there are probably many direct translations of some other language that native speakers of English never notice at all – even when the words do sound a little “unusual”.
But you never can tell when one of those overly direct translations might come back to haunt you. Just think about the poor German guy who walks into McDonald’s and says “I become a hamburger.” :lol:
OT:
Do you use the expression “So ein K?se” in your part of Germany? Man! I’ll never forget the first time I heard someone say that. I thought I was doing very well in German and was thrilled that I was able to follow and understand conversations. Then one day someone suddenly mentioned ‘cheese’ in the middle of a conversation and I had no idea why. :lol:
Amy
Hi Yankee,
I totally agree with you when you say that most people wouldn’t spend that much time trying to figure out if someone is a native speaker of English or not. The most important thing is that you can understand each other, after all.
Translating German, or any other language, directly into English, is a practice I would strongly advice against. The best way of learning English is, in my opinion, through reading and listening to ‘correct’ English. People who acquire a language this way will normally become much more proficient than those who stick to the grammar-translation method. Translating idioms directly from one language to another is always a risky business, and I wouldn’t knowingly do it myself. The point I was trying to make was that people shouldn’t worry too much about making mistakes in their use of English since even native speakers show such great variation in their use of vocabulary and idioms.
Is a native speaker different from a native writer? Perhaps. Children start acquring the spoken form of a language much earlier than they start learning its writing system. This could make a difference. The term ‘native writer’ in itself is used by some linguists.
Englishuser