![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Feb. 17th, 2014 04:35 pm
Donnerschnee!
It's gonna be a slow ride home. I may end up thankful I packed three novels.
Coming in was smooth sailing, so I was caught off guard when I stepped outside to head to a meeting at another building and was hit with a stinging blast of tiny ice pellets. Within minutes it was snowing so heavily I could no longer see the far side of the lagoon. Reportedly it slackened during the noon hour, but by the time![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
niemandsrose and I headed out together for Indian food, it was falling steadily again. On the way back, she was intrigued by the soft little pellets on the ground. "Is this graupel?" I confirmed that it was. "Can you say 'Es graupelt'?" Of course you can!
Back at the office, a colleague attested that she had actually heard "graupelt" from native speakers. Another colleague speculated that perhaps the proper form should be "gräupelt" by analogy with Schwabe - schwäbelt, but I ridiculed this, pointing out that in the latter case the -el- represents a verbal suffix with diminutive force whereas the -el- of graupeln clearly belongs to the nominal stem and, thus, no umlaut takes place. He slunk away suitably chastened.
Whatever you call it, right now there's about six-and-a-half centimetres on the ground with another two-and-a-half predicted before bedtime. I wonder if it's even worth my while to wait for the shuttle or if I should preemptively head for the train.
Coming in was smooth sailing, so I was caught off guard when I stepped outside to head to a meeting at another building and was hit with a stinging blast of tiny ice pellets. Within minutes it was snowing so heavily I could no longer see the far side of the lagoon. Reportedly it slackened during the noon hour, but by the time
niemandsrose and I headed out together for Indian food, it was falling steadily again. On the way back, she was intrigued by the soft little pellets on the ground. "Is this graupel?" I confirmed that it was. "Can you say 'Es graupelt'?" Of course you can!Back at the office, a colleague attested that she had actually heard "graupelt" from native speakers. Another colleague speculated that perhaps the proper form should be "gräupelt" by analogy with Schwabe - schwäbelt, but I ridiculed this, pointing out that in the latter case the -el- represents a verbal suffix with diminutive force whereas the -el- of graupeln clearly belongs to the nominal stem and, thus, no umlaut takes place. He slunk away suitably chastened.
Whatever you call it, right now there's about six-and-a-half centimetres on the ground with another two-and-a-half predicted before bedtime. I wonder if it's even worth my while to wait for the shuttle or if I should preemptively head for the train.