Reumütiger Lernmuffel

[muckefuck]

I've been a little down on myself about my language learning lately. For instance, I'm feeling terribly guilty about not stopping in to chat with Liu laoshi, but I'd have to seriously bone up on my Chinese before doing so. Every time I sit down with it, I realise with chagrin how much I've lost from being out of class for a few months. So I'm wondering if it might help for me to jot down new words and expressions I've learned on a daily basis. That way, I could look back and see that I am acquiring new vocab.

While I was home sick, I read a fair bit of German and here are some of new words I got out of it: Garçonnière, Portier, Plafond [all Austriacisms], Manschetten, Muffel, Rollkragen, Brandung, Sprechanlage, Altweibersommer [im Sinne von schwebenden Spinnfäden], aper, apern.

So far, my favourite discovery is Muffel. The basic meaning is "sourpuss", but as a second element in compounds it means "one who dislikes", e.g. Krawattenmuffel "someone who dislikes wearing ties", Morgenmuffel "someone who's crabby in the mornings", etc. Before the departmental meeting this morning, I shared my joy with a couple of German-speaking co-workers. Later, after our boss had informed us that the head of the organisation wanted us all involved in the current round of strategic planning and one of these co-workers balked, Pablo said, "You're being a Strategiemuffel!" It was impossible to settle down again after that.

However, it's hard not to love the southern German words aper "free from snow" or apern "to become free from snow" either. Looking them up helped jog my memory concerning the word Firn which basically means "snow left over from previous winters" but has been borrowed into English as a technical term for a kind of ice. We're catching up to the Eskimos all the time!

Edited to add:
Spanish: naco, fresa (roughly the Mexican equivalent of a pijo), huaso, lecho.

Comments

[pne.livejournal.com]

Does "Portier" rhyme with "Tier", or is the second syllable pronounced as if written "Tjee"?

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

Gute Frage! As I've never heard it pronounced, I couldn't say. Wikipedia has an opinion of course:

Das Wort stammt aus dem Französischen und wird ausgesprochen "Portjeh" (Deutschland), respektive "Por-tier" (Österreich).

So it looks like the answer to your question is "yes".

At least your unfamiliarity bolsters the argument that it's not a common term throughout Germany.

[pne.livejournal.com]

As I've never heard it pronounced, I couldn't say.

I assumed you had to look it up in order to determine the meaning, and that you gleaned the pronunciation of the item at that point as well.

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

My Wahrig gives [pɔɐ'ti̯e:], but (a) it's outdated and (b) it tends to err on the side of prescription, so I'd expect it to list normative French pronunciations unless they're confined to only a tiny minority.

pronunciation

[(Anonymous)]

Hey, Muckefuck, I just stumbled across this old entry of yours. (Btw, do a lot of people realize that your nickname is actually anything BUT offensive..?)
To clear up the pronunciation thing: in German it would be -tjee (like in French), but in Vienna, it would rhyme with "das Tier", with the "t" actually going more towards "d". I assume it would be that way all over Austria.
I LOVE AUSTRIAN GERMAN. I´ve worked in Vienna on several occasions and it´s just so fascinating, because we (Germans) tend to take it for granted that Austrians speak the same language, but it´s so different! Basically, all everyday objects have different names. Very often, Austrians know the German version and help out, and we picked up quickly, but at first, it was surprising how different it was, and how little I had known about that...

Re: pronunciation

[anicca-anicca.livejournal.com]

oops, that was me.

Re: pronunciation

[anicca-anicca.livejournal.com]

Ps
My favourite word in Swiss German:
Serviertochter.
Means waitress.

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

It's fun. German-speakers are usually like, "Why would you pick 'Muckefuck' for your screen name?" Others are all over the map, from a crotchety old Australian who doesn't know the reference at all and dismissed it as juvenile potty humour to my favourite reaction ever (from an LJ meetup): "I have no context for that!"

I love Austrian German. Nuphy, my ex, told me about an old guide to Vienna which instructed English-speakers to thank people with the words "Donkey fieldmice". We actually heard this once from an elderly gentlewoman boarding the bus and were tickled beyond measure.