The curse of polygottalism

[muckefuck]

I had a very pleasant lunch today with a coworker. (At the end she said, "That was very enjoyable. We almost didn't mention work at all!") At one point I wanted to tell her what kind of novel I was reading at home. I started to say "policier" but realised I needed another word because that wasn't English. But all I could think of as an alternative was "Krimi". After struggling for a bit, I finally just confessed my confusion and she said, "Detective fiction?" (Fortunately, she's the sympathetic sort who would never accuse me of showing off.)

Comments

Sehr geehrter Herr Polygott, (sic)

[anicca-anicca.livejournal.com]

That's funny. "Krimi" is a tough one. I remember asking you just that ages ago. I think what you gave me at the time was "mystery novel", but there's really no one good equivalent for "Krimi" in English. They all sound kind of contrived, (I know from the funny looks I got from shop assistants when asking for the xy section) and are not as comprehensive as "Krimi".

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

That was the problem I had with this one: It's not truly a "mystery"--or, if so, it doesn't follow classic mystery structure.

[oh-meow.livejournal.com]

Do they not just list them as "crime novel" in the US? That's what the category in bookshops here is.

[sconstant.livejournal.com]

The real curse is on the children. My parents casually threw in borrowed words without signaling, I often just assumed an origin for a term based on the language of the adjacent words. For example, in Spanish class one day, upon learning "pata", I remarked to a Hebrew-speaking classmate how weird it was that it meant the same thing in Spanish and Hebrew. She was confused. I think there are a somewhat significant set of words that I know are either Russian, Polish, Yiddish, German or Spanish, but my accuracy on picking out which language would be 80% or less.

Also, until just now, I thought Krimi to describe that book genre was a Hebrew term. Thanks for the unintentional correction.

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

This reminds me of an anecdote from an Ashkenazi author about being stumped for a word in class. His teacher held up a common household utensil and asked if anyone could name it. "I knew my mother called it a 'spatula'," he relates, "but for the life of me I couldn't remember the English name."

I trust you're doing what you can to make certain that Little S doesn't have it any easier than you did.

I can relate a bit

[drubear.livejournal.com]

even though I don't have anywhere near the language range you do.

Some non-English words/phrases just make more "sense" in describing things to me: "cursing" in our home was "ludza boghski" (Slovak - "Lord God") or just "ludza" 'cause that's what my father grew up with.

From what Jack tells me, German has many exquisitely precise words (e.g. shaudenfreude (sp?).)

Re: I can relate a bit

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

Oh, it does! I've listed a few favourites here.

(And it's Schadenfreude--though I confess, I like the idea of "Schauderfreude". That would be the kind of joy that gives you shivers!)

[caprinus.livejournal.com]

I've seen "policier" used by some movie critics, presumably on the assumption that French is more film-1337 ("cinéma vérité", "film noir"). Would "police procedural" do?

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

That fits pretty well--at least as far as I can tell being only sixty pages in.

[anicca-anicca.livejournal.com]

I love police procedurals (see my interests list), but when using that term with (native) English speakers, I get one of them looks.