The Gratuitous Additional Languages Thread

[Raphael]

Got an example of gratuitous German in an otherwise English text, gratuitous English in an otherwise German text, or something like that? Feel free to post it here!

I'll start, with a photo of a book I took in my bookshop today (I didn't buy that book):

italien.jpg (76.61 KiB) Viewed 335 times

[Travis B.]

People around here sometimes use words like danke (which they pronounce /ˈdaŋkə/ [ˈd̥ãŋkə(ː)]) and Gesundheit (which they pronounce /ɡəˈzunˌtəet/ [ɡ̥ɘːˈzỹnˌtʰə̆ĕ̯ʔ(t)]) in the midst of English.

[Raphael]

People around here sometimes use words like danke (which they pronounce /ˈdaŋkə/ [ˈd̥ãŋkə(ː)]) and Gesundheit (which they pronounce /ɡəˈzunˌtəet/ [ɡ̥ɘːˈzỹnˌtʰə̆ĕ̯ʔ(t)]) in the midst of English.

Hasn't "gesundheit" basically become a loan word by now, to some extent replacing "bless you" among some people? I mean, my browser's spell check is currently set to English, and it doesn't underline the word as I'm writing this.

[Travis B.]

People around here sometimes use words like danke (which they pronounce /ˈdaŋkə/ [ˈd̥ãŋkə(ː)]) and Gesundheit (which they pronounce /ɡəˈzunˌtəet/ [ɡ̥ɘːˈzỹnˌtʰə̆ĕ̯ʔ(t)]) in the midst of English.

Hasn't "gesundheit" basically become a loan word by now, to some extent replacing "bless you" among some people? I mean, my browser's spell check is currently set to English, and it doesn't underline the word as I'm writing this.

Tis true. Google Chrome, which here is set to English, doesn't underline it for me either.

(And yes, the primary use of Gesundheit in English here is as a replacement for bless you when someone sneezes.)

[Man in Space]

Does it count when documents with a scholarly bent have untranslated passages? It’s somewhat not rare in linguistics papers—and I have a copy of the Kalevala Latina, which has an English excerpt in a Finnish preface to a work written in Latin (which was the reason I acquired the book from the university book sale).

[Travis B.]

One thing I should note is that in I've heard in English the word dankies, which seems to be either a mutation of Afrikaans dankie or German danke.

[bradrn]

One thing I should note is that in I've heard in English the word dankies, which seems to be either a mutation of Afrikaans dankie or German danke.

I can’t recall ever hearing this from South Africans, so my guess is that it’s from German.

[Raphael]

Does it count when documents with a scholarly bent have untranslated passages? It’s somewhat not rare in linguistics papers—and I have a copy of the Kalevala Latina, which has an English excerpt in a Finnish preface to a work written in Latin (which was the reason I acquired the book from the university book sale).

Sure, why not?

[bradrn]

Oh, another thing I thought of— when I was in France, I saw no shortage of gratuitous English in advertisements and suchlike, inevitably with a little footnote with French translation. What made this so amusing is that, over here, the usual gratuitous language is French.

One example which particularly stuck in my memory was a poster near my apartment with text, ‘à la French’. And, of course, the small print dutifully translated it into good French as ‘à la français’.

[Raphael]

Oh, another thing I thought of— when I was in France, I saw no shortage of gratuitous English in advertisements and suchlike, inevitably with a little footnote with French translation. What made this so amusing is that, over here, the usual gratuitous language is French.

One example which particularly stuck in my memory was a poster near my apartment with text, ‘à la French’. And, of course, the small print dutifully translated it into good French as ‘à la français’.

Now that is interesting. There are tons of gratuitous English words in advertising and the like here, but they never come with helpful translation notes.

(See also: https://www.kiwi-verlag.de/buch/peter-l ... 3462051674)

[bradrn]

Oh, another thing I thought of— when I was in France, I saw no shortage of gratuitous English in advertisements and suchlike, inevitably with a little footnote with French translation. What made this so amusing is that, over here, the usual gratuitous language is French.

One example which particularly stuck in my memory was a poster near my apartment with text, ‘à la French’. And, of course, the small print dutifully translated it into good French as ‘à la français’.

Now that is interesting. There are tons of gratuitous English words in advertising and the like here, but they never come with helpful translation notes.

I never looked it up, but I’m reasonably certain there’s a law that all signs in France must be in French or have a French translation. (I know the country has other French-language laws, e.g. for materials used in work.)