The German Language

480 readers

1 users here now

Welcome to the place to learn the German Language! Come here to discuss topics or quirks related to the German language, ask any questions about learning German, provide tips to current learners, and share your journey through the German-learning process!

RULES

Make sure anything you plan on asking has not already been answered.
No harassing someone over their level of the language of German. Everyone starts somewhere.
No harassing period actually. Obviously no bigotry falls under this category.
In general, no low effort posts or spam. If you ask a question and it didn't receive much engagement, don't go on to ask it again immediately, at the least remove the original copy.
No NSFW. This rule has its loose limits and some exceptions (i.e. commenting on German "dirty talk" and whatnot is alright).
Mods are the interpreters of these rules, and have jurisdiction over other cases where a rule isn't explicitly mentioned here, but it is a common sense rule.
This community is largely for English speakers learning/discussing German. Other languages aren't outright banned yet, but expect minimal support. If other communities arise for German help in other languages, then those languages will be barred from this community in favor of the new one.

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

DVD@lemmy.world

TIL German also has "eggcorns" (learngerman.dw.com)

submitted 1 month ago by ChaoticNeutralCzech@feddit.org to c/german@lemmy.world

10 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Eggcorns (Wikipedia / YouTube video by RobWords) are language mistakes that sometimes take over and change the spelling and perhaps even the meaning of a word. This is rare in German because there's fewer homophones but in this episode of Wort der Woche, DW explains how "munttot" became "mundtot". Available as audio or transcript.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] Dojan@pawb.social 5 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

I couldn't think of any in Swedish, but the Swedish wiki page on it had some examples. My favourite is "älgskog" (elk forest) instead of "älskog" (coitus).

There's also a few I had no idea were malapropisms. To "lägga rabarber på" (put rhubarb on sth.) means to occupy or steal something. Apparently it was originally "lägga embargo på" (put embargo on sth.), but it's gotten so widespread that people just say that they'll put rhubarb on something.

Eggcorns are essentially the same things as bone apple teas, no?

[–] ChaoticNeutralCzech@feddit.org 3 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Depends on

how widespread they become ("bone apple tea" is not seriously used by many but can still count)
if they still retain some original meaning, unlike mondegreens

For example, almost everyone calls polo shirts "polokošile" (half-shirts) in Czech when the correct term is "pólo košile". But since it's a less formal shirt, people don't see "half-shirt" as incorrect.