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The Awful German Language (1880)

(faculty.georgetown.edu)
187 points nalinidash | 1 comments | | HN request time: 0.63s | source
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rawbert ◴[] No.44002326[source]
As a developer working in a German company the question of translating some domain language items into English comes up here and there. Mostly we fail because the German compound words are so f*** precise that we are unable to find short matching English translations...unfortunately our non-native devs have to learn complex words they can't barely pronounce :D

Most of the time we try to use English for technical identifiers and German for business langugage, leading to lets say "interesting" code, but it works for us.

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marcosscriven ◴[] No.44002985[source]
I think the issue of German compound nouns is seriously overegged. In almost all cases, it’s essentially the same as English, except with some spaces. It’s not like suddenly a short compound word expresses something that couldn’t be in English.
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top_sigrid ◴[] No.44003598[source]
This is so true. My favourite example is when Top Gear made fun of the German word "Doppelkupplungsgetriebe" by spelling it, when it is quite literally the translation to "dual-clutch transmission". It stil is hilariously funny, but you cannot conclude that German is weird with these words.
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hengheng[dead post] ◴[] No.44004134[source]
[flagged]
anonfordays ◴[] No.44005575[source]
>the (very white) American latinization of jargon that signifies affluence ... Habeas Corpus. All these terms have German names that are embarrassingly straightforward.

BlueSky brainrot take. Habeas corpus predates modern Germany.

"Habeas corpus originally stems from the Assize of Clarendon of 1166, a reissuance of rights during the reign of Henry II of England in the 12th century.[12] The foundations for habeas corpus are "wrongly thought" to have originated in Magna Carta of 1215 but in fact predate it."

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Habeas_corpus

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hengheng ◴[] No.44006049[source]
I don't understand what argument you're trying to make, but I'm almost certain you did not understand mine either.
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1. anonfordays ◴[] No.44006379[source]
>American latinization of jargon that signifies affluence ... Habeas Corpus.

Habeas corpus predates the United States of America by hundreds of years. It has nothing to do with "American latinization." You should remove that from your comment.

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