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Local Authors => Brandon Sanderson => Topic started by: Rane on November 13, 2007, 03:51:16 AM

Title: Elend in German
Post by: Rane on November 13, 2007, 03:51:16 AM

I was reading a book recently, and it provided a definition for the German word Elend.  It turns out that in German, Elend means Misery.  I just thought I'd point out this interesting fact.

Title: Re: Elend in German
Post by: EUOL on November 13, 2007, 05:28:31 AM

You know, someone in one of my writing groups pointed this out.  Apparently, Straff means something too, which is curious.  Guess I did a good job of making those family names work together linguistically!

I wonder what they'll do when they translate it to German....

Title: Re: Elend in German
Post by: Tage on November 13, 2007, 06:33:21 PM

"Bestraffen" means to punish, usually physically. So yes, he's very appropriately named. It's almost like you were channeling some German ancestor or something. :)

Title: Re: Elend in German
Post by: FTH on November 14, 2007, 05:48:00 PM

German native speaker here to tell you that Tage is a liar!
...
Okay, so he's not, but he still got it wrong. (God I can be smug if I want to be  ;D)

The word he's talking about would be "bestrafen", with one f. Doesn't have anything to do with "straff" at all. "Straff" means "tight", "tightly" (we Germans don't usually do adverbs, so it's kind of the same thing) or "firm". You usually use it for ropes.

Title: Re: Elend in German
Post by: The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers on November 14, 2007, 06:07:55 PM

so you tie a knot straffly?

Title: Re: Elend in German
Post by: FTH on November 14, 2007, 06:48:04 PM

Nooo! No -ly's! No adverbs!

Hee, but yes, pretty much. Though the translation wouldn't work as directly as that. "Einen Knoten straff ziehen/anziehen/machen" would be "To make a knot tighter" or "To tighten a knot." I don't think you can "Tighten a knot tightly" in German. "Eine Knoten binden", would work, but "Einen Knoten straff binden" sounds weird.

You can  have "Straffe Lederhosen." Maybe that makes more sense  ;D

Edit: Noticed I posted a lot of garbage. Hope it's fixed now.  My fault for not learning English by translating from German, but by doing. It's more of a native language to me than one I learnt at school, so that makes it harder to translate stuff somehow. I seriously couldn't think of the German word for "tying." My brain just didn't make the connection. This is so embarrassing... :P

Title: Re: Elend in German
Post by: The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers on November 15, 2007, 02:18:42 PM

/me doesn't bother to point out that it wouldn't be embarrassing if you hadn't told us.

Oh... nevermind.

Title: Re: Elend in German
Post by: FTH on November 15, 2007, 02:34:43 PM

It would. I'm usually proud of myself for telling the truth. I don't like to be embarrassed in front of myself :P

Title: Re: Elend in German
Post by: The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers on November 15, 2007, 03:05:34 PM

so instead you're embarrassed in front of your computer monitor, which can represent all of us in proxy. Congratulations! ;D

I'm teasing is all, you know. I actually find the linguistic challenge you present an interesting one.