How they say German

[Wilson Gray]

Yes, the /t/ is pronounced in Russian. Most people have heard of
Leonard Nimoy. His surname is a pronunciation spelling of Russian
_nemoi_ (I'm using the Library of Congress transliteration because why
not?). _Nemoi_ ( stem: _nem-_; whether _ne_ is the Slavic reflex of
the PIE negative and the stem-final /m/ is a remnant of the Slavic
stem, _mol-_, "speak, pray," etc. deponent neither knoweth nor careth)
means "dumb" in the  sense of "unable to produce meaningful speech."
The standard assumption is that Germans are called _nemcy_ (singular:
_nemec_) in Russian because the first Slavs to encounter Germans could
not understand their speech. I.e., what we have here is a failure to
communicate, along the lines of the Greeks' referring to
non-Greek-speaking peoples as "barbaroi" because, when they talked,
their speech sounded like "bar bar bar bar bar" or, as we would say,
"babble babble babble."

-Wilson

On 6/20/07, RonButters at aol.com <RonButters at aol.com> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       RonButters at AOL.COM
> Subject:      How they say German
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> In a message dated 6/20/07 6:29:19 PM, preston at MSU.EDU writes:
>
>
> > Colleagues,
> >=20
> > "Po niemiecku" does not mean "German" (neither
> > the people nor the nationality) in Polish; it is
> > an adverbial which means (roughly) "Germanly" or
> > "in the German manner" and means to speak German.
> > The so-called phonetics, or whatever bullshit
> > truespel is, is laughably off since the glide
> > onsets to the first two vocalic segments of
> > "niemiecku" (which are the same except for
> > stress) are not indicated, and, even sillier,
> > they are shown as segmentally different, but they
> > are not.
> >=20
> > The phonetics are, of course, roughly (a kind
> > word actually; they are simply incorrect)
> > phonemic, not phonetic at all.
> >=20
> > Who is Tom Zurinskas and what is this crap? I've
> > been off the list for a while plying my trade in
> > the old Country.
> >=20
> > dInIs
> >=20
> >=20
> >=20
> > >---------------------- Information from the mail
> > >header -----------------------
> > >Sender:=C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0=C2=A0 American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSER=
> V.UGA.EDU>
> > >Poster:=C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0=C2=A0 Tom Zurinskas <truespel at HOTMAIL.COM>
> > >Subject:=C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 How they say German
> > >
> > --------------------------------------------------------------------------=
> -----
> > >
> > >Germans don't call themselves German.=C2=A0 Its ~Doich.=C2=A0 Strange tha=
> t we call
> > >other people by names they don't use themselves.
> > >
> > >Below are words for "German" in other languages as heard on travlang.com
> > >Word of the Day.=C2=A0 Phonetics are in truespel.
> > >
> > >http://us.f528.mail.yahoo.com/ym/ShowLetter?MsgId=3D4841_3551761_48469_
> > 1373_4029_0_208154_15790_1603225941&Idx=3D105&YY=3D92900&y5beta=3Dyes&y5be=
> ta=3Dyes&inc=3D25&
> > order=3Dup&sort=3Ddate&pos=3D0&view=3Da&head=3Db&box=3DTrash
> > >
> > >
> > >Arabic Alalmania=C2=A0=C2=A0 ~Elelmanneeyu=C2=A0=C2=A0 (double consonant=20=
> starts a stressed
> > >syllable. ~u is "uh".
> > >Dutch Duits ~Duts
> > >English German=C2=A0 ~Jermin
> > >French allemand ~Elmun
> > >German Deutsch=C2=A0 ~Doich
> > >Japanese Doitsugo ~Doitsuegoe'=C2=A0 (~ue is long u.=C2=A0 ~oe is long o.=
> =C2=A0 Ending
> > >apostrophe is glottal stop.)
> > >Korean Dok-il-o=C2=A0 ~Doekkeedoe=C2=A0 (~ee is long e)
> > >Mandarin d=C3=88 yuv.=C2=A0 ~Doiyeu=C2=A0 (~eu is the vowel in "her" with=
> out the "r".
> > >Polish po niemiecku ~Poe Neemmitskue
> > >Portuguese alem=E2=80=9Co=C2=A0 ~Elummun
> > >Russian Nemetsky=C2=A0 ~Nemyeski=C2=A0 (~i is short i)
> > >Spanish alem=C2=B7n=C2=A0=C2=A0 Aaleemman=C2=A0 (~aa is "ah", ~a is short=
>  a)
> > >Swahili Kijerumani=C2=A0 ~Teefermmaanee=C2=A0=C2=A0 (I hear ~t for the K,=
>  Maybe poor=20
> > audio)
> > >
> > >
> > >
> >=20
> >=20
> The [t] is pronounced in the Russian, I'm pretty sure. Both the Russian and=20
> the Polish mean, literally, 'the dumb ones', right?
>
>
>
>
>
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