Re: "glow pear"

[Flash flash@xxxxxxxx]

Speaking of "Gluhbirne" or glow pear, German has some very useful
linguistic mechanisms. For example, the suffix "-zeug" (unfortunately
rhymes with nothing I can think of in English) means "thing which does
something", and it can be tacked onto most any verb to make a noun out
of it. An airplane, for example, is "Flugzeug" or fly thing, a
cigarette lighter is "Feuerzeug" (you'll figure that one out), a drum
(musical percussion instrument) is "Schlagzeug" or hit thing, a vehicle
is "Fahrzeug" or drive thing, etc. Very tidy.


On the other hand, German sometimes runs a whole sentence together into
a single word in order to describe what a thing does, leading to
immensely long words. Mechanical parts for machines and especially
automobiles sometimes have horrendously long names, _descriptions_
actually, giving the impression that, in German at least, a name isn't
what a thing looks like, but what it does. A speed limiter or governer
on an engine would be "Geschwindigkeitsregler", and the screw which
adjusts it would be "Geschwindigkeitsreglereinstellschraube". Not what
I'd call pillow talk. A language for engineers, not lovers.





Editor
Historic Hetchins
http://www.hetchins.org

  __©
 _ \<_
 (_)/(_)