[lit-ideas] Re: Drei Kleine Nachtmusiken
- From: cblists@xxxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 5 Mar 2009 20:49:48 +0100
On 5-Mar-09, at 5:47 PM, Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx wrote:
Consider:
A: I'll play a little night music.
B: I'm a little drunk
There is an ambiguity about 'a little' in English which does not occur
in German.
Ich werde ein bisschen Nachtmusik spielen.
= I'll play a little (bit of) night music.
Ich werde eine kleine Nachtmusik spielen.
= I'll play a little (i.e., small) [piece of] night music.
Ich bin ein klein Saufer.
= I'm a little drunk (i.e., a drunkard of small stature).
Ich bin ein bisschen betrunken.
= I'm a [little] bit drunk.
(It's interesting to note that the bite/bit - Biss/Bisschen
correlation is preserved across the languages.)
The High/Low German distinction is too complex for me to do it justice
here (or anywhere, for that matter!). The German province Baden-
Württemburg actually uses the following slogan in their tourism
advertising:
"Wir können alles. Außer Hochdeutsch."
= We can [do] everything. Except [speak] High German.
See:
http://www.baden-wuerttemberg.de/de/Werbe-_und_Sympathiekampagne/124658.html
Chris Bruce,
coming clean, in
Kiel, Germany
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