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Germish, also referred to as Denglisch, Engleutsch, Genglish or Ginglish is a jumble of English terms embedded within a grammatically German sentence (or vice versa). It is spoken in all German-speaking countries and owes its existence in part to the cultural predominance of English language pop music and international computer slang. Due to lack of rules for proper declension and conjugation forms, English words within Germish will almost always come out in some twisted form. You might well hear things like:
As with other pidgins, the adaptation also takes the other route, where literal translations from popular English expression slowly but insistently swamp out the correct German words and idioms. Sometimes this makes for funny, if perfectly comprehensible new expressions:
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2 Arbitrary Denglisch 3 Weblinks |
Involuntary blunders
Of course, a decent type of Denglisch can also result from English-speaking people trying to converse in German. The unrivalled master of to-the-point German, Kurt Tucholsky, gave a parody of possible mishaps:
The reverse also works, sort of, as can allegedly sometimes be heard from Germans in a fast-food restaurant:
-- the experts
Arbitrary Denglisch
Of course, this approach to a sort of interlingua can also be taken to the extremes, like in this long-famous warning sign where the influence of the German tongue is now restricted to parts of the spelling and partial literal back translations which results in a faint impression of a German computer admin trying to make himself understood:
ATTENTION! This room is fullfilled mit special electronishe equippment.
Fingergrabbling and pressing the cnoeppkes from the Computermashine is
allowed for the experts only! So all lefthanders stay away and do not
disturben the brainstorming von here working intelligencies. Otherwise
you will be outthrown and kicked elsewhere. Also: please keep still and
only watchen astaunished the shufting operator!
Advertising language
There seems to be a common notion that English substitutes for plain German words somehow make phrases sound more enganging and technically top-notch. German commercials or - more often - written ads thus are likely to overuse English terms:
Mit
Just as a reminder: "Handy" is the pseudo-English word for "mobile phone".
Truly marvelous inventions can be found in the field of body care:
Double Action Waschgel Vitalisierendes Peeling Energy Creme Q10 Oil Control Gel Creme Oil Control WaschgelEven some of the traditionally conservative companies tend to adopt neologisms that they consider to sound more international than their original German counterparts. Thus, the venerable "Deutsche Bahn AG" (German Rail) did not mind calling their information booths/stands "service points". The word "Kundendienst" (customer service), in contrast, has almost completely fallen out of use now (probably, because it actually sounds like more of an effort to German ears than the rather noncommital "service").