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German reading group! | ||
 Language Learning Forum : Books, Literature & Reading |  | |
| Vārds Bilingual Diglot Newbie Latvia Joined 4911 days ago 24 posts - 41 votes Speaks: Russian*, Latvian* Studies: German | Message 33 of 76 08 April 2012 at 9:04pm | IP Logged | ||
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1.
According to canoo.net: jeuen / jeute / gejeut Duden.de: https://www.duden.de/rechtschreibung/jeuen jeuen [ˈʒøːən] - das Glücksspiel betreiben - to run a gamble (looks like it is originated from french "jouer") 2. According to canoo.net: "der Kniff" (trick) + "lich". Which I would translate as "tricky", "full of tricks, deceptions" Edited by Vārds on 08 April 2012 at 10:10pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6598 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes  4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 34 of 76 08 April 2012 at 11:28pm | IP Logged | ||
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read the first chapter. amazing how it's still relatively difficult for me to read in German. i've mostly just read short texts for learners and still haven't read a single book in it.
let's see where i am by the end of the book :p 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| frenkeld Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6944 days ago 2042 posts - 2719 votes Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: German | Message 35 of 76 09 April 2012 at 12:07am | IP Logged | ||
Great, thanks. I now recall running into a couple of other examples of "the French connection" in the past. I once ran into the word "ecrasierung" in one of Fontane's novels (probably "L'Adultera"), and after beating my head on a wall (and a bunch of German dictionaries) for a while, I finally looked up "écraser" in a French dictionary, which took care of the problem. Perhaps French was more widely known at the time, at least among the educated, so they may have used the Germanized versions of some French words without these words truly becoming part of the German language. Regarding "knifflich", at least according to the two dictionaries I checked, the current spelling is "knifflig" (or "kniffelig"), meaning: "1) (schwierig) fiddly; tricky <problem, crossword puzzle>; 2) (heikel) tricky" - clearly the same word, just written slightly differently. Edited by frenkeld on 09 April 2012 at 12:08am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| frenkeld Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6944 days ago 2042 posts - 2719 votes Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: German | Message 36 of 76 09 April 2012 at 12:13am | IP Logged | ||
There are easier choices for a first unabridged novel, of course, but at least you can ask questions here. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6598 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 37 of 76 09 April 2012 at 1:13am | IP Logged | ||
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crime stories are supposed to be a good choice though:)
i just currently have motivation issues with German:( this group should at least make me continue reading. i'd not even say that the text is difficult for me... it's hard to pinpoint. i'm just not used to reading in German. i'm pretty bad at skimming in it, for example. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Flarioca Heptaglot Senior Member Brazil Joined 5883 days ago 635 posts - 816 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, Esperanto, French, EnglishC2, Spanish, German, Italian Studies: Catalan, Mandarin | Message 38 of 76 09 April 2012 at 6:08am | IP Logged | ||
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Chapter 2 has been harder, which is easily proved by the 23 new words added to my Anki deck. It must be said, however, that almost all of them are concentrated in three paragraphs, 1st, 2nd and 8th.
I think that we will agree that we should wait most people to have read a given chapter before discuss anything about its contents. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Flarioca Heptaglot Senior Member Brazil Joined 5883 days ago 635 posts - 816 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, Esperanto, French, EnglishC2, Spanish, German, Italian Studies: Catalan, Mandarin | Message 39 of 76 11 April 2012 at 5:27am | IP Logged | ||
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Just finished 3rd chapter.
Did I get it right and "Meechens" means "Mädchen"? In which dialect(s)? This was an easier chapter, except for one paragraph. Somehow, this book reminds me "Tom Sawyer", the author trying hard to make clear distinction among people through the way they talk. Edited by Flarioca on 11 April 2012 at 5:27am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| geoffw Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 4689 days ago 1134 posts - 1865 votes Speaks: English*, German, Yiddish Studies: Modern Hebrew, French, Dutch, Italian, Russian | Message 40 of 76 11 April 2012 at 1:16pm | IP Logged | ||
That's a better guess than anything I had come up with, and that was indeed the one word in the chapter for which I had no clue. My impression is that generally the first paragraph, and in particular the first sentence of each chapter was, for Bettauer, a chance to show off his erudition, and then it's down to the business of actually telling a story. His prose strikes one as a vestige of that byegone age 'ere authors discovered the plebian virtues of uncomplicated wordsmithing that predominate in our present age, unencumbered by antiquated and superfluous stylistic filagree. Besides the scattered archaic forms, the book just sounds old. I went back and looked at some 19th century English prose to compare and I got the same impression. 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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