þink again.
getting thorny in the linguistics fandom
þorny*
That also goes for using ß as an aesthetic B.
On my old server, there was a character named ßillyßadass.
This never failed to make me laugh, because that letter is not pronounced like B. It is a sharp S.
That guy named himself SsillySsadass.
Reblogging for SsillySsadass who wanted so badly to be a badass.
Tag: german
die Tagundnachtgleiche
- der Tag = day
- und = and
- die Nacht = night
- die Gleiche = noun only used as a constituent of compound words, derived from the adjective / adverb
- gleich = equal, same, alike, …
die Tagundnachtgleiche = equinox
And since there are two equinoxes in a year, one in spring and one in autumn, there are
- die Frühlingstagundnachtgleiche = spring equinox
- die Herbsttagundnachtgleiche = autumn equinox
The biggest struggle with writing about war when you’re German
You see, it’s simple.
“Schießen” means to shoot.
“Scheißen” means to shit.There’s this tiny difference in the order of these letters and the words are pronounced very differently but they look very much alike.
Especially when you’re typing fast. Especially when you’ve written for the last eight hours and it’s five in the morning and your tired soul is preparing to leave your body. Especially when Microsoft Word doesn’t underline anything because it doesn’t get the error, because technically, spelling-wise, there is none.
This fear, coming even before getting historical facts wrong, the story being boring or my writing being just bad, that I might embarrass myself and my characters because somewhere in this huge pile of over 130k words, in a serious and completely unfunny meant chapter there might be a soldier unintentionally shitting, not shooting, keeps me up at night.
ifesbob 