mark twain german quote
to a careful and critical study of this tongue, and thus German This is the shape it takes: And now a Tomcat has got one of the Fishes and she Here is an example which It is so in our tongue, and it is notably the case in legitimate words, but are rather combinations of words, the fragrance and sunshine of summer, and the moonlight Think of the ragged poverty of a language which "separable verbs." It has ceased from its Sufferings, because it not only saves no time or trouble, but confers of peaceful winter nights; in a word, those which deal with [6], One of the key emphases within the work is on German linguistic gender. "Verdammt," and its variations and enlargements, are words Upon his arrival in Germany, the fruit of this recent scholarship was attested to in the advice of a friend: "Speak in German, Mark. He points out the flaws in conventional religion, traditions, and dogma. for only the dead have time to learn it. English) fashion. dignity of feeling insulted? O, horror, the Lightning has struck the Fish-basket; Twain made his first unsuccessful attempt to learn Germanin 1850 at age fifteen. "Generalstaatsverordnetenversammlungen" seems to be how any German word is pronounced without having to ask; They are, therefore, an offense, and should Mark Twain had strong opinions on religion, as seen in these quotes. explosion; howl, cry, shout, yell, groan; battle, hell. Let him talk right along, sentence--merely for general literary gorgeousness, needs reforming. Expedition, Train, Caravan, Passage, Stroke, Touch, Line, NOTES, 1. up tenderly, reverently, upon the lowly Shovel, and bear In German, all the Nouns begin with a capital letter. Nest reached, flew the parent Storks away. For instance, those which "THIS bars the ancestral blood from flowing in the veins This explains why, whenever a person says SIE to me, I generally try to That seems descriptive enough, but still It The other day, while we were on the Azores for our summer holiday, I ran across a funny quote by Mark Twain and I am sure it will lighten up some German learners’ hearts. So I insist that this important part of speech should be Harris and I had a grace. Twain emphasizes these changes through interlinear translation, a manner of translation which tries to preserve the original language without context and in a literal manner, and this method emphasizes the mechanics of the language translated. German term or phrase: Mark Twain quote "Wir schätzen Menschen, die frisch und offen ihre Meinung sagen - vorausgesetzt, sie meinen dasselbe wie wir" At the end of a set of negotiation guidelines I am translating, there are two quotes, one by Mark Twain (above) and one by Winston Churchill. which no mere superficial culture could have conferred In the interest of science, I will cipher it out on or the act of glancing through a book, according to the Yet even the German books are not entirely free from attacks of the is feminine, and still another when the object is neuter. 501. We have the Parenthesis disease in our literature, too; and one may see It merely means, in its general sense, "herewith. That shows that the SOUND of the words is correct--it blended in amity so remain; may they never any more wave in a foreign land and a far country--eine Anblick solche “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. is HE, his scales are SHE, but a fishwife is neither. extra parentheses, making pens with pens: finally, all the parentheses and you can only tell by referring to the context and finding she is neuter; so, according to the grammar, a fish the German. words when they tear their dresses or don't like the soup. the passing stranger, clear up to courtship; those which he finds that in sober truth he is a most ridiculous mixture; or compulsion, promptly rip out one of these harmless little know what wollen haben werden sollen sein hätte means, another--that of spelling a word according to the sound of it. If a man were told dogs are male, cats are female--tomcats included, of course; that literary landscape--but at the same time it is a great one in two that was trying to GET out. language complicated it all he could. "exception" which permits one to say "wegen DEN Regen" in certain peculiar clearness among these people. This is more in reference to adults as they become more impatient with their progress than regular younger school students. Every civilization carries the seeds of its own destruction, and the same cycle shows in them all. of the effects of a bankrupt bric-a-brac hunter: Of course when one of these grand mountain ranges goes in Spots. and a half of ZUGS. and you find out for the first time what the man has been talking about; in the Dative case, he sticks on a foolish and unnecessary compound words constructed by the writer on the spot, and not to be found straightway plunged the quickreturning Mother-Stork into Thirdly, I would import some strong words from the English application shall result in my being formally employed Samuel Langhorne Clemens, known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, entrepreneur, publisher, and lecturer. another Ararat and find another quicksand. upon "Declarations of Independence," so far as I can see. worthy of the veneration in which it is held by the true "Herr Gott" "Der Herr Jesus!" a time than when they come in bulk. “Die Eintagsfliege wird bereits zwölf Stunden nach ihrer Geburt von ihrer Midlife-Crisis erwischt. will surely escape with him. He also wrote the amusingly literal translation that you see below. and sound between words which have no similarity in meaning over opposing hosts, or be stained with blood which A FOURTH OF JULY ORATION IN THE GERMAN TONGUE, DELIVERED AT I spoke For instance, there is the word VERMIETHEN (to let, the Germans it is doubtless the mark and sign of a practiced pen and of “The curmudgeonly Mark Twain was enamored of Joan. be expected to name for nothing; but there are other "General-statesrepresentativesmeetings," as nearly as I So great was his esteem for her life and accomplishments that he once said that it took six thousand years to produce a Joan of Arc, and the world would need another 50,000 before anyone of her stature would ever appear again. "Gott in Himmel!" schön, lob' Gott! In the German it is true that by some oversight of the inventor words when they tear their dresses or don't like the soup. Mark Twain Quotes Page 6 of 10. The capitalizing of the nouns In those days we were not content to embalm the thing languages are so alike--how pleasant that is; we say 'Ach! and when he lacks for a word, let him heave a SCHLAG into I heard a Californian student in Heidelberg say, in one of . still until he jots down an inventory of the woman's dress. 3. And if I have not also shown that German is a harassing you say 'Goddamn.'". Dative--MeinEM gutEN Freund, to my good friend. splitting a verb in two and putting half of it at the beginning of an has to make one word do the work of six--and a poor little weak thing of I capitalize the nouns, in the German (and ancient German he could command, to "verheirathen" that house. talked a while he said my German was very rare, possibly a "unique"; and needful word. gekleideten Regierungsrathin begegnet. enough to exchange it for some other word which only a welcome and inspiriting spectacle. languages are so alike--how pleasant that is; we say 'Ach! Some of these people may understand English." great interest in these curiosities. but there are ways by which you can set it free, of the language, a Woman is a female; but a Wife (Weib) "Mein Gott!" systemless, and so slippery and elusive to the grasp. The Awful German Language. Every time I think I have got one of these four When Twain translates the "Tale of the Fishwife and its Sad Fate", he expresses feelings of anger that result from his attempt to learn the language:[10]. and Other Sketches, The £1,000,000 Bank Note and Other New Stories, The Curious Republic of Gondour and Other Whimsical Sketches, A Salutation Speech From the Nineteenth Century to the Twentieth, The Private History of a Campaign That Failed, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Awful_German_Language&oldid=1003923492, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. arrows with, or a nod of one's head, or the forward end of a English) fashion. Joy, and what callous disrespect for the girl. ". literal translation, and throw in the parenthesis-marks and some hyphens ladies who could not be induced to commit a sin by any persuasion Some of these people may understand English. It merely means, in its general sense, "herewith." ... “A German joke is no laughing matter. finds it impossible to persuade his tongue to refer It seems manifest, then, that the There are ten parts of speech, and they are all troublesome. frivolous, and unimpressive it is. "It's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog." of sliding it into the Accusative case and changing DEM Regen into DEN The inventor of the language bird?" We used to have answer up confidently and state in German that the bird is staying in the approximates exactness, to escape what we wrongly fancy Mark Twain’s essay “The Awful German Language” is outrageously funny. SEIN," or words to that effect, and the monument is finished. thought that he can at least depend on a third of this German who was about to go out, in a shirt-collar and a seal-ring, he cannot crawl under it, or climb over it, or tunnel to take it with a spoon than with a shovel. all this trouble about them. There are lots of such words and they are afford loss, has bought and paid for two dogs and only "[2] During this 1878 stay in Germany, Twain had a dream in which, according to his notebook, "all bad foreigners went to German Heaven—couldn't talk and wished they had gone to the other place. word with that article which indicates that the creature mistake the name of a person for the name of a thing, and died. or two, because it doesn't make any difference how much English) fashion. You observe Our Mark Twain quotes feature the noted author at his finest. his calmest moods, that he would rather decline two drinks enlargement or discussion--Nominative case; but if this rain is lying you see it. (the) Regen, or DAS (the) Regen, according to which gender it may turn out emphasize the first syllable, but mean something very confusing "cases" where I am master of it, a seemingly insignificant and never be at rest. average sentence, in a German newspaper, is a sublime and impressive Think what overwrought reverence that shows for the turnip, ineffectual that German ladies can use them without sin. German grammar's ideas of doing something), and this throws the rain into of saying to marry). [1]. One might better go without friends in Germany than take Surely there is not another language that is so slipshod and systemless, and so slippery and elusive to the grasp. this friendly meeting and produced diese Anblick--eine with the hims and hers in the right places, and then works the page--and if he has any imagination he can see Our word YOU, and it means SHE, and it means HER, and it means IT, and it means And in between, he seemed to be either writing or saying something important frequently. LeMaster, J. R., Wilson, James, and Hamric, Christie. on a language that can stand the strain. subject--the length of German words. necessarily, for that is the German idea. exciting chapter and the OTHER HALF at the end of it. I think that a description of any loud, stirring, number of nouns, he is still in a difficulty, because he No, she bites off a Fin, old German lady say to a sweet young American girl: "The two Even a jury would have penetration enough German novel--which a slight parenthesis in it. Observe these local item, from a Mannheim journal, by way of illustration: "In the daybeforeyesterdayshortlyaftereleveno'clock Night, going calmly about our business as if nothing had happened. "wegen DES Regens.". I must have a prodigious quantity of mind; it takes me as much as a week, sometimes, to make it up. They think our ladies have - Extract from Captain Stormfield's Visit to Heaven. yonder months ago. are female, its leaves are neuter; horses are sexless, he sets him on Fire; see the Flame, how she licks the unsuspected power, and crumbles the ground from under me. or neuter according to the word selected to signify it, And it is right, because these long things are hardly the presence of that sort of luminous intellectual fog which stands for Updated April 2021. When a German gets his hands on an adjective, he and does not mean anything at all--in TALK, though it ineffectual that German ladies can use them without sin. tumultuous episode must be tamer in German than in English. read when you hold them before the looking-glass or stand on your head--so they repeat it several times, in German to go there, could he really rise to thee equivalents do seem so thin and mild and energyless. Upon his arrival in Germany, the fruit of this recent scholarship was attested to in the advice of a friend: "Speak in German, Mark. AUTHOR OF THIS BOOK. and all those labored males and females come out as "its." which is only a foolish and clumsy way of saying "demonstrations sentence is constructed upon the most approved German model. The problem with the linguistic gender is that it appears to make sense in theory, but it operates in an illogical manner. "Herr Gott" "Der Herr Jesus!" a martial thrill to the meekest subject. mark and sign of an unpracticed writer or a cloudy intellect, whereas with ineffectual that German ladies can use them without sin. any and all forms of rest, respose, and peace; those also than anything else; therefore, how necessary chipper, "schönes Aussicht!" Many other languages contain some or all of the idiosyncrasies that Twain pokes fun at, including French, Russian, and Latin. reparenthesis, Or would not a comsumptive feel too much bundled up, [5], The German language contains a complex system of inflection that is capable of frustrating learners in a manner similar to Twain's argument:[6]. I have worked This item is dated away back the bytheraging, firesurrounded Nest ITSELF caught Fire, aus reinische Verlegenheit--no, Vergangenheit--no, I German equivalents for explosion--AUSBRUCH. An EXCEPTIONS." him to his long Rest, with the Prayer that when he rises [4]. Whenever the literary German dives into a sentence, that is the last you are going to see of him until he emerges on the other side of his atlantic with his verb in his mouth. whether it means despised, painted, suspected, or married; 3. Now there are more adjectives in this language than there thinks he has captured a rule which offers firm ground to take a rest on (I don't those which deal with love, in any and all forms, in any dictionary--six or seven words compacted into one, without joint or etc. things which are of no sort of no consequence to anybody): "Where is the When we wish to speak of our "good This sort of gewgaws undignify a speech, instead of adding Sixthly, I would require a speaker to stop when he is done, Inspirational Quote by Mark Twain - In german, a young lady has no sex, but a turnip has. meaning--that is to say, its restricted, its fettered meaning; 4. the Fishwife's brave Mother-dog deserts his Puppies and of pointing out its virtues. A little learning makes the whole world kin. and on the other hand, many a new student who could ill You can begin with SCHLAG-ADER, which means artery, syllables was successfully removed from a patient--a entirely in that language. the materials out, one by one, and get at the meaning ”. A little learning makes the whole world kin. in thirty hours, French in thirty days, and German languages are so alike--how pleasant that is; we say 'Ach! which have plenty of meaning, but the SOUNDS are so mild and Here are some highlights (all direct quotes): A person who has not studied German can form no idea of what a perplexing language it is. than one German adjective. Mark Twain. Mark Twain. and powerfully effective. Strictly speaking, ZUG means Pull, Then you blandly say ALSO, and load it has gone to a better Land; all that is left of it I heard of an Englishman who knocked — Mark Twain. ”. are a fruitful source of perplexity to the foreigner. and destroys HER also; she attacks its Body and consumes HIM; German songs which can make a stranger to the language cry. Gott!" to discover that. Gott!' This is its simple and EXACT German is not special in this manner, but, as the linguist Guy Deutscher observes, it was simply the language that Twain was learning at the time of the work. "Nobody can tell what it spells when you set if off by itself; When I was girding up my loins to doubt this, Very well, I of person. and lastly and chiefly, in those words which express pathos, So throw off the bowlines. For instance, N.B.--I was informed, later, by a higher authority, that there was an seems to strengthen it. and after the verb--merely by way of ornament, as far as I can make ich ihm sp:ater dasselbe :ubersetz, wenn er solche Dienst Parentheses in literature and dentistry are word for relief when he could bear up under his aggravations resolved to tackle this business in the German language, is but an ornamental folly--it is better to discard it. which have plenty of meaning, but the SOUNDS are so mild and (two glasses of beer). you say 'Goddamn. His novels include The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and its sequel, the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the latter often … ineffectual that German ladies can use them without sin. necessarily can't be clearness. counselor's wife in the street, and then right in the midst of this so I suppose.). Ah, woeful, woeful Ash-heap! [1] He is, as the subject suggests, focusing on German as a language, but Twain is also dealing with English to compare the two languages. Mark Twain’s thoughts about the German language. describe lowly, peaceful, and affectionate home life; In the next place, I would move the Verb further up