Sprachgefühl

Use this forum to suggest Good Words for Professor Beard.
Brazilian dude
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Posts: 1464
Joined: Tue Feb 15, 2005 3:31 pm
Location: Botucatu - SP Brazil

Sprachgefühl

Postby Brazilian dude » Tue Dec 20, 2005 8:33 am

Sprachgefuhl (SHPRAKH-guh-fyool) noun

A feeling for language or a sensitivity for what is correct language.

[From German Sprachgefuhl, from Sprache (language) and Gefühl (feeling).]

Today's word in Visual Thesaurus: http://visualthesaurus.com/?w1=sprachgefuhl

If you have Sprachgefuhl, you have an ear for idiomatically appropriate
language. The best illustration of Sprachgefuhl, or the lack of it, was an
1855 Portuguese-English phrase book intended to help Portuguese speakers
master the English language.

Titled "English As She Is Spoke", it was authored by one Pedro Carolino.
The only problem was that Pedro didn't know any English. On the plus side,
he did have a Portuguese-French phrase book. Pedro simply picked up a
French-English dictionary and tried the circuitous route:
Portuguese to French to English. The result was such gems as:

Names for body parts:
"Of the Man: The inferior lip; The superior lip; The fat of the leg."

Food:
"Eatings: Some black pudding; A little mine; Hog fat; Some wigs;
Vegetables boiled to a pap."

Swimming instructions:
"For to swim: I row upon the belly on the back and between two waters."

Idioms:
"Idiotism: Cat scalded fear the cold water."

This book was even used as a textbook in the Portuguese colony of Macao.
I regret to say they eventually stopped using it. Imagine, in just a few
years, we could have witnessed a lovely new strain of the English language
take root.
So our understanding of the Portuguese stupidity is not unfounded after all!

Brazilian dude
Languages rule!

Apoclima
Senior Lexiterian
Posts: 555
Joined: Thu Feb 10, 2005 5:00 pm

Postby Apoclima » Tue Dec 20, 2005 5:57 pm

Thanks, BD! What a wonderful book!

I love it!

Sitran
'Experiments are the only means of knowledge at our disposal. The rest is poetry, imagination.' -Max Planck


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