German

[Mitzy]

russians do it better

 

[JocktheMotie]

Russen sind Madchen.

 

[INA]

russians do it better

Du bist aber lustig.

 

[Mitzy]

blat zenshina zakroi rot

 

[INA]

blat zenshina zakroi rot

ti takaya prelesnaya

(No, I've no idea what you wrote.)

 

[Nocapszy]

"blat" didn't give it away?

 

[INA]

It's but one word among several in a language I've taken great care not to have infect my brain.

 

[JocktheMotie]

All I saw was "jibber-jabber red."

 

[Mitzy]

maybe nocapz really is the only one who gets me :'[ haha

 

[INA]

Gott sei dank. Ich denke, du sollst Alles lesen, was er hier geschrieben hat. Damit hast du keine Zeit Russisch weiter zu tippen.

 

[Falcarius]

I have few questions;

Firstly, what is the deal with all the umlauts and how does one pronounce one?

Secondly, what the hell is the deal with that letter that looks like a snake, seriously the letter 'ß' freaks me out as it seems to be different each time I see one?

 

[Mitzy]

All I saw was "jibber-jabber red."

i was talking in russian cuz we pwn

 

[The Ü™]

i was talking in russian cuz we pwn

No, Klingon is the best.

 

[INA]

I have few questions;

Firstly, what is the deal with all the umlauts and how does one pronounce one?

This link on umlaut pronunciation (and other vowels) may help.

I have few questions;

Secondly, what the hell is the deal with that letter that looks like a snake, seriously the letter 'ß' freaks me out as it seems be different each time I see one?

The Ess-tset is a sharp s sound - like the S in snake, not the S in realise.

 

[JocktheMotie]

This link on umlaut pronunciation (and other vowels) may help.


The Ess-tset is a sharp s sound - like the S in snake, not the S in realise.

Damn, Rosetta Stone is lying to me then. And my grandparents have speech impediments.

 

[INA]

Damn, Rosetta Stone is lying to me then. And my grandparents have speech impediments.

how do they pronounce it?

 

[JocktheMotie]

how do they pronounce it?

While the ess-tset is definitely a sharp "s", it does have a bit of an "sh" sound. Like if they say "white", it sounds like veish. Also if they say something like Madchen the A is long.

Are there different accents though throughout the country?

 

[INA]

While the ess-tset is definitely a sharp "s", it does have a bit of an "sh" sound. Like if they say "white", it sounds like veish. Also if they say something like Madchen the A is long.

Are there different accents though throughout the country?

Yep. There are some dialects, e.g., that pronounce the ess-tset (and other, regular s, depending on the position in the word) like an sh/sch. E.g. pronouncing Wurst like Wurscht. (My ex's dad used to torment me by speaking several dialects real fast for the hell of it). Twas funny. Plattdeutsch AND "Bairisch".

 

[GargoylesLegacy]

Secondly, what the hell is the deal with that letter that looks like a snake, seriously the letter 'ß' freaks me out as it seems to be different each time I see one?

The Eszet is basically two ss and is used to shorten words or also to make them look better / read easier. For example we have the word "Massstab", which means scale. Just look how awful that word looks. So they made it easier by creating the Eszet (ß). Massstab is actually correctly written: Maßstab.
BUT you can't just write all the words with two s with an Eszet. It used to be that way, but they changed it with the "neue Rechtschreibreform". They made some stuff easier, because they noticed that many people here were just too stupid to make the grammar right. Nope, this isn't a joke; it really happened.
Anyways, so much for that.

Oh and I must say: Good explanation Ina.

 

[Falcarius]

This link on umlaut pronunciation (and other vowels) may help.


The Ess-tset is a sharp s sound - like the S in snake, not the S in realise.

The Eszet is basically two ss and is used to shorten words or also to make them look better / read easier. For example we have the word "Massstab", which means scale. Just look how awful that word looks. So they made it easier by creating the Eszet (ß). Massstab is actually correctly written: Maßstab.
BUT you can't just write all the words with two s with an Eszet. It used to be that way, but they changed it with the "neue Rechtschreibreform". They made some stuff easier, because they noticed that many people here were just too stupid to make the grammar right. Nope, this isn't a joke; it really happened.

Thank, for the information.

So that thing is a Eszet, and is more like a stressed Ess. All this time I kept imagining it as a bee, because I thought it looked like one.

Edit: Oh, I just found a link to the spelling reform, it is starting to make sense now.