madkins
Registered
One of the difficuties in the language is that all our words from loose using have lost their edge.
Ernest Hemingway(1899-1961)
BBC.-Germany
Last Updated: Sunday, 1 August, 2004, 15:21 GMT 16:21 UK
Hunting Germany's linguistic gems
The search for the most beautiful word in the German language is almost over.
Entries for a competition to unearth the most stunning example - organised by the German language council - have been flooding in.
More than 20,000 words, ranging from the sublime to the ridiculous, have been sent in by email and letter.
German, for example, has a word to describe that niggling melody you just cannot get out
f your head - 'Ohrwurm', literally 'earworm'.
'Eisenbahnknoten' is a 'knot of rail-lines' or, in other words, a railway junction.
Dictionary dilemma
An
d 'Kulturbeutel' - literally (body) care bag - is the toilet bag used to take toothbrush and shamp
oo .
Germany's most beautiful word?
Lebenslust - zest for life
Erdbeermund - voluptuous lips
Glueck - happiness
Liebe - love
Mitgefuehl - compassion
Mut - courage
Sehnsucht - longing
Vergissmeinnicht - forget-me-not
Source: Deutscher Sprachrat
The Deutscher Sprachrat institution is offering a two-week holiday in Mauritius as first prize.
The entries are being judged by a panel that includes authors, musicians and film-makers, and Volker Finke - described as Germany's most eloquent football manager.
The competition comes at an interesting time for German scholars, with renewed controversy about changes to spelling rules introd
uced a few years ago, says the BBC's Ray Furlong.
These are widely detested and ignored by the leading newspapers.
So will it be a simple word like 'Liebe' - love, or the tong
ue-twisting 'Geheimratsecken,' which means receding hairline?
Sunday is the deadline for submissions, with the jury is expected to make its decision by O
ctober.
Skara Brae,
madkins
Ernest Hemingway(1899-1961)
BBC.-Germany
Last Updated: Sunday, 1 August, 2004, 15:21 GMT 16:21 UK
Hunting Germany's linguistic gems
The search for the most beautiful word in the German language is almost over.
Entries for a competition to unearth the most stunning example - organised by the German language council - have been flooding in.
More than 20,000 words, ranging from the sublime to the ridiculous, have been sent in by email and letter.
German, for example, has a word to describe that niggling melody you just cannot get out
f your head - 'Ohrwurm', literally 'earworm'.
'Eisenbahnknoten' is a 'knot of rail-lines' or, in other words, a railway junction.
Dictionary dilemma
An
d 'Kulturbeutel' - literally (body) care bag - is the toilet bag used to take toothbrush and shamp
oo .
Germany's most beautiful word?
Lebenslust - zest for life
Erdbeermund - voluptuous lips
Glueck - happiness
Liebe - love
Mitgefuehl - compassion
Mut - courage
Sehnsucht - longing
Vergissmeinnicht - forget-me-not
Source: Deutscher Sprachrat
The Deutscher Sprachrat institution is offering a two-week holiday in Mauritius as first prize.
The entries are being judged by a panel that includes authors, musicians and film-makers, and Volker Finke - described as Germany's most eloquent football manager.
The competition comes at an interesting time for German scholars, with renewed controversy about changes to spelling rules introd
uced a few years ago, says the BBC's Ray Furlong.
These are widely detested and ignored by the leading newspapers.
So will it be a simple word like 'Liebe' - love, or the tong
ue-twisting 'Geheimratsecken,' which means receding hairline?
Sunday is the deadline for submissions, with the jury is expected to make its decision by O
ctober.
Skara Brae,
madkins
