Ask ze German

[Pyrrho]

Do you do Oktoberfest at all,or is that just for Yankee tourists?

It is something that is celebrated religiously by some of my acquaintances from Munich, so it is not just for tourists. Personally I've never been. But I've been to the Hofbräuhaus a few times

Since I come from the wine country, all villages in the vicinity where I grew up have a Weinfest, and during the Summer there are two every week on
average. This is what that looks like



During the fall we celebrate the wine harvest, and there are specialized festivals for young "new" wine that is in the middle of fermenting.

That is excellent news.  About two celebrations a week sounds about right.  One needs time to recover if one overindulges during one of them.

It is good that you Germans are not neglecting your heritage.

The gatherings I attended were charming and delightful.  It hardly mattered that I could not speak the language.  Everyone seemed to be in good spirits, having an enjoyable time.  Such things were part of the reason I did not really want to come home.

I hope you personally do not neglect your civic duty, and attend such functions as often as reasonably possible.  Do not neglect the One True Religion.  You probably want to join some of your friends for Oktoberfest, to expand your horizons.

[Longhorn]

I haz a question

What's up with the r pronunciation in German? It's all over the damn place

There are like 3 or more different variants and I hear them being used interchangeably. I know Bavaria has this harder r accent, right?
Is it a bit like the t in British English?

[Alex K]

Yeah, Bavaria and some neighboring regions have a "rolling" r which varies ...maybe between the posh british one and the scottish one... Interestingly it also appears in the very north, say near Hamburg maybe indicating the close relatioship between lower German and English, but might also illustrate some surprising similarities between the very northern and very southern dialects, which both e.g. missed some vovel shifts which thd central German dialects went through.
Where I come from it is a bit in-between, the r I mean.
Of course as in English, there are different r sounds within each dialect. In Hamburg, the r in Hamburg is barely pronounced and more an excuse to stretch the u. The r in Matrose (sailor) or große (big) they would pronouncewith a noticeable rolling r.

---

In case I confuse you. The r in Gernan is similar to the t in English in that the pronunciatiin varies a lot. But the bavarian rolling r indeed has similarities to the posh british rolling r.

[Longhorn]

Ok, cool

so basically there aren't any rules regarding the pronunciation and you just do it randomly?
And yea, the posh British r does sound similar

[ignoramus]

Being European, you'd think they wouldn't have trouble pronouncing anything.
My German next door neighbours (best people ever) say your velcome!

I know with the greek language, our alphabet has 2x S, 2x O, 3x I, so I can imagine many greeks haven't learnt to pronounce letters which don't exist in the vocab.

[Alex K]

Ok, cool

so basically there aren't any rules regarding the pronunciation and you just do it randomly?
And yea, the posh British r does sound similar

Well, there is the one standard high german, which does *not ever* have a rolling r sound. And then there are all the local varieties and dialects. Standard high german is used in all media, but Bavarians reserve the right to speak with a bavarian coloration even as tv announcers.

[Dystopia]

What do you think of Germany's Holocaust denial and anti-racist laws? what would you change?

[Alex K]

Being European, you'd think they wouldn't have trouble pronouncing anything.
My German next door neighbours (best people ever) say your velcome!

I know with the greek language, our alphabet has 2x S, 2x O, 3x I, so I can imagine many greeks haven't learnt to pronounce letters which don't exist in the vocab.

Yep, the pronunciation of v and w is somewhat reversed between English and high German. My Americans would tease me for saying Video wrong until I got it. I still slip into the wrong one on occasion.

As a physicist I know the greek letters of course, and it is my favourite pastime, reading greek notices on packages and milk containers etc trying to figure out whether I can guess the meaning.So many greek words have been incorporated into other languages and as technical jargon that it is often possible.

So what's the difference between omicron and omega? 

---

What do you think of Germany's Holocaust denial and anti-racist laws? what would you change?

Interesting case. I think they have served a legitimate purpose in a time when Germans didn't even trust themselves to keep nazi sentiments from destabilizing the young republic. I also think the times are a changing and we should try to loosen them. But then I am *a bit* more American socialized than most Germans, if only a little bit.

[ignoramus]

Alex, you know the old adage where eg, when your parents force you to eat eg, brussell sprouts when you are young, and when you grow up you can't stand the sight of them.
( I can't eat any seafood for this reason).

Anyway, they forced me to do "greek" school after hours during my whole school life.
Back then the language still used all those stupid accent characters (5?), and add that to the cumbersome alphabet and it was not fun.
Living in Au, and no greek friends or relos ( just one sister who feels the same as I do), I feel as though this whole excercise was a huge waste of time. I did 5 years of Chinese at school, in retrospect, I would've been better off sticking with that.
Back to your question.
Nothing intrinsically special about any of the Greek letters. It's all about traditions dying hard.
These days, I believe Greece has done away with the accents, and I wouldn't be surprised if they've consolidated the superfluous letters i,o,s.
The irony is that science has borrowed the whole alphabet and will keep these obsolete letters alive forever.

[Alex K]

When you are doing relativity, greek letters denote four dimensional indices. The existing ones brely suffice