The musician is pronounced with the hard CH-- like “Bahk.”
1 Like
Yeah, Bach was German, so it’s “h”.
1 Like
bach like batch, take out the t and pronounce the a the Spanish way
1 Like
I am aware that in scientific settings, court settings, and other settings, language must by necessity be extremely dry, but please allow that there is an entire world out there in which words can be used without it meaning that the person using them is trying to show off, on their way to brunch or a weekend board game meeting, etc.
My father encouraged us from a young age to develop hobbies that traveled well because when it did not interrupt our schooling, he would take us with him when he traveled. He bird watched. My brother collected stamps. I collected words. Every country we visited I scanned signs, talked to people and found a new word, like a delight. In India, for example, I learned “prepone”, which is when the meeting is scheduled for 4 PM but everyone is in the office at 3:30 anyway so let’s go ahead and prepone it.
But often my father was gone for long stretches. When he came home, he would call to me if he saw me pass by the door to his home office. Then he would pick one of a four volume set of Ogden Nash that he kept behind his desk. And he would read to me.
Reading the replies to what I thought was kind of an innocuous little topic, it occurs to me that some here would find the language Nash used pretentious and deserving of derision, but to me it was… playtime with words. So too this.
The Cow
The cow is of the bovine ilk;
One end is moo, the other, milk
Ogden Nash
4 Likes
Very nice, sparrows are indeed charming and something would be amiss in village life if their charming presence and babble was missing.
@ spoekenkieker and welcome to the forums :-)
1 Like
Welcome to the forums. @searussell
This is really nice, and one than can be useful punning when someone uses slugfest in its other avatar.
1 Like
English has swiped words from every language it meets - that is why we have a huge vocabulary. Where German recombines what they have already used (or … use our English)
Some of those English collective nouns probably come from regional dialects or languages like Cornish which have drifted away.
1 Like
I love everything that puts in perspective the ecolution of languages, from Proto-Indo-European roots, studies of rune poetry to videos of how London speech changed from something Danish-like to a hard accent and finally to a regular English.
3 Likes
totally
Well, yes. Those are reasonably common collective nouns in English. I think a team of horses generally means hitched up, rather than in the field where it would be a heard.
I referred to the more fanciful ones, which are not often used except for fun. I read about a clowder of cats in discussions like this, but even when I visit Animal Rescues with lots of cats, no one speaks of clowders (except, perhaps, in jest).
@ItsMeLucy Examples would be:
Killer Whale = Fat Chopper (Spækhugger)
Dragonfly = Goldsmith (Guldsmed)
Damselfly = Silversmith (Sølvsmed)
Bat = Flutter Mouse (Flagermus)
Turtle = Split Dome (Skildpade) I think I’ve got the English right on this one?
Lizard = Four Legs (Firben)
Butterfly = Summer Bird (Sommerfugl)
Polar Bear = Ice Bear (Isbjørn)
4 Likes
Your impression is right, but the people using it for fun make it a more common word, in some circles.
2 Likes
This one is Shield Toad in German (Schildkröte) - I always thought that was very fitting: a toad that carries a shield on its back.
3 Likes
Agreed. I’ve always heard obscure names for groups of organisms used in fun (and sometimes poetically) and not in a way to suggest superior knowledge. More like, here’s an interesting bit of the English language we’ve all stopped using, if anyone actually ever did use these terms.
I think “murder of crows” entered more common use because of a murder mystery with that title.
3 Likes
I showed my wife that list and her reaction was that whoever came up with it must be trolling people… but no! Another, possibly longer, List of English Terms of Venery, by Animal. My favorite was a “pounce of cats”.
A lot of them sound literary. Maybe they were made for poetry and song? I can see the farm animal ones being used by ordinary people though, given the English language’s fondness for separate words for Male, Female, and Young animals.
1 Like
Removed after correction
Yeah, corrected it.
1 Like
Unless we’re talking sea or bay ducks. The Peterson Field Guide gave me the term flotilla for those, so that’s what I use.
1 Like
…I have only heard it spoken before; and I am hard of hearing…
I have to say, I thought it was “Chowder”. Like, thick soup.
…I’m not sure which makes more sense knowing it is “clowder” now. I think I like “chowder” better xD
1 Like
Bat and butterfly are similar in German.
Fledermaus and Sommervoegel.
Much prefer summer bird to butter?! fly.
Clowder (must apply to young kittens then) - recorded since 1801, of clutter, itself from clot, from Old English clott (“round mass, lump”), from Proto-Germanic *klūtaz (hence cognate with Dutch kloot (“ball, testicle”), Danish klods (“a block, lump”) and German Klotz (“lump, block”))
1 Like