Friday 29 October 2010

Consonant migration

(This would have been wonderfully underlined by a picture of the immense migration of geese I witnessed a couple of days ago - a MASSIVE skein arcing across the sky and making a tremendously unworldly noise, remarked upon in awe by myself and a total stranger - unfortunately I failed to fish my camera out in time, having spent too much time gawping up at the spectacle.  Never mind...)

So, I thought I was doing well with my text.  Words learned, even if sworn over time and time again and repeated obsessively whilst tootling around the city (luckily I'm never worried about losing my reputation since I've seldom earned one to begin with).

However what is absolutely fascinating is that whilst the words themselves appear fairly steady (certain hellish combinations aside), some of the consonants are leaking into the wrong language, which has never happened to me before in my other languages, and is presumably a side-effect of this deliberate miscegenation of Deutsch and English.  The German "R" is partícularly culpable in this regard.  Yes, I admit, I have been geekishly studying its formation, trying to get it RIGHT, but that really doesn't mean it is welcome to turn up in the English word "Really?, as interjected yesterday in a conversation with a good friend whose mother tongue is also English...  Embarrassing!

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