Re: German Spelling Reform (fwd)
| From: | FFlores <fflores@...> |
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| Date: | Monday, August 9, 1999, 0:35 |
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Irina Rempt-Drijfhout <ira@...> wrote:
> On Sun, 8 Aug 1999, nicole perrin wrote:
>
> (the new German spelling)
>
> > Verbs with nouns as prefixes will be split into two words and have the
> > noun capitalized:
> > radfahren > Rad fahren
> > autofahren > Auto fahren
>
It was me who asked in the first place. Thanks, Nicole!
BTW I too thought all nouns were capitalized in German...
> That seems to change the meaning, and on top of that, impoverish the
> lexicon: there will be no separate word for "to cycle" or "to drive"
> any more, just "to ride/drive a bike" and "to ride/drive a car". It's
> as if the Dutch word "fietsen" were to be replaced by "fiets rijden"
> (which, translated into German, is literally "Rad fahren").
Well, it changes the orthography, not the spoken words. Though I guess
it could cause some confusion. Especially from people trying to find
_radfahren_ or _autofahren_ in a dictionary.
>
> It looks as bad as the new Dutch spelling, which I'm stubbornly
> refusing to use in any writing where I'm master of my own spelling.
[snip]
> It's not as if the -n- is pronounced, either.
It isn't? Then why's it there? A spelling reform is supposed to
update the orthography, not to take it back in time!
--Pablo Flores