Post-Norwescon German geeking

[annathepiper]

Did some more reading of Der kleine Hobbit at Norwescon after my last posting, and got more or less through the first four pages of the text. This means I've actually finally gotten to the part where the story really begins, and Gandalf shows up on Bilbo's front doorstep to convince him to go on an adventure. ;) Here are the next set of words and points of puzzlement I've discovered.

ab und zu - Now and then.

ähnlich - Similar.

als - When/as.

Angehöriger - Relative.

angetapst - From context I get the idea that this must be related to the verb 'tappen', to fumble/grope, which was the only vaguely useful thing I found in my verb book. The relevant fragment is 'wenn großes dummes Volk wie du ind ich angetapst kommt'.

Anlagen - Makeup/predisposition.

augenscheinlich - This isn't in my dictionary, but if I break it down I get 'augen', eye, and 'schein', shine. Guessing that this must be 'apparently', based on the English text.

Ausgabe - Edition.

aussah - Past tense of 'aussehen', to look like.

baute - Past tense of 'bauen', to build.

behäbigen - Portly.

berühmte - Famous.

besonders - Especially.

bis - I hit this word already, but I'm noting it here again as 'until'.

dick(es) - Thick.

dort - There.

einmal - Once.

einzig - Only.

ergab - Past tense of 'ergeben', to arise.

etwa - About/perhaps.

fort - Away.

fortfahren - To continue.

geachtet - Guessing from previous observed words in the text: respected?

geheiratet - Married.

gemunkelt - Rumored. Used in 'Es wurde oft gemunkelt', it was often rumored.

genauso - Just the same.

genug - Enough.

geschickte - Clever.

Gesichter - Faces.

ging - Past tense of 'go'.

grundsoliden - Is this another example of poetic language? This breaks down into 'ground' and 'solid'.

gutmütige - Good-natured.

halten - To hold, to keep.

hauptsächlich - Main/mainly.

heimlich - Secret.

indessen - While/meanwhile.

irgendetwas - Something.

jedenfalls - In any case.

jemals - Ever.

jenseits - On the other side of.

kennen - To know. I actually knew this word already, but was surprised to see it used in the context of 'Schuhe kennen sie überhaupt nicht'--which I am reading as 'they are altogether unacquainted with shoes'.

kleiden - To dress. Used in 'Sie kleiden sich', they clothe/dress themselves.

kostspieligste - I'm guessing at this one, but I bet it's costly/expensive.

kraus - Frizzy.

lachen - To laugh.

Lachen - Laugh.

lederartige - Leathery.

leuchtende - Shining.

Magengegend - Stomach area.

Mahlzeiten - Mealtimes.

-mäßig - -like.

Mittagessen - Lunch.

nachdem - After.

oberhalb - Above.

obgleich - Although.

Radau - Din, racket.

saftig(es) - Juicy, which is a weird word choice as it is being used to describe the laugh of a hobbit, but the English original says 'fruity'.

schmalen - Slender, narrow.

sei - This appears to be the subjunctive tense of 'sein'. Context: 'das sei vorest genug'... 'that will be enough for the time being'.

sich benahm - Past tense of 'sich benehmen', to behave.

sich stürzen - Throw oneself into.

sicherlich - Certainly.

Sohlen - Soles.

Tatsache - Fact.

teilweise - Partially/partly.

übernommen hatte - Pluperfect tense for 'übernehmen', to take over'.

Unsinn - Nonsense.

unterhalb - Under.

unzweifelhaft - Undoubtedly/without a doubt.

vertuschte - Past tense of 'vertuschen', to hush up.

verwickelt - Another word that seems to mean 'be involved in/with'.

vorerst - For the time being.

wachsen - To grow. This confused the hell out of me as on first reading, I thought this word was 'waschen', to wash, and that read just entirely wrong. ;)

wahrscheinlich - Probable.

Wunderliches - I can tell that the root of this is 'wunder', which is 'wonder', but this word is clearly being used as a noun: 'irgendetwas Wunderliches in seinen Anlagen'.

wunderschönen - Beautiful.

Zeug - Stuff.

zur Ruhe - To rest?

Zweite - Second.

Comments

[emmacrew.livejournal.com]

augenscheinlich - This isn't in my dictionary, but if I break it down I get 'augen', eye, and 'schein', shine.
Wrong schein, you want "scheinen," to seem. (as in wahrscheinlich = probably: true-seeming)

Grund also means a number of things like "reason" or "base" (as in English "grounds for dismissal") as well as the stuff you walk on. If that makes more sense in your context...

kostspieligste - I'm guessing at this one, but I bet it's costly/expensive. Yep. The -ste makes it a superlative, so costliest.

"saftig," while literally juicy, also means things like lush, hefty, luscious... think big and soft and rich (which is why it's borrowed in English to refer to Reubenesque females... rowr!).

"irgendetwas Wunderliches" something wonderful, something amazing (perhaps a certain je ne sais quoi...)

zur Ruhe - To rest? Ayup. And on that note, ich muss zur Ruhe gehen. ;-)

[annathepiper]

Oooh, thanks for the clarification on augenscheinlich. Important difference, that.

Now, as for saftig--I thought the word you're thinking of there is zaftig? *consults dictionary.com* OH. I see that it is, in English. But dictionary.com also says that that word is coming into English via Yiddish, and THEN from Old German.

[emmacrew.livejournal.com]

1. Yeah, DARN those similar words, anyhow.

2. Oh, well, that's me, always skipping a step or two...

[annathepiper]

*giggles* Well, it does save time!

[emmacrew.livejournal.com]

It was sort of problematic in papers in college and grad school, though. Particularly when I'd say "hem, I got though everything in three pages instead of five and now I have nothing left to say" where if I'd included some intermediate steps, there'd be five pages easy.

Then there's the other extreme, where I include every single teensy weensy detail, way more than anyone in their right mind would care about...

[annathepiper]

*snicker* Speaking as Verbosity Girl (that's my secret mutant super power), I know all about the excess verbiage, yeah. ;)

[bardling.livejournal.com]

Yiddish has a lot of roots in German.

"saftig" is most definitely in plenty of use today in German, as has been explained further up. (noun: Der Saft - the juice)

[annathepiper]

Gotcha! :) Now that that has been clarified, the word choice makes a lot more sense to me.

[apel.livejournal.com]

Angehöriger also "affiliate", "member" or "associate", as in Angehörige der Partei=party members.
angetapst comes from tapsen="to lumber", so I'd translate it "when big, stupid people like you and me come lumbering in"
die Anlage the most common translation of this is "works" or "plant" as in die Kläranlage=sewage plant.
einzig yes, this is mostly translated as "only" but it comes with the connotation of "unique" or "sole" you can use it to translate "sole survivor" but you can't use it to translate "I only want one". You'd use nur in that context.
genauso "just as"
grundsoliden "solid from the ground up" I wouldn't call it poetic, it's in common use today
irgendetwas the difference between irgendetwas and etwas is that irgendetwas has a connotation of "something, anything you can come up with". Ich muß mir irgendetwas einfallen lassen but Ich hätte gern etwas Milch in meinem Kaffe. Do you see the difference?
sei a very useful phrase is Wie dem auch sei="Be that as it may"
verwickelt usually means "complicated", although a more mnemonic translation is "entangled", considering that the word comes from wickeln="to wrap, wind in, swaddle".
wunderlich "fantastical", from wundern="to marvel"

[annathepiper]

Anhöriger in this context was definitely 'relative'--the sentence is talking about relatives of the Tooks occasionally going off and having *gasp!* adventures, and discreetly disappearing, and the family hushing it up. ;) Thanks for the additional meanings, though!

AH, thanks for angetapst as well! The original English was using 'blunder', I believe, and trying to look that particular verb up in my books wasn't working. I didn't think of 'lumber' as an appropriate synonym.

For die Anlage, the context is that of something Tookish getting into Bilbo's makeup, in the original English. So might a better translation be 'works', then? I could kind of see that reading on the German as well, if the translator is thinking of Bilbo with a machine metaphor.

I THINK I get the difference between irgendetwas and etwas given your description; the former seems simultaneously more general and more emphatic, if I'm grasping the idea here correctly?

[bardling.livejournal.com]

tapsen = blunder, lumber, to walk clumsily
Der Taps = clumsy fellow (usually used with a little affection)

[annathepiper]

Ahh, 'Taps' sounds kind of like 'klutz' in English usage. :)

[bardling.livejournal.com]

I notice that you often cite the adjectives with whatever ending (relating to the noun it qualifies, gender & er... declination?) it has in the text. Some adjectives for which you have done so above in their "unattached" form:

behaebig
beruehmt
geschickt
grundsolide
gutmuetig
kostspielig (-ste/-ster is the f/m superlative ending)
lederartig
leuchtend
schmal
wunderschoen

geachtet - respected, yes

grundsolide - not just poetic, but like "kreisrund" one of the words that includes redundancy to make it ever stronger/clearer. not just solid (= solide), but 'ground-solid'

verwickeln - to entangle (in), to complicate, to engage in, to get involved in
Die Verwicklung - entanglement, tangle, snarl, intricacy, complexity, complication
from wickeln - to wind (round), to roll (up), to coil, to spool,
einwickeln - to wrap up

I've probably missed a few things, but this is it for now. :)

[bardling.livejournal.com]

Oh, perhaps I should add a short note on adjective endings, although you'll probably know this:

-e/-er - f/m ending for corresponding nouns in nominativ case, modifications as per the cases

so, examples:
- Der behaebige Mann/Die behaebige Frau ging...
- Ich gab ... der behaebigen Frau/dem behaebigen Mann
- Der Hund der behaebigen Frau/des behaebigen Mannes...

etc.

[annathepiper]

Yeah, this I've learned before, though it can't hurt to re-emphasize it. Especially since I'm still sometimes not entirely clear on which cases get which endings! I've got a lesson book with all of this laid out in a table, but I haven't managed to really drive the information home yet.

Thanks again!

[annathepiper]

Yeah, I've been recording adjectives just as I see them in the text--not for any particular conscious reason, though I think I had some sort of vague idea that if I write them down as I see them, I might be better able to connect them in the text later. Though it does seem to me that if I really want to be systematic about this, I should also practice linking the adjectives to their unmodified forms as well.