[Magdalen] Enjoying a colleague's accent

[Charles Wohlers]

My father claimed that my grandfather spoke "Plattdeutsch". He was born 
outside a small town not far from Hannover. I do remember noticing accents 
the one time I was in Germany - folks in Berlin seemed to speak the 
"purest": German.

And, speaking of accents, long, long ago I was staying with a colleague of 
my research director in Aberdeen, Scotland, and I rented a car for a few 
days to drive around. Somewhere between Aberdeen and Inverness I picked up a 
hitchhiker. The only word I could understand out of him was "speedtrap". 
Thanks to American TV, however, he understood me just fine.

Me, I was born in Michigan, so I have no accent.   ;-)

Chad Wohlers
East Bridgewater, MA USA
chadwohl at satucket.com



-----Original Message----- 
From: Zephonites--- via Magdalen
Sent: Friday, June 19, 2015 10:58 AM
To: magdalen at herberthouse.org
Cc: Zephonites at aol.com
Subject: Re: [Magdalen] Enjoying a colleague's accent

David

Indeed the Swiss Germans will understand Bavarian quite well as it lies inn
the border regions.

But then I can't make head or tail of Plattdeutsch (in Northern  Germany)

Blessings
Martin


In a message dated 19/06/2015 15:51:02 GMT Summer Time,
magdalen at herberthouse.org writes:



In a message dated 6/19/2015 10:32:36 A.M. Eastern Daylight  Time,
magdalen at herberthouse.org writes:

Maddy  (who is  Swiss) went to the Swiss German border and a new Swiss
border
guard asked her a question. She looked at him and said "Wie    bitte".   He
repeated it and she had to get the German   border  guard to translate
between
two   Swiss!!>>>>>

When I lived in Frankfurt/M, one of my  dermatology professors and his
wife, who was a professor in the  UM-Minneapolis German Department,
came by and we spent a nice evening  chatting over dinner in my  favorite
restaurant which was located in a  cave-like former brewery.

The two visitors had just come up to Hesse  from Bavaria, and the
wife/German professor admitted that she had trouble  following the  lingo
of some of the Bavarian natives.  The point  is that the German  accent
common to Bavaria in Germany, as well as  Austria and Switzerland is
difficult for those familiar with "standard"  North German.


David  Strang.