Tuesday, August 30, 2005

My new side project is that I'm trying to learn to read German. So far, I have been trying to funnel vocabulary acquisition through Czech...though I will probably have to give that up. I could try to go trilingual (that would make for fun flashcards), but it's not of much benefit to me to learn to read German in Czech, regardless of how much I should practice both languages. In any event, I'm half-assedly looking for a German etymological dictionary (in German). My Rejzek's 'Czech etymological dictionary' is amazing in two ways; it forced me to use Czech to learn more Czech, (which is always key, naturally) and it tapped in to my apparent need for freeform etymological searches and lists of reconstructions and cognates. Granted, it's a little easier with German, (brechen and break, anyone?) but I still think such a dictionary would rock.

Of course, North Country Books, I find today has a textbook of what is apparently German pronunciation and articulation; but I can't really see dropping the $25 for just a sketch of general linguistic principles and (theoretically) a brief historical sketch.

Also, I'd just like to point out, for egotistical purposes, my retroactive addition to a languagelog post on the Brothers Grimm movie. Go me! Nothing like people interested in linguistics getting together to casually slam Matt Damon. And I've just dashed off another email about the increasing prevalence of the new stylized use of macrons. I think I'd rather have signs in IPA as well.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I suppose we'll always have Brazil. Congrats on the Linguiblog post.

- Jesse

notroberttowne said...

I updated my links, and to celebrate, I give you the first stanza of Der Erlkonig, sans diacritical marks and proper punctuation.

Wer reitet so spat durch nacht und wind? / Es ist der Vater mit seinem kind. / Er hallt den knaben wohl in den arm, / Er fasst ihn sicher, er hallt ihn warm.

Danke, danke. Ich will hier alles woche blieben.

Anonymous said...

Sehr gut, Sir Malcovsky. Ich möchte Ihnen gutes Glück mit dem Projekt auf Deutsch auf Ihrem website wünschen. Liebe und mach's gut!