![]() This is a very specific example, but the list goes on. In personal practice, one of my latest examples came out of using “hibachi” - as in, hibachi grill - for Hachi, one of Hollywood’s favorite canines. Malaprop says, “I have since laid Sir Anthony’s preposition before her,” replacing “proposition” with “preposition.” In another instance, she exchanges “particulars” for “perpendiculars,” exclaiming, “Why, murder’s the matter! Slaughter’s the matter! Killing’s the matter! But he can tell you the perpendiculars. Malaprop stars as the play’s chief comic relief with her malapropisms, or continual misuse of words that sound like the words she intends to use but mean something completely different.įor example, at one point Mrs. Malaprop, a character in the 18th-century comedy of manners by Richard Brinsley Sheridan called “The Rivals.” Mrs. The term “malapropism” takes its roots from Mrs. I’m oddly grateful to find this natural clarity in the German language, as a frequent user of what is known as a malapropism: an undoubtedly undervalued and obscure literary device that manifests itself in my conversations and thoughts. There’s little to guess with words such as the German term for “hospital,” “Krankenhaus,” which literally breaks down to “sick house.” Other nouns - such as “Spaßvogel,” or “fun bird,” for jokester “Wörterbuch,” or “word book,” for dictionary and “Glühbirne,” or “glow pear,” for lightbulb - only add to the mountain of ample evidence. My childhood conversations existed in the air, but as my interactions with German formalized through purposeful effort and in the classroom, I’d find myself gleefully delighting in the language’s direct translations. Then, as school ended and summer settled, I disappointed the Duolingo owl less and found times for weekly German chats with some of my classmates.Ĭompared to English, German is unabashedly literal. To combat eternal moral guilt, I picked up a German course last semester. As life picked up, German dinner conversations, Bundesliga Sundays and my childhood of speaking German faded quickly. I grew up speaking English, German and, despite my mother’s efforts of separation and distinction, a hopscotch skip - one word in English and two words in German, bouncing between each language.īy high school and college, my mother’s exasperation with my speaking habits gave way to my louder personal reckoning and sharp fear of losing my mother’s native Austrian language.
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