Mark twain found inspiration in germany though not german. Mark twain the awful german language shackman press. Mark twains various writings on german have me in hysterics every time i read them. German books are easy enough to read when you hold them before the lookingglass or stand on your headso as to reverse the constructionbut i think that to learn to read and understand a german newspaper is a thing which must always remain an impossibility to a foreigner. Twains germans are orderly, clean, punctual and brave. The awful german language is mark twain s humorous account of his frustrations with the german language. Mark twains essay on german the awful german language is a scream. The awful german language is mark twains humorous account of his frustrations with the german language.
The pitfalls one will encounter when trying to wrap ones mind around the torturous german cases, adjective endings, noun genders, and verb placement. Mark twain on german and english musings from the chiefio. German has 16 definite articles some of them repeated, but each for a different gender and case, while finnish had 25. Description of twains style as a writer of narrative prose. Aug 21, 2016 throughout a tramp abroad, twains critical faculties seem somewhat dulled. Mark twain hits upon some of the most discouraging and infuriating hangups for. The awful german language is an 1880 essay by mark twain published as appendix d in a. Samuel langhorne clemens, otherwise known as mark twain, counts as one of the most important american writers, and his style has influenced countless writers.
The awful german language by mark twain home languages german mark twain. But good old mark twain is correct about the good parts of the german language. He tried to learn german and reports in this texts about many difficulties he encountered. Jul 26, 20 the pitfalls one will encounter when trying to wrap ones mind around the torturous german cases, adjective endings, noun genders, and verb placement. I notice that you use plain, simple language, short words and brief. Mark twain never knew before what eternity was made for. If youve ever studied german and maybe even if you havent, youre likely to find. It appears as an appendix to his travel book a tramp abroad 1880, which chronicles a journey through europe which twain undertook between april 1878 and september 1879.
Twain quips that in some cases when a german news publisher is in a hurry, it will have to go to press without getting to the verb at all. As these humorous quotes demonstrate, mark twain had a particular distaste for the german language. And we are surprized to know that many of the defects of that language used to be the rule in the english language, and that some of them appear to have still been noticed in print in mark twain s days. The awful german language by mark twain a little learning makes the whole world kin. German gets his hands on an adjective, he declines it, and keeps on declining it until. As stupid as some rules are, there are no exceptions. Jan, 2016 the awful german language is mark twains humorous account of his frustrations with the german language. Twain started his career at the newspaper the hannibal journal, and it was his life in hannibal, mo. I went often to look at the collection of curiosities in heidelberg castle, and one day i surprised the keeper of it with my german.
How to start learning german as a complete beginner. A tramp abroad, following the equator, other travels library of america no. Samuel langhorne clemens november 30, 1835 april 21, 1910, known by his pen name mark twain, was an american writer, humorist, entrepreneur, publisher, and. Nouns can be either masculine, feminie or neuter, words can be strung together to stretch on forever and there are about 90 different ways to say the. Audiobooks, best free full audio books on youtube 591 views. Ive recently been spending a good deal of time working through a german book, and today the laborious reading provoked me to recall an essay by mark twain that i discovered a couple years ago. A tramp abroadappendix d wikisource, the free online library.
May 21, 2000 the awful german language is an essay written by the great american humorist mark twain and published as appendix d in his book a tramp abroad. Please keep reading, if you do not want to become just as desperate about it as he was declining it until the common sense is all declined out of it. Adverbs and adjectives are words that describe or modify. In it, twain explains, complains about, and shows how one might improve upon various aspects of the awful german language. I went often to look at the collection of curiosities in heidelberg castle,and one day i surprised the keeper of it with my german. Anyway this essay is useful for people to learn german. German cases and adjective endings chart ich hoffe. Mark twain probierte sein deutsch im concordia aus, einem club. Anyone whos tried to learn german knows how frustrating it can be. This long essay is a work of mock philology, one of several appendices to twains travel novel, a tramp abroad. When you want to present yourself well, you need to use good grammar. Personal pronouns and adjectives are a fruitful nuisance in this language, and should have been left out. Mark twain is funny, hilarious, and true as he precisely describes the confused feelings of any foreigner starting to learn german. Learning to identify adverbs and adjectives is essential to understanding how sentences are structured.
Mark twain s notebook never knew before what eternity was made for. But language is a treacherous thing, a most unsure vehicle, and it can seldom arrange descriptive words in such a way that they will not inflate the facts by help of the readers imagination, which is always ready to take a hand and work for nothing, and do the bulk of it at that. From my autobiography, the awful german language is a brilliantly funny essay. German also declines its nouns, articles, pronouns and adjectives into four grammatical cases nominative, accusative, dative and genitive an exceedingly difficult task for a foreigner. He is best known for the novels the adventures of tom sawyer 1876 and the adventures of huckleberry finn 1885, but he also wrote travel books and essays, many of them based on his experiences of life on the mississippi river. This book was written as a description of an extended visit to europe in 1878 and 1879, partly motivated by the desire of twain s readers and publisher to see another one of his travel books. All great answers here, in my view ie 5 answers so far, as at sep 30, 2018, and even the collapsed one was good. Mark twain, the witty american writer, visited the german city of heidelberg for a few weeks towards the end of his life. The awful german language is an 1880 essay by mark twain published as appendix d in a tramp abroad. Librivox recording of the awful german language, by mark twain. Mark twain and the awful german language ozy a modern. The awful german language, mark twain, audiobook in english, librivox duration. A tramp abroad by mark twain appendix d the awful german language. Moreover, i feel that mark twain had a quite good command of german.
On the other hand, i do hope that there are other similar analysis on other languages, which would give the learners a basic concept on the language to learn. The awful german language audio book librivox audio books. It is not like studying german, where you mull along, in a groping, uncertain way, for thirty years taming the bicycle. To the best of my knowledge, no other language has inspired so many hilarious quotes about its difficulty. The awful german language, by mark twain oh god, my wife. The awful german language, by mark twain oh god, my wife is.
The article analyses mark twain s 1869 essay the awful german language in terms of twain s comments on morphological, syntactical, lexical and phonological feature of german. The essay is a humorous exploration of the frustrations a native speaker of english has with learning german as a second language. Vera meyer of the facebook group jewsjekkes engaged worldwide jekke or yekke has various specific meanings, but most broadly refers to a person of germanjewish background sent me a link to twains essay the other day, and it made. The awful german language, revisited babbel magazine. Twain made his first unsuccessful attempt to learn german in 1850 at age fifteen. Since long before mark twain complained about the german. All of these complaints and many more were famously gathered together by the american author mark twain in his essay the awful german language. Nov 30, 2012 in honor of mark twain s birthday, heres a piece of writing advice from a letter he wrote to a student named d.
The essay is available as a free mp3 in three parts. Mark twain the awful german language the shackman press. The mark twain image used in the video is taken from wikipedia and in the public domain. I went often to look at the collection of curiosities in heidelberg. The awful german languagemark twainfree downloadpdf epub. The german language is a dozen fragments of words flung into an 35 mark twain. Mark twains the awful german language andy naselli.
Samuel langhorne clemens november 30, 1835 april 21, 1910, known by his pen name mark twain, was an american writer, humorist, entrepreneur, publisher, and lecturer he was lauded as the greatest humorist the united states has produced, and william faulkner called him the father of american literature. Feb 12, 2016 the awful german language, mark twain, audiobook in english, librivox duration. Adverbs describe verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs. The famous writer mark twain used to make fun of the phenomenon of german adjective endings.
He describes the german people with cliche after cliche. May 18, 2007 the essay is available as a free mp3 in three parts. Awful german language, the by twain, mark librivox. If you ever have studied languages you should enjoy this 7,000word essay available online on the german tongue. Mark twains essay on german the awful german language. German also declines its nouns, articles, pronouns and adjectives into four grammatical cases nominative, accusative, dative and genitive an. Every time i had to teach german adjective endings i was really happy that i had already learned it.
634 610 1193 1287 514 257 787 885 1092 567 33 573 173 822 307 1175 222 258 105 651 311 1085 859 238 1 1146 647 469 260 1376 307 929 1368 866 209 1111 1199 1231 698 276 666 141 1158 1166