Die Zehn Gebote: Mose und das Geheimnis der steinernen Tafeln (1:26); "Eine einzige Wiklichkeit". Hans Flühmann Bogenschiessen (0:00 - 6:00/15:00)
For a discussion of the Moses film, see my earlier post today.
Flühmann speaks an uncompromising Swiss German, so even I wasn't able to understand much. I pointed out to J how it's typical in Swiss German and Swabian not to have a final -n in words like Bogen and schießen, and in all verb infinitives:
Bogenschießen = Bogaschießa
We watched until J lost interest. Not my style of archery anyway—too high tech!
Total listening 2015: 6:18
Total yearly viewing 2015: 2:19
Age 5.3.4
Piggy pedagogy
Showing posts with label dialects. Show all posts
Showing posts with label dialects. Show all posts
Sunday, January 4, 2015
Friday, December 12, 2014
Vocabulary 1
This is the first in a series of posts on the kinds of German vocabulary training I have done with my son over the three years since we began German.
The first things I concentrated on were word gender, irregular plural forms, and dimunuitive forms, all more or less simultaneously. The main forum for this was our game-routines during the first phase. In our endlessly repeated fetching games, for example, one somewhat later than the one cited in the essay will have gone much like this:
A: Jamie, wen holen wir jetzt?
J: Ein [sic] Katze!
A: Eine [sic] Katze? Möchtest du eine große Katze oder ein kleines Kätzchen haben?
J: Eine große Katze.
A. Friedel, weißt du, wo die Katzen sind? Jamie will eine.
F: Die Katzen sind in Js Zimmer.
A: Kannst du ein kleines Kätzchen holen?
F: Aber er hat gesagt, er wollte eine große Katze.
A: Nein, ein kleines Kätzchen, hat er gesagt.
F: Eine große Katze, Herr Sager!
A: Nein! Ein Kätzchen, ein kleines Kätzchen!
F: Katze!
A: Kätzchen!
F: Fragen Sie ihn doch!
A: J, wolltest du ein Kätzchen, oder eine große Katze?
J: Eine große Katze.
All gender-ending mistakes J made could effectively be handled by simply repeating the correct form as if it is what he said in the first place, followed by a question obligating a restatement from him, which was then virtually always correct.
I first introduced the dimunuitive form in combination with the adjective klein, then later dropped the adjective.
The arguments between me and Friedel over what J wanted were a very—perhaps the most—important part of the interaction. They were a performative way of highlighting semantic differences, they involved a lot of repetition, they solicited restatements and reformulations from J, all under the cover of great entertainment for him.
One of the reasons J has so many puppets and stuffed animals—and often several of each kind of animal, big and small—is so that we always have characters on hand for work on plurals and diminuitives. I made sure to cover all the vowel changes (and non-changes!). Of the umlaut-able animals we have the following, plus non-umlauting contrasts:
die Gans, die Gänse
der Hahn, die Hähne
das Schaf, die Schafe
der Hase, die Hasen
die Maus, die Mäuse
der Pfau, die Pfauen
die Raupe, die Raupen
der Frosch, die Frösche
der Vogel, die Vögel
der Ochse, die Ochsen
der Fuchs, die Füchse
das Huhn, die Hühner
die Kuh, die Kühe
der Hund, die Hunde
Another reason J knows and loves the Bremen musicians so much is because the story features animals representing all three genders and several of the most common plural-formation patterns. So I encouraged game-routines based on it.
der Esel, die Esel
der Hund, die Hunde
die Katze, die Katzen
die Maus, die Mäuse
der Hahn, die Hähne
With the diminuitive forms, I switch around between the standard ones (-chen, -lein) and the Swabian and Allemannic forms (-le, -ele; -li, -eli):
Vögelchen, Vög(e)lein, Vögele, Vögeli
Schlängchen, Schläng(e)lein, Schlängele, Schlängeli
The first things I concentrated on were word gender, irregular plural forms, and dimunuitive forms, all more or less simultaneously. The main forum for this was our game-routines during the first phase. In our endlessly repeated fetching games, for example, one somewhat later than the one cited in the essay will have gone much like this:
A: Jamie, wen holen wir jetzt?
J: Ein [sic] Katze!
A: Eine [sic] Katze? Möchtest du eine große Katze oder ein kleines Kätzchen haben?
J: Eine große Katze.
A. Friedel, weißt du, wo die Katzen sind? Jamie will eine.
F: Die Katzen sind in Js Zimmer.
A: Kannst du ein kleines Kätzchen holen?
F: Aber er hat gesagt, er wollte eine große Katze.
A: Nein, ein kleines Kätzchen, hat er gesagt.
F: Eine große Katze, Herr Sager!
A: Nein! Ein Kätzchen, ein kleines Kätzchen!
F: Katze!
A: Kätzchen!
F: Fragen Sie ihn doch!
A: J, wolltest du ein Kätzchen, oder eine große Katze?
J: Eine große Katze.
All gender-ending mistakes J made could effectively be handled by simply repeating the correct form as if it is what he said in the first place, followed by a question obligating a restatement from him, which was then virtually always correct.
I first introduced the dimunuitive form in combination with the adjective klein, then later dropped the adjective.
The arguments between me and Friedel over what J wanted were a very—perhaps the most—important part of the interaction. They were a performative way of highlighting semantic differences, they involved a lot of repetition, they solicited restatements and reformulations from J, all under the cover of great entertainment for him.
One of the reasons J has so many puppets and stuffed animals—and often several of each kind of animal, big and small—is so that we always have characters on hand for work on plurals and diminuitives. I made sure to cover all the vowel changes (and non-changes!). Of the umlaut-able animals we have the following, plus non-umlauting contrasts:
die Gans, die Gänse
der Hahn, die Hähne
das Schaf, die Schafe
der Hase, die Hasen
die Maus, die Mäuse
der Pfau, die Pfauen
die Raupe, die Raupen
der Frosch, die Frösche
der Vogel, die Vögel
der Ochse, die Ochsen
der Fuchs, die Füchse
das Huhn, die Hühner
die Kuh, die Kühe
der Hund, die Hunde
Another reason J knows and loves the Bremen musicians so much is because the story features animals representing all three genders and several of the most common plural-formation patterns. So I encouraged game-routines based on it.
der Esel, die Esel
der Hund, die Hunde
die Katze, die Katzen
die Maus, die Mäuse
der Hahn, die Hähne
With the diminuitive forms, I switch around between the standard ones (-chen, -lein) and the Swabian and Allemannic forms (-le, -ele; -li, -eli):
Vögelchen, Vög(e)lein, Vögele, Vögeli
Schlängchen, Schläng(e)lein, Schlängele, Schlängeli
Thursday, November 13, 2014
Media today 8
Reading: Otfried Preußler, Der kleine Wassermann, ch. 7-8. Listening: Die Welt der Zahlen, 51:00-59:00. Viewing: Reptil.TV, Episode 49 (0:00-10:00) and "Schlangen in freier Wildbahn" (0:00-20:00).
J really enjoyed the scene in Wassermann where the water nixie daddy and son were watching the humans and remarking how bizarre it was that they lacked webbed hands (Schwimmhäute) and coudn't stay under water long. Preußler is a master of little Verfremdungseffekte, making strange things into the material of daily life and then illuminating quotidian things from an unexpected perspective.
In "Welt der Zahlen" there were two sweet spots, one (54:46) where youthful hero Albert rudely interrupts the narrator (five-six reps and lots of laughs) and another (57:30) where Albert makes the infinity symbol by tipping over the number 8 (three reps). This last bit also has a good discussion of the concept of infinity (Unendlichkeit).
With Reptil.TV I pointed out a few features of the host's Swabian accent: ischt for ist, nit for nicht. I told J that Friedel likes to use nit in order to provoke Thusnelda, which delighted him, so I'll be enacting that in the next few days.
Age 4.12.13
J really enjoyed the scene in Wassermann where the water nixie daddy and son were watching the humans and remarking how bizarre it was that they lacked webbed hands (Schwimmhäute) and coudn't stay under water long. Preußler is a master of little Verfremdungseffekte, making strange things into the material of daily life and then illuminating quotidian things from an unexpected perspective.
In "Welt der Zahlen" there were two sweet spots, one (54:46) where youthful hero Albert rudely interrupts the narrator (five-six reps and lots of laughs) and another (57:30) where Albert makes the infinity symbol by tipping over the number 8 (three reps). This last bit also has a good discussion of the concept of infinity (Unendlichkeit).
With Reptil.TV I pointed out a few features of the host's Swabian accent: ischt for ist, nit for nicht. I told J that Friedel likes to use nit in order to provoke Thusnelda, which delighted him, so I'll be enacting that in the next few days.
Age 4.12.13
Wednesday, November 12, 2014
Media today 7: Snake shows
Like me and not unlike his mommy, J loves snakes.
Most good snake shows are in English, but several can be found dubbed into German. J has seen so many in both German and English that he has developed quite a wide specialized vocabulary. Tonight we watched Austin Stevens' "Sieben Schlangen, sieben Bisse" (50 min.), one we haven't seen before, and which featured some new snakes. I play uninformed, ask J leading questions, and just let him rattle on.
In my view, the best original German snake show is Reptil.TV (which is about other reptiles, too). Besides being excellently produced and very detailed and informative about the animals in a non-sensationalistic way, it has the additional L2 benefit of featuring a narrator (Stefan Broghammer) with a Swabian accent and many guests with other different regional accents.
Age 4.12.12
 |
| J und das listigste der Tiere |
Most good snake shows are in English, but several can be found dubbed into German. J has seen so many in both German and English that he has developed quite a wide specialized vocabulary. Tonight we watched Austin Stevens' "Sieben Schlangen, sieben Bisse" (50 min.), one we haven't seen before, and which featured some new snakes. I play uninformed, ask J leading questions, and just let him rattle on.
 |
| Stefan Broghammer of Reptil.TV |
In my view, the best original German snake show is Reptil.TV (which is about other reptiles, too). Besides being excellently produced and very detailed and informative about the animals in a non-sensationalistic way, it has the additional L2 benefit of featuring a narrator (Stefan Broghammer) with a Swabian accent and many guests with other different regional accents.
Age 4.12.12
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