A language like a set of building blocks.

610 points · 135 comments · view on lemmy.world

135 Comments

Mr_Fish@lemmy.world · 82 pts · 272d (16 replies)

Krankenwagen = sick car = ambulance

Krankenhaus = sick house = hospital

German (as well as most of the germanic family) does word construction really well.

0ops@piefed.zip · 46 pts · 272d (2 replies)

Help I'm kranken, someone call a krankenwagon to take me to the krankenhaus before I krank again

Deestan@lemmy.world · 26 pts · 272d (1 reply)

Entschuldigung, but the Krankenwagen is krank and must be taken to the Wagenkrankenhaus in the Krankerwagenkrankenwagen.

We will send the Krankenpfleger Klaus and his Krankenschwester Klara to pick you up in a Rollstuhl.

30p87@feddit.org · 8 pts · 272d

Oh no, Klaus will pick me up with his Flurfördergerät.

uniquethrowagay@feddit.org · 22 pts · 272d

The "en" part puts "krank" in genitive though, so "car of the sick" or "sick's car" would be a more accurate translation. The car is not sick after all.

Noite_Etion@lemmy.world · 11 pts · 272d

Krankenhandy

Scrollone@feddit.it · 8 pts · 272d (6 replies)

Danish uses "hospital" as a word, but they also have "sygehus" (house of the sick).

Apparently, English also has "sickhouse": https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/sickhouse#English

bjoern_tantau@swg-empire.de · 5 pts · 272d (5 replies)

Germany has Hospital as well. But it sounds archaic.

If I recall correctly hospitals were just the only "hotels" sick people could afford. So that's where nuns would go to care for them. So more sick people would come because they would get good care there. Until they made the hospitals the official house where they care for sick people.

vaultdweller013@sh.itjust.works · 5 pts · 272d (1 reply)

While that may be an element it also comes from the Knights Hospitallers who would set up rest stops for pilgrims. The thing is pilgrims would often get sick and have to be taken care of by the Hospitallers, which also blends into what you're talking about.

bjoern_tantau@swg-empire.de · 3 pts · 272d

That's probably the full story. I couldn't remember it all.

Lumidaub@feddit.org · 5 pts · 272d

That's why "hospitable" isn't anything you expect the average hospital to be.

saimen@feddit.org · 4 pts · 272d

In swiss german it still is "Spital".

CelestialMittens@feddit.org · 3 pts · 272d

In Switzerland, the word Spital is in use instead of Krankenhaus

psx_crab@lemmy.zip · 7 pts · 272d (1 reply)

How about sick move?

NichEherVielleicht@feddit.org · 21 pts · 272d

Kranke Bewegung, but we don't say it in that context, not even for Parkinson patients who literally got sick moves.

DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works · 5 pts · 272d (1 reply)

救護車

救 --> save/rescue
護 --> protect
車 --> car/vehicle

aka: Ambulance

An ambulance is a life saving car protecting you, or to abbreviate it, an SCP.

An ambulance is an SCP confirmed.

tigeruppercut@lemmy.zip · 3 pts · 271d

Interesting what languages go with, as Japanese keeps the save part but drops the protect in favor of hurry/emergency, so it's the "hurry up and save you car" 救急車

Even ambulance itself comes from the French phrase walking hospital, and then the hospital part got dropped. We still retain the word ambulant to mean moving in English

ccunning@lemmy.world · 43 pts · 272d

It’s exactly the same in Thai:
ตู้ “dtuu” - Cupboard
เย็น “yen” - cool
ตู้เย็น “dtuu•yen” - Refrigerator

Vintor@retrolemmy.com · 36 pts · 272d (4 replies)

Really, nobody is going to point out that "cupboard" = "cup" + "board"?

Lumidaub@feddit.org · 14 pts · 272d (3 replies)

The issue that makes it less intuitive is the "board" part. I'd assume a "cupboard" used to be a shelf, a board for putting cups on, but it evolved to have wooden walls around it so is it really a "board" anymore?

e0qdk@reddthat.com · 13 pts · 272d

The board is still there, but "cupbox" might be more accurate. 🤔️

Mercury@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 272d (1 reply)

And if that board rots away and is gradually replaced, at what point does it cease to be the original board?

waspentalive@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 272d

The cupboard of Theseus

MutantTailThing@lemmy.world · 26 pts · 272d (7 replies)

German is wild. Sometimes its like the spacebar was never invented and you get such beauties as Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaugabenübertragungsgesetz

Tenoteve@feddit.org · 22 pts · 272d (3 replies)

Da fehlt ein f. :-)

Jesus_666@lemmy.world · 14 pts · 272d (1 reply)

With the missing f it's now a law about the transfer of talents of meadows used for the supervision of the labeling of beef.

I'm not sure why they're supervising that on a meadow but the meadow is clearly very talented.

Lumidaub@feddit.org · 4 pts · 272d

lemmygold.png

MutantTailThing@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 272d

auFgaben

Scheisse!

Deestan@lemmy.world · 11 pts · 272d

After the invention of the spacebar, it took another three hundred years to invent the period.

https://www.matthiasbrinkmann.de/wordpress/2016/07/what-is-the-longest-sentence-in-kant/

RaivoKulli@sopuli.xyz · 8 pts · 272d

But why separate the parts if it is one word

Gladaed@feddit.org · 4 pts · 272d

Some languages don't even have spaces. Writing systems are irrelevant formality and not exceptional at all. I prefer the lack of space for it clearly shows that that's a compound word

NigelFrobisher@aussie.zone · 25 pts · 272d (3 replies)

English is the funny north German dialect that moved to an island and went mental.

JamBandFan1996@lemmy.ml · 13 pts · 272d (2 replies)

Lol, It's all the French influence

Lennny@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 272d (1 reply)

German syntax, with the "I don't want to pronounce that letter" of French. A wonderful combination.

darklamer@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 3 pts · 271d
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merdaverse@lemmy.zip · 22 pts · 272d (1 reply)

Mehrfamilienhaus = more families house / apartment

Why new words when old words good?

PlexSheep@infosec.pub · 12 pts · 272d

I like new words, like Rucksackriemenquerverbindungsträger (the horizontal connection between the straps of your backpack that makes the backpack magically less heavy when closed)

then_three_more@lemmy.world · 22 pts · 272d (5 replies)

I never get why glove is handschuh rather than handsocke.

Lumidaub@feddit.org · 27 pts · 272d (1 reply)

Because Socken are the inner layer whereas Handschuhe, like Schuhe, are the outer (or only) layer.

then_three_more@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 272d

That makes sense. The bit that threw me off with it is that shoes tend to be pretty solid and inflexible where as gloves tend not to be, hence thinking it would make more sense to be socks.

AlsaValderaan@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 6 pts · 272d (1 reply)

I'm all for putting handshoe in english, myself.

Uebercomplicated@lemmy.ml · 2 pts · 272d

I'm pretty sure I've actually said that...

0ops@piefed.zip · 2 pts · 272d

Or why isn't shoe "futgloven" or something?

Pondis@lemmy.world · 21 pts · 272d (1 reply)

House - Haus

Animal - Tier

Pet - Haustier

vaionko@sopuli.xyz · 2 pts · 271d

Similar in Finnish:

Koti - home

Eläin - animal

Kotieläin - pet

shalafi@lemmy.world · 20 pts · 272d (2 replies)

Undersea boat is my favorite German word. Why make a new word when you can mash shit together?

Lumidaub@feddit.org · 23 pts · 272d

sub - under
marine - sea

You and I, we're not so different :)

boonhet@sopuli.xyz · 2 pts · 272d

I'm personally partial to highwayservicestations for being a compact way to say 2 words as one and shieldfrogs because shieldfrogs are awesome.

chonglibloodsport@lemmy.world · 19 pts · 272d (2 replies)

If you like this you’ll love Chinese! A language where books were printed with literal blocks of wood!

Yes, and the language works this way too:

电 (diàn) : lightning

脑 (nǎo) : brain

电脑 : computer

Soulg@ani.social · 3 pts · 272d (1 reply)

Japanese is also similar

Meron35@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 271d

Japanese: コンピューター (Kon pyuu taa) 🗿

tatterdemalion@programming.dev · 17 pts · 272d (8 replies)

I suspect every language does this to some extent. Some good examples from Japanese:

靴 = shoes 下 = under 靴下 = socks

手 = hand 紙 = paper 手紙 = letter

歯 = teeth 車 = wheel 歯車 = cog / gear

火 = fire 山 = mountain 火山 = volcano

Sadly (?) the Japanese compounds are often only compounds of the symbols, not the spoken words.

FUsername@feddit.org · 10 pts · 272d (3 replies)

Well 🇩🇪

Zahn = Tooth

Rad = Wheel

Zahnrad = cog 🎉

HK65@sopuli.xyz · 3 pts · 271d (2 replies)

We took that into Hungarian

Fog = Tooth
Kerék = Wheel
Fogaskerék = Toothywheel = Cog

FUsername@feddit.org · 2 pts · 271d (1 reply)

Well, is a cog actually a toothy wheel for everybody but the English language?

meekah@discuss.tchncs.de · 1 pts · 265d

Wouldnt be surprised if it was. looking at pineapple

tigeruppercut@lemmy.zip · 4 pts · 272d

Even more than the compound words I really like the kanji that have basically pure pictograph meanings, like mountain pass being "mountain up down" 峠.

Side note my favorite mnemonic is for the word (hospital) patient, where a person (者) ate too much meat on a stick, and now the problem is in their heart 串 + 心 --> 患者

nialv7@lemmy.world · 0 pts · 271d (2 replies)

well every language except English I guess.

Jolteon@lemmy.zip · 3 pts · 271d (1 reply)

We might not have as many as German or Japanese, but we do have some. Toothbrush, waterwheel, phonebook, stovetop, bookshelf, Headphone, bedspread, newspaper, etc.

exasperation@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 1 pts · 271d

Or for the example in the actual original post "ice box."

nutcase2690@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 16 pts · 272d (1 reply)

Ah yes, the re-frigid-air-inator

JackbyDev@programming.dev · 8 pts · 271d

Read it in his voice!

Dr. Doofenshmirtz

WalrusDragonOnABike@reddthat.com · 12 pts · 272d (2 replies)

icebox is sorta similar.

ZonenRanslite@feddit.org · 16 pts · 272d (1 reply)

An icebox is Gefrierschrank.
Follow me for more german words.

AlsaValderaan@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 6 pts · 272d

Eiskasten is also a (very outdated) one.

Deestan@lemmy.world · 12 pts · 272d (6 replies)

Norway has some of the allegedly most unhinged word constructions via "cake". It had the modern meaning of a baked sweet, but also any sorta roundish cooked thing that is not sweet, and the old meaning of "any hard lumped mass".

So we have, in order of descending sanity:

  • Bløtkake - soft cake, sponge cake
  • Småkake - small cake, cookie
  • Kjøttkake - meat cake, ground meat patties
  • Fiskekake - fish cake, ground fish meat patties
  • Oljekake - oil cake, lump of mass left after pressing oil out of linseeds
  • Blodkake - blood cake, lump of dried blood
  • Morkake - mother cake, placenta
  • Kukake - cow cake, cow poop
Valmond@lemmy.world · 13 pts · 272d

And the infamous Bukake.

Lumidaub@feddit.org · 7 pts · 272d (1 reply)

Kukake

(≖_≖ )

reev@sh.itjust.works · 5 pts · 272d

Kind of funny, in German you could also consider it "Kuhkacke" (literally cow poo). Weird that it's so similar and means the same thing but is presumably etymologically very different.

davidgro@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 272d

English has 'cow patty', which except for still being two words seems not so different from that last one.

bjoern_tantau@swg-empire.de · 5 pts · 272d

We have the Mutterkuchen (placenta) in German as well.

But, one German word for shit is Kacke. Coincidence? I think not!

boonhet@sopuli.xyz · 4 pts · 272d

We have lehmakool (cow cake) in Estonian too and I found it absolutely hilarious as a kid reading some children's book. Might have been one of those Bullerby books by Astrid Lindgren, but I might also remember wrong

Tonava@sopuli.xyz · 12 pts · 272d (4 replies)
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hakase@lemmy.zip · 2 pts · 272d (3 replies)

All languages borrow, including German. English is not at all weird in this way.

Tonava@sopuli.xyz · 3 pts · 272d (2 replies)
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hakase@lemmy.zip · 1 pts · 272d (1 reply)

English does have an above-average percentage of loanwords, but not the highest. Armenian and Romani are over 90% borrowings, for example.

Also, note that "smorgasbord" has undergone significant phonological adaptation in its borrowing to fit English's phonotactics - it's definitely not borrowed as-is.

Tonava@sopuli.xyz · 1 pts · 271d
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RouxBru@lemmy.world · 10 pts · 272d

Afrikaans:

Vries - Freeze Kas - Cupboard/Closet

Vrieskas -> Freezer

Ys - Ice Kas - Cupboard/Closet

Yskas -> Fridge 🤷

Troetel - Cuddle / Pet (verb) / pamper Dier - Animal

Troeteldier -> Pet animal

Duik - Dive Boot - Boat

Duikboot -> submarine

waspentalive@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 272d (3 replies)

Now do Gloves = Handschuhe --- Hand Shoes!

bleistift2@sopuli.xyz · 8 pts · 272d (1 reply)

Slug = Nacktschnecke – naked snail.

samus12345@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 271d

What would snail be if they had named slugs first? "Shellslug?"

Lennny@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 272d

Seehund always cracks me up. It's the perfect name.

prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 8 pts · 272d (1 reply)

So like "icebox"?

maggio@discuss.tchncs.de · 2 pts · 272d

Eiskasten, Oida!

jlow@discuss.tchncs.de · 8 pts · 271d

Ich liebe diese handgedrechselten Umlaute 💖

CetaceanNeeded@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 272d (1 reply)

Sorry for the you tube link, but it's too relevant: When people speak English but with German grammar.

far_university1990@reddthat.com · 2 pts · 271d

Aua

General_Effort@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 272d (1 reply)

English is so pathetic. A Cupboard is not a board and it's not just for cups. Then they add insult to injury by just failing to coin the word chillgrill.

General_Effort@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 272d

Though, to be fair, following the logic of the word cupboard, a fridge should be a cheesegrill. That's not something anyone could want. Goddammit English.

synapse1278@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 272d (2 replies)

You won't believe how to spell vacuum cleaner in German !

Schmuppes@lemmy.today · 7 pts · 272d (1 reply)

Dustsucker.

froh42@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 272d

The only thing I own that doesn't suck is my dustsucker.

DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works · 7 pts · 272d (3 replies)

Mandarin-Chinese:

冰 = ice
箱 = box
冰箱 = ice box (refrigerator/freezer)

or in Cantonese:

雪 = snow
櫃 = cabinet
雪櫃 = snow cabinet (refrigerator/freezer)

usually 上層 "upper level" is used to indicate the freezing part (急凍/雪藏), like where you out ice cream, for example; 下層 "lower level" is used to refer to the non-freezing part, like where you put fruits, for example. Because every fridge we had was designed like that.

Also fun fact: 電腦 means "electric" + " brain" (aka: computer)

飛機 = "flying" + "machine" (aka: airplane)

Feel free to ask questions. I'm bored and wanna see how much I know.

FUsername@feddit.org · 1 pts · 272d (2 replies)

Ok, so I heard anywhere that there is a Chinese language, where the signs for young and women does not say girl, but chimney. Can you confirm?

DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 271d (1 reply)

The fuck?

Lol no idk what the hell you got that from.

FUsername@feddit.org · 1 pts · 271d

🤷🏼‍♂️ thank you for clearing that up.

ZILtoid1991@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 272d (2 replies)

Robot - Der Bipenböpenmann

captain_unicode@feddit.org · 5 pts · 272d (1 reply)

It's >der< Bipenböpenmann, please. "Mann" is grammatically masculine, so all composite words of it are, too.

hakase@lemmy.zip · 3 pts · 272d

This is called the "Right Hand Head Rule"; that is, the rightmost member of a compound in languages like English and German (almost) always acts as the "head", the member that determines the grammatical information of the entire compound.

There are also many languages, such as Hebrew, with a Left Hand Head Rule, in which the leftmost member is the head. (Also Thai, as seen in a comment above!)

samus12345@sh.itjust.works · 5 pts · 271d

One of my favorite examples of this is when a coworker from Bosnia asked for some gloves. She knew more German than English, so she asked for handshoes.

FelixCress@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 272d (4 replies)

Zug and anzug however...

wischi@programming.dev · 6 pts · 272d

Zug is the noun to "ziehen". Like the Lokomotive pulls the wagons and "anziehen" is the German verb for "to dress" and in that case you can "interpret" again a "pull" (like in pullover) and the noun to "anziehen" is "Anzug".

But yes it typically makes at least some sense but sometimes it's pretty abstract or doesn't work very well.

yetAnotherUser@discuss.tchncs.de · 1 pts · 272d (2 replies)

There's a lot of things you can ziehen though:

Anziehen, ausziehen, umziehen, wegziehen, verziehen, aufziehen, abziehen, erziehen, beziehen and probably a couple more I forgot.

Also, Bezug and Beziehung are two different words that can mean the same but usually don't.

FelixCress@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 272d (1 reply)

There's a lot of things you can ziehen though

Can I ziehen your wife?

HK65@sopuli.xyz · 2 pts · 271d

In Hungarian, to pull a woman is in fact slang meaning to have sex with her.

AI_toothbrush@lemmy.zip · 5 pts · 272d (3 replies)

Slightly different thing cause this is agglutination but:

Ill/illik: fit/fits

Illet: concerns someone

Illeték: duty(kinda)

Illetéktelen: one without the duty, in english unauthorized(look at "staff only" for why "duty" makes sense)

Illetéktelenek: multiple unauthorized ones

Illetékteleneknek: for the multiple unauthorized ones

Then you can a use it in a sentence "Illetékteleneknek belépni tilos", "Forbidden for unauthorized ones to enter"

Valmond@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 272d (1 reply)

Wow what's the language?

AI_toothbrush@lemmy.zip · 5 pts · 272d

Ahh yeah i kinda forgot to write that. Its hungarian tho this is kind of an extreme case. Most words youd use in a normal sentence has 1 to 3 suffixes.

simbico@lemmy.zip · 2 pts · 272d

Bojler eladó

GissaMittJobb@lemmy.ml · 4 pts · 272d (11 replies)

Same in Swedish:

Cold - Kyla

Cupboard - Skåp

Fridge - Kylskåp

Scrollone@feddit.it · 2 pts · 272d (1 reply)

Same in Danish (køleskab). And I bet it's the same in Norwegian?

GissaMittJobb@lemmy.ml · 2 pts · 272d

Yeah probably

vaultdweller013@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 272d (8 replies)

So Swedish term for fridges is basically just icebox? My great great aunt would've loved the Swedes.

GissaMittJobb@lemmy.ml · 3 pts · 272d (3 replies)

Coldbox, but yeah

vaultdweller013@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 272d (2 replies)

I was moreso trying to make a joke on the fact that the Swedish word is very similar to the archaic English term.

GissaMittJobb@lemmy.ml · 3 pts · 272d (1 reply)

I see! I didn't know that

vaultdweller013@sh.itjust.works · 4 pts · 272d

I don't think most people under the age of 80 know, but I grew up around old bastards and am into antiques so it just kinda stuck out to me.

Have a rather fancy ice box from the 1890s that would've used metal shelves you put ice between which would then cool and keep an insulated cubbard chilled refrigerating the food within, between that and the fact it had a hose to drain the cold water which gather in a lower sub area as the ice melted it'd be about as good as a modern ice chest though you'd have to fill it with new ice every morning. Though it's currently being used for clothes storage.

XTL@sopuli.xyz · 2 pts · 272d (3 replies)

Finnish term still is, jääkaappi.

Pakastin is just literally a freezer, though

vaultdweller013@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 272d (2 replies)

That's too much a.

vaionko@sopuli.xyz · 1 pts · 271d (1 reply)

What do you mean? Ä and a are completely different letters

vaultdweller013@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 271d

I know they sound different but we are getting downright Mississippi.

finitebanjo@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 271d

Yeah sounds cool but do you remember their genders?

Alchalide@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 272d

Not fair. Dutch does basicly the same. Yet we rarely get credit. German does sound cooler in most cases.

MalikMuaddibSoong@startrek.website · 3 pts · 272d (3 replies)

German must have its own share of disappointing terms.

Pferd comes to mind as an example. I really expected something more metal like horzdraken or comical like hoofenstreider. But no, just a boring Roman loan word.

Prunebutt@slrpnk.net · 7 pts · 272d

That's a common misconception! "Pferd" is called that, because it lives on the ground ("Erde"). If it would live in the air ("Luft"), it would be called "Pfluft".

/j

HK65@sopuli.xyz · 3 pts · 271d

Simple words are usually those that stayed with a language the longest.

Hungarian also has a very high percentage of loanwords, and a lot of those very old ancient non-compound non-calque non-loanwords are single syllable.

Like:

Horse = Ló
Road = Út
Bridge = Híd
Army = Had
Herd of horses = Mén

bleistift2@sopuli.xyz · 3 pts · 272d

The latin word, for those who are curious, being paraverēdus (additional postal horse, postal horse for special occasions), according to https://www.dwds.de/wb/Pferd

Gladaed@feddit.org · 3 pts · 272d

Every language is. German not having a word for fridge is fine. Compound words are a product of lack of a dedicated wird in a lot of languages.

Venat0r@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 272d (1 reply)

but a cold cupboard is the the technology that predates the refrigerator, so how would you know which one people are talking about in German? (j/k)

darklamer@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 4 pts · 271d
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galacticwaffle@lemmings.world · -21 pts · 272d (10 replies)
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kishkebab@lemmings.world · 17 pts · 272d (4 replies)

Bot Account

Chozo@fedia.io · 2 pts · 272d (3 replies)

Why do you say that? Looks normal to me.

MonkeyTown@midwest.social · 13 pts · 272d (2 replies)

Having seen an absolute gob of these comments, I’m inclined to agree. They all read largely the same way, there’s an awful lot of comments for being a 1 day account (easily rivaling some of the most prolific humans we’ve had), some of them make very little sense, and they are all top level with very very very few replies to anyone, but they still address other commenters in their top level comment which is super weird. They also only seem to comment on images. Or at least I haven’t seen any that didn’t.

There was another account, cosmicpancake, that was basically the same. I didn’t realize they were not the same account. That one was purged.

NichEherVielleicht@feddit.org · 5 pts · 272d (1 reply)

2h old.

MonkeyTown@midwest.social · 7 pts · 272d

Yeah, there was another account, cosmicpancake, doing the same thing earlier in the day. I didn’t realize they were not the same account, so I overestimated the age even tho the account page said it was an hour old when I looked at it. Figured it was a federation bug.

BCsven@lemmy.ca · 5 pts · 272d (3 replies)

English is similar: shoebox, snowflake, raincoat

FireRetardant@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 272d (2 replies)

Driveway, parkway

cosmictrickster@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 272d

Where you park on the driveway and drive on the parkway.

DasFaultier@sh.itjust.works · 3 pts · 272d

Taxiway, runway

SubArcticTundra@lemmy.ml · 4 pts · 272d

You might like Turkish, iirc it does the German thing but on steroids