Look up the word “communicate” in an English-German
dictionary and you’ll find a plethora of possibilities. There is mitteilen,
first of all, a word which, when glossed, means “to share with”. Both in the verb form: mitteilen, and in the noun form eine
Mitteilung machen = “to do a sharing-with.”
Then there is übermitteln, which is a bit harder to gloss. Mitteln is commonly used as a noun which
corresponds to the English means, as
in “the means to the end.” “The
end justifies the means” is rendered in German as “Der Zweck heiligt (= makes
holy) die Mittel.” There is a verb mitteln,
but it means either to average
something, or “to take the mean” of something. So that’s a dead end. On the
other hand, when used in compound words, like übermitteln, it is fairly productive. Literally “to
means over” means “to convey meaning,” i.e. “to communicate.”
Then, you’ve got vermitteln,
also as a possible translation of “to communicate.” The ver-prefix is one of those German
morphemes seemingly designed in hell to drive people who like things simple
mad. It can convey what the English prefix mis-
conveys, (verrechnen=miscalculate;
verlesen=misread, etc.) It can also mean “to move beyond the boundaries of
the stem word in some way”: sprechen = to
speak; versprechen = to promise. Note that the ver- in versprechen can also convery the first ver-meaning: to do something
wrong. So versprechen means both “to
promise” and “to make a mistake in speaking” and if you can find a better
example of the irrationality of language I’d like to know what it is.
But back to words for “communicate.” There is also verkehren. Since Verkehr
is the word for traffic, the word
conveys the connotation of “being sociable”. Or to consort with somebody, keep
company with them. And, of course, if you stick the word “sex” in front of it: Geschlechtsverkehr, you’ve got “sexual
intercourse.” To “communicate sexually” in other words.
Then there is übertragen, a medical word, literally to carry over. As in “communicable
disease” (übertragbare Krankheit).
Just as English has pairs of Latinate (via French) and
Anglo-Saxon words: pork/swine, encounter/meet, question/ask, German has kundtun “to do knowledge” and kommunizieren as well as korrespondieren.
If you know Beethoven’s 9th Symphony, you may be familiar with the opening lines of the Ode to Joy”, where the chorus comes in and generally blows the socks off the audience with their shouts of Freude, Freude (joy, joy). Now the official anthem of the European Union, the German lyrics begin Freude, schöner Götterfunken..." It is rendered "Joy, beautiful spark of the gods" in English, where it sounds to English ears much less like a VW ad than the original German. The part that brings tears is the "Alle Menschen werden Brüder" (All men will become brothers) part.
Did you know the lyrics were written by Schiller?
A friend
of mine once had two pet goldfish, which he named “Frieda” and “Freude” (Peace
and Joy) and insisted he could tell them apart, something I was always doubtful
of.
And you know the German suffixes “-heit” and “-keit,” which
make nouns out of adjectives. Gesund = healthy; Gesundheit = health. Sparsam
= frugal; Sparsamkeit = frugality.
Well, you’re now ready for the German word of the day – a
word I just heard on television that I don’t remember hearing before:
Kommunizierfreudigkeit
The joy of communicating.
One of the good words, don’t you think?
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