4 ms·
Thank you for “umwelt”.
by gorkish 3y ago
Thank you for “umwelt”.
- qup 3y agoSeconded, have never run across that word in all my reading.
- jibal 3y agoHere's where I encountered it: https://www.npr.org/2022/06/21/1105793891/ed-yong-an-immense-world-animal-senses https://www.npr.org/2022/06/21/1105793891/ed-yong-an-immense...
- qup 3y agoThanks! > Made famous by zoologist Jakob von Uexkull in 1909, the term Umwelt refers to the perceptual world experienced by each animal, a highly specific kind of "sensory bubble." When we walk our dog and she stops to smell every other bush or car tire, she's taking in through her acutely sensitive nose smells that we take in faintly or not at all. That's because humans and dogs have two different sensory bubbles, or Umwelten. Umwelten! <3
- jabiko 3y agoAs a German speaker it felt really weird reading it. Like your brain is in English mode, reads over the word, then backtracks, switches to German, reads it again and then continues with English.
- huijzer 3y agoI have a lot of appreciation for some specialized German words, such as Fingerspitzengefühl, Wanderlust, Zeitgeist, or Schadenfreude, but why Umwelt? It can just be translated to environment.
- james-bcn 3y agoit is the environment _as experienced_ by an organism. Me and my dog can have the same environment, but we'll have different umwelt, because mine is primarily visual but his has a much larger scent component.
- gerdesj 3y ago"such as Fingerspitzengefühl, Wanderlust, Zeitgeist, or Schadenfreude, but why Umwelt?" Wanderlust, zeitgeist and schadenfreude are all English borrow words. Fingerspitzengefühl isn't (too complicated) and umwelt might well have just started to wriggle its way in! I love a good Germanic compound word as much as the next anglophone but it needs to be mostly pronounceable on sight to stand a chance of being co-opted. That's one reason why the delightful sounding gewerbegebiet won't replace industrial zone. Umwelt is suitably short and subtly different from environment. I suggest we nick it.
- huijzer 3y agoOkay I agree then on nicking Umwelt since it has a different meaning. Since we’re discussing language and HN is a place to discuss, are you sure Fingerspitzengefühl is too difficult? The "ei" and "tz" sounds in Zeitgeist also make it a difficult word.
- lsaferite 3y agoAt 20 letters it's a suitably 'difficult' word even if it were actually an English one with familiar pronunciation. It being a German compound word makes it's usefulness to the general English speaking population highly questionable. I would bet money that 2/3 or more of the people I know, keeping in mind that my technical acquaintances are only a small fraction, don't know Zeitgeist enough to pronounce it properly or even give a definition for it if asked. Edit: Same goes for Schadenfreude
- yencabulator 3y agoI believe loan words only happen when the word makes some level of sense to speakers of the new language. Like, wander lust is almost understandable as English. Fingerspitzengefühl is complex enough that I'd assume people who never studied German can't even split it into the words it comes from, to guess how to pronounce it. Finger spit zenge fühl Finger spit zen gefühl Finger spitz enge fühl Finger spitz en gefühl Finger spitz engefühl Finger spitzen gefühl
- gerdesj 3y ago
- jibal 3y ago> It can just be translated to environment. No, that's not at all accurate. From the dictionary: "(in ethology) the world as it is experienced by a particular organism." Check out https://www.npr.org/2022/06/21/1105793891/ed-yong-an-immense-world-animal-senses https://www.npr.org/2022/06/21/1105793891/ed-yong-an-immense... for an in-depth discussion.
- MrsPeaches 3y agoPersonal favourite is the compound word “Zeitlupe”.
- 867-5309 3y agohow about "Zwitter", for an ion with both positive and negative charge, and for a hermaphrodite (thanks Rammstein)
- Cthulhu_ 3y agoIn Dutch probably the most frequently used German loan-word is "uberhaupt"; it's probably used in the same connotation as "anyway" is in English, as in, "I wouldn't want to do that anyway".
- throwanem 3y agoI might instead translate Umwelt as "sensorium", although I don't think that's quite exact.