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I find it interesting the kinds of things one can learn from two countries that are nearly identical, but one is in isolation and the other is not. That being
by nashashmi 11y ago
I find it interesting the kinds of things one can learn from two countries that are nearly identical, but one is in isolation and the other is not.
That being said, the North Koreans who defect should not feel so embarrassed about their style of speaking. It is unique and appreciable. Hell with the comedians. Just be a good sport and a laugh along. People laugh at others when they find themselves are weak.
- stephengillie 11y agoHow was it for East Berliners and West Berliners right after the Wall fell? Didn't they have to deal with vocabulary differences as well? I'd assume that those vocabulary differences have basically disappeared in the decades since, but I've never been there nor studied German. Thoughts?
- more_original 11y agoThe differences weren't that great. German has a number of distinctive dialects (Bavarian, Saxonian, etc.), and with Saxony in the east, there have been historical differences anyway. The Saxonian dialect has sort of become synonymous with Eastern Germany, even though it's just one of the Eastern dialects. I can think of very few differences that existed due to the separation, mainly just a few brand names that became synonymous with a product in the East, but were not known in the West.
- amyjess 11y agoIsn't Standard German based on the Upper Saxon and Thüringian dialects anyway? I think that would mitigate a lot of the differences (e.g. the Saxons from the DDR would sound more "standard" than the Bavarians from the BRD).
- wink 11y agoSaxonian grammar seems to be pretty much 100% High German, whereas Bavarian has a lot of grammatical differences. So if you speak neither, both are probably unintelligible, but Bavarian also has different grammar to figure out.